How do you know when it’s time to leave your current job?

Should I stay or should I go?

Leaving isn’t always easy. There are a lot of things to consider, especially if you are in a situation you’ve always dreamed of. But then it starts going and feeling wrong. That’s when you start thinking of your investments in time, effort, and emotions.

But sometimes, when you get the feeling that it’s all wrong, you just really have to STOP and think. Only then can you decide what’s next.

Leaving is applicable to any situation you feel stuck in. However, let’s focus on the unspoken struggle of a person thinking of leaving their job, but they can’t because it’s that time of year again — considering the 13th month pay, 14th month pay and Christmas Bonuses!

You should be really happy, right?! But you can’t find even the energy to do so.

Here are some of the indicators when it’s time to leave your current job.

1. When it’s been days, weeks, or months, and the feeling of emptiness doesn’t go away.

2. When it’s starting to feel toxic. It seems like you can’t finish anything and you’re experiencing physical symptoms of stress – headaches, colds, fever.

3. When you start imagining a better place. (Because you wouldn’t be looking in the first place if you wanted to settle with where you are.)

4. When you realize it’s not (or it’s no longer) your passion. You’re less productive and you’re bored most of the time.

5. When you’d rather be jobless than spend another day in that place.

6. When you’re not learning anything you can’t learn on your own.

Your skills aren’t being used. And when your skills and initiatives aren’t being recognized, or they’re just being ignored. It’s not about being so sensitive, but we all need support and assurance that we’re doing right.

7. When you feel like there’s no winning. Plain and simple — you lose that drive and motivation to share your creative input and insights (something you’ve been doing a lot before).

Ask yourself why you always feel like you’re in a battle trying to prove something to those people whom you’re not even servicing. A battle for what… again?

8. When you can no longer imagine yourself staying there for another year.

9. When there’s regular restructuring or reorganizing, and you feel like it’s not changing things for the better.

10. When your conversations (and social media posts!) become more and more about the never-ending stress at work.

11. When you’re starting to push away ideas of new projects, new tools, or embracing changes in those situations.

12. When you suddenly have the MOMENT (maybe while inside the meeting room, having a discussion with your boss or just staring at your incognito tab) when you said to yourself – “I have had enough”. Period.

If you feel most of what’s indicated above, then it’s most probably time to go. It’s still better to look for a backup plan before you go, and there might still be a few pros over the cons, but sometimes it’s just really time to go.

Leaving a job is difficult but if you think leaving is the only way to relieve yourself of the stress and the problems that come along with it, let go peacefully.

Have you ever felt stuck in the moment because of hesitations in leaving your job? What made you decide to finally do it?

Share your stories with us!