Do you ever feel like you have so much more to offer at work? You're not alone! Join me as we dive into the world of finding fulfilment in our careers.

My guest Soma Ghosh, a Career Advisor and expert in empowering individuals to unlock their true potential in the workplace, joins host Aoife O’Brien on today’s episode of the Happier at Work podcast.

We discuss the concept of fulfilling our potential. Soma reflects on the societal pressure to have everything figured out by a certain age or milestone and emphasises that it's never too late to discover our true passions and talents. She encourages listeners to take chances, even if it means learning from experiences that may not be a perfect fit.

The episode also touches on the importance of employees being provided with opportunities for growth and development at work. Soma highlights the frustration that arises when individuals feel like they are not given access to training courses or resources that would enable their personal and career growth.

Soma shares how the focus of jobseekers has shifted in recent years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, towards prioritising fulfilment and happiness at work. Fulfilment in the workplace extends beyond just loving what we do; it encompasses the social aspect, personal growth, and aligning our values with our desired path.

Soma also touches on the topic of imposter syndrome and its impact on our confidence and happiness at work. She delves into the factors that can trigger imposter syndrome, such as organisational changes and the departure of beloved managers, and how imposter syndrome can be exacerbated by different leadership styles and critical feedback.

The main points throughout this podcast include:

- the societal pressure to have everything figured out by a certain age or milestone

- the importance of employees being provided with opportunities for growth and development at work

- prioritising fulfilment and happiness at work

- importance of creating a supportive and inclusive work environment

- managers’ need to prioritise their own development and training.

- importance of seeking support and asking questions

- taking responsibility for our personal development

Connect with Soma

Website: https://www.somaghosh.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soma-ghosh-26086638/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_careerhappinessmentor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sgcareers27

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIKrtgeE_Cpf28VV1Jp5RQ

Do you have any feedback or thoughts on this discussion? If so, please connect with Aoife via the links below and let her know. Aoife would love to hear from you!

Connect with Happier at Work host Aoife O’Brien:

Website: https://happieratwork.ie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HappierAtWorkHQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happieratwork.ie/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happieratwork.ie

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm0FKS19I5qSlFFmkx1YGqA

Soma, you're so welcome to the Happy at Work podcast. I know we've been talking about doing this episode for a while, so I'm delighted to finally be able to sit down with you and have this conversation. Do you want to let people know a little bit more about you, your background and how you got to doing what you're doing.

Yeah. Hey everyone. My name is Soma Ghosh and I am the founder of a business called the Career Happiness Mentor. I work with professional women who are unhappy at work, mainly because maybe they're burnt out or they're overwhelmed or they don't know what their purpose is. I also work with parents of teens. My background is that I'm a careers advisor and I kind of almost fell into working with parents of teens because when I first started my business, it was actually helping those burnt out women. And then Eventually what ended up happening is parents were reaching out to me saying, you know, my teenager isn't getting enough support in school. Can you help them? You know, your backgrounds, careers advice.

And from there I kind of started, working more with them, but I also have my own podcast, which I'm, I'm sure I'll talk a little bit more about, later on in this podcast episode today. And for me, the main purpose of what I do is to help not just with career happiness, with career clarity, well-being, and to just Support people to feel better about their working lives. That doesn't necessarily mean career change. It can mean lots of different things, at work, but in a nutshell, that's kind of a little

bit what I do. Yeah. Brilliant. Love it. I I I love the the the kind of evolution that else taken as well. And I'd love to know why do people come to you in the 1st place? Like, what are the things that you're seeing out there that are making people miserable, out of making people unhappy at work.

Well that is that is a big question. I'll break it down.

It is. It is a big question.

I'll do a few little bits. It's interesting because it's changed, you know, but it's changed a lot. When I first started my business in 2016, it was, Oh I just want to change my job I just want to change my career and what's happened especially in the last 3 years post COVID It's been a lot more about having a job that fulfils them, that makes them happy. So when they come to me, A lot of it is sometimes around pay. A lot of it is sometimes around the fact that maybe they're not actually being treated very well at work And they have either listened to my podcast or they've read something online. And they've realized, actually, You know, I'm actually being really, really badly mistreated. So when they come to me, often it's about fulfilling their own potential. Often one of the main themes that come up, which is one of my 4 career happiness pillars, is confidence.

