A bad day at work is nothing new for most of us. They happen from time to time. However, if a bad day turns into a bad week, bad month, bad couple of months, or even a bad year, that’s when you know it’s time to reevaluate your work situation. Deciding to stay at your job or leave isn’t necessarily black and white. If you’re on the fence over whether or not you should make the jump, pay attention to the signs.
How do you know when it’s time to quit your job?
You Dread Work – When you’re at work, you wish you were somewhere else. When you’re outside of work, you dread the thought of going back. You might even count down in a negative manner to when the next workday is.
You’re Constantly Complaining – Call it venting, call it talking, or call it sharing. When you speak negatively about your job, it’s complaining. And when you do it more often than not with your friends and family in your everyday conversations, that’s not a ringing endorsement to stay at your job.
Procrastination Takes Precedence – When you’re procrastinating more than actually getting work done, it means there isn’t much about your work you find interesting. Procrastinating now and then doesn’t make you a bad worker or employee; we’ve all done it. What makes you a bad employee is when the act of procrastination is happening more than actual work time.
Your Health is Suffering – Are you taking sick day after sick day? Think about where you were before you had your job? Are you sleeping less? Are you short in your responses to others?
Work isn’t always lollipops and rainbows, so it’s good to be realistic about when you should stay in a job and when it’s truly best for you to make a move.
How do you know when is it time to stay at your job?
You Have a Sense of Purpose – The type of work you’re doing, the industry you are in, or the company you work for is meaningful to you. This doesn’t mean you have to be advocating for world peace. It can be little or big for something to be meaningful as long as it adds value. For example, are you a mechanic who works on emergency vehicles? Your work provides a greater good for the people in your community and the healthcare industry overall.
You Work for a Stable Company – Think about the company’s future and its direction. Does it align with where you want to go or where you want to be? It’s worth considering how the company treats external and internal customers and how much of a pulse the organization has on the market.
There’s Work-Life Balance – What kind of flexible work schedule do you want? Evaluate if your organization takes your work-life needs into account. For example, if you’re someone with a family, a company’s values should consider that and provide you with the balance to be both a professional and a mom or dad.
Professional Development is Prioritized – Anyone who wants to further their career needs to be in a position where they can. So, a company that gives you the ability to concentrate on that during work hours is more dedicated to its employees than one that doesn’t.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had to evaluate leaving a job or staying at it? How did you come up with the answer? Join the conversation on LinkedIn and check out How the Pandemic Changed the Way We Work.
