Consider the following comparison, between cars and jobs:

  1. Your car has been giving a lot of trouble recently, impacting your quality of life
  2. There are some very good new cars on the market, that you would like to check out…. Possibly, a time for change

In the above, Cars and Jobs are interchangeable and the statement applies to both personal situations. From my perspective, I label (1) as a PUSH and (2) as a PULL phenomenon.

In a PUSH situation, your job environment becomes semi-toxic and you feel compelled to move out, in a survival mode. The reasons for this could be numerous:

  • The business environment is facing challenging times, creating job insecurity
  • Your manager-employee situation is challenging, and you are losing sleep
  • You have hit a glass ceiling and do not see any career growth prospects
  • You, personally, feel that you cannot keep up with the demanding pace of change around you, and need to make a change

In all PUSH conditions, other than the last one – it is the Organization conditions which is ‘pushing’ you out. The Organization has failed to detect and correct the root causes of your discomfort. The employee is not supported through the challenging times, and they are left with no option, but to correct their situation on their own. In the current times, very few Organizations invest in the HR resources required to provide this support. Often they succumb to the stock market needs for fiscal responsibility, a.k.a. bottom line management via employee attrition.

In a PULL condition, an Organization has failed in keeping their employee pool, away from the attractive shiny bright lights and the lush green fields on the outside. I believe, that the instant an employee is even briefly disillusioned with his workplace and decides to peep out – they will feel compelled to check things out, and respond to the positive attention that they will receive from the outside. Once an employee takes the first step in this direction – they, will go for the change. It is close to impossible to provide a counter-pull to the external PULL force. In most cases, in this mode an Organization will lose key personnel and along with it, impact team morale. We need to remember that the “employment at will” condition in all job offers – works both ways.

In both PUSH and PULL conditions, the Organization is responsible for the employee’s actions – although in the PUSH case, the blame falls entirely on the Organization. Whether you are experiencing a PUSH or PULL condition – the decision to change your job is eventually yours, and yours alone to make.

Consider your 24-hour time cycle period. Three key buckets – sleep, work/job and family time, should consume the 24-hours about equally. In reality, work is often all consuming and gets a larger share at the cost of family time and sleep/recovery. Examine your current job situation and assess your buckets. Is your job time bucket overflowing with demanding deliverables, on-going? Does this impact your personal family life and health in some cases? If this is your situation, then you need to work to change it.

Sometimes you may need to address the following: Is a job change required, OR, do you have to change yourself? It is very important to honestly answer this question. It may happen that you may have created the PUSH conditions and can fix them – rather than going for the new car purchase. Remember that from a distance, the grass is always green…. Once you have transitioned to the outside, you may find that along with the green grass there are a lot of weeds and burnt brown grass patches. From the outside, looking back, your old Organization may appear to have a lush green grass lawn too…..

The paradigm of lifetime employment, like the dinosaur, has become extinct and the millennials have evolved to adapt and survive in this environment. I have changed my job 7 times over a 40-year period, and so will you. Your job must invoke your passion and you have to thoroughly enjoy what you do, along with your work environment. This reminds me of a quote from Steve Jobs — “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle”