The Corporate Death Zone - The bodies on the top of the career ladder

Career Altitude Sickness/Death

What do I hate the most about mountaineering? Acclimatisation. It drives me nuts, but up there, there's no escaping it. You’re either stuck hovering at the same altitude for days, inching upwards at a painfully slow pace, or you climb higher only to come back down again. And then you repeat the whole process.

Picture this: you’re at 6,400 meters, exhausted but determined, and someone says, “Great job, now head back to 3,400 meters before you can even think about summiting Everest.” That’s not me, but that’s what climbers actually do. They’ve battled through the most treacherous part—the Khumbu Icefall—only to be told to turn around and do it all over again. The frustration is always unreal for me. I’ve caught myself saying things like, “Let’s just push through and deal with altitude sickness later,” or, “Once I’m up there, I’m not coming back down just to climb it again.” Thankfully, the Sherpas don’t let me act on my stubborn impulses. Their patience and expertise are the only things keeping me from sabotaging myself. What I hate the most is the most important thing and a must.

But who is stopping people from sabotaging their careers and from career altitude sickness? Is burnout really just altitude sickness because you failed to acclimatise?

Are you familiar with the concept of "career altitude sickness/death"? This term, originating from the music and film industries, describes the phenomenon where individuals ascend the ladder of career success at an overly rapid pace only to crash. This is tied to the notion that the experience of accomplishment needs to align with a particular rate of progression, coupled with a level of emotional maturity and a balanced sense of self-awareness to ensure psychological stability. This can be seen in both the corporate and celebrity worlds. Organisational psychology tends to overlook this, even though it's connected to burnout.

The question is, why does organisational psychology ignore this phenomenon? If this is really a thing, what do we do with the speedy Gen Z? Are we going to watch them fall?

There is no doubt about the benefits of a steady career progress. You take the time to grow into the role, technically and mentally. As you age, you mature and can handle power in a professional and grown-up way. However, the past decade has produced a growing number of struggling young senior leaders. Are they experiencing what those young superstars experienced before going downhill?

Does corporate produce its version of Justin Bieber, Lindsey Lohan, Brittany Murphy, Amy Winehouse... and we are utterly blind to it?

If this is the case, career coaches and L&D should start talking about this asap and perhaps slow down or prepare the younger generations or those who are speeding rater fast with their careers regardless of age.

Maybe it is not the amount of hours that is burning people out. Maybe the problem lies in the sentence of a person who summited Everest; “I regret climbing Everest with the experiences that I had.” BOOMMMM Do you regret being in that role with the experience, skills, and maturity that you have/had? Being in a role doesn’t mean that you have what it takes to be there. Large corporations are like guided tours on the mountain where the Sherpas/the system take you up but because everything is planned and supported you fail to develop the skills to be on that summit. It is likely to be not your win but the system’s. Watch the video below where I elaborate more on that and talk about why it is an absolute suicide to climb the career ladder fast and try to stay there. Watch and see how passionate I am about climbing:-)))

Here is the thing, I never understood the rush, and I always explained it this way to everyone who asked for my 2 cents.

You need to take an inventory of your ambitions, goals and capabilities. You consider them all and make an educated guess that the highest possible role you can reach within a corporate structure is a Director, a VP or a supervisor. Then, you say ok, I have forty years to get there, and you build a slow and fulfilling stable career and grow and mature into each role.

Or, you can say, I will get there as soon as possible and stay there. You will risk burnout, then boredom and stagnation. If you want to work to finance your private life, this strategy works, but be careful, don't get altitude sickness once you reach the top. If money is the goal, go for it, but then get the hell back down.

You can also say I will build two or three careers during the next forty years because I love learning. If you are that type, a learner like me, you can go as fast or as slow as you want because you will love both. If you pick the slow, you will be the master of all three careers. You will take time to learn and enjoy the journey. If you go fast, succeed and then fall, you will love going back to the bottom because there is a massive learning mountain to climb, and you live for that.

If you are just going for the role, not knowing why or what's next, and you are doing it because the title is the main contributor to your self-esteem, you may be joining all those fallen actors, musicians, burned out corporate folks, and dead climbers.

Have you ever seen or experienced a career altitude sickness or death? Is burnout really an altitude sickness? If this is the case, career coaches and L&D should start talking about this asap and perhaps slow down or prepare the younger generations or those who are speeding rather fast with their careers regardless of age. Rushing is not living. Rushing is pushing through life. Rushing with your career is looking at it as a task that you must tick off. There is no joy is rushing only burnout and misery.

Take your time, build a life not a career. Career is just a part of it. But when you are not building a life you will only have a career to build and that will leave you feeling empty very quickly!

Where are you rushing anyway? Life isn't about getting somewhere, it's about being here.

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Podcast - Focus on motivation not on employee engagement