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The 7 Signs That It's Time To Look For A New Job
Is your employer taking you for granted? Are they holding you back from a well-deserved promotion? It's important to regularly evaluate whether your job is right for you.
For some people, it can be quite hard to admit when it's time for a new job.
They may be scared to break the routine of working at the same place for a number of years or feel a bit nervous that the grass isn't always greener. However, if the majority of the 7 signs below apply to you, then maybe it's time to cut your losses and start looking elsewhere.
You're not being rewarded enough financially for your work
Money isn't the only reason that we all work, but it's quite evidently the largest factor as to why we all turn up on Monday morning. With this being the case, when you feel underpaid by your employer it can quite easy be the biggest driver for wanting to leave a job. I've always found that your salary is a great indicator for how well your employer really values you.
Since both the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, it's more important than ever that your employer annually reviews your pay and increases it fairly. Otherwise, before you know it, you're disposable income will be set back further for every passing month.
It can be difficult especially during a recession to be able to push for a pay-rise, so it’s important that you ready an effective pitch for any salary reviews that you might have.
Your employers starting to cut benefits and perks
Another sign that is more aligned with the monetary side of things, is when employers start stealth-scrapping benefits and perks that they previously provided you with. This can come in a whole different variety of forms such as scaling back company lunches, scrapping healthcare insurance or reducing team incentives.
It can be more difficult to apply an intrinsic value to these kind of perks, as some benefits carry more substance to what different candidates prefer. It's worth keeping an eye out for the ones that you really care about, so you can raise any concerns with your employer regarding this.
You've stopped caring about your work
This can be a tricky sign to put your finger on as it's more to do with the emotional and psychological side of things.
Most of the time it's caused by multiple factors which lead to a breakdown into you not really caring or taking pride with your work.
When this starts to happen it can have enormous ramifications upon your overall productivity. Eventually, the whole situation becomes a bit of a ticking time-bomb where you'll eventually either get fired or quit - both far from ideal circumstances.
You wake-up dreading work
We've all been there. Your alarms blaring out that horrendous sound that we're all far too familiar with, at a time that's an hour too early for our liking.
It's natural to resent this process, but there comes a point where if this feeling starts to become all too intense - it's definitely a sign of something a little deeper.
Some days, waking up for work should invoke some excitement, a new challenge or a time to catch up with work colleagues. If these feelings are absent, something has to change.
The job lacks any sort of challenge
Naturally, after a few years you can find the level of challenge in your job to wane a little. Whilst this is welcomed by some, the comfort of an easy job can be a bit of a motivation-killer.
It has to be said that there can be quite a fine margin between being comfortable and being over-worked; hopefully your employer can recognise where that point is and adjust your workload accordingly.
The bad manager effect
We've all heard the saying that people don't leave the business, instead they they leave the manager. More than 2 in 5 employees have left a job because of having a bad manager. One of the main factors when this happens is because they feel micromanaged.
If you’re looking to stifle your teams productivity and creativity, then you’ve found your main ingredient - micromanagement. It’s often used far too freely by managers who lack confidence or security in their own abilities, so they feel the need to keep resorting to this old-fashioned ‘Iron Fist’ method of management.
If you don’t feel that level of trust or respect your manager, it can really hold your personal growth back.
Have you ever left a job because of a bad manager?
- Yes
- No
You feel detached from your team
Never underestimate the power of your work colleagues. When you start to feel detached and a lack of belonging with your team, it can have profound effects upon your overall enjoyment of the job.
You don’t have anyone to bounce new ideas off, you start to bottle up the difficulties of the job internally and you have no-one to grab a pint with after a hard week. Eventually, the challenge will start to become insurmountable.
On the contrary, a team that has a positive closely-knit camaraderie can make even the hardest of jobs seem bearable. An employer should do all they can to try and promote an atmosphere which is conducive of building up the team morale.
The reason for this is because a strojf team bond can have a fantastic impact upon reducing both labour turnover and absenteeism whilst increasing productivity and customer satisfaction.
"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients." Richard Branson - Virgin Founder
To summarise
There can be times where work is far from perfect and you have to knuckle down and battle through. Yet, it's worth remembering that life is too short to be eroding in some dead-end job and wishing for the hours to fly by. If a number of the above signs have been flashing red for a while, it's time to get a feel for the market and see what else is out there.
It'll be great to hear from you below about what you think the biggest sign is when you start to look elsewhere?