To stay or not to stay (in your job)

The decision to stay at or leave a job is akin to the choice of committing to or discontinuing a romantic relationship. This should not come as a surprise to anyone since the interaction between you and your employing organisation is actually a relationship. In this article we look at some of the factors of the decision (and point out some of the parallels with romantic relationships) to help you visualise the broader context of your professional life.

The search for a new job can be a very involving and emotionally draining experience (exhibit number 1: the search for a romantic partner can be a very involving and emotionally draining experience). It requires an investment of time, money and emotional commitment. But how would you know if you should stay or leave your job? There are numerous factors which are generally well known so let’s begin with the one factor which is difficult to define but can define every experience of your job: energy.

Energy

In physics, energy is defined simply as the capacity for work or the ability to exert force to move an object. Similarly at the workplace, your ability to perform work is your raison d’être. However, there is another type of energy which can define your experience in the workplace and we also call it energy. It is also more colloquially referred to it as your “vibe” or even your aura. This refers not just to your emotional state, but to the transmission of that emotional state to the outside world. If this vibe is positive (glowing), then everything falls in your favour and even your mistakes can be regarded as mere quirks of a wonderful character. If you are emitting bad vibes then it is often impossible to do the right thing even when you make no mistakes! I have seen colleagues in the workplace chastised for the most innocuous activities; when some colleagues sense the weakness in your “vibe” they will go after it.

Be practical

You need to be practical and understand that you will not enjoy every aspect of your job. In fact, if you take it one step before that, it is important to accept that candidates for most job descriptions cannot fulfil every single requirement. It simply does not happen. You will most likely not enjoy every single aspect of your role. It is not unusual to expect a certain degree of dissatisfaction with some aspects of your job. So you need to be practical about your expectations. The fact that you like or dislike certain elements of your job does not in itself mean much in the overall scheme of things when deciding whether you should stay or leave. However, in combination with other factors it can become the tipping point which leads to your conclusive decision.

At any rate, you must always remember that you are not under moral obligation to remain at your job; you should never feel compelled to remain in one role or job perpetually (we shall not claim an exhibit of similarity here!). So what are some of the more tangible factors to consider in regards to your job prospects?

The organisation itself

Do you respect your current organisation for what it does? Do you feel that you can learn from this organisation? Are its values aligned with your values? We have worked with a client who ticked all the boxes for a marketing role and the respect between client and organisation was mutual. The only problem was that the client did not feel comfortable working for a tobacco organisation.

Direct supervisor

The single biggest reason that people leave organisations is disliking some aspect of working with their immediate supervisor. You should comprehensively assess your relationship with your immediate supervisor. If your supervisor constantly pushes you for results, that does not mean that he or she is a poor supervisor or does not respect you. Another point to bear in mind is that some tension in the supervisory relationship is often a useful element. However, if the supervisory relationship is devoid of respectfulness and in fact where the supervisor exploits the power relationship with malice then there are already strong grounds to ask why you need to remain in that environment. If your immediate supervisor is a source of inspiring leadership and you learn off that person then you really must consider what value you would get by leaving the workplace.

Life situation

This is very easy to overlook. Can you afford to be away from home for a few weeks of every month? Are you in the right job to give your “professional prospects” (it had to come in somewhere) a better chance? Have you thought about your ultimate work goals and where you would like to be? There are not many employees who have considered this element very thoroughly and therefore they are simply coasting along in the workplace in autopilot mode. If you do not think seriously about what stage in life you are and what your current commitment to work means then you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to appreciate what your time at work means elsewhere and later in life.

Security of tenure

The extent to which your role offers security of tenure can be a factor by itself. Security of tenure is a powerful attraction for many and is often traded for amplitude of remuneration. Aside from this element, it is also important to consider any operational developments which may impact the dynamics of your tenure, such as possible mergers or acquisitions or negative media publicity.

Final words

We have deliberately avoided talking about pay. If you feel that your current remuneration is much lower than your market value then that is a completely different issue; you must recognise the difficulty for an organisation to willingly rectify this disparity because it is in the nature of organisations to maximise profit. It is difficult to convince an organisation of your ability to offer a significant step-change in productivity. Also, if you are extremely dissatisfied with your remuneration, there are very few factors that will help you overcome this sense of dissatisfaction.

There is a recurring theme throughout this discussion: play the long game and keep your eyes on the big picture (exhibit number 3: in relationships, you are best served by an awareness of the big picture). Be more aware of yourself, your impact on your network and your temporal situation and you will find it much easier to make the right decision (exhibit number 4?).