How do you define success in the workplace?

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[louiebaby]

I want to be paid enough to have a decent quality of life, to do something that feels like it's valuable.

(There's nothing worse than feeling like you're wasting your whole day doing something that doesn't matter.)

[anonymous-user]

My personal definition of career success is:

Being happy with the amount of money I earn.
Enjoying the work that I do.
Liking the people I work with.

Achieving those things makes me feel successful, irrespective of what others think.

I am not interested in:

Job title.
Company name / How well known the company is.
Job responsibility.
Seniority within a business.
How fancy my office is.
How well known I am.
How many people I manage.
or any of other similar stuff.

I got out of the 'rat race' of climbing a career ladder when I was 34, by leaving standard corporate employment and starting my own business, then from there I moved to being a consultant, which is what I do now.

Most of my days are spent working from home, managing no one, holding no particular job title, and generally not being very important, but I earn really good money and enjoy what I do.

I look back on the people who are still fighting it out, employed by the same companies, striving for promotion, trying to get that better position, wrestling with office politics, and wonder why they bother, but I suppose everyone wants something different.

Makes me laugh when I see senior managers, directors, and chief execs still clinging to their same positions or still trying to climb the ladder, years after I left their employment, and now I earn more than they do, because I actively rejected the concept of trying to work your way up through a company.

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 21st July 16:11

[NewNameNeeded]

Success (in a global S&P100 company)

Non-financial recognition
Financial recognition
Recognition as the "go to" in my specialism
Exceeding personal performance goals
Developing my team, their careers and the teams output
Having (to some extent) the opportunity to pick and choose some of the areas where I focus my/my team's efforts.
Meaningful work that adds measurable value.

[RichTT]

I'm perfectly happy in my workplace achievement and don't have much ambition to move further up the chain for more work / similar or less pay in my industry.

As long as I get good performance reviews, reasonable salary increases (although last 3-4 years have been poor) and steady work then I'm perfectly happy where I am. I have achieved a level of competence and knowledge that it's not too challenging and can perform most of the work tasks within less time than expected. Paid for the job, not for the hours as it should be.

[46and2]

For me its not about power and authority, its about being trusted to take on new tasks and my ideas/opinions actually being listened to. That's possible at any level.

ETA feel the same as post above

[pete_esp]

I don't restrict my definition of being successful to Success in the workplace, as the workplace is only a small (but important as it pays the bills) part of my life.

I consider myself a success because:

1. I can provide a better life for my family than the one I had
2. I have a job that doesn't take up too much of my time
3. I have people around me I genuinely enjoy spending my time with
4. I can indulge my passions
5. I am good at what I do, I don't strive to be the best because that would involve a time trade off that would impact the above.
6. I am lucky to love where I live
7. I'm content with my situation.
8. I took full advantage of my youth while I had it
9. I'm healthy in my middle age

I'm not powerfully built, I will never be able to afford a super car, even poverty pork is out of my league at the minute so I live vicariously here and I pretty much live month to month.

So I think, job status and financial ability don't really define me they are just tools that pay for what is important. I was also career motivated and in the rat race but then mellowed and realised what was really important to me.


TLDR:
Success is about achieving the right balance for you IMHO.

[MitchT]

[Jamescrs]

Earning enough money to be comfortable (That is very subjective).

Having a good work/ life balance

Enjoying the work I do.

Being happy with the people I work with.

I'd say i'm pretty much hitting the points I have raised for the most of the time. I'm not a massive earner and probably never will be but I am comfortable with what I earn.

If I was to go for more money promotion would have a significant effect on the other factors so not worth while. A guy who I am friends with who used to work at the same level as me but has gone on to be senior management openly tells me it has taken all the enjoyment out of the work and on a good year i'm still not far behind him in terms of take home pay.

I'm pretty satisfied with where i'm at

[toon10]

Firstly, once you understand what your "enough" is, i.e. a lifestyle you are happy to live, then the first workplace success is the financial reward that will give you that lifestyle. You may want and could always use more but I'm talking about living comfortably in a house you like, in a town you like and having the cars, holidays and lifestyle you're happy with rather than just surviving day to day.

The second definition of success for me is to never, or rarely at least, have to work more than your designated hours. In my case, 37.5 per week. Quality of life and having a job which affords the time for family, friends and hobby's is key.

Lastly, it's having a job that you instantly forget about come 5 pm and not think about until 8:30 am the next day.

I've come from the traditional view of workplace success. After a few promotions I ended up being a department head with all the pain and stress of people management, budgeting, being on call 24/7 for major issues, etc. That isn't success. Far from it. The stress of that compared to my role now was immense. I'm lucky that I'm on more money these days but don't have to worry about heading projects or people anymore. I can just turn up, give my consultancy and go home (metaphorically as I work from home!)

[nealeh1875]

My ''measure of success'' comes down to money and a good work/life balance.

Worked in motor trade - money for my age at the time was OK but work was very stressful and it affected my personal life
Worked in Estate Agency - Money was crap and didn't have a good work/life balance - working 3/4 saturdays . Just always felt at work.

Now work in IT hardware sales and money is good for what i do, now we WFH my work/life balance has improved dramatically. i get to see my daughter a lot earlier after nursery and don't just get the ''tired hour'' after i get back at 6pm. I can go gym on lunch instead of first thing so get mornings with her as well. May only be an extra 2 hours a day but makes world of difference. Then i have worked hard and built an account base up where i know, roughly, what i will earn every month. Having just hit a senior account manager status too thats a big thing for me.

Maybe one day i'll look into becoming management/sales director type roll but for now money is decent and my work/life balance is how i want.

[V8mate]

The requirement to provide as few hours and as little application or effort for the maximum possible reward.

[voram]

V8mate said:

The requirement to provide as few hours and as little application or effort for the maximum possible reward.

Hopefully at the same time as having an interesting job! However, given that just about any full time job will require 35+ hours a week you might as well make sure you're getting properly paid for your time and trouble.

I'd rather be a high paid specialist than a low paid manager with badges of rank.

[Munter]

If nobody died, that's a pretty successful day.

[voram]

Munter said:

If nobody died, that's a pretty successful day.

Unless you're an undertaker. One of the oddities of the last 15 months has been booming business.

[98elise]

Earning more than I think I'm worth.
Being good at what I'm employed to do.

I don't care about titles, power, politics etc

[Regbuser]

pete_esp said:

I don't restrict my definition of being successful to Success in the workplace, as the workplace is only a small (but important as it pays the bills) part of my life.

TLDR:
Success is about achieving the right balance for you IMHO.

Too true, well written

[Sporky]

No-one finding the bodies.

[CustardOnChips]

I managed to get through another day without being sacked

[Monkeylegend]

To me now retired it is looking back on how my career progressed and thinking how did I manage to bluff my way through that lot without getting sussed out.

That defines success.