Environment breadth
Moving to a very different environment means relearning everything nobody writes down, even when the work stays the same. You have to learn how people talk, what they find funny, how fast they work, and what gets someone trusted or quietly sidelined. Some careers do that many times. Others stay in one environment and know its rules by heart.
An environment is the world you do your work in, and it is much more than the building. It is made of the people around you and the culture they share, the language they use, the rules and processes they follow, the pace they keep and even the jokes they tell. Together those decide what counts as good behaviour and what gets you into trouble.
Every environment has its own culture, rules and habits, some written down and most not. So the same work can look and feel completely different in two environments. A hospital and a startup are different environments, and so are Germany and Brazil, or a ministry, a family firm and a listed company. In short, if you have to bring a different set of behaviours, or put up with a different set from everyone around you, you are in a different environment.
An environment is not the same as an employer. A large employer working across many industries and countries offers very different environments, and retail work in your home town can be much the same environment across a dozen employers.
| End | Letter | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Rooted | R | The environments you work in are very similar |
| Widespread | W | The environments you work in are very different from each other |
Here too, what counts is how far apart the environments are, not how many times you moved or how many companies you have worked for. For example, a plumber who has worked for two employers in the same town has stayed in one environment. But a nurse who moves from a hospital ward to a prison clinic has changed environment, with the same role and the same qualifications.
| Where each case sits, from Rooted to Widespread | ||
|---|---|---|
| A plumber with two employers in one trade in one town | Rooted | |
| A civil servant across five municipalities | In between. Same work, but five different towns to live in and serve | |
| A hotel manager for one chain, in Cairo and then Manila | Rooted. One operating manual, one set of colleagues | |
| A touring musician in forty countries, with the same band, from hotel to hotel | Rooted. The band's world travels with it | |
| A civil servant who has worked in four central government departments | Rooted. Similar work in similar environments | |
| A nurse across an acute ward, a remote community clinic, a cruise ship, a prison and an IVF clinic | Widespread, in one role throughout | |
| Moving from a corporation to a startup, or into government | Widespread | |
| A commander with a NATO staff posting in Brussels and a battlefield command in Afghanistan | Widespread, with one employer throughout |
Coming soon
Which of the sixteen types fits you?
The scan shows the career you've had. The trait test, which I'm building now, shows which of the sixteen types fits who you are, and how far your career is from that type.
You are on the list as . Look in your inbox for the first email.
Our signup is not answering just now. This opens the newsletter's own signup page, with your address filled in.
Get early access (opens the newsletter signup page in a new tab)Free. You get the trait test first, plus the newsletter on the shape of careers. Leave any time. Privacy
What a Rooted career gains by staying, a Widespread career gives up by moving, and the reverse.
Rooted
Gains
Knows the place's people. A Rooted career knows who to ask, and people listen when it speaks.
A familiar circle. A Rooted career works among people known for years.
Worth more here than any newcomer. Knowledge of the place is something nobody from outside can bring.
The memory of the place. A Rooted career knows why things are as they are, and what was tried before.
Costs
One circle. Everyone known is in the same world, so help from outside is hard to find.
A small world. Almost everyone worked with shares the same background and habits.
Worth less elsewhere. Much of what is known is about this place, and loses its value on leaving.
Blind to the familiar. After years in one world, its habits are taken for everyone's, and stop being questioned.
Widespread
Gains
Knows people in several worlds. It can introduce people who would otherwise not meet.
Many kinds of people. It comes to know people from worlds most people do not see.
Takes it along. More of what it knows works in any world, so it goes along when it moves.
Fresh eyes. It sees what people who have been there for years no longer notice.
Costs
Starts without allies. In each new place, trust and a hearing have to be earned again.
Often the newcomer. After each move, a stretch is spent among people only just met.
Rarely the insider. In each place, someone who has been there longer knows it better.
No memory of the place. It arrives without knowing what has been tried, and may repeat an old mistake.
Unpaid work counts as well, including caring for a child or a parent. It usually takes place in a very different environment from the paid work around it, with its own people, rules and pace. So a career with a long stretch of caring in it often sits nearer the Widespread end than its job titles suggest.