Confidence is a huge thing. And -What I mean by that is that doesn't necessarily mean a mum just going back to work. It can be somebody who's had a bit of a setback. Maybe there's been a death in the family. Maybe there's been something up a little bit deeper, going on, going on in their personal lives, their chronic illness, anything like that. And so when they come to me, they're usually at a Standstill at their, you know, in their life and their career. And they're coming to me and they need support. Often what the interesting thing is as well, I'll share with you that some of them may even have a coach at work, like a career coach.

Mhmm. But they come to me as A kind of impartial person because they feel as though, oh, you know, this what's happening here is the retention thing. You know, they want me to remain here. And actually I want my options to be open. I want to think about how I can maybe go freelance, set up a business. So it's a lot of different things, But I would say that often it's an individual who's very burnt out and they feel as though Their working patterns have become worse by them having almost a hybrid job in some ways because it doesn't work for everybody. So it's a combination of things is what I would say to summarise.

Up. Yeah. No. It's really interesting. I think kinda coming back to the overarching theme for me is getting the message out there that it doesn't have to be like at that. So if someone is feeling that way, if they're feeling like they're not realizing their full potential, if they feel like they're being mistreated in in any way at work, if they feel like they're getting towards burnout because hybrid is just not working for them. You know, there are things that you can do about it. I loved what you said about people even though they have a coach at work.

Maybe they don't feel it's a safe space because they don't know what's being reported back up to, head office, to their manager, to to the leadership team. You know, it should be a safe and confidential space, but There's always that bit of paranoia of, like, well, what's actually being fed back? And if I'm communicating that I'm not happy here and I'm looking to leave or looking to set up my own business, Probably not gonna go down very well at work, and then that could lead to further mistreatment and and things like that as well. Up. Somai, you mentioned about this idea of fulfilling potential, and I'm so fascinated by this idea. And I think, You know, as humans, we want to fulfill the potential. Can you talk around that point in a little bit more detail? Just like how do we think about, what our potential is and how do we start making steps towards fulfilling it?

Yeah, it's, it's a very interesting one because it almost with when I was actually exploring this, to be honest, or when I started talking about clearer, clarity and purpose a lot more At the beginning of my business in 20 sixteenseventeen, I hadn't actually read Simon Sinek's book, Start With Your Wire. I'd not read it. And so for me, when I read the book, I used to recommend that to my clients. But the idea of The purpose and doing something that you love the fulfillment piece. It's weird because on another podcast I was talking about, Kind of, quiet quitting and loud quitting. And what I found is the pattern of reasons why people are leaving their work or people are staying in jobs up. Whether I'm unhappy, the purpose is because often financially we are so in a way trapped in the work system. And what I mean by that is that often when people, you know, started a job, So, you know, the conventional route and I speak a lot about this on my podcast is that, you know, you would do a degree, you would get a job, you'd pin that career, the life, right.

And as a careers adviser, I'm very fascinated about the different theories that we have linked to this. Actually what happens is we don't end up staying in one job for life. We change. This is the new thing that's happened. If we link that back to purpose and why we do something, there's a lot of different reasons why people are not fulfilled at work. The long and short of it is for me is that people aren't fulfilled because maybe they're not getting adequate feedback from their employers, their managers. It could even be the smallest thing of the work routine is not set up for them. Many of my clients, People actually, you know, they have neurodiverse needs.

So I remember ages ago I had a client who, she was working in a job. It was kind of like a high level administrative job. And she said to me, Soma, the reason I'm not fulfilled here is because my manager is not listening to my needs. Like I need sometimes extra time to do my work. And when that's not being fulfilled, I love administration, option, but she's not giving me space to grow. She's not allowing me to go on further trainings or allowing other people in the organisation to understand that my Learning style is different. So when we're talking about fulfilment and when we're talking about purpose, it is very, very individual to each person. But the first thing I would say is have kind of like a Y in place, which is why I mentioned Simon Sinek.

The, second thing I would talk about in terms of fulfillment is For some people money is super, super important. Money is at the forefront of all their decisions. How am I going to progress? How am I going to make more money? What is important to me?

