Yeah, It's Time to Quit — Part Three: Misalignment

Something about your work just feels… wrong. It’s akin to trying to get settled in a hard plastic chair — no matter what you do, you can’t quite get comfortable. Sure, at the beginning of a new job, there are always adjustments. And hey, nothing’s perfect, right? 

But you’re here reading this article, meaning it’s likely that the feeling of a professional mismatch has grown and grown. So let’s talk about that. Here are the signs that you and your job might not be the right fit as well as the red flags that this incompatibility is irreconcilable and it’s time for a change.

The warning signs

Feeling like you and your job aren’t ideally matched is something that is bound to happen once in a while. After all, companies are built by people who come with all their quirks and unique backgrounds. With so many differing viewpoints interacting, it’s inevitable that a company won’t always feel like it’s necessarily right for you. But here are some warning signs to look out for that indicate the mismatch might deserve more attention.

Dissatisfaction

It’s likely what brought you to this article, which is why it’s first. A sense of dissatisfaction can be a sign you and your work don’t match up — but only if this becomes chronic. Rough days happen, as do rough weeks, and sometimes you’re going to feel annoyed at that one thing that one person did. But if there are only rare days when you feel satisfied in your work — days when you can explain what you did with a sense of pride — then that’s a warning sign you might need to consider a change.

Lack of confidence

Often, a lack of confidence is a side effect of starting something exhilarating. After all, when you launch a new professional journey, you’re not going to have all the skills and knowledge you soon will. You’re not confident because you’re new to things. However, with time, this feeling should fade. If it never does (and you’re sure it’s not just imposter syndrome_{Switching to Tech? Here’s How to Keep Imposter Syndrome at Bay}), that’s a warning sign that something’s not working out with your professional path.

Procrastination

This can be an indication of two underlying issues — disengagement and disempowerment. If you’re just uninterested in your work, then you might be tempted to put it off and put it off because it’s just dreary. Likewise, if you feel unequal to the tasks assigned to you, you might delay tackling them to avoid the discomfort that’s inherent in struggling with something you don’t quite know how to handle. In either case, if you find yourself procrastinating more and more often, this is an indication you should take a hard look at your career.

The red flags

Now, while the above entries are good pointers that you should take some time to evaluate if you and your current job are a match, the following are much more serious. If you find yourself wondering if you should quit because of an incongruity between you and your job, and you find that disconnect listed below, that’s a red flag you need to really start looking for a new path.

Ethical conflict

Let’s say you take a job at a philanthropic organization. Let’s say you discover that the funds you’re helping distribute to noble causes actually come from a company whose profits arose from aggressively pushing an addictive medication whose overprescription has led to a major public health crisis (to just come up with a totally random example). 

Your ethics might not allow you to look past the instigation of misery for profit — even if that profit is directed to improving the world. While you may not be in this specific and very hypothetical situation, if you and your company differ on core ethical principles, that’s a red flag it’s time to look elsewhere.

Cultural friction

Each company has its own philosophy of what work culture should look like, and it might just not match up with yours. Now, we’re not talking about toxicity because that’s a whole other topic (that we covered in a previous article here_{Yeah, It's Time to Quit - Part Two: Toxicity}). Instead, what we mean here is that you might find that a shared sense of values is absent. For example, the culture might expect you to be always reachable on your phone, and you might want to disconnect and instead see your kid’s trombone recital.

After all, if you’re seen as uncooperative or out of sync with how things are done, you might be seen as less worthy of promotion. If you find yourself chafing against your company’s work culture, that’s a red flag you should explore a career somewhere else.

Incompatible professional goals

The thing about this red flag is that it might only come out with time. In fact, starting out at a company, your aspirations and those of the company might match up perfectly. However, as you learn and you grow within your role, you might find that you’ve progressed as far as you’re going to get in that particular position. 

If your company doesn’t adapt to your maturing skills and knowledge to realign with your new ambitions, then your career can stall. It might not be the result of malicious forces trying to keep you down or anything as dramatic as that — you might just naturally hit a ceiling. But this mismatch can be detrimental to your future career (for more details, check out the article here_{Yeah, It's Time to Quit – Part One: Stagnation}). When your professional goals outstrip what’s on offer in your company and there’s no change forthcoming, then this is a red flag you should consider a switch.

See if a career switch is right for you

If you see yourself in any of these entries and want to check if it’s truly the time to make the change, we have you covered. Take our quick career-switch quiz here.