Stuck in a Rut? 3 Crucial Questions to Ask Before You Quit Your Job

updated 4/6/2025

The thrill of a new job is undeniable. Brimming with opportunity, that fresh start can inject potent energy and hope into your career. You landed the role because your skills and experience aligned perfectly, and you accepted it because you envisioned it as a stepping stone toward your personal and professional ambitions. But what happens when that initial excitement fades? What if you question whether your current company is indeed the right fit? Perhaps you're no longer growing, you feel utterly drained at the end of each day, the company culture feels toxic, or you're not advancing at the pace you expected.

If this resonates with you, you're not alone. The rise of "quiet quitting" speaks volumes about widespread job dissatisfaction. Before you make any drastic moves, it's crucial to pause and reflect. Examining the "3 P's" – Passion, Potential, and Pay – can provide the clarity you need to determine if it's time to seek a new path.

1. Passion: Rekindle the Flame or Find a New Fire

At our core, we all crave a sense of mastery and accomplishment in our work. In the short term, talented individuals can often succeed in jobs they don't truly love, relying solely on their skills. However, the relentless grind of a passionless job is rarely sustainable.

Passion can manifest in various ways:

• Passion for the Work Itself: The tasks, projects, and challenges genuinely excite you.

• Passion for the People: You're inspired by your colleagues and enjoy the collaborative environment.

• Passion for the Purpose: You believe in the company's mission and the impact of its work.

When considering a job change, honestly assess whether your work energizes you. If you consistently leave work feeling depleted, if the thought of returning after a few days off fills you with dread, it's a strong indicator that you've lost your passion and should explore other avenues.

The more your job demands cognitive engagement – critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity – the more vital passion becomes. It's far easier to force yourself through a repetitive physical task than to excel at complex mental or creative work when your heart isn't in it.

To truly thrive as a knowledge worker, your work must align with your passions, allowing you to bring your best self to the table.

2. Potential: Is There Room to Grow?

Next, carefully evaluate your potential for advancement and the long-term sustainability of your company.

• Career Trajectory: Is your current role a springboard to future opportunities? If so, consider whether leaving prematurely might derail your career progression. LinkedIn can offer valuable insights – you'll often see individuals who hop from company to company without ever advancing beyond entry-level or mid-management positions. This pattern can significantly hinder career growth, as building trust with leadership and gaining the necessary developmental experience often requires a longer tenure.

• Company Stability: Assess the company's health and prospects. Growth-oriented companies provide ample opportunities for career development but may carry inherent risks if they lack financial stability. Mature companies tend to offer more stability but potentially less room for advancement. Declining companies pose the most significant risk, as shrinking margins and revenue often lead to layoffs.

Even if you're not actively seeking promotions, company sustainability is crucial. Too many employees remain in struggling organizations for too long, only to be blindsided by downsizing.

3. Pay: Beyond the Paycheck

Pay is undeniably a significant factor in any job decision. Accepting a lower-paying position can be a blow to your ego, and depending on your role and the time of year, leaving might mean forfeiting bonuses. Your initial decision to join the company likely involved careful consideration of compensation. The reality is that for those at the lower end of the pay scale, a pay cut can have a more profound impact on overall happiness than any potential joy gained from a new role or company. All decisions involve trade-offs, and weighing what you'll gain against what you'll lose is essential.

However, if pay is the sole reason you're staying in a job, I strongly urge you to explore your options, especially if you can afford a reduced income. I've witnessed countless individuals trapped in miserable work environments, paralyzed by the fear of earning less. Staying in a toxic environment can take a severe toll on your physical and mental health, as well as your relationships. Over time, the cost of damaged relationships and declining health can far outweigh the financial benefits of remaining in an unpleasant situation.

Furthermore, you might be surprised that you've underestimated your earning potential. The current labor market dynamics often present opportunities for higher salaries, as labor inflation outpaces typical annual pay increases.

Finding Your Path: Guidance from Your Path Coaching and Consulting

At Your Path Coaching and Consulting, we understand the complexities of career decisions. We empower individuals to navigate these crossroads with clarity and confidence. Our executive coaching services provide personalized guidance to help you:

• Gain self-awareness and identify your core values.

• Assess your skills, strengths, and passions.

• Develop a strategic career plan aligned with your long-term goals.

• Enhance your communication and leadership abilities.

• Overcome limiting beliefs and build confidence.

