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A lot of people are quitting their jobs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 3.9 million Americans quit their jobs in April 2021. The quits rate, which is the percentage of people who voluntarily left their job as a percentage of total employment, was at an all-time high of 2.7 percent. And it’s not just from the manufacturing or retail industries: the quits rate for the educational services category rose from 0.7 to 1.6 in the first quarter of 2021.
These evacuations come after nearly 6 million fewer Americans quit their jobs in 2020 compared to the previous year. Apparently, people were “sheltering in place” in their careers as well as their homes during the pandemic, observed Anthony Klotz, a professor of management at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, who studies the psychology of quitting.
“People have had epiphanies over the past year,” Klotz told the Los Angeles Times. “We all want to pursue life, liberty and happiness, and many of us have realized our job isn’t the best way to get there.”
As anyone who’s ever conducted a job search will tell you, timing plays a big part in career advancement. With so much pent-up demand to switch roles, how do you know if now is the right time to leave your job?
Before we dig in further, make sure you at least have a plan before quitting your job. Having another job offer is ideal, but some people have to quit because their wellbeing is at stake or it’s the only way for them to be motivated enough to find or pursue something new. Either way, don’t leave on a whim or make a completely emotional decision. Here are questions to ask yourself to know if it’s time to quit:
Were you unhappy before the pandemic?
The pandemic put a pause on more than just large gatherings and in-person classes. Lab experiments went on hiatus. Funding for grants and projects and department budget decisions might have been put on hold. Your dean or division vice president probably had new things to worry about besides retaining their employees.
Contrary to the popular phrase “the new normal,” the pandemic environment is temporary, at least the unknowns or the initial fears are temporary. If you’re evaluating your level of job satisfaction, compare it to how you felt before the pandemic when times might have been better. Don’t base it on the irrational behaviors of your students or your university’s leadership during this tough time. Consider waiting until you have at least a semester in a more stable economic and social environment, which, of course, are relative these days.
What can be fixed?
Before investing time and energy in a covert mission to leave your job, talk to your manager about ways that your situation can be improved. Just because there might be plenty of candidates lined up to take your job, doesn’t mean that your manager is willing to let you walk away without addressing your needs. It takes time and energy for your employer to not only recruit candidates but to replace your institutional knowledge. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want now because if you wait until you have another job offer there won’t be time for your current employer to counter the offer.
If your institution can’t accommodate your desires, ask yourself what you can do for your institution. There might be some projects or committee work that you can do to make your university a better place to work. If anything, finding a few small victories will give yourself the experience — and a story to tell in your next job interview — that you might never have if you simply jump to a softer landing spot with fewer challenges. Institutions are always looking for resourceful problem-solvers, not those seeking paths of least resistance.
Are you unhealthy or do you dread going to work?
Enduring some temporary career discomfort is one thing, but if you are experiencing all the signs of burnout, compassion fatigue, and other forms of job-related stress that are affecting your personal life and physical wellbeing, the answer is simple: leave as soon as possible.
People who experience this “occupational phenomenon” and work in a “burnout culture” often have nothing left to give once it’s time to change jobs and they need more time to recover when making a career transition. Spinning your wheels or racing to the finish line of just one more semester might seem like you aren’t straying far from your destination, but it’s even farther if you’re driving a car with a blown engine.
The same diminishment can occur if you dread getting up in the morning, lack motivation, your manager is a bully, or you experience any of the signs of a toxic work environment. This might seem obvious to ask yourself, but some people don’t notice that they are unwell until they are exhausted, emotionally wounded, or overcome with cynicism and resentment.
Is your current job both demanding and in your control?
This is a when-to-quit question asked by Daniel Pink in his book “When.” “The most fulfilling jobs share a common trait,” Pink wrote. “They prod us to work at our highest level but in a way that we, not someone else, control. Jobs that are demanding but don’t offer autonomy burn us out. Jobs that offer autonomy but little challenge bore us.”
This doesn’t mean you should always have complete autonomy about what you do, but rather how you do it and how much you enjoy the process. At some point each day you should be in a state of flow, defined by the renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as being fully immersed in one’s work and finding it so enjoyable that you will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.
According to Csikszentmihalyi, enjoyment is not leisure but rather a forward movement caused by a sense of novelty and accomplishment. Flow could be achieved by conducting research that reveals things in a new light, teaching a class that might feel like you’re closing a business deal, or interacting with ideas, colleagues, or prospects in which the back and forth might seem like a close game of tennis. “None of these experiences may be particularly pleasurable at the time they are taking place, but afterward we think back on them and say, ‘That really was fun’ and wish they would happen again,” Csikszentmihalyi wrote in his 1990 book, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.”
If your job isn’t demanding or you don’t have control — or worse, you have neither — consider a move. This optimal balance of avoiding burnout and boredom not only gives you “flow” but it pushes you forward in your career.
Are you approaching the salary ‘sweet spot’ or a work anniversary?
In his book “When,” Pink cited two interesting studies about timing. A 2014 study by Entelo showed that people prefer to stay with their current employer for 12-month increments. That means, if you dread the thought of being at your job on your next work anniversary, start looking now and don’t wait until you realize it on some temporal landmark.
Pink also pointed to a study by ADP, the human resources management company, revealing the sweet spot for the greatest pay increases, which occur between 3-5 years with an organization. Consider waiting until you’ve been with an institution for five years, which for faculty might be at the brink of earning tenure. For staff and those off the tenure track, heed Pink’s advice: “Fewer than three years might be too little time to develop the most marketable skills (and) more than five years is when employees start becoming tied to their company and moving up its leadership ranks, which makes it more difficult to start somewhere else.”
Is your career stagnating?
Finally, you might not be dissatisfied with your job but you could still use a change. You may have heard the advice to “bloom where you are planted,” but “repotting” is also a career strategy to stay engaged and innovative by changing jobs at least every 10 years.
Did you accomplish everything you set out to do at your current institution? Have you enhanced any of your core competencies in the last few years? What about your sense of mission? Try reading your university’s mission statement aloud and ask yourself if it aligns with the purpose of your career. Make sure you’re flourishing and not stagnating.
And if the institution you are working for or the people you are working with are preventing you from growing, it’s time to start looking for a job and joining the millions of people who quit in the last year.
