On one hand, you’re doing pretty well in your current company.
Everything finally works the way you want it to, the teams you work with respect you, and most importantly, you’ve finally figured out how to work the Photocopier Machine.
You’re in your comfort zone, aren’t you?
But this new offer from that company you’ve always wanted to work for looks simply too good to be true – more money, bigger responsibility, and even has an office with a pool table and massage chairs, but…
It’s a new place with new faces, with new systems and bigger targets that you aren’t quite sure you can attain.
Do you accept it and move on, or is ‘Safer always Better”?
Here are 3 Scientific Reasons why you’re feeling this way.
1. Loss Aversion
Take a moment and answer the question above – which button would you press?
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky coined the term ‘Loss Aversion’ in 1979 in their groundbreaking paper, “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk“.
In it, he suggests that Loss Aversion is the idea that people prefer small guaranteed outcomes over larger risky outcomes.
It seems that it is human nature to want to stay in the ‘safe zone’ and not take risks, even for a bigger payout.
So, if you are facing such a scenario, just take stock of this ‘Loss Aversion’ phenomenon so you can take a more measured response to the situation
2. Learned Helplessness
According to Google, “Learned Helplessness is a psychological phenomenon where individuals feel powerless to change their circumstances, even when faced with opportunities to escape or change their situation.”
So, when a person tries to get promoted several times but doesn’t get it, or when they apply for jobs repeatedly without success, they tend to think “Ah, the job market sucks/there is an age bias/foreigners are stealing local jobs”.
And then they give up trying.
Einstein once said that “The definition of insanity is — doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
So, if you’re not breaking through to the outcome you desire, pause, reflect, and think how you can approach the situation differently. You only fail when you stop trying.
3. Sunk Cost Fallacy
“I want to move to something more exciting, but I’ve already invested so much time and energy into this company/project/product/team, it’d be a waste to give it all up!”
When I was headhunting, I heard this excuse a lot, especially from people who have been in their company for a long time.
When they look back and see the achievements they have attained over the years, they feel it would be painful to put it all down and walk away, only to start afresh.
However, they don’t realise that moving to a new platform gives them a chance to reboot and start a new set of grander achievements!
And that whatever achievements they have made in their previous company… still belongs to them, wherever they go.
So, don’t look at the past, at the expense of the future! As a school that doesn’t breed Gangsters says it, “The Best Is Yet To Be!”
In everything that you do, there will always be risks involved.
From drinking your colleague’s packet of milk in the pantry fridge, to clicking that ‘upgrade to Windows 11’ button on your computer screen.
We need to take a more rational view of these situations and move forward – and if you’re stuck, talk to me for a different perspective!