Healing from Vocational Disappointment
We don’t tend to celebrate vocational failures.
When we do, they’re usually framed as failure-on-the-way-to-success anyway. Who doesn’t love a good comeback story or even a redemption arc?
But we don’t celebrate failures that just stop there, in the wreckage.
Many people have experienced vocational failure, and the lessons learned have not catapulted them to later career glories.
The cafe proprietor who ends up declaring bankruptcy and going back to a nine-to-five job that she hates.
The stay-at-home mom who tries to “have it all” by continuing her career part-time, but never really gets the momentum back at work.
The carpenter who gets permanently sidelined by a debilitating injury.
The engineer who keeps getting shunted into roles below her ability, no matter how she tries to find her niche.
The PhD working retail while getting rejection after rejection for research positions.
These kinds of failures are not just bumps in the road. They can be the end of a road someone has traveled for a long time.
Vocational disappointment can be bitter. It can be a wound.
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