All too often people find themselves in situations, that they wish they could’ve avoided or stopped from becoming a reality. Wouldn’t it be nice if people could preview their future, so they can know beforehand what would be the outcome of any decision before they take it? We’ve all watched a movie or read a book where something bad is supposed to happen in the future or at the end. But before those events occurred there were some early signs and clues foreshadowing exactly what would happen in the plot.

In case you don’t know foreshadowing can be best described as a handy device that many writers use to give subtle hints about what will happen in the story. A good example of foreshadowing would be what happens in Rome and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, when Romeo says, “My life were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” when Romeo says that he is foreshadowing his eventual demise( in the story he suicides over his loss of Juliet).  Well, it’s certainly a shame that Romeo and Juliet’s Romance ended in a morbid tragedy. If only Romeo and Juliet could have paid more attention to the signs of what was to come early on maybe they could have cheated destiny. Fortunately, your career doesn’t have to end in tragedy like Romeo’s romance, unlike Romeo you can learn to be smart enough to read between the signs and avoid bad situations like overstaying in a company that is detrimental to your career.

This brings us to the subject of this post: learn to read those signs in order to have control over the future of your career and avoid bad situations that can lead to stagnation in your career growth or worse unemployment before it happens. Yes, as I mentioned above it’s possible to smell bad situations from a mile before they occur. All you’ve to do is pay close attention to the signs we will be talking about below of when it’s time to switch companies.

Foreshadowing doesn’t only happen in fictional stories. Life can also give us some pretty good signs if something bad is about to happen and let me tell if you learn to read to signs early on I would say you can dodge a lot of bad situations that would do harm to your career. That’s why it’s so important to pay close attention to these signs and take action early on.

Below we will be talking about some signs that are very important for you to take notice of in case you don’t want to grow stagnant in your field and put your professional life in jeopardy. If you see one or more happening too often in your current job it might be time to switch companies for good!

11 Signs That It’s About Time To Switch To Another Company for Good!

 1. Every Day Feels Like A Chore At Your Current Company

It’s normal to have days when you feel like you don’t want to work, start questioning your career, or even hate your job, after all, every job has its boring parts and stressful days. But if every day feels like a chore and you don’t get any enjoyment out of doing your job it may be time to switch companies or if you have already tried doing that and think that the problem is not the company itself, but the field you picked. It’s might be time to even ask yourself if that’s really what you want to do for the rest of your life. However, keep in mind that there could be several other different reasons why you’re feeling that way. Just because you’re not getting enjoyment from your current job as you did before that doesn’t mean that you need to change careers or completely give up on your current job.

The other reasons, why every day feels like a chore can range from personal issues in your life to burnout and so on. It’s very important to try to identify the root cause of those feelings and try to work on them before taking any quick decision that you might live to regret later. Career decisions are not like picking which clothes you should wear today and should not be taken light-hearted or in an impulsive way at all. You should think very carefully about every step you take in your career. After all, bad career decisions can have devastating consequences that can cost you months or even years of stagnation, had you not taken them you could be climbing the corporate leader and evolving as a professional in your field faster. However, if you’re certain that it’s something in your current company that is making you feel this way and you’ve already attempted multiple ways of solving it, without resorting to getting another job, and they all didn’t work out. Then, a “change of scenery” might help you get that feeling of excitement back on its tracks again.

Just make sure to not always resort to this practice again once the feeling of excitement wears off in your future company. when the honeymoon phase with them is over. There is a big difference between growing bored of doing the same thing in the same company for several years and job hopping only a few months after joining a new company for the sake of excitement and new adventures.  However, if your instincts are telling you that it’s time to part ways and you’ve already made up your mind about it, then do it. As long as you’ve done your homework and carefully analyzed your current situation and all the possibilities always trust your gut.

Remember, it’s ok to not like your job. Just because some people tell you that you should be grateful for having a job because others are unemployed and going through hard times. It doesn’t mean that you’ve to endure a company or job that is dragging you down and being detrimental to your self-esteem or mental health.

2. You Feel Like You Are Not Learning Anything Useful In Your Current Job Anymore

The growing feeling of being stagnant knowledge-wise is a major sign that it might be time to switch companies if you can’t get assigned to a new role or project in the company you’re currently working for. As a software developer myself, one of the biggest enjoyments I get out of doing my job is learning new stuff every day to become a better programmer if I feel like I’m not evolving as a coder anymore I lose one of my major motivators to stay in a job. I have a deep desire to increase my knowledge as much as possible. If I’m not learning anything useful that will help me career-wise anymore, I start getting bored with my job.

