How To Quit Your Job Without Ruining Your Life
At one point or another, each of us has thought about quitting our job, right? It's Friday, you might have had the worst week in the world! Are you thinking about quitting?
It really doesn't take much to set us off and make us want to quit, does it? It could be that annoying person you work with or that boss that doesn't think anything you do is good enough. You could just be having one of those bad days where everything is falling over and nothing seems to be going right, is it time to quit then?
I can't tell you when it's time to quit your job and you'll never hear me tell you to quit, it's a personally choice. However, if you have gotten to the point where you're confident that it is time to quit, here are four things to help you quit:
Make sure you're not just having a bad day or bad week: The stars could be aligning just the wrong way and making your week go haywire, it happens. Their might come a time though, when you realize you're going nowhere, you may have been passed up for that promotion for the third time and you see it's just time to quit. You see the difference? Take some time to think through it, if you're a christian, then pray about it. Just don't walk into to your bosses office and give him a piece of your mind, it may feel good but it's not the right way to quit.
Have a back up plan: I talk about this indirectly in this blog post: http://talesofwork.com/blog/2011/11/using-plan-b/ how are you going to pay your bills if you quit on the spot? If you have a family, how will you support them? I know at times it may seem unbearable to be at a job you know you'll eventually quit, but stick it out. Before you quit your job, work on having a plan B, another way to make money to pay your bills. If you KNOW you're going to have to quit to keep your sanity, then start mapping out a strategy to pick up somewhere else, your wife will thank you greatly for this!
Don't burn any bridges on your way out: So now you have a solid back plan to quit your job, you're ready to go, still don't just quit without any notice! I know that if you have a back up plan it might be tempting to finally let someone have it but you never know what's going to happen. You might ream that boss out only to have him come and be the boss at your new company six months later, how will that work out? The world is big but seems small when it comes to people moving around in certain industrys, you end up seeing the same people again. Give your two weeks notice and leave the right way, on good terms, it will work out better for you in the long run. Think about this, if worse comes to worse, you might want to have the option to return to that job.
Leave better than you started: You don't want to burn any bridges, you want to reserve the right to return if you have to, the best way to do this is to do such incredible work on your way out that they remember you for years to come! I know you're a good worker so you've probably been doing this all along but when you have put in your two weeks notice, step your work up to the next level. I'm not talking about working seventy extra hours, but each job that you do should be as close to perfect as you can make it. That hard assignment that nobody seems to get right, you step in and hit it out of the park. Doing this will help if you have to come back, they might even give you an offer you can't refuse until you can make it work with your dream job.
If you're going to quit your job I hope you use these principles, it will help you in the long run. Please, I repeat, please, make sure this is the right decision for yourself and if you have a family, for them. Too many people have ruined their lives and the lives of their loved ones because of rash emotionally decisions made in the heat of the moment, don't be one of those people!
Have you ever quit a job the wrong way? Let us know in the comments:
