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Feeling stuck at work gets worse when support disappears
by Drew Robbins
3 min read
Be Present
A lot of capable professionals feel stuck not because ambition is gone, but because support and clarity disappeared before anyone named what changed.
I believe a lot of capable people feel stuck at work because support disappeared and no one named it. You feel flat, unsure, and strangely hesitant. Work that used to feel manageable starts to feel foggy, and you stop trusting your instincts.
After a while, you land on the most personal explanation possible. Maybe you lost your edge. Maybe you are not as ambitious as you thought. Maybe the problem is you.
Sometimes the real change is around you. A manager who used to help you think keeps canceling one-on-ones. A reorg brings a new manager and resets priorities, but nobody rewrites your goals, and feedback starts sounding vague. You are still showing up and doing the work. You just have less guidance, less context, and less room to get your footing.
That kind of environment can make almost anyone feel stuck. Gallup reported that 73% of employees said their organization had experienced disruptive change in the past year, and in most measures since 2021, less than half of employees said they knew what was expected of them at work. When clarity drops like that, it makes sense that you start asking what is wrong with you. The better question is often what changed around you.
Support tends to disappear quietly, which is part of why this gets so personal. Career conversations slide to next month, then the month after that. Feedback gets thinner. Expectations stay implied instead of stated. None of that announces itself as a major problem in the moment. It just leaves you carrying more uncertainty on your own. When that goes on long enough, a hard season starts to feel like a verdict on who you are.
This is where presence helps. Presence gives you enough space to separate facts from conclusions. The facts might be that your last four career conversations were postponed, your role changed after a reorg, and every week starts with guesswork. The conclusion your mind wants to draw is that you are falling behind, failing, or somehow the only one who does not get it.
One useful exercise is to split a page in two. On one side, write what you know is real. On the other, write what is only in your mind right now. Under what is real, list what actually happened: canceled one-on-ones, shifting priorities, vague feedback, goals that were never updated. Under what is in your mind, list the story you are telling yourself: I am falling behind. I am not good enough. Everyone else seems to know what they are doing. That exercise will not solve the whole situation, but it will show you where clarity is missing and where self-doubt is filling the gap.
You do not need a dramatic answer right away. You need an honest read of the current conditions based only on what is in the facts column, and one grounded next move from there. When you can name what support or clarity has gone missing, you stop arguing with yourself about whether the problem is real. That is often where movement starts.
In most measures since 2021, less than half of employees say they know what is expected of them at work.
— Ben Wigert and Corey Tatel, The Great Detachment: Why Employees Feel Stuck
What support or clarity used to exist in your work that no longer does?
Try This
Write down what has changed in your role, support, feedback, and expectations over the past six to twelve months.
Notice What Happens
Pay attention to how much self-blame eases once you separate missing support from missing ability.
Share or Reflect
Use one item from your facts column to ask a direct question this week about priorities, expectations, or support.
Keep Going
Rebuild one source of support outside your manager so you are not trying to read the whole situation alone.
If this resonates, share with your network to help someone else name the difference between being stuck and being unsupported.