If you’re in a competitive field where learning new things every day is very important to succeed such as software development, staying in a place that is not helping you reach a more seniority level in your field is a dangerous move, that can jeopardize your career and delay your growth for a few months or even years.

3. You Feel Like You Don’t Get The Recognition That You Deserve

You work really hard every day, you try to do more than you are told, and not only you’re always surpassing the metrics but you are also always getting positive feedback from your colleagues and superiors. Sometimes your boss or leader might even hint about a possible promotion or raise coming your way. Yet this never happens. You never get a raise, promotion, or a leadership position. Months of wait turn into years and you are still in the same place not evolving in your career. If you’re stuck in this neverending vicious circle it might mean that you work in the company, that you’re currently in only promotes or give raises to employees when they are about to quit or receive a better job offer from another place or worst, not even in those situations they try to keep their talent. Whatever their reasons it’s time for you to take action if you don’t want your career to grow stagnant.

If you’ve already tried to solve this situation diplomatically by asking your boss for a promotion or a raise multiple times and it still never happens it.  It’s about time to get out of your comfort zone, update your resume, and start job hunting as soon as possible! Otherwise, you will never reach your career goals.

There could be a number of reasons why you never get that promotion or the leadership position that you’ve always dreamed of. Your boss could be a great fella and he could be really trying to do all it takes to get you the recognition that you deserve, but office politics and someone in upper management might be hindering him from doing so. Nevertheless, whatever the reasons for them not promoting you the point is it’s not going to happen. So, worrying about the whys is simply counterproductive. What is productive is taking control of your career and start looking for greener pastures.

4. You Feel Like Your Boss Doesn’t Like You

Let’s face having a boss or leader that doesn’t like you can be one of the most frustrating experiences any employee can ever face during his or her career. Having someone above you in the chain of command that is not a big fan of you can harm your career in several ways. This can come in a lot of different ways it can be subtle actions to more apparent ones done by your boss. It’s very important to analyze your boss’s behavior with you and everyone else on your team to make sure you are right about your assumption that he has a “problem” with you. If your boss does the same to several persons on your team then chances are that your assumption that he has a problem with you is wrong. However, just because you’re not the only one doesn’t mean that he loves you. He might be just neutral about you or he could be toxic to almost everyone. If he is the latter he still is detrimental to your career the same way a boss that doesn’t like you would.

Some signs that your boss doesn’t like you can be that he enjoys micromanaging only you, he tries to always find ways to criticize the work that you’ve done( even petty things), he constantly yells at you, he creates unrealistic demands with deadlines that are impossible to meet for the sole purpose of sabotaging you, he belittles you in front of your colleagues and other bosses and so on. I’m sure it’s not that hard to detect someone that doesn’t like you.

Whatever the reason why your boss doesn’t like you. It’s time to take action. If you are sure that you cant improve your relationship with your boss or leader you should be looking for a way out of his management. Try to change teams, or departments or get a transfer to another chapter of the company. If this is not possible, then,  you should start looking for a new job. I could stay all day here talking about how to identify a boss that doesn’t like you or at least has some kind of problem with you. But if you already know that this is not important. Again, what is important is taking action and getting out of his command as soon as possible. The longer you stay under his command the more harm he will cause to your career. As you all know, having a boss that doesn’t like you can not only make your work life like a nightmare, but he can also be hindering you from getting promoted and growing in your career. If you stay under his wing for too long chances are that he will make sure you stay stuck in the same role for months, years, or even forever without you ever achieving any kind of career growth by climbing the corporate ladder.

Unfortunately, in most companies, most decisions are taken behind closed doors. Leaders, managers, and bosses are deciding your future without you even knowing in meetings that you are not part of and might never even know that happened. Therefore, having someone that is doing everything in their reach to harm your career is one of the most harmful things you will ever face in your corporate life, if you don’t want your career to go downhill it’s quite important to not get too comfortable in a place that you know that there are persons in positions of power that are unsupportive of your corporate endeavors, especially if those that are against you are in leadership positions and have a saying in your future at your current place of work. It’s about time to switch companies!

