5 Reasons You Want to Quit Your Job When Maybe You Shouldn’t

5 Reasons You Want to Quit Your Job When Maybe You Shouldn’t

No one will know you better than you.  And for the same reason, no one will know when it is time to quit your job better than you will.

However, that does not mean that knowing when to quit is easy.

One bad meeting, a couple of bad co-workers, and a highly irritating boss and you are ready to throw in the towel. 

Before you let yourself get overloaded and jump too soon, it may make sense to take a closer look. 

Define what you want, remove the emotions from your point of view (if only for a moment), and see what you have. You could be amazed that everything you are looking for can be found right in front of you.  Or, you could confirm confidently that you have no choice but to leave your job.’

 Regardless of the outcome, take a clear look before you make a move.  Carefully examine these 5 reasons you want to quit your job and also the reasons why maybe you shouldn’t:

1. I Feel Like Quitting My Job Everyday

If every day is an “I quit” moment you likely don’t love your job, see your future with it or consider it a dream. This is clear. However, not every thought that you think repeatedly is one you want to listen to. 

Repetitive negative thoughts or ruminating can be a concern all its one and can lead to over emphasizing problems in your mind.

We tend to be hardwired to repeatedly think thoughts that we are emotionally tied to.  These emotions can be good or bad, but they intensify the impact of any thought in our minds.

If you could somehow put your emotions to the side, what is the true underlying issue with your job? And, more importantly, can the problem be resolved without quitting?

Refrain from Making Purely Emotional Decisions

Undoubtedly something about you and your job is not aligned at this moment. But you do have choices. Don’t allow your current unsettled feeling to lead you to believe that your only option is to leave.

There can be times when we become our own worst enemy and harbor negative emotions far too long or allow them to get far too big.

 

This negativity compulsion can be a pattern that impacts more than just the view you have of your job.   It can be your health, love life, or your total disposition about your life in general. When we do this for too long, we can create a negative lens for all the things around us.  

Make a conscious effort to recognize if you have a pattern of negativity within yourself and choose to see things differently. If you do, you can begin to make a shift by intentionally creating new enjoyable experiences with others at work. Or make a conscious effort to improve your work environment.

With a new outlook in place and new experiences cultivated, you can then determine if you are still highly dissatisfied with your situation. In this case, release yourself from your discomfort and simply look for a new job. It is possible to find a job you really want and one you would not dream of wanting to leave.

2. Feeling Stuck and Unmotivated

Like a broken elevator, some jobs leave you right where you stand.  While some go getters want to run before they walk, a bad job can make you feel as if you are at a perpetual crawl.

  • You can’t expand to learn new things, so you are stuck doing the same old thing.
  • There is no way to move up or you repeatedly get passed over for promotion, so you feel trapped in a dead-end position.
  • You are bursting with ideas and suggestions, but they are not listened to or supported.

The summary of it all is that you feel unmotivated with no resources to make things better so you might as well leave your job.

Stimulate Your Passion by Exploring Professional Growth Opportunities

A job that does not map out a plan to grow and challenge you is not without growth and challenge. Don’t be afraid to forge your own path.

  • Look for inspiration and ideas from others around you who have been successful in what you want to do.  Take advantage of your insider access to talented co-workers who may love to show you what they do or share how they gained their skills.

  • Be intentional with your interaction with others within and outside of your immediate area. And take a vested interest in learning more about the company as a whole.  You can grow by learning more about people in the workplace, processes, and by expanding your communication as you learn.

  • Be proactive by connecting with your boss in review of your professional needs and interests. Create a win-win by drawing clear lines between meeting your needs and the needs of your department. You may find that you and your manager have a common interest and as a result a shared enthusiasm in your career development.

Evaluate Your Effective Communication Skills

Another thing to consider is whether or not you are truly being ignored when making suggestions or ideas.

  • Have you been included project design in the past but it lead to unsuccessful outcomes? Businesses cannot always withstand trial and error and stay strong.
  • Did you volunteer suggestions without consideration of the full impact to all aspects of the business or even your co-workers? Great ideas often take a collaborative effort to have long-term positive effects.
  • Have you actually had many of your ideas implemented, but only recently had a few that weren’t? Sometimes we get so addicted to winning that we fall apart whenever we lose or get told no. No job will take your every suggestion or implement your every idea.

Celebrate your wins and learn from your losses.  And remember you can experience both at any job. Honor your emotions and allow yourself to feel disappointed or discouraged. But take a balance approach to

Be Honest in Your Self-Evaluation of Professional Development Opportunities

When it comes to promotion, note that this type of change can require time, expertise, and experience.  Everyone cannot do every thing.

 

  • Take an honest evaluation of whether you truly meet the requirements for the work that you seek to do. You may be overvaluing your time with the company or your expertise in your current level of work over true qualification for the next level.

  • Investigate what opportunities you have to grow both inside and outside of your business. You may be placing more responsibility for your job to invest in you than what you have invested in yourself.

After careful review, if you feel that you have turned over every stone and tried every angle and are still standing still, it may be time to move on. Your company is not the only answer to your growth, but it should meet you on your professional journey.  If it is unable to do this, then it may be time to find a company that will.

