Thinking of quitting your job? Think again!

Too many articles were published during the years, encouraging us to quit our current "miserable" job. Many "experts" advising us to release ourselves from our "unfortunate workplace," and to experiment with the freedom of being our boss. Many others are explaining the benefits of having our agenda, our free time to think, to read, to write, and to explore new entrepreneurial possibilities which most likely, based on their expertise, will lead all of us to countless successes, wealth, freedom, fulfillment and prosperity. 

Wow sounds great. 

However, for many of us, it may be a challenge to create this type of meaningful reality and fascinating career life.

To Quit or Not to Quit?

There are people out there leaving their lives in this manner, following their dreams by using their talents and skills.

Recently I came across an additional, promising article titled "10 Reasons You Have to Quit Your Job in 2014", written by James Altucher who resigned from jobs few times during his career and eventually after stopping the last job he never went back to work in the corporate world again. In his article, he tells us why we should quit our job sooner than later. 

It is tempting and exciting at the same time, but it is not easy to perform. To quit may sound simple, but in practice, it is much more complicated. At the end of James' article, he wrote: "Until you choose yourself for success, and all that choice entails, you will be locked into the prison." 

Really I thought to myself? "Locked into the prison"? Why should we believe that our workplace is a locked prison? 

This is a compelling statement to share! I read it, again and again, thought about it 24/7 in the next few weeks, and wondered if I'm in a stage of quitting. I felt that he moved me, inspired me, upset me, and waved and shook me altogether. 

Prisoners or not it's our choice, don't you think so?

Should I stay or should I go?

While I was writing these lines, I remembered a relationship and a love song from the '80s with a provocative title - Should I stay or should I go? 

In which the man is asking his lady a tough question. It goes like that:

Darling, you got to let me know

Should I stay, or should I go?

If you say that you are mine

I'll be here 'til the end of time

So you got to let me know

Should I stay, or should I go?

In reality, especially if you are considering your career, the worst that may happen to you is that you will be laid off unexpectedly without having any career agenda, in advance preparation for this type of situation and even worse without having a written statement with your future personal career plan. In my opinion, you should quit your job at the right time and for the right reason! No one in your current position should let you know if you should stay or you should go. It is really up to you! This is your career, not your bosses' job!

For a moment you can say to yourself: that's it I'm quitting. I'm tired from all the rush at work, exhausted, I've seen it all, experienced it all, enough is enough, I'll leave and start something new. In my case, while I was reading his article, I thought to explore a better opportunity, maybe joining a team of fascinated entrepreneurs and help them out to establish the next global success. I have begun to fantasize, at least for a few privileged moments, to open my own consulting firm focusing on organizational health, teamwork, and employee engagement, it will definitely be a tremendous success, and why not I have the passion, the hunger, the drive the knowledge the burning desire to make it happens.  

But let's pause for a moment. Let's be honest with ourselves. Let's admit that most of us, at this moment, work for our employer, mainly to support our financial needs, to support our family. If we are pretty much satisfied with our daily work, our payslip and our contribution to our employer and having some kind of personal satisfaction from what we do for our leaving, then to quit our job in most days are far from our priorities.

Now let me ask you - will you really quit your job next Monday? Will you and I actually leave our regular work next week just as after we have been hypnotized in such a professional way and we have come to a belief that this is the right thing and the only appropriate thing to do right now? Can you and I really end our "secure" job, just like that? Think about your spouse, your kids, your payments, your car insurance, property tax, grocery, education, and all other financial commitments which you and I have at this moment. Pretty scary to think about it... Uncomfortable and annoying ha! 

Do you have a fear of rejection?

I have seen many great and skilled professionals who are lacking the skill or the courage or the drive to move forward in their careers. Many of them, after landing in a decent company and managed to secure a good position that allows them to maintain and support their reasonable financial needs, will never even consider quitting. They will do their work, they will satisfy their employer and also will be promoted (only a few that I know, in my personal opinion, it is easier to be promoted to better positions while outside of your current workplace). 