5. You Feel That The Corporate Culture Of The Company Is Toxic In General

A company’s culture can be toxic for several reasons, which can range from overworking their employees to toxic employees, toxic leadership, or toxic bosses, nepotism, cronyism, unnecessary micromanagement, office politics, gossip, unnecessary bureaucracy, lack of trust, hostile competitive environment, and so on.

Whatever the reasons for a workplace to become toxic the results are always the same: an unpleasant work environment, that leaves employees stressed and wishing to find a way out of there as soon as possible. Nevertheless, toxicity inside a company is not always the upper-management fault. Toxicity can be caused just as much by senior managers at the top of the pyramid as by the employees at the bottom of the hierarchy with the lowest rank in the company. Nevertheless, the rank of the person or persons causing it doesn’t matter what matters is that toxicity is very harmful to a corporation’s future regardless of who is causing it.

A corporation is like a living organism it’s evolving, changing, and adapting every day. As people come and go the company’s “personality” constantly changes. Unfortunately, sometimes these changes are for the worse. When a workplace has a Cutthroat Work culture not only your career is in grave danger but so are your mental health and self-esteem.

What is important is to take action and find a way out of this situation as soon as possible, since if you don’t, one thing is for sure working in a toxic environment as said before will harm be detrimental to your career, self-esteem, and mental health. Unless you are the CEO of the company or some other powerful figure in there it’s almost impossible for you on your own to be able to make a change in the company’s culture for the better. You’re better off updating your resume and sending it to other companies to try to get a job in a better work environment as quickly as possible.

Nevertheless, if you still want to stick there a few months more to try to work things out, which I strongly recommend against, I recommend you to at least try to ask to transfer to another team, department, or branch of the company. However, if you’ve already tried that and it didn’t work out. Then, it’s time to start looking for companies with a more healthy work environment as soon as you can!

6. All The Star Employees Are Leaving the Company For Good

This goes back to point 3.  If all the star employees are leaving instead of being promoted or getting some kind of reward for surpassing expectations this is a major red flag! It can mean two things: either that upper management doesn’t know how to retain talents or that the company doesn’t value them at all with their current metrics. Whatever the reasons behind it the result is the same a high turnover rate.

High turnover rates can be a consequence of all the hard-working people knowing that it’s almost impossible to climb the corporate ladder out there for their current company and the only way to keep advancing in their careers is to switch to better companies that value their talents. Tired of not getting the recognition that they deserve they start looking for it elsewhere.

This is another sign worth paying attention to! If this is happening in your current corporation it might be time or it will be in the future, once you achieve the same level of experience that the star employees leaving currently are, to leave the company for good. Otherwise, you will stay in a place where once you reach a certain level there is no more career growth to do at all there.

It might be worth leaving these kinds of companies as soon as you can. What usually happens in those corporations is things keep taking a turn for the worse as they are forced to start overworking the employees that stayed since workers leave faster than they are able to find replacements for the employees that left. As a result what was once a task assigned to two or three people is now done by only one person, due to the lack of people in your department. Soon other employees are also leaving not only because they feel that they don’t get the recognition that they deserve, but also because they are getting overworked, due to the multiple demands assigned to them.

Another consequence of star employees leaving is that not only work starts piling up, but also mistakes become more frequent because of the brain drain. The corporation sometimes is unable to find someone with the same skill set level as the person, who left. As a result, they are also forced to assign a person or multiple persons to do a task that is beyond their skill. This usually leads to subpar work and mistakes, since the person or persons that are now in charge of the projects, left by the star employees that quit the company, have yet to achieve their level of experience and skill.

The end of the story for these kinds of companies is usually always the same. In these scenarios soon the morale of workers takes a hit because of all the stress, mistakes, and problems the company starts facing because of the mass exodus of their talented workers. As a result, everyone starts having the desire to leave the company. If upper management doesn’t change its practices pretty soon and start valuing its employees the company is doomed to a mass exodus of workers which can lead to the eventual demise of the company. If you are in a company like this I strongly advise getting out of there as soon as you can as you don’t want to be there when their demise happens.

7. They Put You In A Different Role From What You Were Promised

“He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.” – Psalm 101:7

This is usually a major red flag of a company or upper management lacking transparency, respect, and morality with their soon-to-be employees. If as soon as you accepted the job offer they put you in a role that wasn’t what you were originally promised during the interviews and the final job offer they made. I’d say that if you have any kind of self-respect you should immediately leave this job!

