Oh boy…
The reasons why you want to quit your job can count up to millions.
Maybe your job is making you unhappy or you just want to do something of a higher significance with your life… Maybe your boss is a suckup or your pay way too low.
However, you don’t want to quit impulsively and end up regretting your decision. On the other hand, you don’t want to end up like those who are thinking about quitting their job forever but die before they grow the balls to actually do it either.
So, naturally, you’ve come online to do your research.
Truth is that in your mind, there will never be a “right time” to quit your job. Even if you have everything figured out, there will always be excuses in the not so back of your mind that hold you back.
Hopefully, this article will encourage you enough to either quit your job at once as I did or at least start taking the necessary actions to eventually get out of there and not waste your entire life working a job you hate.
Please note that this article might contain sponsored links.
20 Irrefutable Reasons Why You Should Quit Your Job ASAP
1 • You Freaking Hate It
One of the main reasons that the majority of people quit their job is because they hate its guts!
If you hate your job there is very little you can do to reverse your feelings about it.
It’s very hard to unhate a job that you have grew to hate… Believe me, I’ve tried myself but failed miserably.
Hating your job breaks your heart, tortures your mind, and crushes your spirit. The unhappiness caused by it will inevitably consume most of your out-of-work life and negatively affect almost all of its aspects such as
- relationships with family and friends
- sex life
- overall physical and mental health
- mood
- willingness to breath
- etc
Going through all that trouble just for the money and the feeling of security that stems from knowing where your next paycheck is going to come from is definitely not worth the trouble if you asked me.
Whatever comes at the cost of your wellbeing, is way too expensive!
2 • Slim Potential
You don’t like staying stagnant. I get it! I am like that as well.
You are doing your best at work, going for the extra mile, hoping that when an opportunity to be promoted opens up you’ll be good and ready to seize it.
However, this opportunity never comes. You have waited for so many tomorrows that years have actually passed and you are still on the very same spot that you were put when you first got hired.
You are constantly on the lookout for potential openings, but they are limited. Opportunities just don’t seem to open up and when they do, someone else, less than half skilled than you grabs it right off your hands just because they are better in kissing ass than you.
Sounds familiar?
If you feel like you’ve reached the ceiling in your current job, seeking new opportunities elsewhere might be something that you would want to start considering because as it seems your current job is a dead end.
3 • You Are There Only For the Money
Ah, the stuff we do for money, right?
I get it… Money is important!
That’s how people buy stuff after all.
However, truth be told, more than 70% of all existing people are working jobs they hate just for the sake of earning money in order to be able to maintain the lifestyle which that job they hate allowed them to create.
If you are one of those people, I’ve got a little secret for you.
You can make money by working another job…
You don’t have to keep working a job that doesn’t interest you anymore, or even worse one that you hate because you are too bored or afraid to go out and start looking for another one.
I know that looking for another job is troublesome. Sending resumes, dressing up, attending interviews, trying to prove yourself worthy, having to deal with rejection, and uncertainty.
It’s nerve-wracking!
Believe me, I know!
I’ve gone through the whole process a thousand times during the last 2 years.
But there’s no other way. If you want to improve your situation, you have to get out of your comfort zone and do something about it.
There’s no way around that.
And just so you know, going for another 9-5 job is not the only way to quit your current one.
There exist much more ways to replace your full-time income in order to eventually quit your current job that you know of…
4 • Your Duties Are Way Too Stressful
Most jobs are stressful…
Some more than others.
From your own point of view, your job might be the god of all stressful jobs.
You always have too much on your plate, your clients are chasing you, your boss continuously assigns more tasks to you, and your colleagues wouldn’t bring you a glass of water even if your life depended on it.
The lowest point comes after work though, when you get home being unable to unwind from all that stress for hours after your shift is over.
When you go to bed, you are ruminating about the horrors that you will have to face the next day. This causes you to have a very poor quality sleep or sometimes no sleep at all which could result in
- Impaired memory, judgment, and focus
- Physical and mental health issues
- Disorientation
- Chronic fatigue
- Imbalances in the hormones which regulate bodyweight (i.e you get fatter)
- etc
Again, if your job compromises your well-being, it’s time to start being serious about leaving it before it causes you irreversible damage.
Interested in finding out more about jobs that are best suited to those with anxiety? Make sure to check out BetterHelp.
