I am once again inspired by a posting on LinkedIn to create a blog around what I believe is a compelling topic to explore, and which will potentially engage others to offer their insights. Under what conditions should someone consider resigning from their current job?
Before I share the top ten reasons that I believe can be grounds for “moving on” to your next opportunity, I would be remiss in not offering a few very important caveats:
- Have another job lined up, the exception being that your job is impacting your health (physical and/or mental)
- Ensure that the conditions I describe below are factual and not just your perception(s). Verify your perceptions with one (preferably more than one) person you trust (co-workers, family, and friends)
- If you are married or in a serious personal relationship, consult your significant other before you make or even seriously consider making a job change
- Finally, consider giving your employer the opportunity to address your concern(s). Please note that you may not want to “bring up” certain concerns until you have another job lined up.
Here are my top 10 reasons you should consider resigning from your job:
- Your job changes who you are as a person- never let your job change or impact your integrity, self-worth, core personality or how you treat others
- You are not respected- your work is not valued, criticism of your work turns personal, your contributions are minimized , your knowledge is questioned in front of co-workers or vendors, you receive any sort of verbal abuse, you are consistently treated with less consideration than co-workers by other professional colleagues
- Your job impacts your emotional well-being- no job is worth your health and well-being or should in any way keep you from being the person you need to be for yourself, your family, your co-workers, etc.
- You get criticized/attacked verbally in public- you should never be “taken to task” in front of your peers or in the presence of suppliers, contractors, consultants, etc.
- You are not compensated for your contributions- if you look at a salary survey of your direct peers in terms of job title, company demographics,
education , years of experience, responsibility, and the location where you live and work and you are not even on the graph of salary ranges or at the lower end, then you are not getting what you are worth (that is most often intentional, but can be anHR department issue). This is one you should really discuss with your boss (show him the data) before you walk out the door. - You witness behaviors that conflict with your ethics and values- this speaks to company culture. Are employees treating each other, suppliers, etc., with the same consideration as you show these parties? Are there business practices going on that you view as unethical? If there is misalignment in terms of your personal and/or business ethics and those of your co-workers this is a huge red flag. You are working in a company culture that is not right for you.
- Company culture allows employees to disrespect others and/or vendors and suppliers professionally and/or personally- another red flag related to corporate culture, but it is critical to be in an environment that impacts your professional (and personal) productivity.
- You think you are in a professional prison and just can’t get out- in today’s world moving jobs is just “the way it is”, and there are so many consulting opportunities out there as companies leverage remote consultants more and more. It is about what you know and what you can do and less about where you live or what school you went to (many degrees are seen as commodities and do not open as many doors as in the past).
- You do not believe in the long term strategy of your company- it is hard to have passion for a job if you do not believe in your company’s vision.
- You physically dread going to work every day, and each Friday you celebrate the upcoming weekend-life is too short to live this way, job opportunities are out there if you are creative. Again, there are so many consulting opportunities out there as companies leverage remote consultants more and more.
A favorite quote of mine of Steve Jobs, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Whenever I have reached a crossroads in my
A final note to those who have a strong philosophy of: “I never quit at anything”. My blog title includes the word “quit” solely to inspire more people to read this blog. If you are leaving a job because of the reasons I describe above then your employer has “quit on you” on some level. You are just separating yourself from an unproductive situation to make the most of your life and career. Life is too short to do otherwise.