The last two years in the job market have been so brutal that many people have forgotten a fundamental truth. Sometimes you actually need to quit your job. By your own choice. On your own. Voluntarily.

Now that the job market is beginning to show small signs of recovery, it is time to assess some of those pent-up feelings about your current job that you have had to ignore because of the lack of alternatives. Following are ten signs that it may be time to look for your next job:

1. You can no longer articulate your personal values. This one is simple. If you have lost yourself, you have lost everything that matters most. Alexander Hamilton once said “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” Smart guy.
2. You explain away why you violated your personal values. Remember that when Ricky Ricardo said to Lucy “You got some ‘splainen to do,” that her explanations were always lame. Chances are that yours are too.
3. You pretend to be someone else at work. Okay, everyone does this too a certain extent. But if the person that you are at work is a stranger to the one that you are away from work, the charade is unsustainable.
4. You think about your boss more than you do your loved ones. This would be sad if it was not so pathetic. Bosses come and go, families should not. Give your boss your best effort. Give your family the best of who you are.
5. Your only satisfaction is your paycheck. This type of satisfaction has no legs. Unless you are getting more out of your work experience, you will surely and shortly resent being “underpaid.”
6. You buy stuff you do not need as a “reward” for your job. No amount of stuff can replace the satisfaction of a rewarding job. Not for long anyway. If you are having regular garage sales or rent a storage locker for excess stuff, you might have a problem here.
7. You try to medicate away work anxiety. Might be good for the local liquor store or the pharmaceutical industry, but unless you aspire to a leading role on an episode of Intervention, it is not a long term strategy for success.
8. You mistake co-workers for friends. They are not the same thing, regardless of how many hours you spend with them. You can tell your friends your most embarrassing secrets. Doing so with your co-workers will get you a sure fire visitation from HR.
9. You believe that your employees really find you to be so interesting. Maybe you really are that interesting and maybe you are not. But one thing is for sure, your employees pretend that you are.
10. You measure your self-worth exclusively through your job. This one is just plain sad. Bob Dylan once sang “when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”  Well, if you have nothing but your job, you have nothing else, period. Time to find something. Life is way too short.

If you find yourself agreeing with some of these statements, it is time to ask yourself some important questions about your job and to answer honestly. If you agree with most of them, it is time to get busy and discover the “you you were” before you became the “you you are.” Only after rediscovering yourself will you be able to find the job that will satisfy you for the long run.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 10:09 am and is filed under Career Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.