5 • Unbearable Work Environment
Being exposed to dangerous and harmful substances, getting injured at occupational accidents, facing bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, etc are just some examples of working in an unbearable environment.
Besides the toll on your physical health, working under such circumstances can hinder your productivity and performance, increase your stress levels, diminish your self-worth, and even cause depression.
Dreading to go to work due to the awfulness of the environment is absolutely one of the most prominent reasons to start looking for something else.
Anything that comes at the cost of your overall health, is simply not worth it.
6 • Going After Your Dreams
I can’t think of a better reason for someone to quit their job than doing it in favor of going after their dream.
If you have a dream and want to go after it and your current job is standing in the way, don’t even think about it…
Just quit!
Studies have shown that one of the biggest and most common regrets that people confess on their death-bed is not having the guts to go after their dreams and live life on their own terms. Their second biggest regret was that they didn’t work less and played more.
It doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, says or believes. It doesn’t matter if people will call you crazy or ungrateful.
It’s your life, it just happens once, and you have the right to do whatever the fuck you love. And you have to explain nothing to no one.
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
You only live once!
So make sure that you do your dream a favor and bring it to life because you are the only one who can!
If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to build theirs. ~Tony Gaskins
7 • Making a Career Shift
Maybe you don’t have a big dream to go after and that’s okay!
However, you still want to make a shift towards a career which you believe will make you happier and more fulfilled.
Again, by all means, do what is necessary to make that shift…
Even if that means investing your spare time looking at job listings, going interviews, being demoted, making less money, going back to school, working for free as an intern, or learning and honing new skills.
Once you feel confident enough that you have what it takes to make the shift, jump off the old boat and start climbing your new one.
If your current job prevents you from taking the necessary actions towards making the shift, then you might want to start considering to quit it first and start acting on your new career path with everything you got later.
However, if you have no one else to sustain you such as parents, spouse, etc make sure to have set some savings aside before jumping shit to be able to cover your basic needs or else you might end up giving up on your new career path because you need money to pay your bills.
Having saved money for the expenses of AT LEAST 8 months is what I recommend.
Anything less might be way too stressful and risky.
8 • Becoming Your Own Boss
One of the most prominent reasons I wanted to quit my job was to become my own boss.
As my own boss, I
- work when I want, as much as I want, and generally on my own terms
- take crap from no one but myself
- have limitless potential for growth and development
- am location independent (since my business is online)
- work on something I actually enjoy
- can experience financial freedom (the only way to financial freedom is working for yourself)
- can potentially earn passive income
On the other hand, becoming your own boss is not all daisies and roses.
To end up being the boss of yourself requires a ton of time and effort, patience, perseverance, willpower, risktaking, working your ass off when others are on vacation or out for drinks, as well as possibly investing money.
Some of the most common ways for someone to become their own boss nowadays are
- starting an online business (blog, YouTube channel, e-commerce, dropshipping, etc)
- freelancing (online or offline)
- publishing online courses
- writing e-books
- etc
The online world is actually perfect to start a side-hustle which will eventually bring in a full-time income for you because it
- requires little to no monetary investment at all
- doesn’t require your physical presence. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection
- isn’t limited to a specific geographic location… Your audience could be the entire world
- offers amazing potential as the number of internet users is estimated to reach 5 billion (almost 55% of the entire population) in 2020
Anyway, if you would like to start your own online business in order to eventually become your own boss just like me, go ahead and read my article How To Start An Online Affiliate Marketing Business For Free.
9 • It Goes From Bad to Worse
Your company recently went through some major structural and operational changes which have been difficult to adjust to.
The workload has increased, responsibilities have multiplied, deadlines have shortened, and the morale, productivity, and overall quality of your work have dramatically declined.
Meanwhile, your boss is either unaware of the horrible situation or doesn’t care at all while stuffing more and more tasks down your throat which are impossible to complete on time.
Your clients start getting upset and unsatisfied, threatening to break their contracts with the company, or maybe bomb your house, due to lack of service.
All the burden is slowly falling on your shoulders and the worst thing is that you are the last to blame.
If you’ve lost control like that and those in charge won’t do anything to improve the situation, then it would be smart to start looking for something else not just because you’ll probably end up burnt out but also because as it seems the company is slowly falling apart.
10 • The Company Is Built on Lies
Whoever promotes the products or services of your company, either this is a salesman or an advertisement, is totally lying about their features as well as about their quality in order to drive more sales.