Taking Action: A Final Word of Advice

In summary, reflecting on the 3 P's – Passion, Potential, and Pay – is crucial in determining whether it's time to pursue a new job. The average American worker spends a significant portion of their week at work, so cultivating a mutually beneficial relationship with their employer is essential. Like any relationship, it might be time to move on if you consistently feel like you're giving more than you're receiving.

One piece of advice I frequently offer clients before they resign is to have a candid conversation with their leaders about their reasons for considering leaving. Depending on your relationship with your supervisor, this conversation can range from a direct statement of your intention to leave to a more subtle expression of dissatisfaction. By communicating your concerns, you allow your employer to address the issues before you make a final decision. If you've voiced your concerns and your employer hasn't taken meaningful steps to improve the situation, it's likely time to seek new employment.

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Your Path Coaching and Consulting: Your Partner in Career Success

I'm not just a writer; I'm also a father, husband, executive coach, and former retail executive. My 21 years of experience leading operations, sales, and marketing teams have given me firsthand knowledge of feeling stuck, undervalued, and underappreciated.

But I also know the transformative power of professional development, the strategies for climbing the corporate ladder, and the profound satisfaction of finding fulfillment in your work.

Your career path is a unique journey of discovery. Each opportunity builds upon the last. At Your Path Coaching and Consulting, we're dedicated to helping you gain clarity, accelerate your professional growth, and unlock your full potential.

We offer personalized coaching and consulting services to empower you at every career stage. Our expertise includes:

Executive Coaching: Guiding leaders to enhance their leadership skills, communication abilities, and team dynamics.

Business Consulting: Helping organizations optimize strategies, foster growth, and build high-performing teams.

Career Coaching: Assisting individuals in defining a career path and building the skills, network, and competencies needed to maximize their potential.

Our holistic approach combines proven techniques with a deep understanding of your needs and aspirations.

Connect with us:

Website: www.yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-path-coaching-and-consulting

How To Reduce Employee Resistance To Change Initiatives

Today’s work environment is constantly changing. Leaders of large and small companies are looking for ways to stay relevant as fears of an economic slowdown put greater pressure on maintaining revenue, while also mitigating the risk of inflation. Stakeholders are putting pressure on companies to deliver more value. Employees are looking for more pay, better benefits, and greater flexibility at work. Customers are looking for more customization, new services, faster delivery, and cheaper prices. Investors are looking for consistent returns, better governance, social responsibility, and improved sustainability. All these expectations are creating pressure on leaders to change how businesses operated. To maintain profitability, customer experience, employee morale, and investor satisfaction leaders must make bold and sometimes unpopular changes. As a leader you play a key role in helping employees understand why change is necessary, along with the risk of being stagnant in today’s highly volatile environment. The better you communicate why change is necessary and how it will benefit them, the more likely they will be to embrace the change.

People are resistant to change when it challenges their sense of self or their values, especially when that change is not their choice. Think about a time when a positive change happened at work. Your company gave you an additional holiday or a process changed that solved a problem you were experiencing. You accepted the change quickly, and it might have even energized you because you saw benefit from the change. Your identity and values were unchallenged, and the extra day off or process improvement aligned with your aspirational self. Now think of a time when a change happen that you resisted. You had to take on a new assignment that caused you to work more hours which cut into your personal time, or your company moved away from a work from home policy that you enjoyed. This created negative emotions, distracted you from your purpose and was perceived as being a threat to who you are, and who you want to be. When changes happen to us that we view as a threat to our values or identity we resist.  As a leader looking to help people process a big change, it is important to help employees reframe the change from being a threat, to being an opportunity. When they can see the benefits, and understand how the change aligns with their values, and supports who they want to be, they will be more likely to embrace the change.  

First, leaders must recognize that no matter how small you feel a change is, there is a chance that the change will feel significant to your employees.

The reason for this is related to the differences in your scope of responsibility. As the leader you have a different vantage point in the organization. Your focus is on the entirety of your organization, while your employees are focused on a smaller segment of the business, and potentially just their role. Since the size of their role and responsibility is smaller, any change has a bigger impact on their business. In addition, what may seem like a minor change from your vantage point, may require considerable time and effort to execute as it moves down an organization. For this reason, leaders need to be purposeful about the changes they make. Every time you make an unwanted change in your organization you erode employee comfort, trust and sense of power. This can impact morale and have negative impacts to productivity and engagement. In today’s environment change fatigue is a real risk. Change fatigue occurs when multiple minor changes add up and overwhelm an individual or group. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to both the size and frequency of change initiatives.

