Should You Quit Your Job? Here Are 7 Telling Signs You Need To

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if you’ve overstayed your welcome.

It’s easy to get stuck in a job that makes you comfortable or where you feel you’re not appreciated. The longer you’re employed somewhere, the harder it seems to be to step away. But, in both cases, you’re not living up to our potential and need to move on.

Whether you’ve grown comfortable and feel your career has begun to suffer, you’ve stopped liking what you do, or believe you’re not being valued, it may be time to quit.

But how do you know when it’s time? Here are seven signs it’s time to call it quits.

Life is about timing.

– Carl Lewis

1. Your work has lost its energy and excitement

The more you enjoy what you’re doing, the better you’ll be at what you do. However, more than that, if you’ve lost that sense of energy and excitement for your job and no longer find it engaging, it’s a sign that you’re not doing what you were meant to do.

Take some time to reassess your professional goals. If you find something else is calling to you, that’s a good sign it’s time to quit your job and go a different direction (or start working on an eventual transition).

2. It requires you to sacrifice your health

This largely depends on the company’s structure and workplace expectations. However, if your job demands you to practically kill yourself just to finish your workload, you need to create an exit strategy now.

The longer you work in an environment like this, the worse your health will get. At first, it might not seem like a big deal. But over time, the consequences of this kind of work culture can literally be killer. And the hard part about it is, once you begin noticing it, it’s often already too late.

No job is worth your health, and if the company demands you to work in this way, they don’t understand how to maximize productivity effectively.

3. The work culture is toxic

If your work culture is toxic, whether because of verbally abusive boss or negative coworkers, the longer you stay, the more it will affect your life.

You’ll lose your motivation to advance, your energy to produce quality work, and any enjoyment you receive from doing your work as well. So, if your work culture is (or has become) toxic, you need to do whatever you can to get out of there -- and quick.

4. You hate going to work

Do you dread waking up in the morning because you don’t want to go to work? Do you watch the clock every five minutes while at work? Do Sundays just...suck?

Work is well...work, so it’s normal to not exactly look forward to it. However, if you absolutely hate having to go to work, that’s a pretty good sign you should consider quitting your job.

5. There’s obvious instability

This might not be a reason to quit in and of itself so much as it is a reason to keep your options open. Instability is often an opportunity for promotion. But don’t be fooled, these can be empty promotions as they are often granted due to cutbacks.

If your company is regularly laying off employees, it’s clearly in a downward spiral that will eventually catch you in its windfall, so either consider quitting your job now or have an exit plan in place for when the inevitable hits.

6. Your gut is telling you it’s time to go

Sometimes, it’s not about company stability, professional goals, or work culture, but about something else that is more intangible: the feeling that where you are is not where you’re meant to be.

It often takes us years, sometimes even decades, before we get clarity about what we were truly meant to do. But once that feeling hits, we can’t ignore it. Our gut is more than just a feeling, it’s often the reaction to an emotional response.

So, take some time to pay attention to what’s going on inside your head when this happens. If your gut is telling you it’s time to go, you should probably listen.

7. You’re no longer challenged

Assuming you’re interested in challenging yourself and developing your skill set professionally, as soon as you reach a point where you’re no longer being challenged, it may be time to quit.

This, in part, depends on how much potential there is for advancement. However, even then, a potential promotion at a company where you're doing tasks that don’t in any way challenge you to do and be better each day can lead to a feeling of relative emptiness and a lack of meaning.

You could always take this into your own hands by reading books, taking courses, and visiting conferences, but if the company you’re working for doesn’t seem interested in investing in you, that’s a whole other sign you should consider quitting.