Underutilised, underemployed, underappreciated…
- Martyn Foster
- 14 hours ago
- 3 min read
…and the call to adventure.
You’re sitting at your desk. It’s 2:30pm on a Friday. Your manager has just swung by to let you know he’s leaving the office for a business meeting disguised as 9 holes of golf. You whisper to yourself as he leaves that you could do his job anyway as you contemplate the pub on this warm day. Instead, you’ve mastered the art of looking busy whilst not doing anything, and proceed to wonder if you can withstand another 10 years of this until your manager retires before (you assume) you take his job.
A lot of people feel frustrated at their work – underutilised, underemployed, underappreciated. Stuck behind someone who makes 2-3 times as much as you do but still struggles to save things as a pdf. Bored out of your mind with no opportunities for growth. Not using your education or qualifications to the fullest extent (or at all). Going above and beyond while not even receiving a thank you, or worse, it’s expected.
“So, what to do? We can’t all be Frodo from The Shire leaving on an epic quest to find The One Ring?”
Modern people are too busy to answer the call, preferring to text, but all jokes aside, it’s not uncommon for people to reject the call to adventure – even multiple times. So, what is the call to adventure? If we answer the first part, call, something does indeed call out to you, be it external such as an event, or internal in the form of an insight, breakthrough or realisation. These have to be of the magnitude to through a spanner in the works of one’s daily life, to take the individual out of their known domain and into the unknown. Sometimes, this is delivered in the form of a message or messenger, possibly as an invitation (out of your routine) or generated from your own curiosity. Usually, you’ll immediately encounter some form of chaos and adversity which may have you scurrying back to the known and not persevering. I write more about The Hero’s Journey here, but we’ll move on from it in this article now. We are not too old to receive the call.
Technically speaking, underutilised in labour terms means unemployed and underemployed combined. In this instance, as I’ve mentioned underemployed separately, I’m focused more on the layperson definition of simply not being used as effectively and efficiently as you could and should be in your current role. Underemployed is the deficit of skills or duration being undertaken by the individual compared to their want or capacity. I believe underappreciated is pretty self-explanatory.
“So, we see more people ditching the typical 9-5 that has them unmotivated, and I think this is largely good. We see more people trying to become social media influenzas, sorry, influencers, and I think this is largely not good.”
When you do what most people don’t, you get disproportionately rewarded.
You also run the risk of not being rewarded at all. This can be difficult to accept.
For some, the risk is not worth the potential reward, and that is understandable. In other articles I’ve helped people to celebrate the ordinary life and to understand why they are enough, but sometimes people don’t really want it enough and sometimes we are more than we think we are.
Long have people escaped into vices, and not just to deafen themselves to the phone ringing for the adventure of their life. Drink, drugs, and sex have always been at the top of the list, but more recently even things like video games have begun to join the ranks. If we can’t have an adventure in the real world, why not do it in a fantasy world? Plus, we can get to demonstrate our competence in ways we might not be getting to in reality. The adventure may only be temporary and fictitious, but for many it’s a substitute for no adventure in their lives at all.
Please don’t accept substitutes for the true adventure of your life. Answer the call to adventure. See what it does to you, where it takes you, who you become as a result, and how others get to benefit from that.
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There's always option C. Once the boss leaves, don't contemplate the pub, go there 🤣
But seriously, The older I get, the more I realise that the side hustle is a scam, if you have to give capitalism your time 9:00 to 5:00, at least don't give them any more in front of the screen from 5:00 to 9:00.