As a result, the number of unsatisfied customers is constantly rising, the reputation of the company is going down the drain and the amount of money wasted in building and maintaining complaint-handling departments is constantly increasing.
A company which misleads, tricks, and scams its audience into purchasing its products or services will sooner or later collapse so you might want to start planning your way out before you come face to face with a fait accompli.
11 • It Takes Forever to Get to Work
According to several studies, nowadays, the overall commute to and from work is longer than ever before.
An article published on Business Insider states that on average a person living in the US spends 50 minutes commuting to and from work per day.
Other studies have shown that a long daily commute increases unhappiness, decreases overall job satisfaction and well-being, and could actually prove to be even more stressful than the actual job.
Think about this:
If you work 8 hours a day and spend
- 1 hour to get ready for work
- 1 hour to travel to work
- 1 hour to return from work
you are spending 11 hours of your entire day (almost half of it) just for stuff which is directly related to your job.
Sleep for 8 hours and 19 hours of your day have gone by just for sleep and work.
We’re down to 5 hours…
Take a shower, prepare a meal, eat, do some chores, run some errands and at least 2 more hours of your day have gone by.
This translates to having less than 3 hours per day of free time to actually do the things you love such as
- spend time with your family
- workout
- watch a movie
- rest and unwind
- go to the movies
- etc
Well, 3 hours of free time per day is not that bad.
However, if your job was 10 minutes away from home, those 3 hours of free time magically turn into 5, which believe me, make an enormous difference in your overall well-being.
One of the main reasons I quit my last job was that I had to spend more than 2 hours on the road to and from it. In addition to the daily overtime I was forced to work, I ended up being away from home for 12-13 hours per day.
I eventually said “FUCK IT” and I quit without really having another source of full-time income lined up yet.
You can read all about this story by taking a look at my article I Quit My Job Having Nothing Lined Up: Here’s What Happened to Me…
12 • Hitting the Books
Nowadays, in an attempt to be able to get a better job many employees are enriching their education by going after master degrees, additional bachelor degrees, certifications, online courses, seminars, etc.
However, studying on the side of working at a demanding, full-time job could be detrimental to both.
If your current job leaves you no energy or time to study, you might want to start looking for a less demanding one or even stop working altogether to focus on your studies.
Don’t be afraid to ditch whatever holds you back from becoming the best version of yourself!
13 • You Landed a Higher Paying Job
While this might be one of the best reasons to quit a job, be aware that money is not everything.
Even if your new position promises a higher salary, you might still end up way unhappier and unsatisfied than working your old job which paid less.
I’ve made that mistake myself.
I’ve taken a job which I knew I’d hate just because it paid me twice as much and that would allow me to create a “better” lifestyle.
I was dead wrong and I grew to regret that decision of mine during my very first week there.
I am not saying that a higher paying job is destined to be worse than one which pays less… Just don’t make the fact that you will be earning more money the sole criterion of choosing a job because you might end up regretting it just like I did.
14 • You Can’t Stop Thinking About Quitting
You wake up thinking about quitting… You go to sleep thinking about quitting… You dream about quitting… You take a crap, you think about quitting…
Quitting your job has become your favorite thought of the day and at the same time your worst nightmare during the night…
You are split.
“To quit, or not to quit?”
The more you keep thinking about it the harder the decision gets.
Aaarggghhh…!!!
There’s only one way to make those thoughts shut up.
Quit!
15 • It Is Affecting Your Overall Health
One of the most obvious reasons why you should quit your job is that it is damaging to your health either physical, or mental, or both.
Since you first got that job, you are getting sick much more frequently taking forever to recover, you are having constant headaches and/or migraines, you can’t focus, you forget things, your memory and vision is blurred, etc.
Those are just a fraction of the signs that your current job is slowly wearing you down.
Countless studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between your overall health status and job satisfaction.
The less satisfying and fulfilling is your job the more likely it is for your health to start deteriorating.
And staying at an unsatisfactory job for long enough might even cause irreversible, long-term health problems.
16 • You Are Feeling Expendable
People come and people go.
And those who replace those who went, go after a while as well.
They don’t just go by themselves though. Your company makes them go and you are constantly wondering when you are going to be the next one.
As it seems, your company doesn’t care about retaining its employees.
