How do you go about making this important decision?
What are signs that you should quit your job?
I went to the experts to find out.
“They don’t know what they should do next.
They don’t know if they would be better working somewhere else.
They’re not sure the grass is going to be greener on the other side.”
Menditch told me, “I’ve had a couple of clients who had a terrible boss.
They’re either micromanaging, manipulative, or controlling.
Stockholm Syndrome is a very real thing.
This is driven by the fact that your work is not energizing you and not stimulating you.
When you’re doing work you truly enjoy, that work actually fills you with energy.”
You’re bored and apathetic
How do you feel at work?
Are you interested in your job?
If not, it may be a warning sign that it’s time to quit.
Liu told me, “Your sense of time can be totally different when you’re bored at work.
Time will literally slow down.
[Fifteen] minutes can feel like two hours.
This is the concept of ‘watching the clock.’
This signals that you’re no longer in flow and not finding your work fulfilling.”
Another factor that contributes to boredom is a lack of meaning in your work.
Even if you’re being paid well, the money may not be enough to offset apathy and boredom.
Zimmerman told me, “A generous paycheck is a beautiful thing.
If you’re simply working for a paycheck, you’re cheating yourself.”
She added, “Money isn’t what keeps you going; passion does.
If you don’t care about your job, you’ll never have passion.
This environment over time has a tremendous negative impact on one’s physical and mental health.”
Menditch added that many workplaces don’t allow for work/life balance, which can be detrimental to employees.
Menditch suggested that you look to your leadership to tell if your terrible work culture is unchangeable.
Not growing, not learning, and not evolving.
Work feels stagnant, and you longer feel excited or enthusiastic about what you do.
Your future projects in the pipeline don’t excite you either.
Stagnation can really stunt your growth as a professional."
They are excited about their new position.
We started looking deeper, and she was creative and artistic when she was a kid.
When we looked at how she liked spending her time on the side, she liked tinkering with computers.
She had more fun doing that when her organization asked her to build a website.
So she started taking courses to learn coding and create websites."
It didn’t feel good to her to be working with missile defense.
So the culture was a misfit because she wasn’t aligned with the values."
Before taking a job, be honest with yourself about whether your believe in their mission and values.
That way, you won’t be stuck at a job that’s a bad fit later on.
Steps to take once you decide to quit
What do you do once you decide to quit?
Set up job alerts, so opportunities land in your inbox.
Revise your resume, polish it, then post it, too.
Start networking and meeting key connectors in your world for lunch and coffee.
Even if you’re not sure you want to leave your job, you should still start looking."
Don’t badmouth anyone or say anything negative about your organization.
Make your departure forward instead of backward looking."
Above all, have the courage to quit when you know your job isn’t right for you.
Salemi told me, “Many job seekers tell me their biggest regret of leaving is not exiting sooner.
They may sense they won’t get promoted, but want to wait it out.
Next thing you know, an entire year has gone by and unfortunately, nothing has changed.
Meanwhile, they could have already been a year into their new job!”