Recently,

what I've been learning as well is that people want to do a lot of development at work. They want to go on training courses. They want to have accessibility. And if they're not given that opportunity for what I find is they become frustrated. So they want to learn, they want to expand. And I was like that work and often my managers wouldn't, you know, they wouldn't listen to me, But with some of my clients, what I found with them is for them, the fulfillment piece is about going to work every day, loving what they do, not just enjoying it, but having the social aspect as well, as well as learning and growing in their own personal development, as well as career development. So, and it's kind of like a long way of answering the question, but fulfillment is up About really, really aligning your personal values to who you are and where you wanna go is what I would say.

Yeah. Brilliant. You've touched on this idea of managers, and I'd love to understand the role that you think managers play in this because I think There is responsibility on both sides. There's the individual responsibility to you know, you you need to take responsibility for your own career. You can't be waiting for things to happen. But equally, you need to communicate to your manager what it is that you need, what it is that you want Yeah. What your goals are, like, Why why are you doing what you're doing? But, you know, the managers need to be receptive to that. And from the signs of what you're talking about, some of the clients that you've had and maybe some of your own experience and certainly some of my own experience.

Managers haven't been receptive to that, or they just haven't provided the environment where app. I could grow or or maybe your clients or yourself could grow. Any any thoughts around the role of managers specifically in this situation?

Yeah, it's a very very good question. I think Also, I do want to be kind for second to managers because I do think they have a lot

of banter

on them Yes, I do. But they

also get a lot of flack, I think. So, like, you know, when I listen to the radio and they're saying, oh, don't tell the boss this and the boss and the boss and the boss. You know, they get a lot of flack, and there are some really brilliant managers out there. But I think it's more about, well, what is the role of a manager if not to develop team, and and, like, let's talk more specifically about what the role of the manager is

Yeah.

And and how to be a better manager.

Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is, and, and I say, and I say this again and again on a podcast, but I'm gonna repeat it. The first thing is up. Listening to your employees.

I say that a lot as well so much.

Yeah, I know. You'll definitely, You know, relate to that. But I remember a friend of mine sharing, some stuff that she actually, like, was talking to me just for my general advice. And she was saying that a manager of hers wasn't listening to her. And, you know, she wanted to take a bit more time off. And, you know, in a way, she's actually Actually doing the work of a manager and I'm cringing when I'm saying that because she was giving them the ideas and they were just going along with it. And one day she just confronted her manager and she said, Look, I shouldn't be telling you what to do, you know, not that it should be like that, but you shouldn't be taking kind of my ideas and there needs to be a bit more of a kind of equal relationship, but at the same time, a manager should listen to the wants and needs. So that's the first thing I would say.

Mhmm.

The second thing I would say is have Empathy. I will give you an example of what I mean by this. I had a client of mine who was experiencing Quite a difficult time. And she went to her manager and I think she'd had a death in the family and the manager was just Horrible to her. Like there was no empathy. Oh, okay. So, you know, such and such has died. You need to be back up next week.

You can't do that. A lack of empathy doesn't create good leadership. That's what I find. I've been in situations like that when I've confronted managers at work and I've been going through something and they're like, oh, draw a line under it actually. It doesn't mean anything, you know, this kind of language, which is not helpful because, again, the listening and the empathy are not aligned with each other. The other thing I would say is to make sure you're actually developing yourself as a leader. A good manager will work on themselves. They will acknowledge when they make a mistake, you know, they will say that, oh, I don't know that right now, but I'll go and find out.

Or, you know, Maybe we need to have a discussion with someone else and bring someone else in from HR or whatever other department it is so that we can help you resolve that up. Rather than blindside the person or make them feel bad because I know lots of my clients have ended up in that situation. But I think the role of a manager It's to obviously not necessarily tell somebody what to do, but to support somebody in a role and to give them that emotional Support, but also that support so that they can come to them when there's a problem in the work and try and find the right person to help them when there is a problem up within

that issue at

work and result. That's what I'm

gonna say. Yeah. And I suppose, Like, kind of building on on what you're saying, like, for me, the it's putting people first. So when you're saying things like someone has passed away up and, okay. Well, here's the policy around leave that you can take for this level of connection. You know, if it's an end or whatever, 3 days. But if it's it's, you know Yeah. Following the policy rather than thinking about the person that's in front of you, you know, not talking about when you're back, but rather saying, I'm so sorry to hear that.