Once I asked a friend of mine, his name is Paulo, who is doing great in his current job, after being lucky to be introduced and hired by a competent and stable employer – why you are not looking for a better career opportunity? We both know that he is stuck in his current position forever. We also know that with some work, effort, dedication, perseverance, courage, and some interviews, he will be able to find a better opportunity. His answer was sharp and straightforward, he said: "Raf, I have a fear of rejection." Paulo, I told him, "no one was found dead due to his fear of rejection, as far as I know. You, my friend, should get read of this awkward thinking and go find yourself a better future, I will help out". 

I have seen many great people during my journey, working for the same employer for decades. Some of them were happy and fulfilled, the rest were frustrated and miserable from their career achievements.

Many never looked from their initiative for a job. In some cases, they landed their first job after college and stayed there forever. I have seen people who are laid off and went to a deep depression, losing all they had, including their family and friend. Others, the few others, moved on and prosper in their new careers.

I am sharing these thoughts not to scare you or hold you back. The opposite is right. My primary goal is to make it clear for you that quitting your current job is a significant and life-changing decision which you should make practically and adequately.

Quitting your current job is a significant and life-changing decision.

If you are that type of person, who feels the discomfort only from thinking of quitting, you are definitely not alone. Therefore, it is essential to admit that it's far away from your comfort zone, from your daily habits, daily routine, everyday workplace relationships, daily deadlines and objectives, daily accomplishments, and successes. Self-awareness, in this case, is crucial for your future decision.  

Once again, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you should not consider quitting your current job; actually, I am assuming that you should consider doing so at the right time and most importantly for the right reason. 

Mainly if you are married and your spouse or common-law partner is taking care of your dependent children while your payslips supporting your young family. My recommendation, in this case, will be not to quit your job before you secured other reliable sources of income. But guess what this story is about me, I left my secure job, and by the way, not once during my journey.

At one point, I quit when I was in my twenties, a young, energetic, restless, and impatient married man with two dependent children to feed and support. With that hasty and irresponsible act, I dragged my young family into a severe economic recession that lasted more than two years. 

During the years, I always made all my efforts to challenge myself, educate myself, and explore other career opportunities within the company first and sometimes managed to climb the leader to new possibilities. I quit eventually only if I came to a realization that it is not fair to stay in that particular company. Not for me, nor my team, and not for my employer. 

I believe that the majority of people will remain in their jobs until retirement. Many will choose to stay but sadly due to a mistaken belief that they will not be able to find something better and secured. 

It is not a prophecy to predict that some of us will lose our job as a result of many layoffs or occurrences that we have no control over, it can happen unexpectedly. Some of us will move to seek better career opportunities within our companies or elsewhere. But only the minority will move forward from their initiative to search for other entrepreneurial sources of income, some will be successful and some not.

Only a few will quit from their initiative! 

I believe that the majority of us will keep our secure jobs for a lifetime if it is up to us. Only the minority will quit from their initiative to pursue new challenges, new knowledge, new opportunities, and new hope. Hopefully, we will leave at the right time and most importantly, for the right reasons.

Yes, you may make a six-figure annual salary, having great benefits, perhaps future opportunities to grow within the company and your career is pretty stable at this moment, but you may feel stuck, empty, and unhappy. You may feel, like many others, that your career in your current position it's a dead end. Perhaps you don't have full freedom to make necessary but straightforward decisions to improve the daily activities of your teams to create a better work environment. Possibly your level not allowing you to make the changes required to develop the overall culture in your workplace for better and your endless efforts are limited and not providing you to achieve the needed impact to support the necessary change. 

The freedom to choose your attitude is all yours, therefore, if you feel that you are "locked in a prison" this is really your choice and you have the power within yourself not to think like that ever again. 

I genuinely believe that we can find meaning in our daily work, even if we don't like every aspect of our daily tasks and responsibilities. Usually, we are keeping our job for the right reasons. We support our family, creating a better future for our children, saving for their education, and so much more.

