Quit or Grit?
If you’re a millennial, like myself, you were probably conditioned to believe that as soon as you graduated college, your dream job awaited you with open arms and once you were employed by said dream job, you would work there until you retired happily at 60+. Well I’m sure you quickly realized those are not really the cards we were dealt and therefore many of us job hop. There are benefits to job hopping which I will discuss in a later post but there are times when you should consider hanging in there.
Quitting a job can be easy or hard depending on the circumstances under which you are departing. I think the most common scenario is one in which you are unhappy at your current place of employment and you leave after securing what you hope to be a better job. Well what happens when you are unhappy, you have another offer but aren’t quite sure if the new opportunity is right? Then you have to decide…quit? Or grit?
I have faced this very dilemma in my career. I was unhappy at work so I began job hunting. I was blessed to have an offer for a great opportunity but the more I thought and prayed about it the more I was unsure of what I should do. Ultimately I chose grit over quit. Here’s what I considered as I made my decision.
Grit if….
You’re manager and or HR Rep have no idea how you feel
In a situation where you are unhappy at your job, you should express to your manager exactly what you are unhappy about. You’d be surprised at the changes that can come out of a honest conversation with your manager. Employers know that it is more cost effective to retain employees rather than acquire new ones. Depending on your work performance, your manager may be willing to make adjustments that will keep you around. Conversely, if you have the conversation and no change happens, at least you can say that you tried so that when you leave you can avoid the awkward “why are you leaving?” conversation.
You’re job is only bad sometimes
Adopting the 80/20 rule when it comes to your ratio of good and bad days will help you gain perspective on whether or not you should seek other options. No job is 100% happy days. There will always be aspect of the job you don’t like but you need to reflect on whether or not is was truly a bad day or 5 bad minutes that you milked all day long.
You have mobility to move into a new area, under a new manager, or promotion opportunities
Each of these changes have the potential to brighten your outlook on your job and help you gain new skills and experience.
You can change your mindset
This is easier sad than done but from personal experience, when I worked on keeping a positive attitude, complaining less, praying before and during work, listening to gospel music and sermons at work or occasionally stand up comedy, I felt tremendously better and more productive. I actively and intentional did things throughout the day that kept me in a good mood
You’re intuition is telling you to stick it out.
Sometimes we know deep down that we haven’t uncovered every stone where we are so leaving almost feels premature. It can feel as if you are quitting just because it’s hard and that’s not what an ambitious girl does right? We do hard things, remember! Therefore, we’ll be faced with tough situations in which we’ll just need to tighten up and persevere.
You’re quality of life would not improve with the new offer.
If you’ve received a new offer but there seems to be no improvement in your quality of life, you could risk putting yourself back in an unhappy situation. Aspects like commute, benefits, pay, work life balance are all key factors that you should consider.