Take the time that you need, and we'll be in touch. Whatever. I know there's There's a lot of people who are very kinda policy focused, and I'm not a legal expert, and I'm not a HR expert. But I think it's important to I acknowledge that it's the person in front of you, isn't it? The other thing that I wanted to kind of explore a little bit more are like, What's getting in the way of this if there are some brilliant managers out there and there's some managers who are maybe have room for improvement, let's say. What do you think are the big blockers around that?

Well, you've already mentioned one of them weirdly, kind of the media coverage and people up. Kind of ganging up on managers. Firstly, I think that that is something where a lot of the time, because that happens, Managers time kind of sometimes don't speak out and say, look, I need support because they're also going through burnout. And I've also worked with some managers as well. They're also feeling overwhelmed. They're also adapting to post COVID working patterns. So a lot of the time they're not asking their senior Like new tourism people who should be supporting them to help. So it's almost like a pattern.

And what I found as well, is that sometimes there can be a sub A culture of this going on in an organization. So right at the top, it's happening. And that ends up coming to a chain and then ends up coming to, you know, people in the middle and then people at the bottom. And I think that that is one of the main reasons, but I think another reason is, is that Often, we as a society, we don't talk about our problems, you know, we don't acknowledge when we need help. Up. And I think that managers in particular, they feel that because they're leaders, They have to carry everything on their shoulders. So I think it's a combination of sometimes the media sometimes having to put on a bit of a front at work and not, you know, Talk about when they're struggling. And also the last thing that I would say around this as well is that managers themselves, They also need to maybe take time out for development and training.

So maybe that might require like a whole day, etcetera. But But I also think organizations need to take time to build on that kind of leadership. Often that's not seen as a priority. I think that's another reason why a lot of managers, you know, they slip through on. And the last thing I want to say, or there is one other point I worked with a manager ages ago. I remember and she was thrust into a leadership role She was like a first leader up. To be honest, she had no idea what she was doing and I'm not saying that in a negative way. She wasn't prepared physically, psychologically, nothing.

And so everything was a bit of a mess. And that's another thing that if an organization is not giving that person the development and training at the beginning, the support, up. And that person's just going to be kind of just learning as they go on, which we have to do sometimes in our jobs. But up if it's the 1st time you're going into management you do need Some support some training you shouldn't just be thrust into it because then it's just going to be chaos And then that's gonna exude to the team, and that's not gonna be helpful. Mhmm. So

yeah. I think you you've raised loads of brilliant points, but 2 in particular that stand out to me app or this idea that it's okay to ask for help. I think sometimes if we're put into a management position, we feel like we should have Have it all figured out. No matter what level of manager you are, if you're managing people at any level, I think you need to feel safe enough to ask for help if you need it. And then the other side of that coin is if you're putting some someone in a management position, You need to give them the support and development. It's not sink or swim. It's, you know and and asking, have we done everything we can to support this person in their role? And, you know, You know, that should be at management level, but it should also be at individual contributor level where, you know, have we actually given people the opportunity to thrive in this role, or are we just giving them a whole load of work? We're not really they're not really meeting expectations, but we haven't set clear adaptation, so we haven't given them the necessary support in order to do a really good job. So, I love that perspective that you think about it from kind of from both sides of of the coin.

We've kinda talked an awful lot about managers, but I'd love to come back to an earlier points. You mentioned about the career happiness pillars. So I'd love to to hear what your pillars are because I have my own pillars, and I'd love to see how they compare as well.

Awesome, awesome. Well the first one is confidence, the second one is clarity, The third one is well-being and the 4th one is, community. And, when I was kind of coming up With these, the, there was, there was 2 others, which I can't remember now I'm being honest, but they weren't, they didn't come up as much. When I went through what my client's issues were, client's problems were confidence was like the most thing that comes up, which is why clients come to me. Clarity, you know, and when I mean clarity, I'm not just talking about finding purpose. It's also confusion of, Oh, I'm in this job now. I'm in this role now. I'm in this career now.