When I worked as a junior warehouse employee doing very repetitive and tedious tasks, I was motivated to support my family's needs. I couldn't leave at that time. I was driven and encouraged to recognize that my university degree, which I attempted to complete during that time, will provide me with much better possibilities in the coming years. I was future-oriented with a much-focused goal to accomplish. 

Therefore, my question is what is the point to be miserable in what you do? What is the point to feel that you are locked into a prison? 

Instead, it is much more efficient to focus on building relationships with your team, creating a better and positive work environment, smiling more often, and support others to be positive about what they do for their living. 

Quit for the right reasons and at the right time!

If you really thinking to quit your current job ask yourself first the following questions: 

1. What was the main reason for you to apply in the first place for your current position? 
2. Is it the money, the benefits, the training provided, or perhaps the future opportunities to grow within the company? 
3. Is it the drive for new challenges, or the desire to experience the industry that fascinates you from childhood? 

Whether pride guides you or whether your desire to influence the individual, organization, or society in which the organization operates, be honest with yourself, and look for answers to these questions.

Consider quitting your current job only if you feel that you can't utilize your full potential in your current role and if you are absolutely confident that you don't have any other chances to be promoted or to advance your career in the future within the company. 

Consider quitting your current job only if you understand that you causing a bitter, unfriendly, and resentful workplace.

Quit if you are unhappy, miserable, and toxic to others, even to your team. Remember that it is better to quit soon than later. I've seen great people and great employees who pushed themselves to become great employees and leaders but somehow managed to destroy their own reputation by staying too long without quitting on time. 

We all can be toxic if we are frustrated, bitter, discouraged, angry, miserable, and tired from our lack of fulfillment, meaning, and purpose of what we do for a living.

Consider quitting your current job only if you have thoroughly exhausted your professional skills in the present position and that you are entirely open to new challenges that can't be realized within your organization.

Let me quickly share with you my humble personal beginning as an immigrant in Canada, as a father and husband who was obligated to support his family like many of you despite many difficulties, obstacles and challenges. 

In my first nine months in Canada, we lived on our savings, with limited English, and with zero Canadian experience, no one wanted to hire me. Therefore I volunteered on night shifts in The Home Depot of Canada, sorting and putting away products onto the shelves. One night, after three months of unpaid work, my supervisor approached me by asking why I am not getting any payslips, realizing that something is wrong. To make the story short, after two weeks, I was called to sign my first contract in my new country, the hourly rate was $11 in December 2009. Meager pay but guess what I was thrilled and happy, because deep inside, I knew that this is only the beginning and very soon I will move on to my next career opportunity after adding Canadian experience onto my resume. 

Sometimes it is about achievement, accomplishment, and not the amount of money you are getting paid. At that humble beginning in my new home, I couldn't afford even bus tickets to my workplace. 

Within the next few years, I doubled, tripled, and advanced, again and again, my income by quitting and accepting other job offers. Job offers in which I tried to utilize my skills, experience, and knowledge, but more importantly to create a better workplace, to contribute, and to share my ability to inspire and motivate others with my enthusiasm and passion for life. 

I genuinely believe that we all need a workplace, it is not for everybody to be a loner. The majority of us prefer to surround ourselves with great individuals at work and to create an environment in which people are having fun while working together, creating, participating, building, bringing value, ideas, and their vision to their teams and their organization.

People in general willing to earn money, willing to achieve status, ready to make a difference, and follow their passions, and using their abilities.

If you quitting, please share with us your insights, thoughts, fears, doubts about leaving.

If you are staying in your current job, it is fine, but please share with us your thoughts, wisdom, ideas, believes for staying.

If you are having a fear of rejection, or other fears which stopping you from moving forward, please share with us.

If you quit previously and successfully landed a better job, please be kind to share your success story.

Quitting or not you should enjoy the journey and learn your lessons.

Thanks for reading! Please share, like, reach out, and connect here on LinkedIn. 

With Love & Respect

Rafael