Has the current situation changed how you view your career?

[Missmummy88]

I’m interested to know if anyone else has had time to sit and reflect on the current situation and their existing career / goals and if any sense of regret or need for change has come about?

I am currently furloughed and probably will be until the end of the furlough scheme, I am due to go on maternity leave in July so probably won’t have much if any work for at least a year. Whilst homeschooling my two children, nesting for a baby and generally trying to get used to this new normal, I have had lots of time to consider and take stock of where I am in life and where I want to go.

I work in a role which serves to make people richer by touting their wares on the internet. I have been with my company for 2 years and they are a great team. Essentially though, we use psychology to persuade impulse purchases, buy more things, bigger expenses. A consumerists dream.

Before I took this role I worked in the community helping women and babies - in a job role which sadly no longer exists due to national funding cuts.

I therefore took the role to support my family, have a good work life balance, decent career prospects ( something that is limited in front line charity work unfortunately) and do something totally different.

Don’t get me wrong, my job is not awful, far from it. I leave on time everyday, I have autonomy and am trusted and respected. I work with great people, whom I truly count as friends.

But all this time to think has made me realise that I am not fulfilling a purpose. A worthy purpose. I am working to encourage a consumerist lifestyle. A life of excess, a life where we promote having the next best thing as solving x, y or z.

My heart tells me that I should be working with women, in some capacity. Supporting, encouraging, being an advocate for woman’s choice.

I know i have a while to think about this, but am I mad? I mean I have a good job in a dwindling economy and I truly am grateful. But none of this means anything, I am not helping or serving the community. I am not giving to the world.

Does anyone else feel like this? Seeing front line workers do something so valuable makes me realise how I am not.

someone has to do the job that encourages people to spend, that’s how the economy keeps moving, so in that respect you are doing something worth while.
You are supporting your family by earning well and providing them with the best life you can, which is very worth while and fulfils a purpose. If you stopped all that, went and worked charitably (no guarantee of a better work/life balance than the one you have now either) you could put your family in a worse position for the sake of others (financially speaking as you say there are less career prospects etc), would that be considered worthwhile? I’d say no.
But I understand the desire to be more helpful in life, so perhaps you could volunteer somewhere a day a week in future.