What do I do? You know, and also feeling a bit ashamed, To be honest of having that confusion because when you, you know, I turned 40 this year, when you reach into your forties as well, and And you're in a certain position in your career, your middle management or your senior leadership, you then start to maybe think a bit, like I feel a bit of like imposter syndrome and you feel a little bit ever You know, I'm like should I be confused about where I'm going now? And that's something that I I hear a lot from people aged like 35 to 45 and I don't know why in particular it's that age. Maybe it's because people have families then, they've got mortgages, there's so many responsibilities but The clarity piece, I think, comes up a lot as well. And then when we come to the well-being piece, the reason why that's quite an important pillar in the work that I do is because well-being is at the center of the career happiness. You know, I mentor in the work I do as a Careers Adviser. And I see this with the young people I work with as well, weirdly enough. Because if you are feeling anxious, if you're feeling -Overwhelmed if you're going through anxiety and depression. You know, many of my clients, when I'm doing the career counselling with them, they are sometimes in therapy and, you know, I'm in therapy myself at the moment and I think it's important to acknowledge your well-being and to do the work. But for me, one of the reasons it's such an important, up.

Pillar is because often at work we don't pay enough attention to it. And so I'm finding more and more, the more I I started talking about all this kind of stuff on LinkedIn. The more I would see people would like comment and say, yeah, so this is me. I haven't had a break all day or haven't had my lunch or I haven't gone for a walk on, you know, I think it's important that things like exercise, and when I mean exercise, I don't necessarily mean going to the gym, Yoga, whatever suits you, you know, talking about those kinds of things helps, meditation. But the well-being side of things, I think It's expanded a lot since post COVID so it

has been a big part.

And the community part is about building relationships not just in the work at place. But also making sure that you're making time for your friends, your family. And when you're, you know, having a community, It's also about finding people that you feel aligned with because often I think part of the whole career happiness, element and being happy at work is that when people are lonely, that can also lead to deep career unhappiness. People who have burnt out, what I find is When they stop socialising, it is it's damaging to their career happiness, it's damaging to all parts of at their life, including their romantic relationships and their friendships. But, yeah, those are the 4 pillars, basically.

Yeah. No. Absolutely love those. And I'd love to We could kinda drill into them in a bit more detail. They are not directly related to the pillars that I have in in, the happier at work framework, but they're certainly related. So, I love this idea. So I think, up we didn't go into a huge deal around confidence, but maybe we'll come back to that in a second. But clarity, I love this idea that you're like, it's clarity versus confusion, and people feel a sense of shame if they don't like, I kind of wrote down myself.

If they don't have it all figured out, I think we maybe app aspire to have everything figured out by the time we reach a certain age or reach certain milestones that we feel like we should have it all figured out. And, like, then The opposite of that is, you know and I I can relate a lot of things in life to memes that I see. But, like, a meme that I've seen where they talk about, still not knowing what you want to be when you grow up, when you're in your forties, in your fifties, whatever it might be. And I always like to think it's never too late. As you know, it comes back to having a better understanding of what you do well, what you enjoy doing, who you enjoy spending time with, and up and taking steps to towards doing more of that. And for me, and I'll never forget this was a career coaching conversation I had a number of years ago. It was like a speed career coaching type of thing. And the the the guy sitting in front of me said, app, but what if I do this thing for 2 years and I end up hating it? And I was like, well, those 2 years are gonna pass, and at least you've learned something from this, that you've taken that chance.

And you've actually learned that it's something that you don't like, and so you don't have to do it anymore. You know? It's not a case of, I'm gonna waste 2 years by doing that. No. You've learned something valuable from taking that time and from actually up, doing something rather than staying where you are because, obviously, you're not happy where you are. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here today. Basically, up, this idea of well-being and how we don't pay enough attention to it at work so through skipping lunch breaks. Like, I'm I do this myself even now. I kind of forget to have a lunch break because I run my own business.

I'm not heading off somewhere and not going to a canteen to take an hour for lunch or anything like I I kind of power through a lot of the time. But if I think back even to my corporate days, we had at that time, I think it was a well-being week. It may have turned into a well-being month. And now what I've seen in that time since so five and a half years since I've left corporate, There's well-being programs, and it's well-being is a constant focus for people at work because if you can't if you're not well at work, then you can't perform. You have to be well physically, mentally, psychologically, emotionally, socially, whatever it might be. You have to be able to you have to be well to be able to perform. App. So I love that idea of, like, we do need to focus on what our well-being is, what that looks like.

