WorkLore

I was introduced to a new term recently: chrono-normativity. You might wondering,“chrono-normativity? What is that?” just as I did.

What it really means is that we expect certain things to happen at certain times in our lives. 

The term is from 2010 where Elizabeth Freeman defines it as “the use of time to organize human bodies toward maximum productivity.” Essentially, it describes how we have normalized assumptions about what people should be doing at different stages in their lives. 

So, it is normative to attend school till about 18 years old, and normative to then work or attend post-secondary after that, and normative to get married some time in your 20s or 30s, and then normative to have children all while growing a career. The norms pace themselves to our age.

(These norms also assume that as we matured, we had the supports and resources to be able to do all these things at the prescribed times. Something that excludes those who did not have those supports and resources.)

We can see something similar in career development. We expect that an employee begins in a junior role, spends a number of years in that role, then moves to a senior one and spends a few more. Then they may move from an individual contributor to management and continue for a few more years before taking the next step. All with the expectation of a certain amount of time served at each stage. 

I saw this when working for a very large organization. As I looked at growth opportunities, the expectation that one would be in a role for a minimum of 3-4 years before progressing to the next level was clear. 

Problem was, as someone entering that career stream a decade later than most of my co-workers, I wouldn’t be able to get as far along that path as they would before time (or my energy) would run out to retirement (another chrono-normative expectation). 

Not to mention, the chrono-normative expectation in the career ladder ignored the skills I had acquired before entering the stream. 

So, this chrono-normativity can be really challenging for career changers, for people who grew up without the supports that this track needs, for people who are re-entering the workforce (say after caring for children or aging parents), or for any number of other reasons. 

Did your life unfold as you (and others) expected? What are the challenges when it doesn’t? 

How can we create a different narrative and expectations about how people’s careers progress?