The Carrot Dangled In Front

Introduction
It is that time of the year/quarter/half-year again. You are in panic because you do not know what to expect. Will you be accused of being unproductive or will you be rewarded for your hardwork. Yes, you guessed it, I am talking about review time. The time of panic or excitement depending which side of the coin you are on. Usually, I, myself is numb to this day. It is just another day whereby I will talk about what erks me and the powers that be, will respond with a critic of their own. So far, my reviews have gone relatively well with me mostly speaking about my aspirations and them giving me tips how to get there.

This post is dedicated to the carrot that will be dangled in front of you. Promises of  better things to come that never seem to materialise. Hopefully expressing my experience will resonate with others and a real discussion can come out of this.

The Carrot
I recently was at my quartely review. As usual, my review went swift as I am not in the habit of complaining about my situation. I believe in making things work for you. Anyway, as I was sitting there and praise coming in from the manager, he asked me to evaluate my time at the client. I say good things and the bad. Encouragement is then thrown around and the "You will be moving on soon" story is thrown. You get excited as you see some form of career growth and the nice, "We will keep an eye on your progress..." paragraph is told. You get a bit excited when the promotion and senior words are mentioned.

You are instantly happy because you think there is progress. You are told that another 9 months are needed for you to be evaluated. You remember all the hours, extra effort that you did/do outside office hours, etc and suddenly it hits you. The last review you were told the same thing and promised a promotion. You then become sad as you realise that you have been fooled again. You look around and all the people with fairer skin that you started with are getting that ever elusive senior position that you have been craving. Will you be the last? What are they doing different? Is it because I am black? Does he just not like me? Is he racist? 

All the above questions run through your head even though not all those you started with are in a senior position. Only about 5 out of 20 of the whoe group. But it still bothers you because you are an ambitious, black man who has strong deadlines to hit. You soon realise that you are 2 years behind your goals and the worst thing ever happens. You become demotivated. Once that happens, there goes the productivity and passion. You are left without a care for what you do, you struggle to wake from this funk and all of a sudden guess what, the next review is here and you find yourself on the wrong side of the decision makers.

Who do we blame for this slump? What is the solution to this? Do you then quit and find another job? mind you, you love working there. Do you then risk it all and start your own business? Do you know enough to give a worthy service to clients? These and many questions hinder your decision and guess what, you stay. You then wake up at age 40 and you are still a junior. You do not know how you let it all slip through your fingers.

This is the danger of the carrot. Never be afraid to tell the powers that be what you want and need. If a carrot keeps being dangled, make it clear that the carrot is rotting in front of your eyes and needs to be eaten. This goes for everybody, fight for your career or else your talent will be used against you. Never be too afraid to call it a day and move on.

The Chase
There is something that most of us have to realise. We are busy chasing this ever elusive carrot but do you really know what you want. Do not ever make the mistake of developing the "employees mindset". It is dangerous and leads to self hate. You will one day be the type of man that will deny hardworking young, black men and women opportunities. An example scenario could be like thus, you are are manager for a good company. A team of young, black entrepreneurs comes in to sell you a product or service. They see you in the decision making team and of course they calm down because there is someone they figure will understand them. Instead of assisting these young men, you interrogate and make the presentation unbearable for all to the amusement of your masters.

You then claim that these wo/men are lazy because all these years, you have been groomed to think that your own people are lazy. This is, the employees mentality. You assume that because they did not go through the hard road of ladder climbing like you did, they are automatically looking for an easy root to success but what you do not realise is that you are merely a face so that people outside think that the business is transformed and gives black people opportunities. How can a board of directors only have one or two people of colour and the rest are white and you actually think it is due to your hardwork. Sorry to inform you but you nothing then just a face.

So as I have mentioned, never develop the employees mentality, always envision yourself better and owning what is yours. Work for a few years and move on. Working for someone else for the rest of my life is not a destiny that I can envision for myself. I was born to live this life better than being an employee. The chase of the 9 - 5 is not for people like me. And besides, I am way to lazy to be a hardworker.

Conclusion
As a final say to this, I would say, be careful who you trust. Always remember that corporate is a dog eat dog world. Everybody for himself and do not trust when people make you promises without concrete evidence. People will sell you the moon and stars just to keep you around as a lacky and use you up and ruin your life. You will be stuck in life and wonder why only to find out that it was because of your ignorance. Dream bigger and better and never be too afraid to leave a situation that is not working for you.

Source: http://tjpetje.blogspot.co.za/2016/03/the-carrot-dangled-in-front.html?m=0