You gave some practical up steps there, like getting out for lunch and and or getting outside for a walk or whatever that exercise looks to be. Movement, I like called it. I've seen other people calling it movement, so move your body. But, you know and, again, thinking back to my corporate every day, so we're times where I'm so busy. And you feel really overwhelmed, and you think I can't even take a 5 minute break. But when I did I've managed to take that 5 minute break. You come back so refreshed, and you're able to work so much more effectively. So Definitely.

Just by taking that break. I think it's so important. And then this idea of community. And if we I spend so much of our time at work, and if we focus so much of our efforts in progressing at the detriment of other relationships, and I've done this myself, up then. We can become really lonely Yeah. Because we've kind of let our other relationships slip. So it's important to have that with colleagues, and I love how you reference that it's not just your colleagues that you need a good relationship with. It's outside of work as well.

Like, have you been spending too much time outside of work. And I've had friends say to me when I I I tend to be a planner. I tend to be you know, I know what I'm doing for the next few weekends. I've sorta changed since then because friends would say to me, oh, I'm sure you're busy or You're always busy or you know? And it's this idea of oh my god. Like, this is what my friends think of me. They think I'm just busy all the time or I'm not making time for them. So, You know, it's thinking about what your priorities are. And, you know, I started just leaving open space in my calendar to meet up with friends and and things and reaching out to people.

And, Yeah. I hate this idea that busyness is a badge of honor. Like, I'm so busy and important that I don't have time for people. It's it's reversing that thinking and focusing more on on, you know, how do you make time to build community because that's there are the important things in life, essentially, is who who you have relationships with, who who you spend your time

with. Definitely. Definitely. Brilliant.

And coming back to the idea of confidence, and we touched on this idea of impostor syndrome. It's something that I talk an awful lot about.

Do you

you wanna kind of talk to me a little bit more about the experience maybe that you've had or that you've seen clients have with confidence in particular at work?

I'll talk first about my experience and then I'll talk a little bit more about my clients. I remember specifically for me, it was when I was in my My kind of late twenties. I was in a specific role that I was working in and, mainly I'd worked in schools like all the time. So When I was in school, I was in my safety net. I was in my safety bubble and I had just gone through redundancy And I'd been duped over to another London borough. I was working in Westminster and I went to Kensington and Chelsea and I felt grateful that, you know, I still had a job. So So I was like, oh yeah, I was really excited to be in another borough learning about it. And they were like, oh, Shoma, you're not going to be working in a school.

You're going to be working in the youth center And you're going to be giving careers advice to people who might be unemployed, who might have other needs. And that was like a a completely new scenario for me and I was like, oh my god, how am I going to do this?' I was very, very, up. And I, I remember now looking back now because I know much more about anxiety. I didn't realize I was actually going through anxiety at work and imposter syndrome at the same time.

Okay.

And so I spoke to my boss about it and she was super, super supportive and I'm still in touch with that manager now. She's an amazing lady. She really, really supported me, but but I still felt very much like I had imposter syndrome. I didn't feel good enough because a lot of the people who were working there had up. Not just more experience with me. I would have to keep on asking them questions about what does this code mean for this or what does that mean for that? And I just didn't feel like what I had qualified for, I was in the right place. So I did eventually go back Working in education because my manager did see that it wasn't kind of something that was aligning with me, but with the imposter syndrome myself, You know, I still sometimes feel it. I remember hearing something.

I don't know what you'll think about this on a podcast, another podcast where a woman said, oh, You can relearn imposter syndrome and I'm like, I don't kind of agree with that because I think occasionally we all feel some level of imposter syndrome. We all feel up, you know, do I deserve to be heard? Why am I here? Etcetera. And there are ways that you can work around that, But it's, it's, it's a way where if you admit that you're having imposter syndrome, you can embrace that. And instead of having this kind of toxic I positivity as I like to call it. You can actually be true to yourself and you can work with yourself and just acknowledge your imperfections and learn and say that this is who I am. Up. But what I see with my clients talking about them a bit more is that often when they're feeling imposter syndrome, it's because maybe even They've had a baby and they feel like, oh, going back to work now, how am I going to transition this? Or the other one that I see a lot With them is that if they've gone into a particular, job change role or they've career changed and you know, maybe everyone else is a a bit more older on experience, like I explained already. It could be that.

