When to Quit Your Job: Signs It's Time to Move On

Every job has bad days. Bad weeks. Even bad months. The question is whether you're in a rough patch or a dead end.

Here are the real signs it's time to go.

The Growth Has Stopped

Not growth in title or salary—growth in capability. Are you learning? Are you being challenged? Are you becoming more valuable?

If you've mastered your role and there's nowhere to go, you're not in a job—you're in a holding pattern. That's fine temporarily, but it becomes a problem if it extends indefinitely.

Your skills are either growing or atrophying. There's no maintenance mode for human capability.

The Sunday Night Test

How do you feel on Sunday evening? Not how you think you should feel—how you actually feel when you think about Monday.

Some dread is normal. Persistent, heavy dread that starts Friday evening is not. If the anticipation of work is significantly affecting your non-work time, that's data.

The Values Misalignment

You can work with people you disagree with. You can work on projects you're not passionate about. What you can't sustain is working somewhere that requires you to act against your own values.

If you're regularly asked to do things that make you uncomfortable—not challenging, uncomfortable in a moral sense—that's a sign you're in the wrong place.

The Health Impact

Is your job affecting your physical or mental health? Sleep problems, anxiety, depression, physical symptoms without clear medical cause?

No job is worth your health. This isn't about toughness—it's about sustainability. You can't do good work from a depleted state anyway.

The Compensation Reality

If you're significantly underpaid relative to your market value, and there's no credible path to closing that gap, that's a rational reason to leave.

This isn't about greed. It's about being valued appropriately. Systematic undercompensation is a form of disrespect.

The Relationship Damage

Has your relationship with your manager or key colleagues become irreparable? Not strained—irreparable. Sometimes trust breaks in ways that can't be rebuilt.

You can recover from conflict. You can't recover from contempt—yours or theirs.

When NOT to Quit

Some reasons to stay a bit longer:

You're reacting to a specific incident. Give yourself time to process before deciding.
You don't have another option lined up. Quitting into nothing works for some people, but for most it creates unnecessary pressure.
The problem might be you. If you've had similar issues at multiple jobs, leaving won't solve the pattern.
You're about to vest something significant. A few more months of discomfort might be worth meaningful money.

The Two-Year Test

Imagine you're still in this job two years from now. Everything is basically the same—same role, same frustrations, same daily reality.

How does that feel? If the answer is "fine" or "I could make it work," you might just need to adjust your expectations or find ways to improve your current situation.

If the answer is "devastating" or "I can't let that happen," you have your answer.

The Exit Strategy

Knowing you should leave and leaving well are different things. Once you've decided:

Start looking before you tell anyone at work
Don't badmouth your current employer in interviews
Leave professionally even if you're angry
Take time between jobs if you can afford it

How you leave shapes what comes next. Don't let frustration make you sloppy with something this important.