How to face a mid-career crisis in the pandemic

The only honest relationship you will ever have is with your work. Do you remember being told this in your formative years? Now picture this: you get a job, hoping to make something out of yourself. Everybody takes note of your work and almost has you believe that you are meant for bigger (and better) things, which you may as well be. But once you have been in the industry for 10-15 years, you begin to suffer from a brain fog as far as your career is concerned. For one, you have moved on to another stage in your personal life, there is a spouse and children to take care of, bills to be paid at the end of every month, and given the ‘seniority’ you have now acquired, you may still not be where you were truly deserved to be. ‘Where do I go from here’ is a question that most mid-careerists find themselves asking. This is a stage when they have given their jobs everything they have learnt, and are now battling stagnation, hoping to reskill and upskill themselves and yet not knowing which direction they should be headed to.

For many generations, the way out of this ‘brain fog’ was to simply deal with it internally. Thankfully, a growing awareness on mental health has also meant that there are professionals now who help you navigate the workplace. Kamil Shah is one of them. The 45-year-old ‘Jay Shetty-certified’ life coach is a Dubai resident who specialises in counselling mid-careerists who might be experiencing such brain fog. So how is a ‘Jay Shetty-certified’ coach different from any other life coach? “We understand that the client is the expert of his or her own life. Our role is to meet them where they are, understand what their goal is and guide them on their journey through suggesting proven tools and strategies,” says Shah, who was born in Malaysia and spent his formative years in the UK and the US.

There is a reason why Shah, an architect by profession, chose to focus on mid-careerists. “I find those who are in mid-career level interesting because of the myriad issues they may face at that level,” he says. “When starting off in one’s career, we may find that we have an abundance of energy, time and grand ambitions to not only make a name for ourselves but to also make a difference in the world. As we move through the career path, we may find that other factors and drivers will come into play.” Some of these major concerns for mid-careerists across sectors are related to family matters (not only immediate family here in the UAE but also back home), relationships (as a husband/wife to their spouses or partners, father/mother to their children, son/daughter to their parents), health (managing time to be active and food intake) and finances (maintaining family expenses here and back home).

Add pandemic to this mix, and you realise why professional life as we once knew it will never be the same. Shah says the pandemic has forced many to ask the tough questions and rethink their futures. “I think the pandemic has been the ‘enough is enough’ moment for many people. For me, it was an excuse to say, ‘This is it.’ What I have found from experience is that although work:life balance is something many people strive for in their lives, if we are not aligned with our goals and what we want to do, we will still experience pain. For many, being stuck in careers or jobs that are not aligned with their goals or passion had led to the ‘enough is enough’ moment and to ‘my time is now’ moment,” he says. This, adds Shah, has meant taking ownership of their own path because at the time of the lockdown, future was uncertain and many felt that there is no better time to engage with things they wanted to do. Fast forward to a couple of years, and there is a little bit of certainty now, albeit the new normal. “However, I think that people will still be more courageous in taking bolder steps to shift careers, ask for raise, enter new relationships, relocate geographically, reconnect with their passion, taking ownership of their future.”

HYBRID WORK

With the pandemic came work from home, which now has metamorphosed into hybrid work — the ability to choose when you want to WFH or WFO. But while experts the world over are still weighing in the pros and cons of hybrid work, not all corporations have embraced the idea completely. “In many parts of the world now, we are seeing a migration back to face-to-face working in offices, with only select companies operating remotely. For some companies, the investments already made in operating and maintaining physical assets is one of the reasons for requesting employees to come back to the offices,” says Shah. “Personally, I think a hybrid model, based on personal circumstances, can be a good way to allow employees to achieve work:life balance. In the 50s, cities were planned in such a way that life, work and leisure were separated physically. They were already connected via infrastructure corridors. We have since found that this may not be the most efficient or sustainable way of designing cities. A more compact and hybrid city where one can live, work and socialise within close proximity can be more sustainable and efficient in reducing our reliance on valuable resources.”

For prior generations, work in office was cut out and was limited only to the workplace. Today, a desire to multiply the income alongwith the need to explore other talents is leading many to opt for side hustles. To go for it or not is a pressing concern for mid-careerists. Shah says that while we do see many people now taking that leap of faith, it does not mean that you’re lagging behind if you do not have a side hustle. “For some, it is an outlet to follow a passion they always wanted to pursue, but were too afraid to. There may be many reasons for this, including judgment from others. Now that many are doing it, it has given them an opportunity to do the same. I feel mid-careerists are in an ideal position to do this because they are already earning a base income and are looking to enhance this with additional income streams.” One suggestion, however, that Shah has for those looking for side hustles is to not have multiple income streams from multiple sources, but to have multiple income streams from one source. “At the end of the day, if it fills your cup, then great. If it is causing you more harm than good and leading to anxiety, stress and even burnout, it might be time to rethink it all.”

ADDRESSING ANXIETIES