Lou Varga discusses the phenomenon of occupational floundering-that is, a time when a person is working without a commitment to an occupational goal. Three stages of floundering are described: initial entry into the job market, a shopping period, and the mid-career stage. Some positive aspects of floundering are also identified. Rene V. Dawis and Lloyd H. Lofquist offer a theory regarding work adjustment. They describe work personality styles and their relationship to work adjustment. Harold L. Sheppard presents some patterns of individuals moving toward second careers. He suggests a way of identifying individuals who will seek second careers and indicates some dimensions that differentiate them from non-candidates for second careers.
There also is a trend now toward retirement preparation programs; however, there is a need to increase counseling and planning in that area. Patricia L. Kasschau proposes that definitive retirement preparation programs be systematically conceived, designed, and implemented. The new concerns in vocational guidance for adulthood are second careers, changing life personality patterns as one develops on the job, and adjusting to retirement.
Occupational Floundering
Lou Varga
Career stabilization seems to follow three modes of vocational development. The first is used by those who choose an occupational goal prior to entering the labor market, prepare for that goal, seek it, attain it, and become stabilized in it. The second mode is used by those who choose an occupational goal that does not require pre-entry preparation, seek it, find it, and become stabilized in it. The third mode is to flounder.
The term flounder is a blend of the concepts "founder" and "blunder," and it implies an awkward expenditure of energy-a struggle to free oneself from a psychological mire. Occupational floundering occurs when an individual enters the labor market seeking full-time work without having a chosen commitment to an occupational goal or for one reason or another does not adapt to that goal once it is attained. The major affective characteristic of floundering is one of deprivation. The individual frequently experiences either one need or an accumulation of needs, including those for well-being, self-worth, self-esteem, belonging, some level of wealth beyond his or her present status, safety, meaningfulness, and social acceptance (from both peers and employers).
Floundering can occur during any period of the work life. Choosing a curriculum and preparing for an occupation does not necessarily preclude a person's having to deal with this usually uncomfortable experience. Graduates from various types of schools who do not seek the type of work they prepared for, who enter a labor market in which there is no demand for their training, or who enter the labor market without adequate training to meet the current demands of employers have a tendency to become engaged in floundering activities. Job seekers also frequently manifest the floundering syndrome if they attain their goals through the first and second modes of vocational development described at the beginning of this article but then leave that occupation before becoming stabilized in it and without having established a commitment to a subsequent goal.
The Intensity of the Floundering Experience
Floundering can be either an adventure or a crisis, depending on the individual. It might also be described as a period of effort. The degree of effort may either be enhanced or restricted, depending on the sense of urgency the job seeker experiences at any one time, and it frequently waxes and wanes with the fluctuation of the individual's sense of deprivation. The intensity of the floundering period can also be affected by the types of needs the individual experiences. Hoppock (1967) has cited the example of workers during the Depression years who took any job they could get in order to meet their physiological needs. Even while they were working, however, they sought other jobs that would more adequately meet additional needs that were nagging them for gratification. Such cases indicate the possibility that, physiological need deprivation might result in a more intense floundering experience than, for example, the need for self-esteem.
Several employment counselors with whom I have worked reported that they had occasion to interview heads of households who were intensely worried that their families might suffer from a lack of adequate food and shelter. The fact that these clients were not amenable to explorations of factors other than those that would gratify their more immediate or perceived physiological and safety needs might indicate that Roe's (1956) theories of occupational choice based on a hierarchy of needs might also be applicable to an ordinal concept of floundering intensity.
The Termination of Floundering
As indicated by its definition, floundering doesn't end with stabilization in an occupation. It ends when the job seeker becomes committed to an occupation or an occupational goal. Commitment can occur simultaneously with the attainment of a career in which the client becomes stabilized. It is possible, however, to become stabilized without being committed and vice versa.
Occupational choice prior to career entry is not a necessary prerequisite to commitment. Many job seekers, while stumbling through the floundering period, have accidentally found themselves in a career to which they either commit themselves immediately or become gradually committed. In both circumstances commitment occurs because the individual attains a relatively acceptable level of job satisfaction. The reasons for this satisfaction can vary: One employee might not like the work but might become comparatively contented with the routine, the companionship, or the salary; others might become committed to the work itself.
Commitment in everyday terms suggests a sense of perseverance, of obligation, either self-imposed or imposed by other individuals. However, Kroll and others (1970) have described commitment as a general developmental process that occurs in three stages. The initial stage is a tentative one, based on a choice. The second stage occurs when an individual experiences the effect of the choice; if the choice appears successful, the tentativeness decreases. The final stage occurs when the individual expands the commitment and remakes it with the understanding that she or he will continue to choose and modify future commitments as personal growth and adaptive tendencies dictate.
Commitment might better be described as a psychological investment in which uncertainty plays an important part. Doubt introduces a sense of reality to commitment. It acknowledges the presence of environmental power, influence, or reaction. Commitment is similar to motivation in that it embodies hope, values, a goal, and action. A major difference, however, is that motivation can be an avoidance activity, whereas commitment tends to be comprised of an approach orientation that provides the individual with a sense of meaning and purpose.
It should be kept in mind that floundering is not necessarily a destructive phenomenon. Although for some it may be a source of demoralization, excessive stress, and psychological debilitation, for others it could be an experience that facilitates personal growth and self-acceptance in other than monetary terms. At the present time vocational guidance theories tend to be oriented toward the avoidance of floundering. Eventually, however, a more comprehensive theory of vocational development will include an acceptance of the existence of floundering, an appreciation of its values, a thorough understanding of its dynamics, an awareness of its hazards, and therapeutic models of relief from its traumas.
