A few years ago, I managed an organization of software engineers at a large, global technology company. In this role, I had the opportunity to work with individuals who had recently graduated from college and were starting their careers with us. I also worked with individuals who had been in the industry for over 30 years. The recently graduated team members were always very excited about their new roles and the prospect of a successful professional future. They approached most of our initiatives and the challenges we faced with a positive attitude and unyielding perseverance towards achieving our goals.
On the other end of the spectrum, the individuals with years of experience appeared somewhat apathetic towards our initiatives and challenges. They performed the work and met their goals; however, they seemed devoid of enthusiasm, as if they were simply going through the motions. The recently graduated team members appeared more engaged than those with years of experience under their belts.
Over the years, I saw this pattern repeat itself no matter the industry, company, organization, or team. Team members early in their career start new jobs very excitedly, almost blindly so. Nonetheless, over the years, their attitude degrades into a state of increasing workplace apathy. The contrast between individuals early in their careers and those with more experience was occasionally striking. Their perspectives on identical initiatives and challenges were often opposites. At times, I would overhear more experienced team members make comments about their less experienced colleagues, such as, “They will learn that nothing ever really changes around here, no matter how excited the current leader is about a new initiative.”
Comments like these reveal a state of mind that is beyond jaded; they convey a sense that some of the more experienced individuals had likely reached a point where they no longer cared about some of our initiatives or the challenges the company faced. In their mind, nothing would change anyway, so why bother? They would do only enough to ensure that they completed tasks satisfactorily, rarely going beyond that. It is important to note, however, that not everyone, regardless of their career experience, behaves the same way. My observations are not extrapolatable to the whole population of workers across the forty-year spectrum. I have observed this phenomenon often enough, however, to recognize it as a trend.
As I continued to observe and study workers from the start of their careers to the forty-year mark and beyond, I noticed that people in the workplace tend to go through a phased cycle leading to apathy. Similar to Tuckman’s (1965) forming-storming-norming-performing model of group development, I observed individuals go through a five-phased period leading to apathy during their career (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Individual attitudes, feelings, and motivations towards work and work activities vary from person to person; however, there is a typical pattern, or set of phases, that many individuals experience across their careers (i.e., the lifespan of work). This pattern is often a result of the contrast between what many individuals wish for, envision, and expect from their careers. The five phases of workplace apathy are as follows:
Phase 1: Felicity – Ages 21-28: Welcome to Work Life
This phase is characterized by career excitement and what the future holds. The individual may foresee some challenges or may have been warned by others of potential career-related issues down the road. Still, they perceive themselves as able to overcome barriers and achieve success at work. They are motivated, inspired, and full of energy ready to take on this new chapter in their lives.
Phase 2: Sanguinity – Ages 29-36: Motivated by the Future
Individuals have settled into their work life and have experienced the occasional “bump in the road.” They are, however, fueled by the prospect of gaining more experience, seeking promotions, and earning an increased salary.
Phase 3: Disillusionment – Ages 37-44: Questioning Work & Work Life
At this phase, individuals have experienced their fair share of career-related disappointment. They occasionally reminisce about their beliefs and attitudes during the first five years of work-life, and compare their old mindset with their current reality, further fueling their disappointment. They may cope by applying for work at a different company, or consider making this change, in hopes that a new work environment may improve the way they feel. Some individuals in this phase can develop resentment as a result of their feelings, which can be turned inward or outward, manifesting as anxiety and stress demonstrated through verbal hostility, impatience, or sarcasm in the workplace. Burnout can begin during this phase, which affects not only work performance but also an individual’s personal life (Bakker et al., 2014).
Phase 4: Melancholic – Ages 45-52: Sustained Workplace Sadness
Feelings of disappointment, anger, or work-related resentment evolve into cynicism and negativity (Roberts & Zigarmi, 2014). Attitudes about work that lead to stress reach a peak, and the individual typically adapts, causing the feelings to stabilize, but resulting in apathy and indifference. The individual, overwhelmed by the emotions that arose from their disillusionment, goes into a “no feeling” state, which serves as a protective mechanism to control the potentially harmful effects of work-related stress. This state causes robotic performance at work where individuals complete their tasks, but there is a lack of desire to set higher goals and surpass their achievements.
Phase 5: Apathetic – Ages 53-60: Devoid of Workplace Engagement
At this phase, the individual has reached seniority or years of experience in their career, but cynicism, negativity, and apathy towards work continue. The individual feels that if they have managed to “stick it out this long,” they might as well stay until retirement. The prospect of an upcoming retirement ignites a sense of excitement and longing to be free of the confines of work. In a sense, the individual appears to enjoy their disappointment, embrace it, and try to make the best out of every day, knowing that it will all be over soon.
Where are you in your career? If you started working in your profession at the age of twenty-one and you are now thirty-six years of age, do you still feel a sense of excitement about what the future holds? Are you close to getting that coveted promotion, and that is exciting to you? Or, are you around the age of forty-eight, and you are feeling a touch of melancholy about your job? You do not know precisely why you are not as excited as you used to be about your job, but you know that you relish getting off work, and weekends, holidays, and vacations.
Please note, the ranges of the five phases leading to apathy are based solely on my observations over thirty-six years. In the grand scheme, my observations are a small sample set and are not based on an extensive empirical analysis. However, based on my experience, I see team members, family members, friends, and colleagues generally going through these phases. There are exceptions, of course, although it is uncanny how uniformly people tend to go through these phases in their careers.
One might look at the five phases of apathy and become dismayed about their future in the workplace. A cynical individual might subscribe to the perspective of the Teacher in the Book of Ecclesiastes and conclude that trying to get ahead in the workplace is meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 New International Version). In other words, since one is likely to end up in a state of apathy years later, why bother seeking a career and working hard to achieve professional goals in a workplace setting?
Are we all doomed to go through the five phases of apathy? No, not at all. The goal of this article is to make us aware that some people may go through these five phases in their careers, and that we may choose to change the outcome if we so desire. For example, I see people in phases four and five, who change their careers and start fresh with the same excitement and hope that they had years earlier. I have also seen individuals leverage the fact that they are in phases three, four, or five, and they are content, sometimes even relieved, that they are no longer chasing after a goal that may not mean as much as it did years earlier. They take the opportunity to spend more time with their family, working on their hobbies, or doing things that make them happy outside of the workplace. Others in the later phases take joy and pride from helping those in the earlier phases achieve their goals.
The five phases of workplace apathy are more about awareness and choosing to be happy no matter which phase you happen to be in at the moment. With awareness and a little work, we may be able to maintain a state of felicity throughout our career as we reinvent ourselves continually across our professional lifespan.
References
Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel, A. I. (2014). Burnout and work engagement: The JD–R approach. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 389–411. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091235
Roberts, T. P., & Zigarmi, D. (2014). The impact of dispositional cynicism on job-specific affect and work intentions. International Journal of Psychology, 49(5), 381–389. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12051
Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384–399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100
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Dr. Milton Mattox is an executive, author, and technologist who has worked with some of the world’s most acclaimed companies. He is an authority in helping companies overcome everyday business and technology challenges to achieve the success that they seek. He also believes that individuals can have a healthier, wealthier, more fulfilling existence by approaching life under this simple formulaic mantra: Passion + Purpose + Prayer = Prosperity. In this case, “Prosperity” is defined as that which helps individuals become all that they desire to be in life.
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