It’s one thing to every now and then make you do other tasks not common to your job field along with what is part of your job description. But if you rarely or never do what was initially agreed in the job description and talks you’ve had with them in interviews that you did and you spend all or most of your day doing duties that have nothing to do with your field of work. Then, not only you are getting rusty for tasks that really matter in your field of work and this can hurt you in future job opportunities. But you are also in a job that won’t help you climb the corporate ladder in your field at all. If you choose to stay there in the long term this will definitely hurt your career.

They are already off to a bad start with you. How can you trust someone that promises you something and doesn’t keep their end of the bargain? You don’t… You simply can’t. Tell me, would you be friends with someone that is constantly lying, making false promises, and deceiving you? I bet you wouldn’t! People that act like that don’t deserve your valuable time, consideration, and ethic. Therefore, you should apply the same principle to companies that don’t keep their promises to you. Leaving your career at the hands of people like that is like trusting the devil.

You could try to sort this out by talking with them and asking your supervisor if these tasks won’t be forever. But this rarely works and I’d strongly advise against it. However, if you wish to do so you could try. What usually happens is that they promise you that they will eventually put you in the role and tasks, that you were originally promised as soon as they can. However, this never happens and they try to keep you there with false promises of “putting you in the original role they promised you” in the future as long as they can for the sole purpose of using you for their needs until you get tired and leave. Then the cycle repeats over and over again with others.

Companies and managers that do these kinds of things Don’t deserve you as a potential employee. Just leave! Don’t waste any of your time in workplaces like these! Try to avoid getting yourself into places like these always do your research about the company on the internet, read what people are saying about them and talk with former employees if possible.

8. The Company Is Having Financial Problems

If you’ve heard rumors of a company having financial this is a major red flag worth paying attention to and acting accordingly.  Unfortunately, if the company’s finances are not looking good there is a high probability that if you don’t start job hunting you will soon find yourself unemployed. When a company is having financial troubles it can end up bankrupt, do layoffs in a desperate attempt to cut costs or even get bought into a merger or acquisition.

In all those scenarios it’s highly likely that you and some or all of your colleagues may end up without a job.  So it’s better to start looking for new opportunities right away before things take a turn for the worst. As much as you like the environment, your colleagues, the company’s culture, your boss, and your role in that place. You’ve to understand that things can go south pretty soon if the company is not profiting or is in debt. In other words, it’s a sinking ship and the clock is ticking!

9. You’ve Heard Rumors About a Merge Or Acquisition

All too often, when acquisitions or mergers occur, upper management usually does a restructuring of the company as a whole. When those major operational changes in the company happen there is always a chance that a department or sector could be completely extinguished or decreased in size. Now you may ask, what happens with those that worked in the sector o department that will be extinguished or shrunk in size? Well, they are either reassigned to work somewhere else in the company or lose their jobs. Yes, you heard that right!  This means that if the company can’t find something to reassign employees from a department that was extinguished or shrunk in size they will probably be laid off.

Staying in a company that is about to be acquired or merged can be a risk to your employment status as there is always a chance that they might have to do a layover.

10. Leadership Shakeups Happen Too Often

Different leaders have different ways and styles of leading people. There is nothing wrong with that. However what turns this into a problem is when a company’s CEO, managers, bosses, and team leaders change too often. This can be very stressful to employees since they find themselves having to adapt all the time to new rules, metrics, and leadership styles. All of this is because the people who are in positions of power inside the company keep changing all the time. As a result, the company doesn’t have a fixed culture and rules. A company without fixed leaders is like a person without an identity and suffering from amnesia.

Working in places like these can be harmful to your career, sanity, and productivity. From one moment you might have a leader who approves your work and the next you have a leader who criticizes it and demands you to change. This can become very stressful. as you are always having to adapt in short periods of time to new rules and goals of the corporation all the time since leadership changes too often.

This can lead you and other employees in wasting energy that could’ve been used to improve your skills or focus on the job. You’re also unlikely to ever get noticed or promoted in a company that is always having leadership shakeups. After all, chances are that your leader or supervisor, who was always cheering you up. And praising your work won’t stick around there for too long to be able to help you climb the corporate ladder and get promoted.