I think when we're talking about confidence and imposter syndrome together, what I often find as well Is that a lot of the time is that when people are not feeling very confident about their work, it's usually because something's happened like a restructure at work all because somebody like a manager who they really, really adored or really loved has left. And then that somebody else comes along and they have a different leadership style. And then, so for them, what happens is, is that They lose who they are a bit because that person may not be on a similar fitting and that can in a way make them feel imposter syndrome. Cause they may start to Question themselves a bit more because if the person is quite critical or has a different way of doing things, they're like, oh, maybe I've been doing it all wrong up and they get in their own head but those are kind of some of the things that I that I've seen pop up. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I know it totally relates to those. Not being in the right place, I think, definitely makes you feel like you have no idea what you're doing, but it's more that you're not getting to use the skills Yep. You naturally have. And then, like, triggers, like, a restructure or a manager leaving or a effort leadership style. Now there's a bit more critical that, like, you know, is there room for growth here, or am I doing absolutely everything wrong or maybe I've been doing it wrong the whole time. I think you're right in saying that we all have elements of doubt in our abilities from time to time.

And I think especially as you progress in your career, it shows up more and more because we kind we look around. Probably on the inside, we still feel like a 20 year old who's you know, this is a brand new career for me. But, actually, on the outside. You're you're being perceived as someone with this great level of authority who knows what they're doing when inside you feel like, I have no idea what I'm doing. How did I get here? I just got so lucky and, all of these brilliant things that you know? But for me, is it a case of bringing it back down to being more human at work? So, again, back to an earlier point that you said, admitting that you don't have all the answers and being safe and in a safe enough space that you're able to do that, that you can say, listen. I don't have all the answers, but I will find out for you. And I think oftentimes, we're afraid to do as we're afraid to admit that we don't know the answers to to certain things because we feel we should know what those answers are. But, you know, You know, if anyone's listening today, here's your permission.

If you don't know something, like, maybe no one knows what they're talking about. Like, I'm thinking specifically in a meeting, and everyone's afraid to ask if after using jargon or if they're using an acronym or if you feel like it's something that you should know, just open your mouth and ask question, and maybe other people would be like, oh, thank you. Someone actually asked that question. I think in a in a broader sense, just seeking out support, seeking out help, at what we talked about earlier, you know, taking responsibility for your own development and and and seeking out that help. Who can help me? Is there someone who can be a coach or a mentor or whatever that might be, whatever that type of help looks like? Somer, we're we're coming up to the end of today's episode. The question I ask everyone who comes on the podcast, what does being happier at work mean to you?

I think being happier at work means if you are doing something that up- Lights you up, that when, you know, as soon as you wake up in the morning, you're already planning and you're already thinking, what am I going to do at work today? Like up- If you're already feeling that kind of in your body and in your mind and I know that might sound a bit spiritual, but When I think you enjoy what you do, you live, breathe and you, you work it, you know, it's almost like Something that you are super, super passionate about and, you know, people not only ask you questions about it, but They want to know because you have that energy about it. That's kind of how I see it. And I think that happiness at work up comes from you having that energy and it it being part of your life. That that's how I would embrace it and and say what it

Brilliant. Love that. And if people want to connect with you, I know you have your own podcast. If people want to reach out and connect with you, what's the best way they can do that?

Yeah. So you can connect with me on LinkedIn. It's just Sama Ghosh, career happiness mentor, but my podcast itself is called the Career Happiness Podcast. You can find me on Apple, Spotify, all of the other, career podcast platforms out there. And, I don't just have episodes, for, for, professional women. I've got some for parents of teens and business owners as well. So I'd love for you to come and, follow, subscribe as well to my podcast. Yeah.

Up. So wherever you're listening to this podcast today, be sure to look up the career happiness podcast app and give Soma a follow. How I do my podcast, I just add to my list, and I follow, the podcast that I want to follow. And I add some episodes to my list, which is It's actually quite long, but we're going we'll talk about that another day. But thank you so much for your time. I really, really enjoyed this conversation today, and I'm looking forward to chatting to you again soon.