Careers stall due to laziness, a lack of new job skills, or a refusal to remove that therapy mushroom farm you’ve been growing at your desk. Working harder or going back to school are fine for people with grit or wealthy parents. But this odd obsession with fungi has become a metaphor for your career. You’ve attached yourself to a host workspace. You’re growing out of this company. And at some point, we’ll need to extricate you so we can have that desk back.
Emulate Young People
Getting to know young colleagues can be intimidating to those suffering through late-stage career malaise, with their perkiness and ideals and odor-free nuance. They smell like success instead of mildew and earthworm. They have fancy vests and have not been warned repeatedly by the Ergonomics Division about toxic molds infesting the air ducts. Young people have one thing in common. None of them spend the day going desk to desk, hawking oddly shaped spores to fellow employees. Just stop it and get back to work.