In this episode we tackle the question, "What do I do with the sense I have that I was promised a specific outcome at work as a result of a certain amount of time and energy on my behalf?"

In what will likely be disorienting to many workers, neither of us believe that companies can make promises. Which means that addressing the question at hand requires a meta-analysis of not only each individual circumstance but also the general employer-employee relationship and agreement.

Certainly companies send a lot of signals about how it views its employees, and how it plans to implement a system of reward, recognition, and advancement. Employees are left to interpret those signals and determine how to make sense of their own situation. The result is a complicated web of expectations, entitlements, implied promises, interpreted promises, and probabilities that drastically affect how all parties feel about each other (and themselves) and their future together.

We break that web down and talk about what it means to imply a "promise" or "guarantee", and how employees should think through the ways to interpret and respond. We also highlight the critical differences between promises and possibilities/options, and discuss how specificity can be a bridge to resentment when it comes to these conversations.

We close by talking about how to stay positive when considering our future, and how to avoid becoming cynical when discussing our path forward with our organizations.

As always, we'd love to hear about your experiences, so please contact us via insidejobthepodcast.com or on Instagram and Facebook @insidejobpodcast.

Inside Job is brought to you by Nayla Bahri and Eric Johnson.

To learn more about us and our work, visit www.insidejobthepodcast.com or email us at [email protected].

To learn more about the ideas and resources discussed in this episode, check out our show notes.

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