With high oil prices, petroleum industry executives are again lamenting the lack of skilled workers. This makes companies vulnerable to losing solid, but underappreciated, performers, and provides those employees a golden opportunity to revitalize their careers.
Like other assets, a company's personnel can be regarded as part of a portfolio. Companies usually focus on two segments of this portfolio: new employees and high-potential employees. The remaining majority of the portfolio is given little attention, and employees are cautioned that they are responsible for their own careers. An analogy would be putting 80% of your money in a savings account and forgetting about it, while focusing on the 20% you are actively trading.
On an individual basis, employees can't afford to delegate their career development to their company. However, that should not be the end of the story. Companies should not ignore people to the extent that a significant percentage perform below their potential.
By midlife, employees often feel ignored and unappreciated, and most people in our industry are middle-aged. Comments by people in the industry include:
• "After 20 years, everyone knows you and your background. The only thing managers remember are the negatives, which you cannot overcome even with fantastic results. When it comes to advancement of any form, it just won't happen, unless the middle managers, who are also stuck in place are changed out."
• "Valid reasons for changing companies include: irreparable relationships with management, lack of access to (re)training or new assignments, long-term stagnation of compensation and irreconcilable differences with corporate culture or direction."
• "You should absolutely split the day you discover a significant rift between your value set and your employer's, or the day you lose faith in the mission of your company."
• "No one should be afraid of seeking new challenges, within the company they work for or in another company or even another industry."
• "You have to be honest with yourself. You will take your behaviors with you. If the reasons for your stalled career aren't specific to your employer, without changing the behaviors, you are not likely to advance."
• "Starting anew has a price, which escalates with age and experience. If you are new to a company at 30, your peers have only a few years more of internal history. At 40, you are missing 15 to 18 years worth of contacts."
For many, retirement benefits are a significant consideration. "Leaving is scary, but the quickest way to unstall a career. It is not for the timid because it poses financial and psychological dangers. There are no guarantees," said one respondent contemplating a change of company.
On a personal level, do you want to sit in idle hoping to make it to retirement, or do you want to take some big risks?
Corporations would be foolish to ignore the situation, even if good employees are not leaving in large numbers, a sizeable portion of their people assets may be underperforming.

Eve Sprunt, evesprunt@aol.com, is senior science and technology coordinator for Chevron Corp. This is the first of a two-part series that offers companies and individuals alternatives to dead-end careers. Responses in quotes come from her broad network of contacts in the industry.

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