The quitting culture

Questions to ask before leaving job

From Megxit to swearing off Facebook to Veganuary and beyond, today’s quitting culture shows no signs of, well, quitting.

It was inevitable, then, that the quitting culture would invade the workplace, too.

Lots of people quit their jobs to take advantage of great opportunities. That’s not new, of course. What’s different now is that many talented professionals often are bombarded by recruiters with employment opportunities offering great pay and attractive perks.

All those tempting jobs are enough to motivate many people to quit, even if they’re fairly satisfied with their current position.

The quitting culture is a result of supply and demand, among other factors. The U.S. unemployment rate has steadily declined in the past 10 years, has remained below 4% since 2018, and hit a 50-year low of 3.5% late last year.

While unemployment has declined since 2010, the voluntary turnover rate in the U.S. has steadily increased during the same period, climbing 88% from 2010 to 2018, according to the Work Institute’s 2019 State of the Workforce report. The report adds that “a staggering” 41.4 million U.S. workers voluntarily left their jobs in 2018 primarily for better opportunities.

People buy into the quitting culture partly because it can seem so easy to quit a job and grab that fresh new opportunity. But most job switchers underestimate how difficult transitioning from one role to another can be. Even if it’s a great position and you’re truly excited, it takes a lot of time, energy and effort to uproot yourself and settle into a new job at a new company. Will the effort be worth it? That’s just one of the important questions to ask yourself before quitting. Here are some others.

Have you thought strategically about your current job? Are you still learning in your role? Does your manager support your learning and growth? It’s worth mentioning that 51% of U.S. employees would quit a job if it didn’t provide necessary training, according to Udemy research.

Do you like your colleagues? Is your company doing interesting, meaningful work? Is there a clear path to the next level? Are there other jobs in the company that might be an even better fit than yours?

If you don’t like your current job, what steps have you taken to improve the situation? What conversations have you had to find out how your job satisfaction might be improved? Without identifying and owning your role in the situation, the same problems may follow you to your new job and the one after that.

Regarding the job you’re considering taking, how stable is the new company? Does the CEO have a vision for the company that you think makes good business sense? If the company is a startup, does it have sufficient funding? Be aware that you need to dig deep when considering a new company and a new role.

Finally, ask yourself if quitting your job is a knee-jerk reaction or a strategic move toward fulfilling your master career plan. This is a critical consideration, as it can have a long-lasting impact. Think about it: Even though our economy has been going strong for years, it’s not expected to maintain this level of growth forever. When things shift and job growth slows, employers will have the upper hand again.

And a lot of job-hopping on your résumé could make you less attractive to employers compared to professionals who followed a more thoughtful career path.

DREAMSTIME