When it's time to quit your job

...from personal experience

I’ve had the summer off.

If you didn’t know, since 10th July, I’ve enjoyed two solid months of extended, and exclusive, family time.

The time off has been brilliant.

(That all ends soon by the way, but this post isn’t about that… 👀)

However, the lead-up to this summer was entirely different.

After nearly three years in what was very close to a dream role, which I’ve written about in detail, I handed in my notice in April – without a new one lined up.

It had been on my mind since late 2023, and the longer I left it the easier that decision became.

Sadly.

Now I’ve thought very carefully the title about the title of this post and I’m deliberately not calling it “Why I quit my job”.

This isn’t meant as a warts-and-all account of my reasons, but an understanding of the factors that influenced one of the biggest decisions of my career to date.

Should you ever find yourself in a similar position, I hope this helps.

What I will say is that I know this decision was the right one, as I wrote about in my LinkedIn post at the time.

Six things to consider

There is, most of the time, a shared understanding that an employee-employer relationship is two-way.

I know I’ll bring expertise, effort, and personality, but the employer needs to step up too. They’re providing everything else to make it a meaningful relationship that gets the best out of my skills, delivering what they need or want me to achieve for them.

I accept that agreement each time I’ve signed a contract for a new role.

So does my employer.

Ideally.

But what are they providing? What makes up a dream role? Does that even exist?

Here’s my take:

To explain those all a bit further, here’s my thoughts:

• Salary - fundamentally you want to be paid, and paid well.

• Role - it needs to be something that matches your skills and expertise, but is also enjoyable, with the potential for growth and development.

• Leadership - from your line manager to C suite, senior people who are inspirational, respectful, and approachable. They lead in the right way and trust you to do the job.

• Colleagues - the talented people you work with daily that make it all bearable!

• Environment - an office/working space you want to work in, with the flexibility to work from home.

• Purpose - you believe in what the company is trying to achieve and who it’s doing that for. Ideally, it’s something inspiring!

In theory, if you have all six then you’re in the perfect job.

For the majority of my last role, I had them all – perhaps for the first time ever.

That isn’t to say previous roles were ‘worse’ in any way (they weren’t), but for two solid years, it was genuinely a dream job.

This is rare.

And clearly, you don’t need all six for a job to be fulfilling.

However, when you start to think more about each one in turn, you can then relate it to where you work.

And that’s where you start to rank them in a loose order of importance, allowing you to figure out what matters most to you.

Everyone’s order will be different.

I know which ones matter more to me, so when I started to see those shifting, and dramatically, I knew there was a big decision heading my way… and fast!

When should you quit?

There’s a huge caveat to quitting, however.

Something I don’t think gets acknowledged enough by those spouting “just quit” messages on social media…

Wanting to quit is one thing, being able to is entirely different.

More often than not this is for financial reasons. We all have bills to pay.

When deciding to leave my last role, I was fortunate to be able to give myself a few months off.

Not everyone is in that position.

I knew I could leave the role, without another lined up, and take some family time before restarting the job hunt.

For very, very good reasons I didn’t need to do that for very long, so I was able to enjoy the summer even more.

(Yes, I am using this emoji again… 👀)

So, is there ever a right time?

Well, yes.

Fundamentally, it’s time to leave when one or more of those six factors changes so drastically that you no longer want to work in that role or for that company.

It might be that all of them change a little bit that it all adds up, or just one of them changes so much that it’s enough for you to say you’re done.

In my experience, once they do change, they’ll unlikely change back.

We all have a different tolerance threshold for the severity of those changes.

What works for me, may not for you – and vice versa.

But now that you’ve read my thoughts on the six most important factors that make up any job, I hope you’re better prepared for that situation – if it ever occurs.

I also hope it gives you the understanding to know when something is as close to perfect as possible, and you’ve found the ideal job and company.

That’s far more positive.

Dave