Reach a compromise at work

When Sarah Goodfellow (not her real name) realised she had hit the glass ceiling in the small specialist company she worked for, she initially made a concerted effort to find another job in her specialist area. However there was nothing locally that offered the satisfaction of her current job - and she wasn't prepared to move overseas. She decided she had to find a way to make the most of where she was - or go nuts.

So Goodfellow sat down and did a tally. She liked the company, which had treated her well and respected her abilities. Her salary was pretty good and there were many aspects of the job about which she was still passionate.

On the negative side, she couldn't grow any further in the current job, and a number of personalities within the company frustrated her.

So she approached her senior managers and told them how she was feeling.

"It is important to let your boss know you love your job and ask them to recognise that you can't progress in your career, and eventually will need to move on," she says. "They are then on-side. If you're not honest about it, a big wall eventually goes up."

As a result, and because they value Goodfellow's abilities, her company has become more receptive to her ideas with the hope it will keep her interested in the job. They've also given their blessing to her taking on a couple of freelance projects as well.

Goodfellow also realised she had to change her approach to her colleagues. So whenever she sensed a potential conflict, she would work out beforehand how to deal with it. "This helped me get more confident about situations."

Making a determined effort to stop destructive talk about others also helped. "I'd remind myself of their good points and fake friendliness on the bad days. It isn't a miracle cure, you have to keep working at it, but it does work."

It has taken about two months to have an effect, but Goodfellow says she is much happier.

Margaret Dunn is about to embark on her personal anti-fade plan. She works in a middle management role within a leading professional services firm, where the work is demanding and she sometimes works long hours and weekends with little or no notice.

She has built up substantial expertise in her field but there is little opportunity for promotion. Most of the partners are young and will not be moving on in the near future. Unless there is expansion on her side of the business - viewed as unlikely - she sees no prospect of promotion in the next 10 years.

"To keep myself motivated, I try to influence my bosses so that I get assigned to the more interesting and challenging projects, otherwise I'd go nuts. However, much of the work is just not interesting enough any more."

So Dunn has decided to negotiate flexible working hours with her firm because she has realised she is no longer prepared to spend so much time doing work that often bores and frustrates her.

"A good compromise for me will be negotiating a shorter working year with my employer. Hopefully they will see the value in that and I am sure that it can work out positively for both of us."