Knowing when it’s time to move on can be an incredibly important and difficult decision to make when it comes to any kind of relationship – personal, intimate, or even a professional one.
Change has never been easy for me, but especially during this past month when I finally decided to leave my retail job of three years. The job I was formerly at was causing a lot of personal issues for me and stressed me out to no end. However, there were a lot of red flags that popped up towards the end that got me to that point. If you think it may be time for you to switch jobs, here are five signs that it may be time to say good-bye.
1. Going into work feels like the end of the world
My change in attitude was the biggest red flag for me. Rather than dreading going to work for normal reasons, I found myself always getting angry prior to having to go into a shift or being in an atrocious head space once I got there. Where as before, I was always a friendly, approachable associate eager to help, I now found myself avoiding customers every chance that I could. Normal work stresses or customer issues would lead me to blow up and resulted in a short temper and I quickly got tired of being angry all the time.
2. You stop caring altogether
I got to the point where I would often come in and question whether or not I really had to get certain things done. This was particularly bad because for my last year there, I was an acting manager during my shifts and was therefore responsible for a ton of important things. Simple tasks that were no big deal to do before, slowly started to feel like the biggest chores and important tasks that needed to be done before the end of the day felt like they should just be the next person’s problem.
3. Liking your team is not enough
I wholeheartedly believe that the biggest reason I stayed with the company I was at for so long was because of my team. During my time there, we went through managers like nobody’s business, but my team is what remained intact and constant and made every transition easier. However, it wound up getting to the point where it felt like we were all losing a little bit of steam and it became contagious. As much as I loved my coworkers, not even working with them could keep me motivated or in happy.
4. Your health suffers
I used to get myself so worked up about things that would happen (or wouldn’t get done) that I would make myself physically sick and would suffer from a lack of appetite, stomachaches, headaches, or insomnia. It also got to the point where I was having stressful work related nightmares at least once a week.
5. It affects your personal life
After a long day of work I would either be calling a friend to vent and complain about everything that was going wrong, or I would come home with a nasty attitude and take it out on other people. Work should never be that serious to where it’s making you someone miserable to be around.