In one of our previous blogs, Jeff and I outlined three sources of oversight to account for the phenomenon of reality shock, a phenomenon that is used to describe why individuals, who made seemingly “good” decisions to enter an occupation, experienced a great deal of dissatisfaction after working within that occupation. We have chosen to consider reality shock with the “person-environment fit” model; that is, a model that examines the degree to which unique characteristics of the person and the requirements needed by job “fit” together to bring sufficient satisfaction for the person and productivity for the work environment. In our last blog we highlighted some of the difficulties in individuals’ perceptions of what was chosen and what was experienced on the job. We refer to these as sources of oversight that can take place during the time between making, preparing for and entry into the occupation.

In this blog we want to focus on oversight coming from the workplace and the differences between what was anticipated and what was experienced.  Individuals choose occupations by considering the benefits or reinforcers that are provided by an occupation. These reinforcers may be intrinsic ones such as satisfying interests and abilities or they may be extrinsic ones such as holidays, pay and employment benefits such as health care or educational study leaves. The source of dissatisfaction may occur when the individuals are implementing their roles and responsibilities on the job, and come to realize that these reinforcers are not as strong as they appeared to be when they made their occupational choice. There may be other factors that produce more dissatisfaction. This discrepancy highlights the need for the individual understanding their reinforcers and how these lead to personal satisfaction on the job. Given the relative young age at which individuals make this choice, it is easy to understand that they may not have had enough life experiences to appreciate this information in their occupational decision-making. As well, it highlights the importance in career planning of helping individuals consider their unique sources of satisfaction and how these relate to the occupation providing these.

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 In our last blog, Jeff and I considered the sources of oversight that may lead to a phenomenon known as reality shock. Reality shock occurs when an individual, who has successfully completed the requirements for entry into an occupation, experiences a high degree of dissatisfaction upon working within that occupation. We outlined three sources of oversight that could lead to making an occupational decision, which initially looked like a good person-environment fit, but when tested with the reality of performing the actual job, lead to an experience of job dissatisfaction and leaving the occupation to look for another.

The first source of oversight may come from within the individual. In North American society, most individuals make tentative occupational decisions upon leaving high school. Additionally, the  preparation for entry into occupations require several or more years of education before entry. This time gap between choice and entry takes place during a significant period of developmental growth from adolescence to adulthood. This growth typically brings new information that ideally should be used in the decision-making. Often after making the occupational decision, individuals do not go back to reassess that decision.  We think that individuals in long periods of preparation would do well to re-assess their long-term plans frequently to determine if the recent experiences during the period are in line with the long term objective. 

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