Being made redundant ranks almost as high as divorce and the death of a family member in the stress tables.
Feeling invisible is something most of us have felt at some time in our career and ignor it at your perril!
Feeling invisible is something most of us have felt at some time in our career and ignor at our perril!
Nothing has happened yet! That needs saying plainly, because it's probably the reason you're looking at this page. You haven't been made redundant. You haven't resigned. Nobody has sat you down and told you anything final. What you have is smaller than that and, in its own way, harder to act on: a feeling. A PDR that landed flatter than it should have. A meeting you found out about after it happened, rather than being asked to it. A manager who used to loop you in on things and now, without any single moment you could point to, doesn't. Nothing you could write down as evidence. Just a change in the air around you at work that you can't quite name, and can't quite ignore either.
Has your face stopped fitting at work?
You're not the one people turn to anymore. Nobody says it out loud, but you know it's happening. You've become invisible.
I hear this constantly from clients who come to Changekey looking for a change of career, or a change of job. It's one of the great unmentionables — until, in that first conversation, it spills out:
“My face just doesn’t fit any more. People have stopped listening to me, even though nobody says it out loud. I’m invisible, and it hurts — especially after everything I’ve given. I tried working harder, working smarter, keeping my head down. Nothing worked.”
I wrote my new book, “So You’ve Become Invisible at Work,” because I wanted to give people options before they reach that point — before the only choices left are survival mode (head down, hope it doesn’t get worse) or handing in your notice.
While researching it, I spoke to so many people who poured out their stories, often with real emotion. What struck me was how common this is. Most of us experience “invisibility” at some stage of our career.
Take “Sue” (name changed). In her forties, eight years with the same organisation, consistently a high performer — until she wasn’t. The business changed. She was juggling the school run. A new boss arrived who knew nothing of her track record. She was left out of meetings. The value she’d built simply stopped registering.
She worked harder. Stayed later. Came in earlier. None of it made a difference. One day the isolation became too much, and she handed in her notice.
The story doesn’t end there. Three months later, Sue ran into the director of her old company at an industry event. He asked her, straight out, why she’d really left. As she told him, he was stunned — he’d valued her enormously, and her old boss had moved on himself, not long after she did.
“If only you’d come to see me,” he said.
I know what you’re thinking: Sue should have spoken up sooner. Easier said than done, as almost everyone in her position tells me. It’s one of several ways through this that I explore in the book — because if you recognise what Sue felt, you deserve options before you reach that decision point.
If this is you, then this book is for you - Get it on Amazon - Kindle or Paperback
Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HJ2GNCZ6
Telephone: 0115 784 8013
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