Are you a millennial mulling over the idea of submitting your resignation? Quitting your job isn’t a decision you should take lightly. Here are 4 ways to know it’s time to throw in the towel.
1. You hate your job. No, I mean REALLY hate your job. For example, you spend your Sunday nights paralyzed with anxiety thinking about Monday morning and the rest of your work week is a dazed blur until Friday. Whether it’s due to a toxic environment, a micromanaging boss or just simply being underutilized, you have lost all interest in your job. Don’t spend your next 2, 5, 10 years loathing your job. Over a lifetime, workers spend an average of 90,000 hours on the job, according to data in Happiness at Work. Make those hours count!
2. Your health is declining. Stress is the silent killer. According to a survey conducted by the American Institute of Stress, 19% or almost one in five respondents had quit a previous position because of job stress and nearly one in four have been driven to tears because of workplace stress. https://www.stress.org/workplace-stress/. If you notice your health issues have increased parallel to your work issues, your body might be trying to tell you something.
Some signs of work related stress include:
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Heart palpitations
- Sleeping difficulties
- Gastrointestinal upsets
- Depression
- Anxiety
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it is time to evaluate if you should continue to work in your same environment. No job should compromise your health and mental well-being. Remember, your health should always come first.
3. Your boss is a bully. According to a recent survey conducted by the Workplace Bullying Institute, 35% of the American workforce (or 53.5 million people) has directly experienced bullying–or “repeated mistreatment by one or more employees that takes the form of verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, humiliation or sabotage of work performance”–while an additional 15% said they have witnessed bullying at work. Approximately 72% of those bullies are bosses. Don’t get sucked into an organizational culture that calls you to compromise your personal values.
4. You are not being challenged. In this knowledge based economy, professional growth and development is everything. Staying in a mediocre role with little or no development training could end up costing you when seeking to advance. If you are feeling stagnant and opportunities for growth are not available at your current employer, it’s time to look elsewhere.
5. No room for advancement. Could you imagine being in your current role for five more years earning the same salary and doing the same functions as you do now? If your answer is no, keep your career on track by seeking roles that advance your career. Sometimes those roles are outside your current employer. Opportunities for advancement should be clearly identified for those who seek to advance at your organization. If you don’t advocate for your own advancement, you could end up spending your entire career…well…stuck.
Realizing that you’re in a dead-end job can be daunting—especially when you consider the reality of the jumping back into the job market. However, if you want to take control of your career, don’t be afraid of taking the leap. Your future successful self will thank you!
