- Understand the importance of securing a new job before quitting your current one, backed by research showing hiring biases against the unemployed.
- That said, learn to identify critical indicators, such as (truly) toxic environments or conflicting organizational agendas, signaling when it’s time to move on.
- Gain valuable insights and guidance from Simon Sinek on navigating workplace challenges and making strategic career decisions.
There are countless reasons why one might feel unhappy at work. However, abandoning ship is almost never the best solution. As Simon emphasizes, every job, no matter how challenging or disheartening, presents an opportunity for personal and professional growth.
“Working at a challenging job, even one with a bad boss, can actually provide one of the greatest educations,” he says. Rather than waking up with a sense of dread, consider reframing your mindset to view it as a form of higher studies. Essentially, you’re earning a master’s degree in leadership and gaining invaluable insights into what not to do.
Moreover, it’s a well-established fact that finding a new job is easier while you are still employed. Research indicates that organizations often exhibit a hiring bias against those who are unemployed.
That said, there are situations where quitting might be the appropriate decision, especially if you have ensured some financial stability to pursue new opportunities. According to Simon, here are the major red flags that suggest a company or organization is no longer worth your time.
1. The work environment is certified, Grade-A toxic
The term “toxic” is often used to describe workplaces, but here we are referring to genuinely toxic work environments. “True toxicity,” Simon says, “involves consistent public humiliation, berating in public, or even physical aggression.”
It’s important to recognize that every job involves some degree of office politics, shifting strategies, negative tension, occasional lapses in communication, and even moments of fear. As human beings, it’s our responsibility to navigate these challenges, support one another, and move forward.
However, if you find yourself in a truly toxic work environment, prioritizing your well-being is crucial. Such environments, characterized by high stress and toxicity, can severely impact your self-worth and confidence, making it challenging to pursue better opportunities.
If this sounds like your situation, you are not alone. Recent reports indicate that a hostile work environment is a top reason for employees quitting, with Gallup noting that approximately one in two employees have left a job to escape a bad manager or environment.
2. You’re getting lazy with nowhere to go.
If you are content with coasting at work with little to no effort, if you’re in a phase of life where having an easy job fits (like after having a baby), or if you’ve achieved a level of stability that satisfies you, feel free to skip to the next red flag.
However, if your job is so unchallenging that it’s causing you to lose passion in other areas—and you’re finding that your organization is unwilling to negotiate new opportunities within the company that might satisfy your growth ambitions—it might be time to look for something new.
“This isn’t about the occasional slow day; it’s about a persistent lack of engagement and challenge,” Simon says. “The issue is that the job has become so easy that you’re becoming lazy.”
3. Your organization has an agenda that runs counter to your principles
This could stem from various factors, including cultural differences, political divides, or even company values. Working against who you are and what you believe can be detrimental to your mental health, regardless of the paycheck.
“You’re going to have disagreements at work, and you want people to have diverse thoughts, opinions, and politics. It makes for better teams,” Simon says. “But the issue arises when the company doesn’t value diversity of thought. If you are the outlier, it can be hard to continue in a job that forces you to silence your own beliefs.”
At the end of the day, it’s about feeling included and valued, which is essential for a healthy work environment. If you don’t feel like you matter in your company, you should find somewhere where you will—because you do.
4. You want to be an entrepreneur
As any successful entrepreneur will tell you, juggling a full-time day job and the demands of building a new business simultaneously is nearly impossible.
“The right approach,” Simon suggests, “is to balance your job and your entrepreneurial pursuits until your side project requires full-time attention. When it becomes too busy to manage both, that’s when you decide to quit.”
More Useful Advice from The Optimism Company
3 Game-Changing Tips for More Effective Meetings
Explore 50+ Career-Building Classes in Our Optimism Library.
Try This One-Minute Breathing Exercise to Instantly Calm Your Mind
Inspired by land, storytelling, and gratitude, Omar finds joy in making good visible. He is a public speaker, civic leader, and an entrepreneur. Omar co-founded the gratitude app gthx (as in “gee thanks”), co-hosts the Gratitude Blooming Podcast, and facilitates Gratitude Circles for leaders across sectors. Previously, Omar was the founding executive director of RiverLA and has held leadership positions across the areas of finance, land use, and social impact. Wherever he is, Omar makes sure to take a beat to notice beauty and share his optimism.
Rachel Druckenmiller is a catalyst who unleashes possibilities in people and the organizations they serve. She is on a mission to humanize the workplace by igniting resilience, connection, confidence and courage in organizations and their leaders and teams through interactive trainings, workshops and keynotes. Recognized by Forbes as a Next1000 Honoree in 2021, one of The Daily Record’s Leading Women of 2020, a 40 Under 40 Game Changer by Workforce Magazine in 2019, and the #1 Health Promotion Professional in the U.S. in 2015, Rachel is an award-winning trailblazer and thought leader in the field of human resources. For over 15 years, she has inspired and empowered organizations with 25 to 60,000 employees globally across a wide range of industries.
Elisabeth Cardiello is a communications expert, who after a decade of owning Caffe Unimatic, the coffee company featured in the Netflix documentary “Coffee For All,” deconstructed the conversations she had over coffee. She turned her findings into a neuroscience-backed framework that gives leaders a step-by-step process to address the sensitive issues that are often avoided, improve the quality of their conversations, and hence, build thriving cultures of trust and transparency.
