Whether you need to grow in your career or leave a toxic work environment, change is always good. Here are five signs you need to find another job, soon.
If only life was that simple. If only getting your dream job or starting a successful business was as easy as breathing. But, alas, we know by now that things are not as easy nor simple. When it comes to a career, it gets to a point where there’s more to a job than a title or a fat cheque, (although it doesn’t hurt smiling your way to the bank). Your well-being, recognition for your hard work, health, and being able to spend more time with your family and loved ones should go hand in hand with your job. No matter how much we seem to glamorise exhaustion as a sign of passion and hard work, it simply isn’t worth your health and happiness to work your fingers to the bone to prove your worth, especially at work. However, there are signs, you might have ignored, you need to recognise that it’s time to change your current job:
You have reached the dead-end: One of the best things you can do for yourself in your career journey is to grow as much as you can, take challenges, and better yourself. If your position no longer fulfils you, or if the company itself doesn’t offer room for growth, you might find yourself feeling like you have reached the dead-end where you currently are, which can be demotivating. Unless you are comfortable and happy with the same position you’ve been in for years, challenge yourself to find something else this year.
You feel invisible at work: No matter the ideas and strategies you propose to implement at work, you are blatantly ignored or disregarded. Worse, some colleagues and even managers are capable of taking your ideas and running with them as if they were theirs, taking all the credit to themselves. If you feel you are not valued and recognised at work, it will deplete your motivation and drive to grow. Rather start drawing up an exit plan from your place of work.
You are no longer passionate: There isn’t one job you will be happy to go to every day. Like other areas of your life, you will have great days and bad days at work. However, there is a difference between a bad day or project and continually not being interested in what you are doing anymore. Passion is not really about butterflies, but it’s about thriving at what you do no matter what, especially during challenging times. So, try to figure out where you stand in your current job.
You are in a toxic work environment: A 2019 survey by Career Junction, published by News24, a third of South African employees quit their jobs because of their bosses. Whoever lied to some bosses that being cruel to their staff is a good thing must be called out. Some workplaces have that one person, either a colleague or a boss, who is so toxic that it impedes productivity and people’s wellbeing. It beats me how people forget that their colleagues are just as human, like them, have feelings, have a life outside the office, like them, and even have families to go back home to as well. If you are in a toxic work environment, brush up your CV and start searching for other jobs. Your health and mental wellbeing will thank you later.
You don’t see yourself where you are in the long-term: If somewhere in your future is a distant memory of where you are now, it’s a sign you need to move on. There are companies one sees themselves growing and thriving in in the future. If you don’t like the prospect of seeing yourself where you are a year from now, it’s time to start looking for other opportunities.
