I shall be dedicating this month to self-love. This is the month of love, and one of the greatest ways to preserve your wellbeing is by practising self-love. And today’s article will focus on identifying the right time to move on to another job. When should you start looking for another job? How do you know when to weather the storm and hang around till normalcy is restored or just give up, and look for alternatives? It is a question without a straightforward answer. But instances are replete everywhere and they are all right. You only need to apply them in the right context. Let me share the obvious ones. 

PERCEPTION OF UNFAIR PAY 

This is first on the list because this is the prime motivation for people in the survival mode. In this scenario, paying bills and getting by is of utmost concern. Many people fall into this category. You feel the pay is not commensurate with the work you put in. What some people have done is approach the HR, line manager or key decision maker to negotiate pay. Others have obtained high degrees for leverage.  

FEELING OF EMPTINESS 

In this scenario, you just find yourself unfulfilled. You are not satisfied with how things currently look. What you do has become routine and monotonous. Deep in your heart, you do not see your contributions making any major impact. You also think it is a major reason you are not appreciated. That is a classic case of being in a state of emptiness. The feeling of being unfulfilled. 

NO DEFINED PATH FOR LEARNING & GROWTH   

In this scenario, there is nothing in the job you find challenging. You do not learn anything new and there are no visible plans to facilitate new learning. There is also no clear path for career progression. And there is more. All these are salient and sound reasons to start looking for a job, but …  

There are exceptions, however. And as aforementioned, context also matters. Say for example, the last point where there is no clear path for learning and career growth because the leadership of the organisation have simply not thought about it. How about an organisation whose culture is yet to embrace risk taking? How about doing the things I have been writing about for the past couple of years? Like Identifying a major growth opportunity and offering to lead it. Or for those that have an entrepreneurial mentality but love structure, use this opportunity to rewrite the rules of the game.  

Usually, when you address the biggest concerns of top management and major decision makers, you always deliver results, you are the “go to person” when it comes to issues relating to customers, product/service or the industry, chances are that you can sidestep majority of the setbacks people typically face when they are struggling to gain influence at work.  

But I do not have my heads in the cloud. I am aware of organisational issues, office politics, available resources, inconsistency in roles and lack of accountability in “high places.” And this can have a significant impact on your career progression. And if despite all your best efforts the top management and the rest of the major stakeholders still do not get it, then you should start looking elsewhere. I am talking about when the support is not there. When it is all talk and no action to back it up. When the status quo is more important than taking calculated risk for great returns (my assumption is that the proposal is airtight), then it is time to start looking for another job. 

Personally, for me, an organisation not really focused on customers but on a product and service is a “no, no.” That company may have good current sales but poor prospects. It is a company in decline that is going nowhere. Get out of the ship while you can.