Your Job May Be Making It Harder to Leave It
Keeping your job while you search is the standard burnout advice. Its flaw: the job draining you is also draining what you need to leave it.
LibraryShould I stay or leave my job?
Should I stay or leave my job?
You're deciding whether to stay in your job or leave. These posts cover quitting with or without another job, burnout, a difficult boss, a promotion that didn't come or came without a raise, asking for a raise, pay that keeps you there, and what to do if you regret resigning.
If Your Job Won't Let You Pull Back, That's Your Answer
The usual burnout test is to rest and see if you feel better. A sharper one is to pull back and watch what the job does. If it punishes the attempt, the problem is the job.
A New Job Fixes Burnout Only If You Leave the Cause Behind
Changing jobs fixes burnout when the cause stays with the old job. When the cause is how you work, or the same kind of work, it follows you. The question to answer before you move is where the cause lives.
Can't Decide Whether to Leave Your Job? You're Missing Two Facts
If you've gone back and forth for months, more thinking won't settle it. Ask for the one thing that would make you stay, get one real alternative, and let the answers decide.
Would Six More Months in This Job Make You Easier to Hire?
A comfortable job never feels bad enough to leave, so "is it bad enough?" is the wrong test. Ask whether six more months there would make you easier or harder to hire, then check whether the flatness belongs to the job or will follow you.
Scared to Quit Your Job? Name What You Couldn't Get Back, Then Test It
Being scared to quit doesn't tell you to stay. It tells you there's something you think you couldn't get back. Name it, then separate what would be gone from what would only be costly, slow, or unknown.
Passed Over for a Promotion? Price the Job You Didn't Get Before You Decide What It Means
Being passed over sends you looking for why. First work out what you didn't get: the job, including what it would have cost you, and not only the title. Then decide how much the pass-over should matter.
Dry Promotion, No Raise? It's a Loan. Price the Terms Before You Answer
A dry promotion (a promotion without a raise) asks you to deliver now and be paid later, maybe. Price the terms: size, date, backdating, who signs.
How to Ask for a Raise: Ask So a No Tells You Something
Ask for a raise with your case, a number, and a question that makes any answer readable. Then sort the no you got: the case, the path, or the money.
Quitting Without Another Job Lined Up? The Risk Starts Before You Run Out of Money
The risk of quitting without a job lined up starts before your savings run out: when urgency makes you accept an offer you'd have turned down while employed.
Support From Above Counts Only If Something Moves
If your boss is why you want to quit, support from above counts only if it changes who holds power over your work, or if someone with power absorbs the cost of protecting you.
Your Experience Is Real. Can Another Employer Assess It?
Experience can be real and still hard for another employer to assess. Before you count on a result, work out what backs it, what that backing shows, and when you could use it.
Hate Your Job but It Pays Well? Check What You'd Keep Before You Count What You'd Lose
Before you assume leaving means earning less, check how much of your compensation you could keep in a job that also improves what weighs on you today. Then compare that gap with what staying costs you.
Before You Wait for a Bonus or Vesting Date, Weigh What It Would Pay Against What Waiting Costs
Waiting for a bonus or vesting date is a trade. First work out what you could collect by staying: the amount, the conditions that pay or cancel it, and how certain it is. Then weigh that against what waiting costs you: an offer that may expire, more months in the role, and what the job is doing to you. Searching before the date helps, but it doesn't settle the question.
A Quiet Job Search Has Gone On Too Long When It Stops Moving You Toward an Offer or a Decision
A quiet job search does two jobs: it can bring you an offer, and it can tell you what the market looks like. It has gone on too long when it is doing neither, when secrecy blocks a step the roles you want require, or when the job leaves you no energy to search well. Having the facts and still not deciding is a separate problem: more applications can still bring an offer, but they won't make the decision for you.
Started a new job and it's not what you were promised? Stay or leave
When a new job isn't what you were promised, how long you've been there matters less than whether the gap can be fixed, who can fix it, and what each path costs from here. Name the difference in one line, ask the person who made the promise, and set yourself a date. Then compare staying and leaving from today; what you've already put in doesn't decide it.
Regret quitting your job? Check two things before you ask to go back
Regretting a resignation tells you what you lost, not that you should go back. Before you ask, name what you actually miss and check whether the reason you left is still there. Going back is a new decision on new terms, not an undo, and it works differently if you're still within your notice period or already gone.
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