Ten Ways to Know...

"Ten Ways to Know It's Time to Go

A Job-Change Checklist
By Caroline Levchuck

No matter how much you love your job, you may not love it all the time. Folks with the most fulfilling of professions can still find themselves battling a case of the "Sunday Night Blues." And, from time to time, we may all feel a sense of disenchantment with our employer or our co-workers.

But how can you know when it's really time to go? Here's a hint: If more than half of the following statements ring true for you, get your resume ready and start connecting with new opportunities today.

1. You start to dread Monday as soon as you leave work on Friday.

2. It becomes more and more difficult to get up for work each day, and tardiness becomes a way of life.

3. You cannot muster enthusiasm for anything related to work -- other than your paycheck.

4. You spend most of your time complaining to colleagues or about your colleagues.

5. You act defensive and even hostile in company meetings when there's little cause for it.

6. You interact less and less with co-workers, shutting yourself away in your office and avoiding opportunities to socialize.

7. You've used up all your sick, personal, and vacation days -- and the year isn't even half over.

8. You're constantly putting off until tomorrow what you could (and should) do today. When you do actually commit to doing your work, you feel resentful.

9. You're bitter about the company's success or that of a co-worker.

10. You have no professional goals related to your job, and you have a hard time even making some up at your obligatory performance review."

You might be wondering why on earth I posted this when I constantly write about being nauseatingly and abjectly happy with my current employer and position. I am - still nauseatingly! But I have been down the above road. And I hated it. It was misery.

It was not my boss. The woman who hired me is a personal hero to me and I am thankful for every moment I spent with her. I am also thankful for every moment spent with the Benefits Manager there as well. I still keep in touch with her and delight in speaking with her. They have both added immesurably to who I am both professionally and personally. How can I begin to thank them for that?

No, with them, my time there was better than good. It was incredible. Niether person was perfect and they both know their own strengths and weaknesses - something I truly admire a lot. They encouraged me, shortcomings and strengths and never suggest I become them or emulate them. Invaluable. Really invaluable!

But the problem is so rarely my own direct supervisor, it is usually the "powers that be" or the ones steering the boat. The company was floundering when I joined it, but the position was too good (albiet scary!) to pass up: HR Generalist of a small branch of the larger company. The only person there in HR. It was scary - I'd always been part of a department, always in a cubicle and then suddenly I was a person with an office and a set of files and a unique position - no one was directly my employee - and they all were. That is... amazing. And frightening. But after trying it out I really found that this was quite ideal. (Of course, I was not - and still can't - read the future. Who knew that there was something so much better awaiting me, and the people I'd meet along the way?)

I joined this company in December of 2002, with very high expectations and in my department and my boss(es) I was not disappointed. But the company was run by some insincere person who really had no liking or caring of this company or the people who comprised it. I can't help but wonder what sort of karmic trouble comes on the résumé of this individual... I'm sure that there is no interviewing process that make this person shine! No eye contact, no decent writing skills (yes, you can well imagine how incensed I was to see the lack of spell checker, no punctuation, missing letters or words (whole missing words - is that staggering, or what?!), and nothing of substance. I saw few e-mails from this non-enterprising person - at my level, few e-mails from the CEO made it to me - but what a total lacking in any sort of communications. And where did this person begin professionally? In marketing! Who knew you could have no written communication skills in THAT field and rise to - well, that level of incompetence! Shocking, isn't it?

Well. Thank the gods for the squad! I had my EMT stuff to fall back on and make me feel at least a little useful. Certainly it was not hard to see where things were going professionally. It was a small comfort that I was told I was valuable. When the HR Generalist in the Nevada branch left and was not replaced, this was the first real mark of the decline. The HR person in Georgia moved into a new position (another very admirable person) and no replacement was found there. I was told the search was in progress but really... do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck? It may have begun with a search but that search stopped long before we knew.

When the new boss came in my then-manager did the right thing - stepped back and gave the reigns to the new person. The new Director seemed OK but ran the department somewhat like a facist state. I was departmentally denounced for disagreeing with a decision made - in a weekly meeting with only HR people! That was wrong. What good is it to have a department you cannot express yourself to? I was never disallowed from my own opinion with my manager. Who was this to do that?

So when my manager suddenly showed up unannouced and the Operations Manager was looking very sheepish and unhappy, it was not hard to see where this was going. And they both handled it really well, but it was awful for me and for them. And then I closed that chapter and started a new one. The next chapter ended very sadly with a funeral and my lay-off, but I would not have traded knowing Lee - never.

And then... I came to my current position. And the amazing times. And the amazing people. And most amazingly, what I can and do - do!

I love Mondays (well, not so much the payroll, but the rest of it!). I love a fresh new week to begin like a racehorse out of the starting gate. I feel great about getting up before dark and starting my day in my office, in this gorgeous, old building. I face each week with the certainty that I will learn something and do good things! The colleagues who drive me are wonderful - just not at the particular moment that he or she is driving me crazy! I love the projects and work even when I don't. I do not ever feel resentful about what I do (I will admit that filing does not excite me... but does it excite anyone? I doubt it). I am not constantly brought into meetings and I don't view the ones I do go to as time-wasters (that was a huge problem in many, many places!). I am delighted with general and specific success and feel that I am a part of it - at least that is what my manager tells me and I would not doubt this person. At all.

Life is great!