Reasons to Consider Quitting Your Job

There is rarely an ideal time to quit your job. Donna Fuscaldo, writing for HCareers.com, notes that “while burning a bridge is always a ‘no no’ and leaving without a plan ‘B’ isn’t ideal,” there are some good reasons to consider quitting your current job. She offers some specific reasons:

Reason 1: Dread — We’ve all been there at one time or another. That feeling of dread Sunday night because Monday means the start of a new work week at a job you can’t stand. Your dread may be sparked by an annoying boss, catty coworkers, unchallenging work or lack of career advancement, but regardless way, if you hate your job enough to dread going there it is time to look for another one.

Reason 2: You are underpaid — Whether it’s people getting promoted ahead of you or coworkers making more than you but doing less, if you feel you are grossly underpaid it could drive you to quit. Knowing you are underpaid wears you down.

Reason 3: You’re on a sinking ship — If the writing is on the wall and there’s a good chance the company you are working for is going to go under, it pays to quit early rather than later. If sales cycles start to stretch out or accounts receivable are piling up or there are other warning signs, you may want to head for the door.

Reason 4: The relationship with the boss has soured — Nothing is worse than working for a boss who doesn’t like you for whatever reason and there’s nothing you can do to change that. If the relationship is beyond repair and it could end up hurting your reputation and thus your career. You can either try to move laterally or cut your losses and find a new job, says Garfinkle.

Reason 5: You’re failing — Whether you are underperforming or blowing the job altogether, hanging on until you are fired is the wrong move to make. If you know you’ve let your boss or coworkers down time and time again or you realize you aren’t cut out for the job, start looking while you’re employed and move on to the next job.

Reason 6: You’re bored — Going to a job eight hours a day five days a week that is boring can have a major impact on your mental state. If you are unchallenged in your job and there’s no way to take on more responsibilities, start looking for a new job, experts say.

Reason 7: Quality of life — Be it a long commute, you’re starting a family and don’t want to work 80 hours a week, or the workplace stress is negatively impacting your health, quality of life issues are a major reason people quit their job. When you took the job it may have been ok to drive two hours each way to work every day or to work until 10:00 p.m. every night, but if your needs and wants change, then your job might have to.

How to (Finally) Quit your Job

As you wait for the elevator to arrive after another mediocre day at the office, you give yourself an all-too-familiar pep talk. “I’m better than this, and I’ve completely had it with this job,” you tell yourself. “I’m outta here for good.”

Does this sound familiar to you, asks Daniel Gulati, writing for the Harvard Business Review? If so, did you end up quitting like you knew you should have? Chances are, the answer is no.

Here’s the cold truth, he says: Deciding to quit is just the first move in a sometimes long and arduous cerebral chess match. The reasons that over 70% of Americans stay in jobs they hate are not external (e.g., economic condition), says Gulati, but are due to our own psychology.  “We overthink decisions, fear possible failure, and prioritize near-term, visible rewards over long-range success.”

So how are the smart and savvy ones able to break free? Gulati says there are three things he has seen repeatedly that allow people to overcome the psychological barriers and quit with conviction.

1. Quit for a better long-term trajectory, not a quick win. The first step in making the leap is to recount your career goals and visualize a life-changing leap forward, not an incremental hop. One consultant said, “I don’t want to be a serial quitter, so I’m very focused on the long-term goodness of fit.” Why the emphasis on a long arc? Studies have shown we overvalue near-term growth and are irrationally receptive to relative improvements in position. If you’re looking to quit your job just so you can avoid that micromanaging boss or break free of a tedious daily task, you are shooting too low. Quitting your job for minor improvements could leave you equally dissatisfied a year in. Take a longer term (5+ years) view of the professional mountain you actually want to climb. You get an average of 10 chances to quit in your lifetime, and each step should bring you significantly closer to your true passions.
2. Quit after hitting calendar milestones, not performance-based ones. Time your resignation around calendar milestones, not performance-based ones. For example, one analyst quit on his one-year anniversary with the firm, which “created a clean break in my mind, and allowed me to position my time as a one-year stint.” If you wait until you’ve been rewarded with a “pellet” — commendations, promotions, or other rewards — you may look at your job with gentler eyes (“Maybe this isn’t so bad after all!”), and before you know it, you’ve talked yourself into staying until your boss drops the next pellet. How do you avoid this endless cycle? Commit beforehand to quit on a particular date, not after a reward.
3. Quit discreetly and avoid the Facebook fireworks. While it may feel gratifying to post a dramatic Facebook status update announcing your departure, hold back until you put proper roots down in your new role. Changing jobs contains elements of risk, and if you falter or fail, word will spread fast. Ignore social media and quit quietly. Settle into your new role privately, and gradually update your friends in person, not over Facebook. If you don’t share it, they can’t spread it!

