Navigating Change: Workplace vs. Personal Life
I am going through some changes in my personal life, and it got me thinking about the similarities and difference between change in one’s personal life versus change as a part of work life.
Although my emotional responses to change—like fear, resistance, and excitement—are similar in both personal and professional settings, personal change feels more difficult to manage. I wanted to know why I feel this way because I have been through some pretty tough workplace changes.
The differences can be found in three important aspects of change, support, emotions and control.
Support: At work, change is often managed through formal processes including training and communication plans. In contrast, personal change is typically handled without formal support and people rely on their personal networks and home-grown strategies to navigate the change.
Emotions often run deeper during a personal change making the change feel more intense and complex. Although workplace change can tap one’s emotions the approach to dealing with the emotional side of change is more pragmatic. In the workplace emotions are recognized as a part of the change process but thefocus is on the new processes and outcomes.
And finally control plays a key role. Whether or not the change is imposed in a personal situation the individual has a significant say in how they respond or move ahead and they also control the pace of change. In contrast, workplace change isusually top-down, with decisions made by leadership. Employees often have little say in whether a change happens; their role is to adapt.
These differences leave me with these thoughts about change in my personal life.
Personal change is usually not a shared experience and with no official structure or methods of coping, personal change feels more isolating or overwhelming.
While emotions are recognized as an aspect of workplace change it is seen as another component to be dealt with. This outlook can feel stifling and perhaps dehumanizing but this difficulty is managed. During personal change the individual must recognize emotions are a part of the process that need to be managed if not then feelings can overwhelm the person and derail any forward motion.
And finally, workplace changes are often imposed with an urgency to adapt quickly. This pressure can heighten stress but also provides a clear direction. Personal change usually unfolds in an organic way. There’s often no set deadline and the lack of formal expectations allow room for personal growth but can lead to stagnation or prolonged uncertainty.
While the experience of change whether it is in the workplace or personal life—shares common elements of disruption, adjustment, and growth, the context in which it occurs shapes how people navigate it. Workplace change tends to be structured, goal-oriented, and externally driven, requiring adaptability within a framework. Personal change is more fluid, navigated on a personal level and emotions that are often more deeply felt can be difficult to balance because of the fluid nature of personal change.
Thinking about these differences has helped me realize that I need to bring some structure to my personal change process. There are aspects of workplace change that I can borrow to help with personal change. I am not going to put a time frame for completing a change, but I can clearly define the change I am experiencing and set some checkpoints as goals. For me, when something is named, it is easier to think about and consider options. Setting check points will allow me to evaluate my progress. For example, what have I learned because of the change. An important assessment of change is how I feel. Am I more or less anxious? Has the grief lessened? And the final piece that will help me better navigate personal change is seeking support something that I am not great at doing.