When is it time to change?

When you’re unhappy at work, it’s often not the easiest answer to “just leave”. But it’s important to know when enough is enough and it’s time for you to take a new leap and make a change.

Being unhappy in your career or job can show itself in many different ways, from overwhelm to stress and anxiety; to feeling demotivated and like you just go through the motions and then switch off or come home.

I’ve been there before myself, in a job where I was just doing the bare minimum to get by so that I could go home because I hated the people I was working with (that’s a story for another day) and I’ve also been at the other end of the scale where I was at burn out – crying when I got home at the end of a long day but knowing I needed to log on again after my son was in bed just to get the job done.

It’s hard to recognise when you’re in it. But it’s also hard to recognise what exactly it is that you need a change from.

• Is it your job role?
• Is it your company?
• Is it your career or profession?

If you’re not sure which of these it is you actually want to change then here are some tips for you

JOB

Your job should be paying you a fair and competitive salary for the work that you do, be giving you a level of fulfilment in what you can achieve and be something that you enjoy. If any of these are out of kilter it could be that it’s your job that you need to change. Are you just in the wrong job where its not aligned to your skills, not giving you that level of fulfilment and satisfaction you’d like? But before you determine that consider the company aspects.

COMPANY

Here you need to consider if you feel valued by your company. Now that’s different to being paid a fair and competitive rate for what you do. That’s about feeling appreciated for the work that you do, being recognised and rewarded in non-financial ways.

When thinking about if its your company you might also want to consider your alignment to the company values – I have a client for whom the environment is fundamentally important. She is a Product Manager and therefore she wants to work with ethical companies that are seeking to reduce plastic and recycle materials etc. So whilst she could work for many companies doing what she does, it’s simply not aligned with her values to work for someone who creates single use plastic items for example.

At company level you also want to be thinking about career progression or opportunities for growth. I know this is why I left one company because I´d gone as far as I could go and done as much as I felt I could there. And last but by no means least, think about the people you work with – its often the people we work with in a company that make it what it is and a place we want to stay.

CAREER or PROFESSION

But what if its more than the company? What if you move company only to discover 6 months later that you feel the same way as you did before? I´ve had a few clients where this has been the case. The promise of a new company where they will be able to add value, work at a more senior level, or have more flexibility only to realise after the honeymoon period is over that all those feelings they had have come back, that they are still not fulfilled in their job, that they are still not aligned with what they are doing. And its here when its often a change in career or direction that people are looking for.

Whether its your job, your company or your career, there are many things you can do get started on making that change so you can do what you love:

• Take some time to think about what it is you really want to change. Rate your levels of satisfaction, enjoyment and alignment to your job, your company and your career out of 10.

• Then consider what it would take to add 1 to each of those ratings. Is it possible? What is within your control that you could change? Based on that you will have a pretty good idea about what it is you do want to change.

• If you realise that you want a change in career direction, enlist the help of a career coach. The Re-Ignite Your Career Programme is designed for just that – taking you from not being sure about what you want from your career to be being clear about what you want and having the confidence and plan to achieve it.

• If you’re not ready for coaching just yet, a simple exercise you can do is called future-self visualisation. Grab a pen and paper and answer these questions
  • Thinking ahead to one year from now, what do you want to be doing?
  • How do you want to be working?
  • What kind of things do you want to be working on?
  • What does your ideal day look like?

This can be a really powerful exercise to just take you away from where you are now to a future state of where you could be. You can then use this in your thinking about what your next step might be.

If you’d like to know more about the Re-Ignite Your Career Programme, please drop me a message or book in for a coffee and a chat –Let’s chat