Your boss and supervisors have become so used to this situation that they don’t even bother to train the new employees anymore.
“What’s the point in training those poor new suckers?”, they are thinking…
“We are going to fire them anyway…”
“Let’s just throw them in the deep and see if they can swim!”
If they don’t perform well within their first, let’s say an hour, they are soooo fired.
Did you make a mistake? – Fired!
Late for 1 minute? – Fired!
Took a shit without asking for permission? – Firing squad!
If at your company, every single employee seems to be more expendable than toilet paper, then it would be of your best interest to start looking for a company which values the lives and hard work of its employees more.
17 • You are Underpaid
Insufficient pay is one of the most common reasons for someone to want to leave a job.
Many companies, even if performing well, keep their employees underpaid and make them feel lucky to even receive a paycheck.
The best slave is the one who believes that he is free. ~Johann von Goethe
Truth is that a company needs the employee as much as the employee needs the company. It is believed that it costs 50% more in money, time, and energy to hire and train a new employee than to maintain an old one.
In addition, well-paid employees tend to perform way better, invest more time and energy into their duties and are much more happy and satisfied with their job.
If your company cannot understand those concepts, then it might be time to say goodbye.
If being underpaid is the sole reason that you want to quit your job, don’t be afraid to ask for a raise before handing over your 2-week notice. You have nothing to lose and who knows? You might even get it!
If not, fuck them!
18 • Routine is Killing you
Even the most interesting job can turn into a bore after a few years working it.
Doing the exact same thing every single day for long enough can make you feel utterly unmotivated and uninspired.
Your self-worth plummets and waves of hopelessness become more and more frequent.
You are feeling stagnant and you couldn’t be more right.
What you do daily, determines what you will get in the future.
And as long as you keep doing the exact same things every single day (routine) you know that you will keep living the exact same life.
And that depresses you.
If you want to improve your life, there’s no better place to start than where you spend the majority of your hours, your job!
Personally, I have not heard of anyone who made huge improvements in their life while sitting in their cubicle for 10 years.
Have you?
19 • It Causes You Depression
Depression rates have skyrocketed during the last decade. Studies have shown that the fact that 3 out of 4 people nowadays hate what they do for a living has definitely played a part in this rise.
People describe depression like drowning, loss of hope for a better tomorrow, being scared and tired all the time, feeling paralyzed and numb, living a daily nightmare, a black hole swallowing all the reasons for being happy, being slightly more alive than dead and tired of living with yourself, etc.
Being depressed is literally the worst of all feelings and if your job is the reason causing it, you HAVE to get out of there ASAP!
20 • Feelings of No Purpose
We are living at a time, when now more than ever, people are living with a lack of purpose in their lives.
This is only natural as 75% of people are spending HALF of the hours they are awake, at least 5 days a week, working themselves to the bone for a crappy paycheck that disappears during the weekend on stuff such as alcohol, drugs, food, drinks, etc which serve the purpose of covering the pain caused by their jobs in the first place.
Is there any meaning in living life like this? For me there is none.
If you lack purpose, now is the right time to start searching for it. Your job will most likely stand in your way. Leave it! Forget money and security. They are an illusion anyway.
Stop putting your search off because it will never get done by itself and before you know it, you will be too old and it will be too late for you.
The best time to start searching for your purpose is yesterday, because
One day, you’ll wake up and there will be no more time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. ~Paulo Coelho
Conclusion
Despite the reasons for quitting a job can be numerous, I understand that actually leaving a job is hard and scary, especially if you have nothing else lined up.
Be aware that I am not promoting in any way that you should leave your job instantly without having first found a way to fully replace the income that you are earning through it.
On the other hand, I find no excuse whatsoever in doing nothing at all towards potentially improving your situation either this being looking at job listings, sending over resumes, attending interviews, getting that online business up and running, attending classes, reaching out to people who might need your services, learning a new skill, or whatever.
Always remember that the best time to start improving any situation is yesterday.
So, for how long have you been wanting to quit your job? What are the main reasons that you want to quit? What is holding you back from doing so?
Let us know all about your point of view in the comments below!
If you have any questions or need any further help or guidance from me, I encourage you to email me at harry@dearboss-iquit.com or drop me a PM within my Wealthy Affiliate Profile.
Whatever the case, I will get back to you as soon as possible.
My best regards to you,
Harry,
dearboss-iquit.com