How to Avoid Saying: “I Was Fired”

Something about the words “I was fired” makes prospective managers’ blood run cold. If you left your last job on less-than-sensational terms, there’s got to be a way to address that issue positively, right? Longtime HR director Liz Ryan, writing for Bloomberg’s Businessweek.com, says there definitely is.

“There is zero requirement ever to tell a hiring manager or HR person that your previous employer let you go,” she writes.

Job seekers who know what they bring—who know the business problem they solve, in other words—don’t have to over-explain. Job seekers who have identified a hiring manager’s chief problems and have already come up with ways to link their experience to the manager’s “business pain” don’t have to please anyone in order to get a job offer.

How to Spin It

You don’t owe a prospective employer the details about what happened when you left your last job. But you have to find a way to explain why you left. Ryan offers some possibilities:

Option No. 1: The Learning Was Done

“It was a fantastic learning opportunity for me—I credit those folks with teaching me everything I know about X-Y-Z, for instance, but it was time for me to go, and we agreed on that just as I was getting interested in social marketing.”

The “we agreed on it” is key, Ryan says. “If the “agreement” took place only in your own mind as the security guard escorted you out of the building, that’s fine.”

Option No. 2: My Interests Shifted

“I got to do so many fantastic projects at Acme Explosives, but my focus was shifting into project management, and the opportunities for that were very limited at Acme. I didn’t know what I would do next exactly, but my friend from college was starting a consulting practice, and I decided to collaborate with her on that as I shifted to the next thing.”

Option No. 3: We Went in Different Directions

“When I got to Acme Explosives, the mission had everything to do with building the brand fast, and we had great results on that front. Two years later, I was becoming a zealot for branding and customer evangelism, but Acme was moving more into OEM work, where the branding piece was almost nonexistent. It wasn’t a great fit for me anymore, and we decided to move apart.”

“Whatever you tell a prospective employer,” Ryan says, “focus on that employer’s need and your own tremendous talents in solving similar needs in the past.”

How to Resign Gracefully

If you are ready to leave your job — to take another job or simply to take a break — you want to do it gracefully.

But how is it possible to leave without burning your bridges?  What factors should you consider?
Check out our post: “Go with a bit of grace“.

Also check out these steps for resigning with grace from WikiHow.com:

1. Keep it to yourself. Once you’ve made the decision, don’t go blabbing it all over the company until you have notified your immediate supervisor. Give her or him time to absorb and process the information.
2. Plan to give notice. If you want to leave under the best possible terms, don’t leave your employer high and dry, scrambling to cover your position. Give at least two weeks’ notice so your boss can prepare to have others cover for you, or have time to groom a replacement.
3. Ask your boss for an appointment to discuss an important matter. Poking your head in and asking for a moment of his or her time will do. If possible, wait for a time when your boss will have a few moments to focus on your news.
   
4. Be prepared, direct, and polite. Rehearsing will help you be ready when your supervisor has you in to talk. (Some sample approaches are given in the full article; see link below.)
5. Be prepared to discuss. Your boss may have some questions. Or your boss may make a counter offer. Being polite and dignified about your resignation could make this possible. If staying is an option, what would make you open to it?
6. Emphasize the positive. Be honest, but polite. You can be truthful without being cruel.
7. Have a copy of your letter of resignation. Make your letter brief, non-confrontational and professional.
8. Show some class when you are walking out the door. Shake hands, thank your soon-to-be-former supervisor (yay!) for “everything,” and leave.

Top 10 Signs it’s Time to Leave Your Job

According to a recent survey commissioned by the talent management company Plateau, the top five reasons employees consider leaving their jobs are salary (57%), needing a change (31%), career and advancement opportunities (29%), change of profession (22%) and concerns for the employer’s future (18%).

In a blog on forbes.com, Jenna Goudreau offers the top 10 signs it’s time to leave your job.  Here they are:

1. You’re no longer valued.  If you’re not getting the recognition you deserve, it’s time to reevaluate.
2. The job is literally making you ill. Developing chronic back problems, headaches, stomach pains or sleep issues may all signal a problem job. Equally telling are weekends spent dreading going into work,
3. You have a drop in productivity or too much downtime.
4. You are no longer learning new skills.
5. You are passed over for a promotion, again. The clearest red flag is when a subordinate is promoted over you.
6. You or your budget have been reassigned.
7. Your accomplishments go unrecognized.
8. There’s no raise in sight – has the value of your contribution outgrown your compensation?
9. You can’t even fake interest in the work.
10. The company is contracting – look for signs that the company is in trouble.

