Do you have Resignation Envy? Watching your colleagues and friends quit their jobs? Tired of Same-Old Same-Old? Think your employer isn’t protecting you well against Covid, or providing enough raises, perks or feedback? Dislike your boss?
If so, you have plenty of company.
This may be a great time to make a change. But it’s worth some serious analysis before you leap.
Try this quiz to help you sort out some relevant factors.
LEAP OR STAY QUIZ
- What’s the job market like in your field? If you’re a food service worker or a trucker, you’ll find lots of new openings. If not, ask around about the job market in your field.
Better: Go on Indeed or LinkedIn and look for jobs in your field, or the field you’d like to get into. Are there a lot of jobs within a reasonable commute or with working from home options? After looking for an hour, can you find at least 5 jobs you’d seriously consider taking if the salary, culture and boss were right? Or isn’t the job market too promising in your field? - How much, on a scale of 1-10, DON’T you like your current job? Make separate ratings for:
- Have you grown bored with your work?
- Are promotion possibilities remote?
- Is your boss unsupportive, a micromanager, a wimp who doesn’t stand up for their team?
- Do you and your boss dislike each other?
- Is the office culture toxic and do you dislike your colleagues?
- Are you reasonably proud of your organization, or are the values they represent inconsistent with yours?
- Are the pay and perks too low, even though you’ve tried negotiating for improvements?
- Is your workload overwhelming and/or your job hurting your health?
- How long have you been thinking about making a change? Lots of people contemplate making a change for years, but don’t have the nerve, or “just don’t get around to it.” If that’s you, that counts a lot! It may well mean that you should seriously consider making the change.
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What will happen to jobs in your field if inflation causes the Fed to clamp down and the economy goes into a recession? Will your new job likely be recession-resistant? If so, great! But maybe your new employer will be more loyal to their longer-term employees, and you might be LIFO: last-in, first-out. Or, if you got hired at a higher salary than older employees, and are the most expensive to your new employer, you might be the most vulnerable.
These are hard to estimate, and should be compared to the risks of staying where you are: burnout, lack of advancement, not learning new skills, etc. - Have you asked your employer for a better deal? It’s worth a try if you are considering leaving. That way you can better compare staying or leaving. How about:
- A higher salary.
- New perks, like work-from home flexibility, child care benefits, tuition benefits (employers are now expanding what they’ll give per year and it’s often thousands of dollars, That’s a big pay raise right there). Think big. Doesn’t hurt to ask.
- New or different responsibilities that provide opportunity to grow your skills and reduce your boredom.
- A promotion from within, with new responsibilities and growth.
- If you GET the new job, will you be able to DO the job, or grow into it? Or will you feel like a deer in the headlights? Do you need to get some more skill sets (a few online courses, volunteer work, etc.) to feel comfortable? Try to get them right away: for example, 6 months of 2 inexpensive online courses from Coursera might make you feel much more confident.
It can be tough deciding. Weigh your answers to the QUIZ above (no, there’s no scoring.) Talk over the considerations with people who matter to you. If you can stand it, keep your job while you find the new one.
All the best.