3. You Struggle to Come Up with Good Reasons to Stay

Looking for the positive in a situation is an excellent starting point in taking responsibility for your life experience. You cannot control the world, but you can control your opinion of it.

However, when a job is just a bad fit, it can feel impossible to come up with the positive end of the stick. You start off slow and easy by recognizing

  • You ARE working.
  • And you ARE able to earn an income.
  • Plus you DO know how to do your job well

Then suddenly your list of affirmative statements ends, and you are left wondering why you are still here.

It is important before you make a big decision like quitting a job that you evaluate if things are really as bad as they seem. Particularly when you build a negative expectation related to your job, it is extremely difficult to see things differently.

Shift Your Expectations with an Open Mind

While your evaluation of your current job condition may feel very accurate, you may just have built a negative expectation over time. A couple or even a series of bad events can cause you shift from occassional disappointment to full-blown pessimism.

Attempt to break this cyanical cycle and seek out the positive instead of expecting it to just show up.

  • Take time to write a pro and cons list about your work from the date that you started.
  • Have discussions with others at work with tenure and explore what made them stay all their years.
  • Challenge yourself to build a personal profile of your job experience including what you have learned, relationships you have gained and positive things in your work environment

Taking the opportunity to shift your expectation and to focus on times when positive experiences were more evident can provide you a new outlook on your job. A good place to work, like any good relationship, should not be a struggle. 

However, sometimes the best of times are only in the rearview mirrow and things simply have changed. Or current pains have simply dug too deep to change your mind. If all that comes to mind is the hardship of staying, then make your life easier and start planning your exit.

4. You Are Disconnected from Anything “Important”

The pace and energy of a job are as important of a factor as the actual work that you do. Every business, and even the departments within them, have a different culture, and a different way in which they interact.

At one time you may have been a part of that natural rhythm.  But now you are no longer part of that flow. Deadlines come and go with an urgency in the air.  Must-do projects sail through with pressure and intensity. You may even sit in the middle of all the calamity, but you just don’t care.

Examine Your State of Mind and Emotion

When you just feel disconnected why would you want to stay at your job? Your days just become longer.  The work becomes meaningless.  And your internal fire is impossible to light.

However, his type of dwindled energy can occur for many different reasons and not all lead to leaving your job.

  • You may have had a recent negative experience at work that is too fresh for you to ignore right here and now.  Or a blow to your ego too big for you to be enthusiastic about work at the moment. Note that open wounds take time to heal. When you JUST experienced something painful you may not be balanced enough to make a well-rounded decision.

  • Disconnect can also occur when things outside of work impact your presence in work. You may have a sick parent, experienced a recent death, or even a had breakup.  Your emotional ties to other parts of your life may leave you empty at work. Permit yourself to attend to other parts of your life and to limit your emotional attachment to work priorities. And ask for help if you need it. You may find in being transparent that others become more helpful and supportive until you are able to bring yourself back to center.

No matter the obstacle, when all the dust settles and you can see and feel clearly, take another look at your job. You may find with a little time, patience, and care for yourself you see things differently.

But if you find that a settled mind still presents the same view, it may be time to leave.

5. You Just Do Not Like What You Do

A job is more than a paycheck.  And it can be disturbing when this realization shows itself each and every day at work.

You may have started your job because you had to pay the bills.  But after time you are looking for more. Loving what you do may seem like a privilege.  But you would appreciate it if you at least liked what you do. 

If you struggle with having an interest in your job, it can make getting through your day feel like crossing a desert.  The dry reality of completing meaningless tasks can be torturous. However, this realization does not always mean that quitting your job is the answer.

Rekindle Your Relationship with Your Work

The job you have today does not have to be the career path you have throughout your future. Explore if alternative opportunities exist within the environment you know before you explore the outside world.

  • Your company may have a number of positions and would love to hire someone who has tenure with the business that they know and trust. Be willing to look for other internal job opportunities. 
  • Maybe you have an idea for how to better leverage your skills in ways you will enjoy. Consider proposing a change in the structure of your job or new position altogether. You may be surprised to learn that your boss or the company is willing to consider solutions that work for both you and them.
  • Schedule time with your boss to talk about what you love and if they see opportunity for you to use those skills and talents more often. Sometimes to heads are better than one and together you can create new opportunities that are far better to you than what you do today.

See yourself as a valuable asset capable of learning and taking on new challenges.  You may be just what your company needs.

The worst that can happen is that you demonstrate a vested interest but they unfortunately say no. And that’s okay. This way you know definitely it is time to go and feel confident that another company will be more than happy to actively appreciate what you have to offer.

Conclusion

No job will last forever.  But before you leave the one that you have, make sure that it is really a new job that you need. If you quit your job, you don’t want to look back and feel that maybe you really shouldn’t have.

Remember to look for solutions to your discomfort before you decide that quitting is your only resolution.

Need a Quick Bad Job Solutions List? Take a Look at Our Favorites:

The best thing that you can do for yourself is to take personal responsibility for the satisfaction you desire in your job.  And, if with your diligence you cannot find a resolution to the problems you face, then choose to prioritize your happiness and find a job that you love.

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