Last Updated on October 10, 2026

Have you experienced workplace challenges as an employee? Did you deal with an unsupportive manager, work in a toxic workplace or you simply didn’t see a future within the company? If you didn’t become a business owner by choice, this article is for you!

Disclaimer: The author’s personal experiences cannot be overgeneralized. This article is written and published for informational and inspirational purposes.

One of the most common Workplace Challenges: career blocking

While I was in school, I did many different jobs, being a surveyor, was one of them. It was an eye-opening experience for me because I was always deemed as a professional, even as a volunteer or an intern, in my field. While generally, a surveyor is just another salesperson in the public eye, I took my role seriously.

During our lunch break, my team lead shared with us her journey with the company. “I got my promotion after attending merely 3 events!” said my team lead. She stated she didn’t even perform well (i.e., she didn’t bring in many qualified leads), so becoming a team lead was such a surprise for her.

Based on my performance at an international trade show, the team lead congratulated me on the upcoming promotion as I outperformed the novices and veterans. However, little did we know that I received neither recognition nor promotion.

Was I blocked from being a team lead?

The administrator responded, “Oh! The manager will promote you based on your performance. You are still in training.”

The truth is, my promotion was put on hold not because I wasn’t good enough to be a team lead but because I was too good at my job. The company received “100% (contact information) accuracy” from me. In simple terms, I helped the company open new doors for lead generation. Yet, being good at my job resulted in my first career block.

The administrator disclosed such shocking information after I left the company. I appreciated her honesty, but that broke my heart. I found it hard to believe anyone who is highly skilled in a position (requiring exceptional people skills) would not be considered for a promotion. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning. Career blocking was the least painful experience throughout my career. What happened to my first full-time job almost cost me a mental breakdown.

two different results when dealing with workplace Challenges

Fast forward to my later adulthood, and I sacrificed my career to enter a cohabiting partnership after much cogitation. I somehow chose to deal with the two stressful life-changing events simultaneously and accepted a new job, which turned out to be a nightmare.

1. employee conflict

During my time with this company, the team lead neither made time for me nor most of my co-workers. One co-worker mentioned they sent in a service request, but they had waited more than one month for a managerial decision. It was quite frustrating to work in a high-turnover team with a management team that was ignorant.

It didn’t take me long to figure out what the best way was to cope with such a management style – I CC’ed the manager in every email sent to the team lead. Unsurprisingly, the team lead responded to all emails promptly, but unfortunately, this strategy only worked for a few days. The manager gave me two reasons to stop CC them: a) it was unnecessary, and b) they were not my direct supervisor.

Alas, I hardly received any work-related responses from this so-called team lead thereafter. I received little training, so I eventually was scolded by a colleague from another company – who was also working on the same project as an administrator situated in a different location – for a small matter.

Instead of dwelling on the negativity, I chose to further investigate the core of the conflict. I messaged this co-worker – whom I had never met – through the internal messaging system and scheduled a quick phone call with them.

What happened was they assumed I didn’t do that particular task because I chose to be like others who didn’t want to help them. But the truth is, I was never instructed to complete such a task. They appreciated my approach – open communication – and apologized to me in the end. We even became friends afterwards.

The moral of this story is that never shun away from conflict and deep conversation. Showing empathy is one of the most effective ways to solve workplace challenges, like employee conflict. Nevertheless, it is a type of professional training rarely offered by institutions.

The good news is the Berelevant Network Business Team offers holistic and customizable human skills training and off-the-shelf human skills awareness workshops to address specific systemic issues and common workplace challenges.

2. the unsupportive management

Because of my openness, many turned to me for advice and help after the departure of some senior staff members. I will never forget that they showed up for me, as non-managers, when I needed guidance from the management.

Of all the emails or quests sent to the team lead for further discussion, they would only respond to administrative tasks, such as “time off request”, in a timely manner. One day, I requested to update my personal information, so I was redirected to the manager. Due to privacy concerns, I requested to send such information through a secure system. The manager agreed to my request initially, but after speaking to “the director of the people and culture department”, my request was declined.

I wrote the manager an email stating how disappointed I was in their business conduct, especially how they chose to cope with workplace challenges. Instead of writing me back, the manager called and left a voicemail on the office landline, apologizing for their behaviour. I could tell the reason for keeping this incident off the record; therefore, it was the last straw for me. I just couldn’t deal with any more stress from such a dysfunctional team.

how I turned my setbacks into strength

If you want a different result, you need to do something different!

My departure was unexpected. It was devastating.

I thought I would spend a long time being away from work (avoidance) like I used to. It was a heartbreaking experience each time. Because I genuinely believed that all healthcare/social services graduates prioritize service participants’ needs, the management team in particular.

After much deliberation, I decided not to go back to social services. Frankly, I was disheartened by all social organizations that did not consider me for their management position. What’s worse, I was not even considered for any entry-level customer support roles due to overqualification.

For a while, I thought I was a failure. Because I was – and still am – very hard on myself. I took my life seriously and I refused to give myself any excuse to stop growing.

In the end, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Those workplace challenges helped me achieve a new height in my life and career. Having high resilience has been the reason why I bounce back quickly and recover from stress effectively. Leveraging my strengths and turning my sadness into power was the best decision I have ever made in my life.

1. expand my knowledge base

First, I immediately enrolled in an online course to obtain a professional certificate in data analytics. At first, I wanted to expand my territories. I never thought I would actually make it through because I didn’t consider myself a tech-savvy person – even though many of my former co-workers would disagree on that.

