Arthritis is a painful condition where your knuckles, knees and other knobby parts are stiff and sore. It drags you down. A lot.
Career arthritis is also a difficult condition where your knowledge and experience get stiff from under use. It also drags you down.
Arthritis pain can be treated with medication, therapy, even replacement of the offending joints. With career pain, it’s not so easy.
First you have to figure out the source of the pain and aggravation and then possible treatments.
| Problem | Treatment |
| Boss is unavailable or unsupportive | See if you can make an appointment to go over your work.
|
| Un or under-employed | Offer your skills to a non-profit organization. |
| Bored | Put up your hand for the next new project or sign up for a course or workshop. |
| Too many deadlines | Stop saying yes. Start saying “Yes, but one of these other things will have to be moved.” |
| Behind on things at home | Get a cleaning service and a lawn cutting service. |
| Feeling unappreciated | Send one hand written thank you note every day for two weeks. |
| Fatigued by 2pm | Eat an actual breakfast and lunch. |
I’m not saying these are easy things to do/change but let’s face it. If you don’t do something about career arthritis, you will get so stiff and tired that you won’t be able to do anything at all. So get moving!
Recruiter's Couch 
“Career arthritis” creates not only a visual picture but a kinesthetic feeling of the situation. I love how you drilled down to specific problems and assigned a treatment for each. It is much easier to tackle a big problem one piece at a time, isn’t it?
As additional treatments or strategies to change one’s perspective, I’d also add:
– asking questions (taps into curiosity and learning)
– getting a coach (helps to identify treatments for specific problems and creates accountability when you “get moving” in the right direction).
Darla Campbell