4 Signs It Might Be Time to Change Your Job
There is a time to change your job
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” — Steve Jobs
Despite the devastation played by this global pandemic, it has done one excellent service to humans by spreading awareness that they have more work options and opportunities to look for.
Although, millions of people have lost their jobs and were economically broken in a few weeks, particularly women, who were the hard-hit across the globe. We have also learned about the economic disparities that forced people to look for better opportunities to make up the difference.
The economic downfall of the people, coupled with the awareness about other work opportunities, triggered the increase in job-hopping more than ever before.
The pandemic has also taught us how to harness our skills in fields other than what we have been doing. The new awareness has opened multiple windows of opportunities where we don't need a traditional workplace environment. Instead, we can shape the workplace environment according to our own choices.
Pandemic didn't offer the idea of job-hopping but gave a boost to it. Now we can make intentional choices about our future job. This change was simmering in the decades, but people needed a catalyst that, fortunately, pandemics provided.
We have intelligent professionals who know why they do something, what their work environment should be, or how to make a difference in work. The millennials can make their choices of work based on the enlightened idea about their future.
The myth about the "flighty young professional."
Today's young have been blamed with an undeserved label for their job hop. The phrases like "Young's lack of commitment, they lack work ethics and loyalty, and they have a flighty nature and abandon their jobs."
These statements are making rounds in the business circles, but these sweeping generalizations about an entire generation are not fair.
The fact is that the previous generation changed their job with greater frequency than today's young. However, they had the same reason as the millennials — finding better opportunities, having fun at the job, and finding happiness.
However, you can find many other reasons as a motivator to change your job, but these four, which I have enlisted here, are probably the core signs that tell you to change your career.
1. Your current job doesn't provide you with a better future
Why do we do jobs?
Is it because we need to eat at present only? Well, that's a reason. But it's not the whole reason one can give.
If your job cannot provide you with future security, it's a sign to change and look for a new job with better prospects.
Even the current salary isn't keeping pace with the ever-increasing inflation. Everything is getting expensive day by day, and your salary may increase annually, or you may not get an increase if your company hasn't a defined policy about payment increases.
According to a 2016 study, 6.1 million people changed their job because their job wasn't up to their plan. Even the salary failed to provide for the present expenses properly.
2. Your job is negatively affecting your personal life
Companies thrive in a competitive environment, and they demand their employees to be more productive. The mantra of "more productivity" leads to a brawl between the personal and professional lives of the employees. Because employees had to work long hours and even go overtime, which is often not well paid.
Demanding work often obliterates the thin hazy line between personal and professional life.
If you are working in a company that demands you to spend your off-hours at work, it's time to consider taking a leap forward and finding another job. Because working till late hours at night, even at the office or at home, negatively affects your relationships.
If it has already affected your relationship, say goodbye to it and look for other opportunities where you can keep a balance between personal and professional life.
According to a recent poll conducted on LinkedIn, prioritizing personal life ranked last and achieved 12%.
Prioritizing work is a great thing, but it saddens me when people prioritize work at the expense of their personal life. The best option is to prioritize health and personal life first.
The leading cause of unproductivity is unhappiness at work because you are stressed. And stress is the product of your failed relationships and deteriorating health.
If your job negatively affects your personal life and health, it's a clear sign you should change your position.
3. Your personal development has stopped
Sometimes, we work in the same position for too long. While for a long time, everything becomes automatic, and the job stops being challenging.
It becomes a dull routine. It isn't exciting anymore. You have stopped learning, and you are feeling personal stagnation. You lose the charm of your first days that provided you with new learning, associating with new people, and you were getting familiar with a new system.
But, now, everything is the same.
However, there are two types of people. The first category of people don't want challenges and like to go with what's going on as usual even if it is dull or has no new learnings.
While the second category of people wants challenging jobs that offer more to learning and personal development, they view challenges as opportunities to thrive and develop a solid and resilient personality.
If you are in the second category and your job has reached a point where you don't have anything new for learning, it's time to change your career.
4. You think you are not fit for your current job
Sometimes we go to work daily and want to continue, but our inner self doesn't accept it. For example, we don't want to lose our current job because we fear others may worsen.
I have known that feeling. But there are two situations: one is a compulsion, and the other is a choice. Our needs and financial insecurities compel us to keep the present going on even if we think we aren't fit here, while our options want to look for better opportunities.
If you are in a situation where you unconsciously think you should change the job, it's a sign to change.
I have been there. I have worked as a loader, but that was a compulsion. I knew I could do better than that. So I left that and applied for teaching. That was a grueling experience, and used to another institution, which was worse.
I left that too, even I didn't have monthly expenses. But I was confident in my skills. The next day I was invited for another job that opened many more opportunities. So I left that too and acquired another best position. But I am working to leave it to even for the best one which is about to come.
So if you are also daydreaming of finding the best job, look for it. Don't just compromise your choice for the compulsion. Leap forward, and you will discover new stunning opportunities.
What to do if you want to change your present job and find the one you like?
There are a few things you should consider before looking for another job.
i. Know what's not working for you
If you are a teacher and don't like your current job, don't just change the institution alone. Change your job. If you quit one school or college and start teaching in another school or college, it won't work for you. It is the same job in a different place which become the familiar old and dull place.
This won't work because preparing lessons or working with a problematic principal, or controlling the students in your class may be a problem for you. So, you have to face these three things everywhere in the teaching institutions.
Better change the job with its descriptions.
ii. Find your inner culture
Any job is good for you if you fit well in it. If your inner culture craves teaching and longing for didactic processes, you should join a teaching profession.
But if your inner values and priorities are as a civil servant, you should opt for civil services examinations. If you are a comedian inwardly, be a comedian.
The purpose is, to be honest with yourself. What you can do naturally and what provides you kick, do that. You will do it best, and you will always learn something new in it. But if you are a businessman inwardly and have opted for teaching, you won't be happy in it throughout your life.
So follow your inner culture.
Wrapping it up
Working long in the same position often leads to dullness and stagnation if it doesn't provide challenges every new day. Routine work is always dull, and there is no creativity in it.
It destroys your creative talents because you don't use them. Instead, your work doesn't challenge you to call your innovative capabilities to come forward and play its role.
Or your job is too demanding where you have lost the sense of personal and professional life. You don't know when your personal life starts and when you are professional life ends.
You don't have a start and stop button. You work and work. Your work has deteriorated your health and has sapped your relationships.
Or your work is not according to your inner culture, don't do it. Just don't do it. It has taken your life, happiness, relationships, creativity, and all other things you call yours.
Reclaim your life by quitting it and changing it according to your capabilities. Remember, happiness and health are your best capabilities. If you are not happy or healthy in your work, it's not for you.
Find your work
