Articles
In Issue 5, 2021, Bob asked: "If my role becomes stale, doing the same things month after month – even if I am good at it and appreciated for it – how can I re-energise myself without changing job?"
"I’d make sure your line manager knows how you feel and ask for new challenges within your role. Look for opportunities to volunteer for new tasks. It’s also worth finding a mentor who may be able to find new opportunities beyond your current role or team."
Richard Haydock
"Take a sabbatical to uprate your technical knowledge, doing a course somewhere or at least reading some technical tomes. Also, take care of yourself with a short period in some different activity that energises you, such as mountain-walking, assisting a scheme that offers young people basic engineering skills, or assisting a relatively low-tech heritage engineering project."
Bob Rainbow
"Learn how to do a colleague’s job – the firm would appreciate it. You could stand
in for them when they go on leave – or they could do the day shift and you could do a twilight shift."
Humph Jones
"Trite answer is to look for other areas where you can apply these skills. Easier said than done, I think. Certainly worth a discussion with your line manager – who may not realise how you feel. Can you offer to train a successor to allow you to move to another role?"
Bob Andrews
"See if there are any ways in which you could improve what you do – optimise processes, cut costs, improve efficiencies, raise customer expectations, and so on. And, if you free up some time, persuade your bosses to widen your responsibilities."
Geoff Buck
"Most organisations have opportunities to collaborate with other sections of the business, sharing knowledge and bringing fresh ideas. Mentoring is also a great way of breaking down the daily boundaries and creating better self-value."
Daniel Marsh
"I think you have to ask yourself why you would not change your job. Clearly there’s something you value, so be honest with yourself and try to better appreciate what you’ve got and what you’re valued for."
Alastair Miles
"I would set new goals to extend myself but also get buy-in from those around me to see if they’ll give me the freedom to develop what I do. Hopefully your managers and team appreciate the value in keeping you engaged."
David Pullinger
"Try to see the bigger picture of what you’re doing, and ask management how you could do your job even better. Having a purpose, or understanding the impact your role has at the client level, is often quite invigorating."
Tristan Cliffe
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