11. Nepotism and Cronyism Runs Rampant In The Company’s Culture

The truth is that everywhere you work in your professional life are likely to have at least a small degree of nepotism and cronyism. After all, people do like to work with those they trust and are friends with or blood-related. It’s a human instinct to trust the people who you are friends with or blood-related more than strangers. It’s impossible to find a place that will be hundred percent meritocratic and fair to everyone since there will always be flaws in the system and those with bias. However, the problem arises when a company lets someone less qualified be hired, promoted, or assume a leadership role over a more experienced and skilled employee almost all the time just because the former has friends or family in high places in that corporation. In the long term picking the employee, who has friends and family in high places, but less experience and skill over the worker with more experience and skill will do more harm than good for the corporation.

Chances are that you’ve once worked for or at least heard about a company where cronyism and nepotism were so deeply ingrained in its culture that employees, who didn’t have friends or family in high places, knew that unless they changed companies they were doomed to stay stuck in their position forever or if they did get promoted they knew they would always be under an inferior position if compared to those of employees that had friends and family in key positions of the corporation, regardless of how much effort and skill they had. Working in environments like these that value friendships and bloodlines more than meritocracy is awful as the feeling of being treated with unfairness leaves employees, who are not part of the club of the privileged ones, unsatisfied and upset. It’s fairly common for this to take a toll on the morale of employees and create a feeling of distrust and inequality between people. As a consequence productivity decreases and a lack of faith in the company’s management instills workers to leave the company.

Unless you are part of the privileged bunch, who have friends and family in high places, staying in a place like this for too long is a seriously bad move for your career. After all, what is the point of staying in a place where climbing the corporate ladder is almost impossible, or if it’s possible you will always be in inferior positions under the shadow of someone less competent than you for the job just because the other person has powerful friends or family inside the corporation? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the faster you find a job in another company the better just don’t go job hunting expecting a perfect place without any flaws and a perfect system of meritocracy.

Even if you are part of the privileged bunch that benefits from the cronyism or nepotism in your corporation staying there for too many years might be a bad idea in the long term. You may grow too comfortable and soft. Therefore, you will end up staying in a comfort zone for too long since you know you don’t have to push your limits as hard as everyone else because your friends or family inside the corporation got your back and will keep promoting you even if you don’t work as hard as other employees. Therefore this may limit you from becoming the best version of yourself and experiencing tremendous career growth. Or worse, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to leave this corporation, where you are part of the privileged bunch with advantages, and get a job somewhere else chances are that you will have a hard time getting the same position in another company that you are currently in since you didn’t develop all the skills and experience necessary to be in this position and you just where in there because your family or friends gave you a hand.

Corporations ruled by an excess of favoritism, cronyism and nepotism usually end up with mediocre employees and average products if not worse. Since all. As time goes all the employees who didn’t have friends or family in high places ended up leaving for other companies, due to being frustrated. It doesn’t take too long for the corporation to be filled with people who are blood-related or friends with each other. This can lead to several problems such as unqualified people doing tasks that are beyond their skills, not being able to fire people who are underworking, management having little to no control over employees with bad attitudes, workers being afraid of snitching toxic and dishonest employees that are doing harm to the corporation because they know the person who is doing these things have powerful connections in the corporation, management being unable of being tough when the need arises because everyone is related or friends with each other and so on. Hiring friends and family can cause so many problems that we could even write a book about it.

Is it possible to run a corporation with all employees being blood-related or friends with each other? It might be but don’t expect your corporation to ever be able to be an expert in your field any time soon or deliver the best product. Chances are your corporation’s competitors, who prefer to hire skilled workers over friends or family, will always be one step ahead.

Conclusion

It’s important to always keep your current place of work in check for these kinds of occurrences and signs. What was once a thriving place for you to grow and excel can become a threat to your career. As time goes on a work environment can change and they don’t always change for the better.  Unfortunately, no corporation is safe from becoming a bad or toxic place to stay working. You as a free agent of your future as a professional in your field need to make sure to do the right moves and learn to detect when it’s time to move to greener pastures. Remember you’re on your own in this world no one is going to take care of your career but yourself.

If two or more are happening in your current job. I’d recommend you start looking for somewhere else to work or if you rather stay be careful to not let your career get dragged down into the mud or worse. Remember, staying in a corporation with one or more of those signs happening might be a decision that you will always regret later on in your life and could leave you unfulfilled.