Bias and burnout: Career coach shares advice

People face all kinds of headwinds in pursuing their careers, and two of the strongest are bias and burnout. Phoebe Gavin, a career coach, speaker and trainer specializing in career strategy, negotiation and empathetic leadership, offers her advice below for how individuals can approach these challenges. See her coaching website www.betterwithphoebe.com for more, and don’t miss last week’s Q&A on what to ask yourself when considering a career change.

Have a question for Phoebe Gavin? She’s agreed to answer subscribers’ career questions in a future edition of this newsletter! Just submit your question as a comment or by replying to this email by Friday, Nov. 3.

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You've spoken previously about the saying "you have to work twice as hard for half as much," particularly as it applies to women of color. What advice do you have for people facing headwinds in pursuing their career goals due to bias?

“That is a phrase that I heard a lot from my mother and it is a very common phrase said in the Black community and probably others as well,” she said.

"Is it literally true that you have to work twice as hard for half as much? No, maybe not. But there's definitely some pretty significant kernels of juice in there. Bias is a real problem. It holds women of color back, it holds people from other marginalized communities back and prevents them from achieving and enjoying the kinds of success that their capabilities should allow them to achieve.”

While it can be useful to understand what that injustice looks like, it can also be paralyzing to focus on it so much that you’re less likely to take actions or risks to maximize what is possible for your career, she said.

For her clients, particularly those from marginalized communities, Gavin honors that bias is real, that these systems need to be recognized and we should work to dismantle them. But on an individual basis, she asks clients to consider what they have control over when navigating their own careers.

“Decide what you are willing to do to achieve your goals and focus on doing that, versus focusing on the massive intractable, inescapable problem of racism and sexism and other types of discrimination.”

You've shared how the more aligned you are with the purpose of the work, the longer you can work without burning out. Are there certain strategies you recommend for applicants trying to find alignment with prospective employers?

This can be a double-edged sword. If you’re in a role that’s aligned with your personal motivations, Gavin said, you can work a lot longer and harder without burning out.

“The flipside of that is that it does make you more vulnerable to intentional or unintentional exploitation. And we see this in the nonprofit space and in the journalism space quite a lot. People don't generally join these two fields because they are looking for fame and fortune. They join them because they care and it makes it a lot easier for organizations to ask for more of them.”

If being aligned to your work is a top priority for you, you need to prioritize deeply understanding what your values are and be able to clearly articulate them.

Gavin also encourages people to work on their boundaries, whether that’s with your time, money or communication and psychological boundaries, not only with coworkers but also with yourself.

"You can be in a really values aligned position and a workplace that does everything that it can to be healthy and sustainable. And if you don't have good boundaries with yourself as it relates to work, you will still push yourself harder and longer and farther than you probably should.”

Is there anything else you would encourage people navigating a fulfilling professional journey to consider?

“It's OK for a job to just be a job, even if that is a temporary thing for you,” Gavin said.

Our working life is 40-50+ years, and it makes sense that our needs and preferences will change over time.

“If we are going down the river in our sailboat and realize, hey, we need a rest, it's OK to pull the boat on the shore and take a break.

“It's OK to build up boundaries in your work so that you have space for meaning and purpose outside of your professional life. Work doesn't have to be the center of your life if you don't prefer that. And if that has been your preference in the past, it's OK for that preference to change as you grow and change over time as a person and move through different seasons of life.”

Happy navigating,
Bridget

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