Are we expecting too much?

Let's do some maths:

(67-x)/2 = y

So if I told you to substitute 'x' for your current age, what do you get for 'y'?

For me, at this current moment in time 'y' would be 12.5 since I am 42.

That is the number of positions and pay rises I would need to occupy me until my retirement age. This is based on a very reasonable expectation that I would be promoted every 2 years.

12.

Are there any career ladders that have 12 steps in them? Nope. Is the top one the 'Supreme Lead Senior Manager <whatever>'? There aren't even enough adjectives to describe these roles.

Also bear in mind I have already been doing this for 25 years so if you are just starting out you have an even bigger number.

How are you going to fill the decades of when you reach that top role and your retirement? Does the tech industry even have a track record for this? How about another game.... name the oldest person doing your role in your organisation. Are they 60? How about 50? 40? 30?

It is a probability that we will not be with our current company until we finish working. Looking across the tech sector, 3 years seems like a pretty good run. I have seen some data that suggests 2 years is more likely.

Why not be honest?

In your time with your current company, what do you want to achieve? What do you want to learn? Who do you want to be taught by? Who can you teach and what could you give back? What stories do you want to take with you? Which people will you want to keep in touch with? What great ideas will you emulate? What experiments will you convince people to run with? What improvements will you leave behind? What new habits will you form?

How long do you think that will take?

We all walk in to a company and totally ignore the end.

Expecting organisations to somehow create roles and an ever increasing pay packet is simply too much. They are often just a chapter in our total story - when we understand that our time together will end, we can choose to treat that time with the importance it deserves and make decisions that benefit both us and others.

People leaving us stronger, better, more confident is surely an outcome we should look for and even celebrate.

Clearleft had a lovely way of seeing this:

"Our passion for the digital community and our innate collective desire to make a meaningful contribution towards enabling design to thrive beyond our studio is something that continues to excite and motivate us. The success of ex-employees is one part of that which continues to make us all proud."

Lets start setting an expectation that the time we spend together will be full of mutual learning and value and when it ends we will both be better, wiser and still friends.