22 Apr Exploring the concept of career wellbeing

Exploring the concept of career well-being and career resonance.

At the beginning of this month of April  I attended the online seminar proposed by the Career Development Institute where the focus was on exploring career wellbeing through the lens of calling and career resonance.

I was greatly surprised to see how this topic was aligned with my new business focus: supporting professionals on their transition and career changes connecting with wellness and health. That is why I decided to summarise the insights that were shared, finding them deeply connected on how I would like to approach my coaching and career development practice.

What does career wellbeing mean?

As the boundaries between work and non-work have become more blurred, it is vital that career professionals and organisations support individuals to take care of themselves and not just focus on getting and keeping a job.

​Kate Mansfield is a UK-based career coach, educator, and Programme Director at Career Counselling Services (CCS). Fellow of the NICEC in 2024

From a research perspective we can find a few studies published that focus on career wellbeing as opposed to wellbeing at work. Kidd´s 2006 research on the use of the term and Seligman´s 2011 work on happiness and wellbeing also contributes to this area. Robertson´s 2013 explores the concept and offers important insight on how career guidance can positively impact on wellbeing.

Gallup’s long term study on well being defines 5 wellbeing elements (Harta and Rath)

“At a fundamental level  we all need something to do, something to look forward to when we wake up everyday, what you spend your time doing every day shapes your identity whether you are student, a parent, a volunteer a retiree or you have a more conventional job” Tom Rath

Going beyond wellness and wellbeing at work initiatives, true self-care in career pays attention to a broad range of holistic factors. Career well-being was found one of the most important of Gallup universal elements of wellbeing ( career, social, financial, community and physical ).

How does calling link to wellbeing? 

Dr. Gill Frigerio is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick´s Centre for Lifelong Learning where she leads the Centre´s qualifications in career studies and coaching.

Gill walked us through the history of the concept of calling, talking about micro and macro callings and how it linked to wellbeing. There is a different approach of the term calling from western and non western cultures but the definition of calling used by Duffy and Dik ( 2013)  highlighted 3 key features: 

• A sense of purpose or meaningfulness in work.

• Other-oriented values and goals ( contributing to the greater good).

• A sense of being “ called” to the work by an external or transcendent source or external summons.

We can say that taking in consideration the previous approach that “perceiving a calling has been linked to greater career maturity, career commitment, work meaning, life meaning, job satisfaction and life satisfaction”

The dark side of calling can be overwork, exploitation neglect of other life domains and burnout, as an example we can talk about career in nursing, teaching etc

In this concrete aspect we can find regret when non pursuing a calling or overload, stress and frustration when you are trying to craft it on top of existing commitments.

If we acknowledge the potential dark side, we can  include the fact that we can have potential callings and also probing the sustainability and wellbeing implications of that calling in our relational and social roles. 

Why is it useful to introduce the concept of  resonance? 

Rita Buhl is a Danish expert in career guidance and education, external associate professor at VIA University in Aarhus She introduced the concept of resonance and explained how Hartmut Rosa- sociology professor at Max-Weber Institute defines resonance in his masterpiece “ Resonance. A sociology of the relationship to the world” 2016.

The concept of resonance refers to the idea that humans have a fundamental desire to experience a meaningful connection with the world around them. Resonance is about establishing a relationship with people, objects or experiences that allows us to feel seen, heard and understood.

Resonance is essential for human well-being in modern society where acceleration and alienation are common in our day to day life.

Accelerated societies produce aggression on more levels: towards each other being constant competitors, towards the planet, as we constantly want to expand resources, towards oneself as we constantly want to be a better version of ourselves.

What is the impact of resonance on career well-being?

Cathy Brown is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, career coach and writer founder and director of Evolve Consulting Services. She discussed the concept of career resonance and its impact on well-being.

As we are energetic beings when we experience de-synchronisation with ourselves and our world that impacts on our energetic vibration and well-being. We can feel psychologically burned out, cold and indifferent and also depressed with a dissatisfaction and sense of meaninglessness. On the contrary when we are at resonance we feel emotionally touched, energised, joyful and meaningful, safe and supported

Career resonance is when at work we experience: positive emotion and joy, we have a sense of energy and fulfilment. There may be different sources of resonance within our work:

• People, our colleagues, clients and partners
• Work activities and physical objects we use 
• Place, geographic work location
• A sense of contribution and the impact you are making

How can we help clients to foster career resonance? 

There are 3 layers that we can look at in order to create that career resonance:

• Supporting people to reconnect with themselves by proposing activities that introduce slowing down and honing intuition ( walking, pausing, journaling, meditation etc).
• Supporting clients to reconnect with others, volunteering, community work and finding long-term activities.
• Helping clients to infuse our work with greater meaning, what brings joy and energy or what lifts your heart at the workplace.

Having worked with hundreds of clients supporting them on their career transition and vital changes I have realized that there is important work to be done on well-being. Well-being is intrinsically connected to our fulfilment and satisfaction in life. Our work activity can not be removed from the equation, it is key to understand how the world’s acceleration and alienation is affecting us. Being able to put measures in place so life and work can bring us joy and energy rather than steering us towards an unbalanced lifestyle and disconnection.