Know When to Quit Your Job by Watching for These Signals
Everyone has bad days at work or even long periods
when they feel disheartened about their job. But how do you know the
difference between ordinary, occasional dissatisfaction and a genuine
mismatch? How do you know when you're truly ready to move on? And how do
you then get out gracefully?
What the Experts Say
Quitting
a job can negatively impact your career and disrupt your personal life.
But staying in an undesirable situation can be worse. "I find a lot of
people paralyzed by their unhappiness with their current reality," says
Leonard Schlesinger, the president of Babson College and coauthor of
Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future.
It's often easier to stay put. "Most people stay too long in bad jobs
because the corporate world is geared towards keeping us in roles, not
matching individuals up with their ideal roles," says Daniel Gulati, a
tech entrepreneur and coauthor of
Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders. But don't let yourself get stuck. Here's how to decide whether it's really time to quit, and if so, how to leave effectively:
Watch for Signals
Start
by figuring out whether you lack excitement about the bigger picture or
the day-to-day activities. "When people ask me how things are going, my
standard response is that I love what I'm doing, which doesn't mean
that I like it on any given day," says Schlesinger. Here are some signs
that something larger is going on:
You keep promising yourself you'll quit but never do. Gulati says that these
false starts are often indicative of an underlying problem.
You don't want your boss's job.
If you can't stand the idea of having your manager's job, you need to
think hard about what's next. Chances are that "your hungrier peers will
soon pass you, creating more job dissatisfaction," says Gulati.
You're consistently underperforming.
If you keep trying to get better but you're not seeing results, it may
be time to consider whether you have what it takes, or if your boss and
colleagues value what you have to offer. Schlesinger warns that
sometimes you're up against an impossible task - the job is too big, the
politics are too tricky, there aren't enough resources, or you don't
have the required skills and experience.
If you notice one or
more of these signs, pay attention and ask yourself whether the costs of
staying in the job are reasonable and acceptable to you. It may be that
the "price of admission"—opportunity loss, emotional toll—aren't worth
it.
Test the Waters
To further explore if you're ready
to leave, run a few experiments to assess whether your perception is
reality. "It's better to rely on information gathered from live
interaction with people rather than spinning around in your own chair,"
says Schlesinger. He suggests
having an honest conversation with your boss
about how you're perceived and what you're capable of achieving in your
role. If you think your manager wouldn't be open to that kind of
discussion, Gulati advises looking at your last two annual performance
reviews. "Do the comments make you feel empowered or disheartened? If
your performance is stagnating despite your best efforts, you might want
to quit before further reputational damage is done," he says. You can
also test whether there's a mismatch by putting your hat in the ring the
next time your boss has a high-profile piece of work to be done. If
you're overlooked, it may be that he doesn't appreciate your skills and
it's time to move on.
Know the Risks
Before making a final decision, make sure you've assessed the downsides. Even if you're certain you're in the wrong job,
there are risks to leaving—you
may damage existing relationships, lose needed income, or blemish your
resume. According to Gulati, people usually get ten chances to quit a
job in their lifetime, which works out to an average of every four
years. "If you're changing things up much more than that, companies will
start looking at you as a serial job-hopper," he says. This will hurt
your professional reputation and your chances of getting jobs in the
future. "This could become especially problematic if you find a role you
really want but can't get a foot in the door because of your dicey
resume," says Gulati.
Always Leave Toward Something
You can mitigate some of the risks by deciding what's next before you leave. Both experts agree that
it's better to have at least an inkling of what you want to do,
if not a full-fledged plan. "People should quit to secure a positive
role, not on an emotional whim to avoid a negative situation. If you
truly hate what you're doing, you should absolutely leave but not before
you identify something that you have a good chance of loving in the
future," says Gulati. Scheslinger adds "I wouldn't leave without some
sort of plan, whether it's a set of experiments to confirm what you're
excited about doing next or a conscious strategy to make something
happen." Of course, that's not always possible. "Many people leave it
open ended, especially if they're financially secure or craving an
uninterrupted period of introspection," says Gulati.
Don't Run Out the Door
You
may fantasize about telling your boss to take this job and shove it,
but that will only give you short-term relief and could possibly ruin
your professional life. "There's nothing worse than taking a bad
situation and leaving it badly.
How you leave is as important as how you arrive,"
says Schlesinger. Discuss the decision with people who matter in your
life: spouse, children, friends. Ask mentors or former bosses for
advice. Most importantly, Schlesinger recommends, "Look at it from your
boss's point of view and think about how you can communicate a process
for disengagement that is respectful of the situation." Gulati agrees:
"Once you've decided to quit and have a last day in mind, you should let
your immediate supervisor know and follow due process."
Principles to Remember
Do:
- Ask yourself whether the job can be done, whether you can do it, and if the costs of doing it are too high
- Run short experiments to test whether your current situation is unfixable
- Have some sense of what you want to do next before you quit
Don't:
- Stay if you don't want the job your boss or another superior is doing—you need to have a vision of what will come next
- Burn bridges no matter how dissatisfied you are—it could ruin your professional reputation
- Make quitting a habit—you'll blemish your resume
