2014-04-11 06:23:49
Ever wanted to walk into the boss s office and scream, I quit! and march
straight out of the door for good? You re not alone.
And like most people who have that thought cross their minds, you probably
haven t ever quit in grand style, either. But maybe you should. Leaving your
job and avoiding the safest career path were both topics LinkedIn Influencers
weighed in on this week.
Here s what some of them had to say.
Jack Welch, executive chairman of the Jack Welch Management Institute
For many people, knowing when to leave a job is hard to determine. What
criteria can you use to determine if you have been with the same company too
long?, asked Welch in his post Four Reasons to Quit Your Job.
Usually, angst about work creeps in, and then builds until it consumes you.
And that can happen early or late in a career. Gone are the days when, after
graduation, you took the best available job and stayed for as many years as you
could possibly stand, frustration be damned, wrote Welch. So how can you sort
out whether or not you should quit? The first two things of four to consider:
Do you want to go to work every morning?, Welch wrote. Does the prospect of
going in each day excite you or fill you with dread? Does the work feel
interesting and meaningful or are you just going through motions to pull a pay
check? Are you still learning and growing? If not, he suggested, it might be
time to move on.
Secondly, do you enjoy spending time with your colleagues or do they generally
bug the living daylights out of you, wrote Welch. We re not saying you should
only stay at your company if you want to [organise a ] barbecue with your team
every weekend, but if you don t sincerely enjoy and respect the people you
spend 10 hours a day with, you can be sure you will eventually decide to leave
your organisation. Why not make the break sooner rather than later and start
cultivating relationships at a company where you might actually plant roots?
James Altucher, entrepreneur and owner, Formula Capital
My boss screamed at me in front of my colleagues. I had done something wrong
of course, wrote Altucher in his post 10 Reasons You Have to Quit Your Job in
2014. But I don t like being yelled at. So the next day I said the magic
words, I quit .
Fortunately, for Altucher he had a job offer already in-hand. But it wasn t the
last time he quit a job and eventually he left the corporate world, he wrote.
You should do the same, he suggested. Among his 10 reasons you should leave
your job and venture out on your own this year:
You ve been replaced. Technology, outsourcing, a growing temporary staffing
industry, productivity efficiencies, have all replaced the middle class. The
working class. Most jobs that existed 20 years ago aren t needed now. Maybe
they never were needed, he wrote.
Money is not happiness. First, the science: studies show that an increase in
salary only offers marginal to zero increase in happiness above a certain
level. because people spend what they make, Altucher wrote. I have never once
seen anyone save the increase in their salary. In other words, don t stay at
the job for safe salary increases over time.
It s ok to take baby steps., he wrote, suggesting people make a list of every
dream they have first. These are not goals, these are themes, he wrote. Then
ask yourself every day, what do I need to do to practice those themes? This is
how you take baby steps. This is how eventually you run towards freedom.
John Ryan, president and chief executive officer at Center for Creative
Leadership
Being strategic in managing a career and not changing jobs in a reckless way is
important, wrote Ryan on his post Stop Playing It Safe With Your Career. But,
at one time or another, or perhaps many times during our working lives, we will
face an unsettling choice do we simply stay in our lanes or risk exiting onto
an entirely new road?
At those critical points, what should you do? Ryan suggested a few points to
ponder. Among them:
Do you believe you cannot go farther in your career than your natural
abilities take you, or do you believe you can develop new skills and talents
with repeated practice? Again, it s not just about proving yourself; it s about
improving yourself he wrote. New assignments can drive exceptional leadership
growth. Your mindset will powerfully influence your willingness to rise to the
challenge.
Still uncertain? Call on your mentors, wrote Ryan. Most of us have had at
least one or two good ones in our careers Turn to them for help. You aren t
always going to like what they say.
And, Ryan wrote, consider that the longer we work, especially in the same
fields, the more prone we become to tunnel vision, to staying stuck in our
lanes. It s hard to break out of the narrative we ve created about ourselves
and our abilities, he wrote. But that doesn t mean you should stay where you
are.