02 Dec Time to Quit? Five Signs to Know for Sure
The economy is still in recovery. You have a job, and it pays ok, the commute isn’t too bad and the benefits are fine. But. You’re bored, or even miserable. You feel you’ve done everything in your job three times before. You don’t feel stimulated. You may start wondering, “Is it time to quit?”
Is it them or is it you?
Maybe it doesn’t even matter. If you find yourself increasingly dissatisfied at work, it might be time to make a change in your career.
Here are five signs it’s time to quit:
1. You just don’t really care. If you find that you are just going through the motions, you don’t pay attention to company announcements, and you do just enough to not frustrate your boss or colleagues, it might be time to move on. Having no passion for a job might seem like a secret you can keep, but the reality is, people pick up on when you are dialing it in.
Avoid being asked to leave, or embarrassed in a poor performance review where you are called out for your lack of engagement. Assess what used to excite you about the role, and start considering options to have those kinds of opportunities somewhere else.
2. The company has significantly changed in a direction that you don’t like. Maybe you joined a start-up and now it’s merged with a big corporation. Or the company has discontinued a product or service that you enjoyed working on and you’re not as impressed with the current offering.
Maybe they had more of a commitment to corporate culture, and the morale is now suffering. Or the more recent rounds of hires are personalities that you don’t find as easy to work with.
Whatever the changes, if you find yourself often longing for the good old days, you might have to have an honest chat with yourself if those times are over. Company evolution isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and might even be imperative to survive and grow, but if it isn’t right for you, it might be time to quit.
3. No opportunity to advance. Not getting promoted doesn’t mean there isn’t room to get a new role – maybe you need to have a frank conversation with your manager about what he or she wants to see from you before they bump you up the ladder. But if you know that your boss holds the highest position in your department, and they’re not going anywhere for a while, it might not be in your best interest to stagnate in the same level indefinitely.
For one thing, if you lost your job, you have a resume that shows no forward progression, or little new job skills or responsibilities. For another, it’s hard to stay excited when there is nothing to fuel your ambition.
[bctt tweet=”So if you’re hitting a ceiling, don’t keep bumping it – find a new home.”]
4. You can’t stand the people you work with. No matter how much you like the work, if the people you collaborate with, report to, or support make you miserable, you’re going to feel exhausted and frustrated. Whether you’ve never liked your colleagues and grown more stressed over time, or the landscape of the team has changed, don’t underestimate how much disliking your colleagues can destroy your overall enjoyment of your job.
5. Your health or personal life is suffering. Everyone goes through patches of stress and sleep deprivation when there’s a big project at work, and it’s not unusual to find your at odds with your partner when you’re overwhelmed at the office. But if you find your significantly losing weight, gaining weight, having sleep difficulties, getting ulcers, or abusing alcohol or drugs to survive the job, it’s not worth it.
Job-related health problems can be a serious sign that it’s time to quit. It’s much more devastating to repair your personal life than your resume – keep your family and friendships a priority and let your job be the means to enjoy your life, not consume it.
It might be time to quit your job, or at least think about it.
Obviously you don’t want to react in the moment – a bad day, a tough client, an understaffed project might be a temporary frustration – but if you are finding that every Sunday night is filled with dread, or you are buying lottery tickets to as an escape strategy, it might be time to reconsider.
