Why Do Tenured Employees Feel Less Successful?

A lot of research into workers these days tends to focus on the younger generations in the workforce. But as part of the State of Work and Career Success, we want to capture how successful people feel at every stage of their career so that we can help everyone progress.

And one of the things we noticed is that those in the 50+ bracket tend to feel less successful in achieving career progress than others surveyed — a D average compared to the overall C-. 

It does make sense that one might be more critical of their progress the further they get in their career, but we also noticed that those who don’t feel successful at this stage of their career are simply investing too much of their time into activities that don’t move the needle. If you want to know more about the various career and personal development activities that we measured, I wrote about this in “What Does it Take to Be Successful? Focus on This ONE Thing.”

What Makes More Tenured Workers Successful?

In short, those that feel successful are prioritizing activities that have the most significant impact on satisfaction with their career progress: career planning and mentorship. Those who are age 50+ and feel successful in their career are almost twice as likely to place greater importance on creating a career plan with specific goals and nearly three times more likely to emphasize seeking a career sponsor than those that feel unsuccessful.

Those that feel successful are also more likely to have been with one organization for an extended period of time. And they feel strongly that a sense of connection and community is important at work (89% vs. 66% overall). So it makes sense that 82% of these workers who feel successful also believe work and career are integrated into their personal life, compared to 62% overall.

This feeling of belonging, combined with feeling successful in their career, links to their greater likelihood to want to stay in a company, likely because they work in environments where people get along and work well together.

Why Do So Many Tenured Workers Feel Unsuccessful?

Those who are struggling need to reprioritize the personal and professional development activities they’re emphasizing if they want to feel more successful. 

While those who feel successful prioritize planning and leadership, their successful counterparts prioritize skill development and culture. They're placing importance on constantly keeping their skills up to date. While there’s always value in doing so, that likely isn’t addressing the root cause of their dissatisfaction and lack of fulfillment.

We're taught to just maintain or build skills out of fear of irrelevance. But if those skills aren't tied to what fulfills us, or aligns to what we really want to do, it doesn't really move us forward.

How Can Organizations Support Those Who Feel Unsuccessful & Retain Those That Feel Successful?

People want interesting work. Especially at this stage of their careers, when they have likely mastered various skills and roles already. And when something starts to feel boring, it doesn’t feel as meaningful.

You have to offer your people opportunities for genuine growth, interesting work that delivers meaning, and leadership opportunities. And more than that, leadership has to serve as a guide toward the things that help people progress and feel more successful. Because those that feel unsuccessful are, by and large, focusing on what many organizations prioritize when they communicate with their people — skills development and staying up to date. 

There aren’t a lot of organizations out there who are helping employees develop a roadmap that enables them to achieve their career goals and a feeling of greater fulfillment — but there should be!

If you want the benefits of workers who feel successful (people who are likely to stay with your organization, recommend your organization, and remain engaged at work), you have to care about them. And that might mean the roles of managers and leaders within your organization needs to evolve.

The role of managers in human-centered organizations should be delivering support and resources that address the whole person, not just what they do for you at work. Get to know them personally, determine how to motivate them professionally, and leverage the skills and interests they have outside of work within your organization; help them set goals and create a roadmap to achieve them; create a path to mentorship and career sponsorship.

You just have to care.