Is It Time to Change Your Job
?
E. Carol Webster, Ph.D.
Copyright Ó 2001, 2003
Changing jobs can be difficult. It can be even harder
to know exactly when to do so. But, we are living in a time when it’s
no longer necessary to settle into a job for life and count the years
until you can collect your gold watch and retire.
Yes, we were told that it’s smart to get a
job that you can stay in forever because you need the financial
security. When you were younger, at least one relative told you that the
best jobs were at the Post Office, in the military, or the school system
and those in the family who had these jobs were held in high esteem and
were the subject of great envy when they "did their 20 years"
and could spend the rest of their lives doing what they pleased, content
that their retirement income was guaranteed for life.
But, times have changed. Though you were
fortunate to have opportunities that your relatives perhaps could only
dream of, you’ve discovered that your advanced college degrees no
longer guarantee that you’ll continue to advance and prosper within
your corporation ¾ or that you’ll even
have a job at all after a few years. The era of downsizing, rightsizing,
and other euphemisms for being laid off means that few jobs are secure
anymore. As employees were forced to move from corporation to
corporation, the psychological need to maintain company loyalty
declined. Who’s going to feel loyal to a company that "kicks you
to the curb" after you’ve given your blood, sweat and tears to it
for years. How loyal are you going to feel towards your next employer?
Not very.
This unstable business climate, then, has
granted you "permission" to change jobs many times throughout
the course of your life without undue worry about appearing
"flaky" or "at-risk" as an employee. Many people
move on after 3 or 4 years in search of greater opportunity ¾
both in terms of greater job stimulation, challenge, and prestige, as
well as income.
So, where are you in your career?
The key question to ask yourself is whether you
are content with your daily work routine and feel adequately compensated
for what you’re asked to do. Now, this is different from feeling ideally
compensated for what you’re asked to do. Few jobs maintain that ideal
quality for long, either in terms of job activities or remuneration.
That’s just the way it is. Like finally getting your MBA, your first
new car, your condo on the beach ¾ the
luster fades after a while and you realize that success is not the
tangibles and materialisms you can get, but the process, the
attitudes and behaviors you exhibit that enable you to get them. So,
don’t look for the job to produce permanent exhilaration and
satisfaction, but it should feel worthwhile.
Instead, take stock of where you are in your
life and what you had hoped to accomplish by now. What’s your purpose
in life, the reason you exist? What’s the legacy you hope to leave
behind? How is what you’re doing moving you closer to that goal? If it
isn’t, then it’s probably time for you to start thinking about
making a change.
If you know you need to move on but can’t
seem to get it together, try to identify what’s holding you back. Very
likely, the answer is fear. Fear of losing status and the identity
you’ve built up in your current job, fear of not making the same money
and having the same perks you have now, or fear of not being able to do
the new job and risking the possibility of defeat and humiliation.
Many times, the answer is even simpler.
You’re just comfortable where you are and don’t want to have to work
as hard as you know you’ll have to in order to prove yourself on a new
job. But, when you start getting depressed as the weekend comes to a
close and start feeling that "Sunday night dread" because you
have to go into your office the next day, that’s your cue that it’s
probably time to move on.
One way to bolster yourself for a job change is
to view it as an opportunity to improve, not diminish, your life. Make
the search for headhunters an interesting quest for your best career
representative instead of a chore, and view those required on-line
searches as an exploration into unknown territory about companies that
exist in the country rather than anxiety-provoking competition with all
your colleagues who are also looking for jobs. Most importantly, try to
view the experience as an opportunity to get closer to leaving your mark
on this life, doing what you feel will make a difference and will stand
the test of time when reviewed by others many years from now, rather
than doing tasks you detest each day simply because you are well-paid.
Changing jobs can improve your life. More
importantly, changing jobs can improve you.
