I recently had a mindset shift about how I viewed work, due to events at my workplace over the last year and a half.
Frankly, I’ve been having these thoughts for quite a while now, and I’ve pondered and made it coherent enough to be written down. As my personal guide, and a potential perspective to others.
Money of course still played a main role in it, but not only in the typical way we may think about it.
For starters, it was actually a recent work episode that had tipped me over and I started taking action to look at alternative options in regards to my career.
It was December 13th, 2024. It was 5 pm on a Friday, after my last meeting of the day. It had been a particularly difficult day due to work topics, one in particular, and I had the moment whereby I decided to take my first step in activating the roadmap of my career change. I made a private phone call to a colleague, and my mind continued thinking over my next steps.
I had already made plans earlier that year on the career path I would take moving forwards to 2025, but I decided to activate it a year earlier due to the environment I was in at work.
As a background, I’ve been in engineering since I graduated with a degree in Mechanial engineering.
Total of 14 years of working experience to date, with my first three years being in a different company that taught me work ethics and drive, and then I was headhunted over to my current job in a much larger manufacturing company, with semiconductor production being the core business.
It will be coming up to my 11th year of work in my current company. Over the past 18 months, I had taken up a new role that came with a promotion, one that I wanted as I craved growth and of course, more money was always a goal. I then led a team, I learned new products and materials groups, and had bigger projects that were outside of my previous job scope. It was what I wanted in a career development plan.
But being in operations was demanding, there was a lot of work related to ‘firefighting’ episodes to keep production running, manufacturing challenges, quality issues, cost and project related topics. All of these were acceptable to me, as it is the nature of the work.
But the other aspect of my role had me dealing with difficult parties, and the worst of all, in my opinion, politics.
I have seen real issues being side-swept or manipulated by different departments in pursuit of their own agendas and KPIs, and different storylines presented to management which may not reflect the real case. I had debated, and reasoned, with solid data for multiple topics in meetings, but outcomes don’t necessarily follow the engineering data. In some cases, the team agrees with the direction, but in others, not so, and these cases will go on for weeks till topics are de-escalated in management view. I foresee this trend continuing in this environment, as we are a large semiconductor manufacturing company.
I had no issues with problem-solving difficult tasks, releasing projects at expedited timelines due to business needs, and making decisions on taking on certain potential technical risks (albeit low) to keep the production running or improving outcomes based on good engineering.
But this level of politics, no. I did not see myself taking part in it or have my department taking the brunt of it for the long term. I was previously not a confrontational person, but had to be the last 2 years and frankly, I’t still challenging for me, although i have learned the way to be political myself to get better progress in my work arena, and some negotiation skills included.
So how do I manage this, mentally, as I was a naturally anxious person?
I set up three main concepts, or viewpoints, which helps me cope, and to make working life more manageable.
Concept 1 – Having the mentality that I was not trapped In my current job
I will break this part down to two parts, because this first concept is key.
a) The thought that I don’t necessarily needed to work for the money.
My husband and I had worked towards paying off our loans and debts for the past 10 years, starting with our student loans, then car loans, and finally our house loan, with the last payment being 4 years ago just before the pandemic hit.
Except for one mistake in a second property investment, otherwise we would be debt-free.
We had long built up our emergency funds, put money back into our retirement fund (it’s called the EPF in our country), and deposited into our 3 children’s education fund yearly, which comes with a dividend return, with the rest into investments.
We were doing alright, with both of us working and earning income.
But it also gave me security, because I knew, if it came to it, I could choose to stop working at my current job and be a stay-at-home mother and wife to my family.
Yes, we would need to cut down on expenses and our lifestyle especially dining out, I would have to frequently cook at home and maybe even take over kids after-school daycare that helps with their homework and additional academic teaching.
This is after considering all expenses including insurance for all 5 of us, school fees, house bills, cost of living and others. We had made a master Excel sheet of all household expenses, income, and budget over 10 years ago after we had gotten married.
I would probably find a part-time flexible job, and make money, although significantly less, than my current job. Maybe I’d write, maybe I’d teach at a center, I would have to be resourceful, to fill my needs and interest, and supplement with some income.
It was an option I could take, although I probably would not because I do enjoy working and being productive, dare I say even the thought that I am valued for my work contributions to the company.
But, it was an option.
And that made things a lot more acceptable and tolerable for me when I think about work.
b) I can change roles, departments, and maybe even my job.
Okay, the reason I have stayed so long at my current workplace was because it had become comfortable, they had good systems in place and good benefits which covered our kids and more. The job nature was fine and I had fulfilment in my roles here over the last years.
However, due to said current work environment, I had started gearing up for a potential change in my work department and scope.
I’m now 37, and as mentioned earlier I had previously planned a roadmap in my head to initiate the move to an alternate career when I hit 38, although within the same company. Moving to one with less politics, and one that is in the business of the development of new products. It was based on my disdain for politics, and also my interest in package development.
I thought back to my earlier years in my current company, I had always known that if I were to work long-term there, I would eventually move to a development role, so this proposition is technically not new. I wondered though if I should have moved earlier.
Anyhow, I figured now was the time.
I checked with others, I looked online at our company website, and found one with the same pay scale (hopefully higher).
So I applied, 2 days ago, just after Christmas.
And if I do not get the role, I can continue looking and applying.
The key thing was that I could seek for change, even within the same company, though it may take time.
So again, I am not necessarily stuck in my current job situation. Worst come to worst, I may even apply outside.
Concept 2 – The Motivation Of Working Itself And Of Career Growth
Career factors that motivated me.
Skill growth, ability to contribute to progress, and good working relationships, especially with my boss and immediate team.
Recently I had a new additional goal, which was to grow and bring up the skill level of my small team.
The thing is, I like working, and I think everyone does too if conditions are right.
Being effective at work can be motivating, gives you a sense of purpose if you have work goals, and some people even like the routine.
If you know what fulfills you in a career, you can seek it or like me, make a roadmap to it.
And for the career you have in your hand now, the job that you get up amd go to now, although it does not fulfill all your checkboxes, it may fulfill partial of it, and we should still work well in it. Heck, if your work is good, most likely, with some visibility, you may get a raise or promotion.
A stepping stone to where you want to go in future.
Concept 3 – Work is Work, It Does Not Define Me, and Is A Part of My Life
Work is only a part of my life.
In reality, I am also a wife and mother, I had a family, a good husband, and 3 children to love.
I have my personal faith in God, and relationships with others, be it families and parents, friends and even communities to grow in.
There are so many other things in our lives other than work that are important and makes us who we are.
I also saw friends with alternative life styles, some living abroad as expats, some starting small businesses, some even work 100% remotely from home, and some also eventually choose to be stay at home parents due to growing needs of the kids.
There are options, of course more if you have an education and are good with your finances.
So in the heat of a difficult work day or situation, remember your work alone does not define you.
To sum it all up, having the above mindset and perspectives about work had helped me come out of a bad mental state of stress and anxiety related to my job these last 2 years.
And it is one method that does not require medication to ease my mind.
I do believe that working in this manner will even increase one’s productivity in their jobs, and help you maybe find some job fulfillment.
May these concepts help you out in your own work situation.
And how would you put a price tag towards obtaining better mental health?