Besides that, I also put enormous efforts into reading, researching and conferring with professionals in the following fields: accounting, business administration, marketing, privacy law, etc.

2. Try something new

After receiving a badge – a formal certificate requires an additional fee – of the Data Analytics Professional Certificate, I started a blog. The purpose of the blog was – is and will be – to disseminate objective information about adult mental health awareness and promotion, from individual’s physical health, mental health and financial health to business overall health and employee health.

As my abilities progressed beyond my imagination, I decided to delve into web design and development as well as graphic design. Months later, I came to the realization that my skillset had been significantly underutilized.

3. Democratize human skills resources

As a formally trained mental health professional, who has internalized the social work approaches and behavioural sciences techniques, I feel comfortable and confident in articulating my emotions, thoughts and ideas. But this wasn’t – and isn’t – the case for my partner.

I found myself not being able to fully concentrate on healing because I felt obligated – as a helping professional and a partner – to prioritize his needs. I was wrong about it because he could totally feel my pain. If I suffer, he suffers too.

Eventually, I learned to just be a cheerleader rather than a caretaker. I realized I needed support as well.

As a cost-conscious individual, to my surprise, I couldn’t find any low-cost support group for adults “without” mental diagnoses online run by a professional. As a result, I decided to not only democratize human skills resources through writing but also online support.

There is a small fee to help me run this group, but essentially it is an ongoing support group to invigorate any adult – who is a friend, family member and/or partner of adult(s) with mental barriers – going through similar experiences to me. If you need to step back and give yourself some time to process your emotions, you can learn more information here.

4. accept my reality: being a part of an underrepresented group

Society’s unconscious bias has been the crux of the issue. Georgeac & Rattan (2022) indicated that underrepresented job seekers had doubts about themselves and questioned if they fit in because of how they were judged by their social identity.

I realized what made me feel less than was not any of the following stressful life events:

• moving to an unfamiliar neighbourhood;
• entering a new stage of a relationship and uncovering the truth submerged in my partner’s subconscious mind;
• taking on a new job, leaving a job or being unable to advance my career

Being a part of an underrepresented group was the reason why I felt stuck. In fact, a myriad of my struggles, i.e., workplace challenges and relationship issues, came from being a biological female of an underrepresented group who has been very vocal.

Although all of the stressful situations had taken a toll on my overall health, I was not pulverized by challenges in life but by society.

In my most vulnerable moment, there was this inner voice saying to me, “Hey, don’t give up”. It was my resilience – embracing the darkness in my life – that gave me hope and empowered me to shift my perspective.

how I convinced myself to challenge my Status Quo

“Now what?” I asked myself.

• Option 1: Working as an underappreciated and overqualified frontline worker;
• Option 2: Investing thousands of savings for an MBA or a Master’s Degree in STEM;
• Option 3: Finding a managerial position (but competing with the 17:1 reality);
• Option 4: Making a big career change from an accomplished mental health and social services professional to an entry-level worker in the tech industry;
• Option 5: Starting a company

Trust me, I have been debating with myself whether I should go with option 5 since day one. I am still not confident about my decision.

Starting a new business can be exciting and intimidating at the same time. Waltower (2024) found that a study conducted by Cox Business, out of 605 participants, who were business owners and managers, 21% of them indicated that they idolized Steve Jobs, followed by Ben Franklin and Walt Disney.

When people say entrepreneurs are dreamers, they are unequivocally passionate about something that they believe could change the world! But am I one of them?

Common reasons why people start their own businesses are for personal, social and/or financial purposes. For instance, they may want to create generational wealth, leave a legacy, pursue their passion and free up more time. Richmond Business Consultants Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean business consulting company, pointed out that starting a business can be the result of a lack of employment opportunities. In my case, choosing option 5 was a bittersweet decision.

In the end, I decided to build a door in the hope of changing the current climate. I believed I was not the only one who was weary of this “proving yourself” to be useful narrative.

Epilogue

Every entrepreneur, founder and business owner’s journey is unique. Even though these stories may not always be bright and positive, they propel me out of my misery. I learned to accept my reality and eventually became a visionary, endeavouring to address systemic issues and find tailored solutions to employment barriers and workplace challenges.

No matter how difficult starting a business is, please bear in mind that no one can tell you what you should or should not do, including family members, lawyers, leadership and business coaches. If you decide to start a business, whatever the reasoning is, no one should be responsible for your decision. With that in mind, you can choose to conduct thorough research, weigh pros and cons, review your financial situation and make decisions based on global/local trends (or your target markets) as long as you need, but win or lose, you and/or your business partners take full accountability for your decisions.

After all, this is what it takes to become an owner of a legal entity. I shared my insights into how much reading, learning, research and energy I have done so far for my business recently during a business-related call with a liaison who commented, “I wish everyone was like you!”

Establishing a reputable business takes great effort, from shaping organizational culture to recruiting the right talent. If you didn’t become a business owner by choice, what changes have you made to overcome workplace challenges in your own company?

References

Georgeac, O.A.M. & Rattan, A. (2022, June 10). Making the Business Case for Diversity Can Backfire with Underrepresented Groups. Yale Insights. https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/making-the-business-case-for-diversity-can-backfire-with-underrepresented-groups

Waltower, S. (2024, June 20). The Top Reasons Most Entrepreneurs Start Businesses. Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4652-entrepreneur-motivation-benefits.html

8 Common Reasons Why People Start a Business. (n.d.). Richmond Business Consultants Pte. Ltd. https://www.singaporeincorporationservices.com/Blog/registration/8-common-reasons-why-people-start-a-business