5 Top Reasons: When it is Time to Quit a Job

Sure, we need a job. After all, how will we pay the mortgage, utilities, auto loan, credit cards, braces and college tuition? A good paying job is a necessity in these days of economic turmoil and people stay for that one reason. Low pay and long hours can often be outweighed by the comfort of knowing that a paycheck is forth coming on a regular basis. Then again if your job causes quality of life issues, it might be prudent to undergo a little self-examination to determine whether or not pay is a sufficient factor in staying or is your physical and mental well being more important. This in mind, when is it time to quit a job? What are the tell tale signs that it is high time you looked for greener pastures?

Fatigue
Do you wake up exhausted? Does your job make you tired? Recurring dreams or even nightmares associated with your job may cause you to awake tired and dreading the commute to work much less the unpleasant thoughts of having to put in the hours. Fatigue knows no boundaries. It affects the production of the office bound worker as much as the laborer and is a leading cause of accidents in the work force.

Increased Alcohol Consumption
There was a time that Happy Hour meant just that. You and your fellow workers joined together at a local establishment on Friday after work to unwind after the long week. Do you find yourself, now, stopping during the week, alone, downing a few, griping about the job to a bartender who doesn't really care? Has your single after work cocktail at home turned into two or three? Are you eating less and consuming alcohol more? This could be a sign that not the work, but the work place is causing stress.

Increased Irritability
Say your son or daughter cheerfully meets you at the door, greeting you warmly, awash with their experiences at school that day. Do you reciprocate with a warm greeting or push them aside with a scowl? Do you demonstrate an accusatory tone when questioning the spouse what he / she did that day? Lost a desire to give or receive love and affection? Crumbling marriage? Diminished sex drive? How about road rage?

Diminished Respect For Co-Workers and Authority Figures
You once liked your fellows at work. You enjoyed their company during the day and after hours at social events. Do you shun them now when they come to you seeking assistance during the day , mumbling you are much too busy? Have you lost track of what teamwork means? Do you hate the job and everything that goes along with it? Do you feel that your wages are less than your worth and you certainly know much more about the job than that little wimp who was promoted over you? Then there is that low life boss.... You get the picture.

Violent Thoughts
Don't laugh and say, "Surely that's not me." Ever have a fleeting moment when you thought about kicking the crap out of your boss or a co-worker? Harboring such thoughts for long periods of time could possibly bring them to fruition. That is not to say that you might actually go through with such thoughts, but as a friend of mine once said, " It is best to leave a job when your ability to control the need to climb up in the bell tower with a 30.06 is diminishing. " Take that passage metaphorically, hopefully, but there have been way too many incidents of workplace violence for this to be blasé rhetoric.

There are many reasons to leave a job other than pay and hours. Mental and physical well being are the most important. The list is not all-inclusive, but it contains behaviors I have witnessed and some I ashamedly confess to exhibiting during my forty-six years in the work force.