Getting out of the Comfort Zone

You know the Comfort Zone? The one where you travel to work on autopilot, and you know the exact minimum amount of work that you need to get done before you can pack up and go home for the day. You know exactly how long each task will take, so you can make sure they take all day. You know what to expect every day, your meetings are often recurring meetings to discuss already ongoing items and there is nothing much to deviate you from the comfort that most of your days bring. That Comfort Zone.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the stage at which you start to feel comfortable at work. The stage at which nothing really surprises you or challenges you much. The point at which you could ‘probably do your job in your sleep.’ Of course, not all jobs are created equal and it heavily depends on what your work entails, as well as what stage in your career you are in. On the whole though, many of the office jobs I have encountered, seem to have a wall that workers hit after the initial honeymoon period. I like to think of this as: The Comfort Wall.

The Comfort Wall is covered in cushions and pillows, so it definitely won’t hurt you. There is a way to climb over the wall, but that can be hard work. Often there are doors along the comfort wall, but it can also be hard work trying to find out what might be behind the doors. Some of them might be locked and need some work to unlock them.

I remember hitting The Comfort Wall in my last job. I had worked there for five years and was so used to everything: the building, the other people who worked there, my desk, the team I worked in, the job itself. I knew what I was doing and I knew the job was too easy for the potential and capabilities I had by then acquired. Not only was I not being challenged but I (and the company) was not utilising half the skill set that I could offer. I remember complaining about them to my other half, how they were constantly failing to recognise my excellent skills and potential. They weren’t promoting me or giving me pay rises and this, in my opinion at the time, was their fault and their failing. Why couldn’t they see I was overqualified for the job?

Well, exactly, I thought to myself one day. I’m overqualified for the job. Of course a large company will take someone overqualified for a job – it’s the best employee they’ll have for that role! But is it really their fault that they haven’t promoted me or kept me challenged?

On one hand, I would argue yes; an employer who wants to retain good staff has a duty to invest in their staff: time, training, more challenging work, developing them. At least, if they really want to look after the staff they spent time and effort hiring and training; and if they want to reap the benefits of this engaged, well-trained and challenged staff.

But the reality is that this is not always the case. Not all managers put in the effort to truly develop and mentor their direct reports: sometimes they simply don’t have the time. Often managing people is simply something added to someone’s role. Sometimes they don’t have the right resources, support or skills themselves. And when this is the case, is it really OK for an employee to sit back, wait for something to happen and moan about the situation in the meantime?

In staying at this job for so long, I finally understood that I was giving my employer the upper hand and the power over my future but also over my day to day life, over the majority of my time. While I was wasting my potential, sitting at my desk, leaning against The Comfort Wall, I decided that it was not OK to leave the power over my future to someone who hadn’t done (possibly hadn’t been able to do) much to help develop that future. So I started looking for an opportunity to climb over The Comfort Wall or unlock one of the doors.

A job application and an interview followed. The reality is that simply going to a job interview already nudges you out of your comfort zone; it’s like looking through one of the doors at The Comfort Wall. The nerves, knowing you need to sell yourself and knowing it is all about how you phrase everything you say and the overall impression you give; it’s enough to give me sweaty palms as I’m writing this! I do firmly believe, however, that when the time is right, everything just flows a little more easily, with less struggle and less resistance.

I think the timing was just right with my interview. I was less nervous than I had been for other interviews. I was able to not only give a good idea of both my professional and personal skills and characteristics but I was also able to find out more about the company and the role. I was offered a second interview, which also went smoothly and I was offered the job within a week from my first interview.

The door was wide open and I just had to step through it. The changes were not insignificant. The commute was at least twice as far, busy and long. The job was more technical and challenging. The hours were longer. The company was very young and small. From week 1, it was clear that there was a huge amount to learn and that the job was a even more technical and full of challenges than I had anticipated. It also became clear that there was a lot about the way a small company operated that was vastly different from how a large corporation of over 5,000 employees operated. Talk about coming out of the comfort zone! I felt like I was as far away from The Comfort Wall as possible!

The first few months were extremely hard work. What nobody tells you is that after a couple of years of being relatively unchallenged, being pushed for a change is remarkably tiring. Physically exhausting. The more I worked, the more I learned, the hungrier and more tired I was physically at the end of each day. I’m not going to lie; there were moments in which I questioned my decision, tired after days in which I felt like I would never ‘get there’. I wanted the new job and challenge but it was also very important to me that I did well in this new endeavour. After the initial couple of months, it started feeling a bit less exhausting, a little bit less intense. As I learned more and had opportunities to put my potential to the test, I found myself starting to enjoy the challenge and going home at the end of a long, hard day, feeling like I had done as good a job as I could. A sense of achievement started to grow and soon overtook the feelings of exhaustion and anxiety.

An employer who sees potential in their employees and pushes them the right amount, allows them to grow, fulfil their potential is sometimes a refreshing change in the corporate environment. Although the process is sometimes stressful and pressured, it is often all the more worthwhile. The role of the employer is important, but the role of the employee is in many ways even more important.

You owe it to yourself to bring out the best of yourself. You owe it to yourself to give yourself the best opportunities. Yes, an employer can help. In fact, they can make or break, but you always have a choice. You can try to remove yourself from the situation and find yourself a better situation. Or at least know that your situation is temporary. You can invest in yourself, learn about yourself, develop your skills and treat yourself with the highest possible respect. Only then will others follow.