Career experiences

This poem started as a short piece of prose that was sitting in the archive for quite a while gathering dust. I find myself in a completely different context now, I work in an environment where new ideas are welcomed and initiative rewarded.

My unsolicited career advice for you would be – if you aren’t happy, if your job is not letting you grow, if you aren’t supported to bloom – you owe it to yourself to explore your options.

Latency 

Being in a latent state is perhaps
the most soul destroying of all states. 
Knowing what should be done, 
having the skills to do it, 
but never the opportunity or mandate to act. 
Organisations can enforce latency 
on talented staff either intentionally or unwittingly:
leaders can choose to confine your sphere of influence
to what the narrow Job Description says. 

Being shot down, told to be quiet, 
or sent down exhausting garden paths
that lead to nowhere:
sap energy and distract attention.  
I can recall the moments and faces 
so easily because it’s happened so often
in a career punctuated by false starts, 
faux opportunities and 
wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing.  

And then it happens.
You find yourself with the right
people, at the right time.
Where fear doesn't hold back
good ideas and new energy.
That frustration of your latent potential
fades into memory as each
new day invites you to embrace it
and grow.