Widowhood is often a time of transition. After a spouse dies, life never really continues like “business as usual”. We realize that life’s short and we want to live our best life. There is no room to accept second best or spend our days with people who simply don’t have our best interest at heart. Whether you’re a young widow or nearing retirement it really doesn’t matter – you want the best things in life and you want them now. You’ve just passed through the most stressful time any human being can ever go through and now you may be evaluating if you should quit that job or your career.
There are a lot of reasons to quit your job. And they all fall under one main category:
Life’s too short.
Life’s too short to go home every day feeling like you have a black hole in your soul. Life’s too short to work for a terrible boss who is controlling and manipulative. Life’s too short to go home every day feeling taken for granted, feeling taken less than seriously, or feeling taken advantage of.
Once you’ve passed through the intense grief after the death of a spouse (even though it really never leaves you 100%) – you are dying for a change in lifestyle. Perhaps you’ve seen the stress that a 9-5 job can cause. Perhaps you were yearning for a change even before you became widowed.
If you’re thinking of quitting your current job to get another job, or start a business – or just simply to take time off – here are 13 signs you should quit your job:
1.Your Input Is Disregarded or Even Not Wanted
When your boss or company shoots down or even laughs at your ideas, it’s not only insulting, it’s demotivating. When others around you can hear your boss talking down to you or correcting your work in a very derogatory tone – you know its because your boss doesn’t even care how it sounds anymore.
When you express your ideas and your Manager simply talks over you – to block out your input – or emails full of advice go unanswered – you know its time to move on.
2. You Get Criticized Publicly
We all need constructive feedback. We all need a little nudge. We all need to be told when we can do something better —and how to do it better.
But we need to be told those things in private.
Life’s too short to walk around waiting for the next time you’ll be criticized—and even humiliated—in front of other people.
3. You are Never Recognized for your work
Everyone also needs praise. We all need to know when we do something well (and everyone, even poor performers, do some things well).
Life’s too short not to be recognized for the contributions you make.
4. Your Boss is a Micro-Manager
You know the type: She is so bogged down with the minutiae – she has little time to see the forest from the trees – she can barely come up for air. Everyone around her notices but the general consensus is that she’ll never change.
A great boss knows that if her team succeeds—and each individual on that team succeeds— then she will succeed too .
Life is also too short to spend your time developing your boss’ career at the expense of your own.
5. Your Files are Taken Away
You leave on vacation (or even bereavement leave because of the loss of a spouse/child/parent) and when you get back you notice that your files have been transferred to another employee. You go to your manager and indicate that you were leading the files, and she suddenly says “No – so and so is now leading the file” – without an explanation or even a plan for your workload.
In other words, your stuck without a reasonable amount of work to do on a daily basis to fill your time and your boss seamingly doesn’t care. At this point, your efforts are best placed elsewhere – lifes too short to go in everyday and wish your life away.
6. Your Hard Work is Never Good Enough
You work until 1am on weekends to get the work done in the busy season. You have month and months of overtime piled up because of all the extra work especially on weekends and public holidays. You’re sure after this there must be some recognition. You realize there’s none coming – as a matter of fact they don’t even mention all the hard work – it completely goes ignored. All that lost time with your family, all the time you missed your kids school play – none of it is recognized.
Life’s too short to only be a cog in a larger machine.
7. You Wake up Feeling Nauseous (to go to work)
If you wake up feeling like your stomach is in knots – especially when you think of your boss and co-workers then its time to give it up.
Life’s too short to spend only looking forward to quitting time.
8. You’ve Been Overlooked Time and Time Again
If you’ve been overlooked time and time again for that promotion, and you can’t see a future then it’s time to give it up. If each time, they tell you its not your time, you’re not ready yet – despite the fact that you basically carry the weight of the team on your shoulders – you know somethings up! If the last time they told you that and they carried in a new employee that you have to train because they hired someone who couldn’t do the job – then its time to leave. Favoritism plays a key role in promotions and in determining who gets the “cushy assignments”.
A decent boss works to improve the company’s future. A good boss works to improve her employees’ futures too, even if—especially if—that might mean some of those employees will eventually move on to bigger and better things.
Life’s too short to live without hope.
9. Your Boss isn’t Interested in Your Career
If your just a bum in a chair doing the same files over and over again, and there’s no interest in giving you the tools to reach the next level, then its time to go. If you know you’re doing the lions share of the work (as a matter of fact when your boss is away – you lead the team) but when its time to get recognized for your efforts – it never happens. It’s time to give it up.
Life’s too short to spend working with people who don’t care about your career.
10. You Don’t Think You Can Do Anything Else
That’s the second-best reason of all to quit your job. I know what you’re thinking: “I make too much in my current job; I’ll never find something comparable.” Or, “there just aren’t any jobs where I live.” Or, “I’ve put too much time into this company (or career or industry).”
Or, “I don’t have what it takes to start my own business.”
All those things are true—if you let them be true.
You just have to believe—and trust that your creativity, perseverance, and effort will take you to new, happier, and more fulfilling places. Thousands of people start their own businesses ever year. The only difference between you and them? They decided to take the chance. They decided to bet on themselves.
11. You Work for a Control Freak
Your boss controls if you can go to your grandma’s funeral or not – you can’t even book your flight without letting her know. She litterally wants to control your life – even outside of work by stating that there are “work demands”. If your company is understaffed – that’s NOT your problem. They need to make sure they have enough staff to do the work. If you’re doing the work of 3-4 people everyday – then your life will eventually hang in the balance too.
12. Colleagues at Work Ask You Why You’re Still There
If your colleagues see the injustice and are frequently coming up to you and asking why oh why are you still working there for that sad boss – you know its time to go. These were the colleagues giving you support and cheering you on when you worked on that high-profile project for which you got zero recognition. While your boss was busy finding ways to micro-manage they were finding ways to support you. They’ve seen the work you put in and don’t understand the injustice either.
When your colleagues can say hey – its time to go. You know its worth packing up ASAP.
Life’s way too short.
13. There is a Lack of Managerial Empathy
So your boss is a micro-manager and a control freak – but whats worse is that the organization condones her behaviour. In addition, for employees who’ve been widowed or divorced, there seems to be no clear support system, there is simply a lack of managerial empathy. There’s no clear way to onboard employees who have come back from a bereavement or even maternity leave.
Life’s too short to work with an organization that simply does not care.