Is It Time To Quit?

What do managers need to think about before quitting?
What do managers need to think about before quitting? Image Credit: Erin Kelly

Let’s face it: we’ve all been through a lot. Life may have been quite busy before, but then that pandemic thing happened and things just sorta went out of control no matter how good your manager skills are. Now that life is getting back to normal, it’s perfectly ok for you to be thinking about perhaps quitting your job and looking for a new one. Although this is an acceptable thought to be having, before you pull the trigger and submit your resignation there are a few things that you might want to consider. You want to make sure that any major change that you make like this is the right thing for you to be doing at this point in time.

Should You Quit

Man, right now it sure seems like everyone is quitting their job. More than 7.5 million workers quit their jobs in the past few months, up from 4.3 million during the same period the year before. Right now everyone’s talking about fresh starts. Why is this? There are a lot of different reasons: burnout, the return-to-office mandate, boredom after a year of career stagnation. All of these can seem like good enough reasons to send that farewell email. However, is leaving your job right now the right call? How do you make a decision you won’t regret later on?

Right now more than a third of workers are looking for a new job. One of the reasons for this are “turnover shocks” . These occur when a worker is passed over for a promotion or watches a close colleague resign. These can spark an employee’s desire to leave. In these trying times, we’ve all basically experienced a turnover shock at some point in time. So much change has been experience by managers over the last year that in some way or another we’ve all thought, “Is this what I want to keep doing, in both my life and my job?”

However, as much as this seems to be the thing to be doing right now, perhaps we need to slow down and think hard before walking. None of us have any manager training in how to go about doing this. Nearly a quarter of more than 1,000 workers polled said they had regrets about leaving former jobs. Why do managers leave their job? It turns out that we often quit because we think a new gig will solve the 20% of our job that currently bugs us. And it might, at first. Managers need to realize that there’s that honeymoon period, and then you realize, “Oh, this company has a different set of problems.”

Perhaps You Should Not Quit

Managers need to consider the alternatives. Is it possible for you tweak the responsibilities of the manager role you have to make it a better fit? If you’re burned out, would taking a leave of absence help? For those desperate to hold on to remote work jobs, they should be testing out life at the office for a couple of weeks. Any one of us might be shocked to find you love working in the office again and seeing other adults during the day. Maybe it turns out that you really like doing team building. Or perhaps not. However, by giving it a try at least you’ll know for sure before you resign.

Those managers who have left jobs have advice for managers who are considering leaving their jobs: stay. Often you’ve built up your reputation and trust with colleagues at your current company. You know how to get stuff done there. Managers need to understand that when you take on a new job, there’s risk built into it. There’s so much that happens in your current job if you just stick around.

Sometimes leaving is the answer: to a toxic boss, unsustainable hours or a can’t-miss opportunity. And even with obvious red flags in their current jobs, managers can be too scared of transitions to make a move. Managers tend to escalate their commitment to everything from jobs to relationships, even when they’re not working out. As a result you don’t optimize. What happens if you end up not achieving as much? What if you’ve made your pros-and-cons list, fully considered all the potential downsides of leaving and are still completely torn? In this case it might be worth just going for it.

What All Of This Means For You

Let’s face it: you probably won’t retire from the job that you are currently working at. This brings up the interesting question about how long you should stay in this job. Is it time for you to leave? Are there better jobs out there that you would like to switch to. Making this decision can be very hard to do. If a manager is thinking about quitting their job, what should they be considering?

Right now it sure seems like everyone is leaving their current jobs. One of the biggest reasons for this is because people are feeling that they have been passed over at work. Managers need to understand that many managers who have quit their jobs have regretted it. Prior to quitting your job, you may want to see what changes you can make to your job to make it better. An existing job where you are well known is often better than a new job where there is risk built in.

So what should a manager do? It’s pretty clear that if you are unhappy with your current job, quitting and finding a new job is certainly one option that you have before you. However, as attractive as this option is managers need to realize that switching jobs can cause major issues. Managers need to carefully evaluate their current situation and then make the right decision for themselves.


– Dr. Jim Anderson Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Skills™


Question For You: Do you think that there is any way to test the waters before you decide to quit your current job?


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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Ok, hopefully we can all agree that the basic management stuff is pretty easy for just about anyone with manager skills to do: sign time cards, have an annual review, keep things on track. These things don’t require a great deal of manager training. I like to think of management as being the process of having everyone work on what they are supposed to be doing when you are in the room. However, then we move on to that tricky thing: leadership. I think of leadership as getting the people who are a part of your team to be so committed that they keep doing what they are supposed to be doing even when you are not in the room. Now how is a manager supposed to make that happen?