Quit or stay? Many employees are currently asking themselves this question, after all, the willingness to switch is high after two years of crisis. Lack of further development, short-time working or home office rules that are perceived as unfair, hardly any management at a distance, or more change projects than day-to-day business. Is it advisable to quit now without a new employment contract in your pocket? Or first, take a break and then look for a new job in peace? Would you rather stay and hope that it will get better? Here are my 10 questions that you should ask yourself before dismissing your contract, so that frustration, stress, or under-challenge do not turn into a hasty escape, but a well-considered decision to change.
Quit job? 33 percent of employees are willing to change.
Studies show that willingness to switch is high in the country despite the crisis. In a Forsa study commissioned by XING at the beginning of 2021, a total of 33 percent of German employees stated that they are open to a new job. A current study by the Boston Consulting Group among IT specialists comes to the result that even 79 percent of the IT experts surveyed (in Germany) are planning a job change in the next 2-3 years.
I also feel the willingness to switch from the increased inquiries for career and application coaching since the beginning of the pandemic. Often it is about a lack of sense from a distance in the home office, how an employer deals with the Corona rules, a lack of clarity and frustrating injustice, changes in management, or insufficient development prospects. Many of my clients are tired and exhausted. This makes it all the more important not to slip into the next job with the decision to resign, but to consciously take this step with care. Here are ten questions – and many more ;-), that you should ask yourself (and answer) for safety before terminating:
Go or stay? 10 questions to ask yourself before quitting
Which of these questions can you answer with “yes” and which questions do you find it difficult to answer? What information are you still missing and what can you do to get more clarity? Find out if you are really ready to quit your current job and start something new.
1. Are you really ready to give up your current position and your colleagues?
Every change means giving up something old for something new. Daily – even if only virtual – contact with colleagues whom you have come to love, certain tasks that were previously fun, or special advantages that your current job or your employer brings with it. What will you give up when you quit? Are you really ready for this and can you say goodbye to it?
2. Is there nothing left to prevent you from resigning?
In career counseling, I experience many employees – and above all young professionals who, in my opinion, throw the gun in the grain too prematurely and take flight. Would your boss or colleagues still have a chance to keep you from resigning, and if so, with what? What would have to happen for you to stay? – More money? A promotion? New tasks? An open debate? Is it worthwhile to discuss such topics openly with your manager or colleagues in the team and to check whether there may still be a future together? And if there is something, how likely is it that what would keep you from quitting will actually happen in the future?
3. Is it clear to you what you expect from a job change?
Most employees who are thinking of resigning themselves are on the run. The main thing is to get away. But moving away from your old employer says nothing about your good goal for the future. Have you already thought about what should happen after the termination and what do you think will make you feel better after changing employers? What is really important to you in your job, which personal values and goals should be fulfilled so that you are doing well in your job? What if this is currently not available and what should be different for a new employer so that your values are more fully fulfilled again? So what exactly do you expect from a change and are you sure that these opportunities for change do not exist with your current employer? Then …
4. Have you checked all the options with your current employer?
Many employees think that their position with an employer is set in stone. When they are frustrated, they often do not come up with the idea of asking around for alternative development opportunities within the company. Once the notice of termination has been given, it is usually too late to think about internal switch options. So, which ideas for change, perhaps unrealistic but attractive in your opinion, would be worth talking to your manager, other managers, or employees from the HR department before you say goodbye for good?
5. Are you in a good shape to think about your future career?
Many employees feel very much under pressure in their day-to-day business and they are burdened by the problems that led to the idea of resigning. In coaching, I notice that there are some changes willing falls extremely difficult to think about their professional future and to look together with me to the front. Just a quick thought of what you have suffered from in the last few weeks or months brings tears to your eyes. Today and yesterday determine their carousel of thoughts so much that there is still no room for tomorrow in their heads. Again, resigning would be more of a hasty escape than a good start to something new. How do you feel when you think about your current state of mind? Do you still feel like a victim of the circumstances or do you really want to actively shape your future?
6. Do you know which target positions and employers you are looking for?
How should things go after the termination? The same, just elsewhere? A new job with an employer in the same industry? Or even a major professional reorientation? When you quit, you don’t have to have your new employment contract in your pocket, but you should have a rough idea of where the next step should lead you. If you have not yet managed to develop this plan, then create space for your orientation phase. The question is: Will you wait a little longer before you dismiss and will you be able to look around for new positions and employers on the side, or do you need separation and a break from your old job for these considerations?
7. Do you understand how other people rate your decision?
“You don’t just quit your job!” This thinking is still present in large parts of our society. Especially when this decision is viewed as a luxury problem by other people around you. They will convince you that you are fine after all and that many other employees are so much worse off. And you will hear the popular argument that if you have already quit your bargaining position with a new employer is much worse. So how strongly do you currently stand by your decision yourself and what will you say to such questioners?
8. Are you in the mood for interviews again?
Well, you probably won’t want to talk about lust. In any case, I have not yet met a job changer who is looking forward to an interview. But one thing is clear: If you are not an IT expert, carer, or craftsman, you will probably have to write a few applications and have many interviews until the next employment contract is signed. Be honest with yourself. Are you ready for this and curious about what the job market has to offer you?
9. Will you be able to bridge three months with no income?
If you terminate the employment contract yourself, you normally face a 3-month ban on unemployment benefits. Do you have enough reserves to cover your costs and living expenses during this time? If you do not have the prospect of a new job at the time of termination, application processes can quickly drag on for six months or more. Will you also be adequately provided financially during this time?
If you want to know what salary you can achieve in other positions/industries, then the free salary check from Salary.de offers you a good orientation.
10. Does the job change fit in with your private life planning?
Work has long since become an integral part of life – even more so in recent months with many employees working from home. What are your private plans for the next few years and would your termination and change of employer have any effect on this? What would you have to do without in your private life and how important is all of this to you? Or is there something that you want to improve privately through the termination and what does this mean for your search for a new employer?
Are you going to quit?
Plan your exit and change
Once you have made your decision that you want to leave your current employer, clarify the separation process. What notice periods have to be observed and what is a good termination date for you? Are there any tasks or projects that you would like to see successfully completed before you leave? Perhaps it is also important to you to hand over the open topics to a successor. Many employees want to leave their employer for good and not leave a battlefield behind. If this is important to you too, then find out what you can do to help in the remaining time.
Perhaps your employer also has programs for downsizing and you can benefit from a severance payment arrangement or outplacement advice that will help you find your way around and find new positions. Perhaps it can also make sense to speak openly with your employer about which side has issued the legally effective termination – with all the associated consequences – from the calculation of the unemployment benefit to the wording in your job reference.
Will you stay?
Redesign your old work
If you have decided against a termination, you will not be satisfied with “Keep it up!” In the long run. Even if you are more aware of the advantages of the position with today’s employer and these outweigh a change of job, there is probably still something that bothers you and will continue to burden you in the future.
Do not lapse into a duty-to-rule attitude in the long run or endure all of this as a victim of the circumstances in sheer desperation, but work as the boss of your life on the important topics that you highlight in your answers to my ten Identified questions. Because even as an employee, you have far more creative freedom than you may be aware of today.
(Image: 123rf.com , # 72680873, georgerudy)I would be happy if you share this post in your networks.