You Maybe Ready To Resign If...

It is never an easy decision to resign from a job. Therefore, be strategic and think carefully about the reasons why you want to leave your current position.

First and foremost, don’t be rash. Make sure you have a plan of action and a good understanding of what will make you happy in your next position.

According to a survey conducted by the Conference Board only 45% of workers surveyed were satisfied with their current positions. The Conference Board attributes this dissatisfaction in part to the high cost of health care eating into employees’ take home pay, salaries not keeping up with inflation and workers being bored by the work they are performing.

If you’ve grown dissatisfied in your current job and you have taken steps to try to make things better, like speaking with your boss to see if the two of you can come up with a solution to make things better, and you are still unhappy then it might be wise to carefully pursue another position.

Many people feel it is time to quit their job when:

You Feel Unappreciated – You come in early, you work late. You’re doing twelve hour work days. You finish projects ahead of schedule and you’ve saved your boss’s behind on more than one occasion by coming up with a creative idea or solving a problem. However, you’re skipped over when it comes to getting a promotion, you barely get a raise and your hard work isn’t acknowledged. This could quickly lead to low morale and dissatisfaction.

Your Skills Are Underutilized - If you are an accountant and your only responsibility is sending out the company’s invoices your skills are being underutilized which can quickly lead to boredom and job dissatisfaction.

You Work for a Difficult Boss - A difficult boss can be one of the biggest contributors to low morale in the workplace. If they are grouchy, unreasonable, micro managers, out of touch, lazy (and I could go on and on) they can suck the life out of their team. This can cause high turnover within their organization.

You Work In A Chaotic Environment - If you’ve worked for an organization where every day there's a new policy change along with lay-offs or projects that demand you work fifteen hour days and weekends, the chaos can quickly lead to employee dissatisfaction. How many times have you been at a going away party for an employee and they’ve said, “I’ll miss the people, but not the place.”

Your Industry Is Shrinking/Lay-offs – If you work in an industry that is shrinking and your company and their competitors are doing massive lay-offs, you might need to retool and choose another career. Keep abreast of what’s happening in your industry so you won’t be blindsided. Many people do heed the warning signs and leave before they receive a pink slip.

Culture Clash – If you work for a company where people turn the other cheek when it comes to accounting cover ups, sexism, ageism or racism etc. you may find your values are at odds with the culture. These things can make it very uncomfortable to continue working for the organization.

You Are Not Living Your Dream - We go off to work day after day like robots. We need the paycheck so every day is like “Ground Hog Day.” However, for some of us a light bulb goes off and we realize our daily grind isn’t making us happy. What we really want to do has been placed on a shelf and locked in a closet. It’s not until those dreams are out of the closet and pursued that you feel like we are living up to our potential. Those who pursue their dreams feel a greater sense of accomplishment.

If you’ve grown dissatisfied remember look before you leap. You don’t want to jump out of the fire into the frying pan. You want your next move to be aligned with your goals, so have a plan, know what you want and go after it.