Over the last year, people have been uncertain. About the economy, about their health, but also about their careers. Many people have held onto their jobs for a sense of security in these unprecedented times, but soon, it’s expected that everyone will be ready to make the change. 

Career changes are about to explode post-pandemic. When you don’t like your job you have to decide if you want to stick it out, apply for something else internally, move to another organization, or maybe even a whole other industry. How do you decide if you should stay or go?

What if you don’t like the specific work tasks you’re doing each day?

You have 3 options: talk to your boss about different assignments (yes, you can do that!), apply for something else internally, or leave. It’ll take you a while to find a new position. In the meantime while you’re working you can invest less time and energy. Try to expense 70% of your energy instead of 100% (many of your coworkers are already doing that).

How big a change do you want? A tiny tweak or a total 180? To figure out how big a change you need, look at the parts of your work that you want to keep and the ones you want to ditch.

What do you do if you have a toxic work environment?

Easy way to tell if work culture is the problem: unreasonable work hours, you’re burning out, colleagues are also burning out, and turnover is high. Get out, get out, get out! It’s very hard to change an organization’s work culture. It takes a long time, often years.

99% of the time it’s best to leave because you’ll be burned out and empty before you see the changes you need. Organizations rarely even start to make those changes until after good people leave.

What do you do if you have a terrible boss?

It’s rare to influence upper management to get rid of a crappy manager. In addition, going over a boss’s head can have negative consequences for you. It’s hard to stay in situations where you feel awful. When you don’t like your boss it impacts your mental health. Hence the saying, “People don’t leave jobs they leave bosses.”

Your best options in this scenario are to apply for something else internally or leave and go elsewhere.