Is there such a thing as a ‘perfect time’ to change your job? Perfect in the sense that you leave when it is ideal for your career development while causing the least harm to your employer, your professional reputation is still intact and, your personal relations with colleagues is largely healthy.
Unless you are one of those people who clings on to the status quo by their finger nails until they are blown away by the winds of change, you need to work out the perfect time to bow out with dignity. But, how can you know such a point has been reached? How long past that point do you suddenly realise that things are so bad that you end up jumping into the first job you come across just to be rid of the misery you have been living in your current position?
There are a number of tell-tale signs that suggest you should act soon, before you employer takes action. If you recognise any of the signs below, then you need to prepare an exit strategy for yourself. The signs are when:
1. You get that sinking feeling of dread every Sunday afternoon
2. You start clock-watching 15 minutes after arriving at work
3. Visits to Facebook & trips to the toilet become the major highlights of the day
4. You look forward to visiting the dentist more keenly than going to work
5. Work tasks suddenly take much longer to complete than they used to
6. Social interaction at work becomes the norm, disrupted by fits of work tasks
7. You welcome mild poor health as a legitimate reason to call in sick
8. The death of the neighbours’ dog is a good enough reason to take the day off
9. You start referring to the company as ‘they’ instead of ‘we’
10. You start to enjoy hearing bad news about the company performance
11. You start fantasizing about what you would say to your boss on your last day
12. You start drafting your last goodbye email or speech
These signs materialize gradually so if I were you, I would start thinking about a change by the time you get to point 4 or possibly 3, because by the time you get to item 11 or 12, even you should realise the end is in sight and you really need to find yourself a cardboard box to transport all your personal items such as the cactus plant, the stress ball and the picture of your cute cat. The longer you ignore these signs, the more of them begin to emerge. Eventually, your relevance within the organisation declines and your employers will notice it, so much so, no matter how important you may have been to them in the past, they will begin to think about the company surviving without you. And believe me, the company will survive without you.
So, here are some signs that the company is gradually thinking of ‘letting you go’ when:
1. You are not invited to certain meetings you used to attend
2. Your opinion is no longer sought and if you volunteer an opinion, it is ignored
3. Your annual appraisal is postponed indefinitely
4. Your boss is suddenly not so angry about you missing deadlines
5. Coming to work late or leaving early is no longer challenged
6. Your workload is inexplicably lighter than it has ever been
7. Your boss readily approves your vacation requests
8. HR staff no longer look you straight in the eye
9. Conversations in the kitchen suddenly stop as you approach
10. Hints by you at change of career are met encouragingly by everyone
11. HR staff are visiting your boss’s office more frequently than usual
12. Your boss approaches you and says: “do you have a minute?”
So, watch out for those signs that the company is working on your exit strategy and the news is slowly spreading amongst everyone, except you! It is a matter of minutes after your boss utters the immortal words: “do you have a minute?” and the two of you are in his office, the door is closed, eye contact is avoided, a few nervous coughs, an offer of a coffee then, the first words you will hear are: We have been thinking…
Unlike a pet dog, a job is not for life; it is for as long as the relationship between you and the employer remains healthily symbiotic, where benefits are derived by both sides. Once this balance is disturbed, regardless of why or how, then one party, or both, need to act and do something about the situation. So, a change of job, irrespective who initiates it, is a healthy thing for you, as long as you have thought about and carefully selected a better job for your career and personal aspirations.
In my view, the healthiest way for your career is to be mutually open and honest with your employer and find alternative roles within the organisation, without having to leave at all. Many business leaders have risen through the ranks not in a straight hierarchy line but by moving across-and-up within the company. Famously, the late Sir John Harvey Jones, a well-respected businessman who led Imperial Chemical Industries (I.C.I) through its best days, had more than 20 different jobs within the company before he landed the top job.
It is generally better for one’s dignity and sense of wellbeing to act first and jump, before one gets pushed overboard. However, being pushed is the second worst thing that can happen to you and your dignity. The absolute worst thing that can happen is that you don’t jump and the company, for whatever reason, does not push you over. So, you end up with your soul slowly ebbing away and you waste your precious life existing in a purgatory of irrelevance. At least a change of job brings with it renewed energy of enthusiasm, motivation and a sense of purpose, irrespective of whether you jumped or got pushed.
There is a song called ‘THE GAMBLER’ by the American country singer Kenny Rogers with the following chorus words: “You got to know when to hold them; know when to fold them; know when to walk away; know when to run”.
