What Am I Supposed to Be Doing?

For most people, getting a job offer and preparing to start a new job are exciting.

Certainly, every new job brings its own anxieties: Will I be up to the challenge? Will I like it? Will my coworkers and managers like me? And yet despite these concerns, we usually look forward to another opportunity to test our skills, and to take on some new responsibilities.

But sometimes, those very same anxieties start to overshadow our excitement, and instead of lessening with time, they seem to get worse.

The following story illustrates the difficult position I believe many of us get into when starting a new job. And it's a position, I believe, that just as many of us don't know how to get out of – other than, of course, by quitting.

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Three years ago, I started a job with Company A. I was trained on the series of tasks that made up my job, but nothing more. I wasn't told what the company's overall direction or objectives were, and the tasks I was responsible for seemed to be of little importance. Although I mastered the tasks quickly, I began to feel as though I was forgotten. But being young and needing the money – I was working my way through university – I did what I believe many of us do in this type of situation: nothing.

My feelings of anxiety and insecurity were further aggravated when, within months, the company was restructured and they began letting people go. A new management style was implemented, and I was told about the company's focus and objectives. My own role in achieving those objectives was made clear to me, and for the first time I understood how my work contributed to the company's success. Work suddenly became exciting, and I no longer felt isolated, or that what I did was inconsequential.

Of course, I was lucky. Not everyone can hope for a change in management to alleviate feelings of anxiety. In retrospect, however, I realize that it wasn't so much the new management that made me feel better, it was the fact that they answered all of the questions that I simply hadn't bothered to ask: What's the purpose of my job? Where does my work fit into the company's objectives? Am I doing a good job?

When I started with Company A, I had plenty of these questions, but I never took the initiative to ask anyone about them. And most of the anxiety I felt was the result of my own ignorance about the company, and my role within it.

Once I realized this, I also realized that the person primarily responsible for my job satisfaction was me.

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An employer will never know you don't understand something unless you ask. And an employer will never know that you're unhappy, or that you want more responsibility – or less – unless you ask. Questions like these not only help us understand our purpose at a particular job, they also provide us with an opportunity to show our employers how we think. And, moreover, what we're capable of: Your employer will never know about that great idea you have for increasing productivity unless you make an effort to speak up.

Remember: Aside from rare instances, careers are not the result of luck … or a serendipitous change in management!

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