{"id":4982,"date":"2025-05-12T20:27:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T20:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4982"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:45:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:45:55","slug":"why-fitting-in-at-work-seems-to-change-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-fitting-in-at-work-seems-to-change-so-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Fitting in at Work Seems to Change So Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

\u201cNo man ever steps in the same river twice, for it\u2019s not the same river and he\u2019s not the same man,\u201d as the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, then it follows that you can\u2019t walk into the same office twice. A job that\u2019s a perfect fit one day may not be the next, especially if you get a new boss who doesn\u2019t appreciate your talents or you\u2019re passed over for a promotion.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Abbie Shipp<\/a> of Texas Christian University, who coauthored an Academy of Management Review article<\/a><\/em> on how people craft career narratives that affect how they fit at work with Karen Jansen<\/a> of North Carolina State University, said that, for most people, it\u2019s a fluid situation.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cPeople weren\u2019t really talking about how people evolve over time; they were talking about, \u2018Do you fit at work or not?\u2019 as if it\u2019s a yes-or-no question, but it implicitly means right now,\u201d Shipp said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf I ask you that question today, \u2018Are you a good fit at your current employer?\u2019 you can come up with an answer, but you may report an answer that looks different than somebody else who objectively looks the same on paper but worked someplace else before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n

How people perceive fit at any point in time depends on where they\u2019ve been before and what they expect in the future.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThese stories about fit are in medias res, a Latin term that means in the middle of things,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cWhen we ask people things like, \u2018Do you fit?\u2019 one of the things we\u2019re getting is this implicit response, \u2018Well, this is right now, but the only way that I can understand right now is to know where have I been and where I am going.\u2019<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd so we looked at the way in which people naturally tell stories, and how it\u2019s not just in the middle of things, but also we\u2019re constantly recrafting those stories as events happen, and now the future looks a little bit different,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Shipp\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n