Do you get the Sunday night blues? You know, when Sunday night rolls around and you dread the thought of going to work the next day. This is a clear sign that you are having angst about your work situation. As this angst builds up day-by-day and week-by-week, thoughts may come to your mind about making a job or career change. You would not be alone. In 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an estimated 38.2 million people quit their job in the US. 

There once was a day, believe it or not, that people took a job out of high school or college and stayed for their entire career. In what may seem like gentler times, a worker could expect periodic promotions and a wage that would allow one to support a growing family and have some extras in life, like a nice annual vacation. Those days are in our rearview mirror. While certainly there are those that have found a great place to work and are satisfied with their pay and job duties, many others have not. Again, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the average workers between the ages of 18 and 52 will change jobs 12.3 times.

So why do people change jobs? Because the job is not meeting a need. Below are six needs that a job might not be meeting.

Compensation

Whether you are working in a part-time or full-time job, you need a base compensation level to meet your particular needs. Base compensation could be an hourly wage or salary. Base compensation could also be a piece rate. Additionally, compensation can include commissions, bonuses, overtime, and other financial incentives. Whether a job meets your compensation need is a personal decision. What might be enough for you may not be enough for someone else. In a Monster poll, 44% of workers in the job market said they were looking for more money. And on average, Brian’s Kroff from Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, said based on their research that those that left one job for another received a 15% increase in salary.

So if you are not making ends meet, you need to ask yourself if the issue is the particular company you work for and their pay rates or is it the type of work you do in general. If the company pays below market for a position, then a move to another employer may be the answer to your issue. If the type of work you do, such as customer service or social work, is not offering the type of salary you need for your lifestyle, you may want to think more about a career change than to hop from one job to another in that industry, chasing a bit more pay.

Promotion opportunities

Sometimes there is no promotion path available for you at a company. This happens often with a flat hierarchical organization or when the requirements for promotion from one level to another level are high. As an example, in a small to mid-size company, it is possible that your job may be unique and there is no career path for what you do. A smaller firm might only have one person in Marketing or Human Resources, in which case you may need to leave the company to gain a higher-level position. Or, the gap between one level and another may be large. A company might have a Controller, that requires a CPA, and a Staff Accountant. The Staff Accountant might be stymied if upward progression requires a CPA that s/he cannot or does not want to get.

If this is your case, it is important to understand why you want the promotion. Is it because of the additional money it might offer? Is it because you are bored with the work that you do and need an additional challenge? Or is it more an ego thing and a desire to have a more advanced title on your business card? Before starting a job search, better understand your motivation. It will help you understand your priorities and to find a job that truly meets your needs.

Career changes

Sometimes a person decides that they are no longer are interested in a particular career path and want a change. Maybe you have discovered a passion in an area that you had not considered before. Sometimes a life change or becoming involved in volunteer work can incite a new passion. This can also be the case if you followed a career path at the suggestion of friends and family only to discover that is was not a good fit for your interests. I just heard the story of an investment banker that decided that he did not like the person that he had become and chucked his glamorous career to become an English teacher. While most career changes aren’t as dramatic, it does happen. The same Monster poll had 22% of respondents say that a career rut was the reason they were looking. 

A career change is a serious endeavor. It may require additional education or certifications and certainly a lot of networking to pull it off. Some employers are open to career changes but many are only looking for those that have experience in a particular field. If this is your case, unless you have people in your network that have successfully done this before, I would highly consider engaging a career coach to help you come up with a game plan to successfully make the switch.

Benefits

In a job search, people often overlook benefits as a factor in job happiness. Candidates are often focused solely on the compensation given and forget that benefits are equally important. I was at a job that did not offer a company match to the 401 (k). I knew this coming into the company, but the longer I was there, the more it became a sore point for me. It was not the sole factor that led me to leave that company, but it was a main factor in my job search. I have a family member that is currently on his parent’s health insurance (he is under age 26) because a maintenance drug that he needs is not covered by his employer’s health insurance. As he gets closer to age 26, he has a decision to make. Does he stay and assume the out-of-pocket expense (which is significant) or find an employer that does cover this drug? These are real-life examples of how benefits play a significant but sometimes overlooked role in employee happiness.

Other benefits that may be important to an employee’s happiness may be time off and work location flexibility. If the time off policy is less than generous or the employer does not allow any flexibility for work-from-home days or telecommuting, this could be the make-or-break point for whether you wish to stay or decide to look elsewhere.

Fit with organization/job

This is a significant source of unhappiness in a job, but it is one that job seekers often do not probe enough about in the interview process to be able to assess if this is the right position. Sometimes people are desperate, especially if out of work, and feel they must take the first job offered, even if there are misgivings about the role or the company. I did just this. I took a role with a company that I knew would probably not be the right fit. I was scared about being out of work after a layoff, so I took the first job offered. My misgivings proved to be true, and  I Iasted one very long year before finding a better job. 

Sometimes the role is too narrow in scope, sometimes the job is too broad in scope. Sometimes a company is too bureaucratic or has no rules or processes. Whatever the situation, if there is a mismatch between what works for you and your situation, this may cause significant stress in your life. If you find yourself in this situation, the first thing to do is to identify the issue or issues. Then when you look for another job, you can make sure that you get as much information about a future employer to be able to make an accurate assessment of whether the organization/job fit is there.

Manager

There is an old adage that people don’t leave a job, they leave a manager. In my experience that is only partly right. Certainly, if you have a great manager but any of the other five reasons for leaving a job are there, you may still want to go, albeit with some regret. Manager behavior is a big source of stress for employees, and as an HR Director, I have done my share of training and counseling of employees on how to be a good manager. Because there is not a test or program that every people manager must pass to be given these responsibilities, you have a vast array of types of managers. Managers can go from one side of the spectrum, the micromanager, to the other side, the hand-off manager. You can have a manager that wants to know all of your business, including details of your personal life, to managers that never seem to have any interest in you aside from what you do at work. Then you have the yellers, the belittlers, and the fault finders. Whatever your experience, this person may be making your workday miserable. 

So if you are experiencing any of these issues, what should you do? First, consider if you can talk to your boss and try to get improvement in one or more of these areas. Would your boss consider a raise in pay or an enhanced bonus? Could you get more time off or more flexible work hours? Could some of the job responsibilities that you do not like be given to others on your team? Don’t assume that the answer is no. What you don’t ask for you won’t get. If there is no flexibility or what can be offered is not suitable, then you have a decision. Either accept the situation or move on. If you decide to move on, be very clear about the priorities you have for a new job. What are the things that are non-negotiable, nice-to-have and don’t matter? Then be sure to ask relevant questions while in the interview process to ascertain what any new company offers and how it fits in with your priorities.