Job doctor

“I have been working as a council housing officer for five years. I enjoy working with tenants but the paperwork gets me down and I’m starting to feel stuck in a rut. I recently applied for promotion but was turned down and I never found out what the reasons were. I don’t have a great relationship with my manager so I don’t feel I can ask her what I should do differently. Should I be looking to move elsewhere?”

“It can be really difficult to move on when you get stuck in a rut – you start losing motivation and can get frustrated and bored. Unfortunately, this can impact on the way in which you come across to others and that may be why you’ve not been promoted. But this is speculation until you get feedback about the promotion.

I would suggest badgering your human resources people into arranging a session for you.

In any event, you need to get a clearer idea of where you want to go. Do you generally like working in housing but want more responsibility? Or would you want to move to a different area, like development?

If you would like more responsibility, ask for it. Many organisations run project groups on things such as reward schemes for employees or diversity issues and need volunteers from all departments and all levels to make company-wide decisions. Alternatively your manager may be more than happy to shift some duties to you – for example you could help with the induction of a new staff member. Things like this will give you confidence and experience as a manager.

If you’re interested in other departments, job shadowing might help. Our organisation recently made it compulsory for every member of staff to spend half a day a year shadowing a team from a different part of the organisation. If there isn’t a scheme like that where you work, you could suggest introducing one, or even ask if you can spend a day in another department where you think you might like to work.

If you’re still not sure about your direction, see if your organisation has a mentoring scheme. Circle 33 has a scheme open to anyone who’s been in their job for three years, where trained, experienced staff mentors will help them discuss their career development plans.

This week’s job doctor is Anna Knight, human resources manager at Circle 33 Housing Group