Go with a bit of Grace

How you leave a job can be just as important as how you start it.  So when you quit your job, you might be in for a few surprises - even a counteroffer.  But don’t expect everyone to be happy for you.

Some people will congratulate you on your new opportunity,  but some others might not treat you as well.  When people treat you badly, you need to cut them some slack.  Remember, while you may have been thinking about leaving for weeks or months, they are shocked,  surprised and probably disappointed.  You are going off to something better, while they are left behind to deal with the situation you just escaped from. 

When you leave during difficult times, your co-workers may feel abandoned – even betrayed.  They might worry that all your work will end up on their desk. 

Your boss might worry that your resignation will make them look bad or keep them from reaching their performance targets.   

All those disappointmnts and worries might result in people acting distant or even hostile toward you.   And while it might feel personal, it is not personal.  Let it roll off your back.     A friend’s Mom told her to ”leave with a bit of grace” - a fine piece of advice.  

To leave with your head held high, you need to give proper notice (2 to 4 weeks), work hard to complete your projects, and show a bit of grace toward everyone, regardless of how they treat you.

Quitting Your Job? Be Prepared For a Counter-Offer

Once you have resigned from a job, you need to leave. 

Period.  

Accepting a counter-offer is almost always a really bad idea -  in my experience more than 90% of people who accept a counter-offer end up leaving the company within a year.  There is a reason for that – the issues that caused you to look for a new job are almost never resolved by a counteroffer.   “Oh you don’t like our toxic work environment?  Your career is stalled?  How about a $10k raise and a new title, how does that sound?”

So if it is so illogical, why does anyone ever take a counter-offer?  

I blame evolution.  Our brain is not wired to be very logical when our emotions are running high.  In his book “Emotional Intelligence” Daniel Goleman coined the phrase amygdala hijack to describe when your “fight or flight” fear response overtakes your logic.   Most people decide to look for new jobs using their logical brain, and then decide to accept counter-offers using their emotions.  

So to help you prepare for the possibility of a counteroffer, let’s outline what most people go through when they resign.

Quitting your current job and starting a new job usually causes an acute case of the FUDs – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.   (The more you expect from yourself, the more you suffer.  So high achievers actually suffer more from FUDs than than low performers).   Just thinking about quitting raises your anxiety level, it makes you feel disloyal – like you are leaving your tribe.  You want to avoid the conflict with your boss.  Your emotions start to short circuit your logical thinking (see amygdala highjack above).   Your brain “helpfully” starts sharing long-buried chestnuts of conventional wisdom like:  ”better the devil that you know, than the devil you don’t know.”   In short, how you are feeling makes you doubt your rational judgment.  

Now … right in the middle of your maelstrom of emotion, right when you are experiencing maximum fear and divided loyalties, your boss extends a counter-offer.  Your primitive (reptile) brain screams “accept the counter-offer and go back into the safety of the cave” your impulse toward belonging and loyalty says “stay with the tribe, don’t leave, it’s dangerous out there all on your own.”  And while these primal impulses probably protected your ancestors from being eaten by tigers, they are disastrous for your career.

Because you can never go back to the safety of the cave.   You quit, you gave notice.  That changed everything.  Your boss will never trust you in the same way they did before you quit.   While it may feel safer to stay put in your current job, it is actually very risky to stay once you’ve given notice.   There will be a subtle tendency to trust you less, to not share confidential information, to not give you choice projects.  Your boss will probably feel like you “held a gun to their head” by quitting and might grow to resent making the counter-offer (I doubt you made them look good by quitting).   Your boss might be thinking about how to replace you before you quit again.  No, you may not get fired for giving notice, but the odds are pretty good that you’ll regret staying.  The very act of giving notice “poisoned the well” and your relationship with your boss is forever altered.    

So before it happens, prepare yourself for what you will say if you get a counter-offer.   It’s always best to be gracious when you decline it.  Don’t say “You are too late Bucko, where were you 6 months ago?”   No, this is the time to prove that you have evolved beyond your ancestors.  I recommend a simple “Thank you, that’s very kind of you to offer, but I’ve made up my mind to move on.”