Second, leaders must frame the change as a win for employees.

As I stated earlier, processing change is all about perspective. If a change is seen as an opportunity to improve the employee work environment, they are more likely to accept it, even if the change requires a lot of work. In contrast, if changes are perceived by employees as threats to their values or wellbeing, you will meet resistance especially if the changes are viewed to be significant. The key to helping employees reframe the change is to give them perspective. The more you can help your employees to zoom out from their perspective and understand how the change will help them either now or in the future, the more likely they will see it as an opportunity for improvement vs a threat to their status quo.

=Zooming out sometimes requires employees to look beyond the pain of the moment and understand that greater pain that will come if change does not occur. A great analogy for this is the pain associated with road construction. As a driver, it can be painful to sit through the increased traffic created by road closures linked to highways expansions. In the moment, drivers may absolutely hate the impact of the road work and the pain associated with longer commutes. In hindsight, once the project is over, most drivers are extremely grateful to have the increase in lanes especially as they realize the additional traffic issues that would have come from not expanding the highway. When the business case for change is presented, leaders must help employees zoom out beyond the current moment and look at the benefits that will come over time.

Finally, involving your employees early in the change management process shows them that you respect and value their opinion and that you have their best interest in mind as you determine and roll out change initiatives.

By giving your employees visibility to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your business, you help them to understand the business case for change. This can help to motivate employees to support change because they better understand the potential benefits of acting, along with the risk of doing nothing. As you solicit their opinion on potential solutions, you will improve your decision making because you will be more knowledgeable of potential solutions, better understand the risk, drawbacks, and trade-offs of your current thinking. When you share change implementation plan with your employees and solicit feedback, they can help to identify unconsidered obstacles, and design solutions to improve adoption rates. By including employees in the process, you increase trust, which lowers the perceived risk of change initiatives because employees understand why the change is happening, that you thought through alternative solutions and landed on the change that was best for the organization’s future.

Change can be difficult because of the wiring of our brains. When people do the same things repeatedly, thought patterns establish that help to build the construct of who we are as individuals. When you make a change in an employee's work environment, you disrupt their thought patterns. When the ask is mundane, the impact is small, and does not impact an employee's sense of self. When the change is viewed as positive, people are willing participants because they believe the change will bring them closer to being the person they want to be. When employees view change as a threat, they resist because they are asked to move away from being the person they want to be. If you want to have greater success influencing change with your employees, acknowledge that change can impact employees’ perception of self, help them to zoom out and see the bigger picture, and collaborate with them on the identification, ideation, and execution of change initiatives.

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Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with your Path Coaching and Consulting. He specializes in coaching service for managers, executives and small business owner.

For tips on leadership and professional development follow me:

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If you are interested in working with me as a coach, contact me at

• Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

• Phone: 804-220-5771

Building a Strong Network is Key To Success Being a Successful Leader

As concerns around a potential recession rise, you can benefit from having connections that will help you to stay positive, think through complex problems, and develop strategies to help your company navigate challenging times. An old African proverb says if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go in a group. The complexities of modern business require you to build and maintain strong networks to succeed. Allocating time to nurture your business relationships ensure that you have the community of support you need to achieve your goals.

What gets in the way of networking?

You might not be networking because you feel it is political or too self-serving. We all know people that are self-promoting, insincere, and manipulative. Just because some people have bad behaviors or motives when it comes to networking does mean you should disregard the benefits. People love connecting with people who can help them; there is nothing wrong with meeting new people and discovering ways to collaborate with them. By defining your purpose in networking, you can gain more comfort with the process. Building a solid network allows you to create more value through win-win collaboration.

You may also feel like you do not have time for networking activities because you feel overwhelmed by your current workload. When you look at your calendars and may see little white space, it isn't easy to imagine adding networking activities to your already busy agenda. You likely deprioritize networking because you see it as a low value of the activities, especially in comparison to the other things on your schedule.

If you are an introvert, the idea of going to a loud and crowded event at the end of your workday might be the last thing you want to do. You may tell yourself that you are not good at networking. That there is little benefit to meeting new people. Or that the fear and anxiety that you experience thinking about or going to events is not worth the return.

If any of these reasons for not networking resonate with you, pause and ask yourself four questions.

1. What benefit will come to me by networking more?

2. How much time do I need to allocate to see the benefit of networking?

3. Is there a way for me to reduce my fear and stress around networking?

4. Is there something I am currently doing that I could stop doing to make time for networking?

In answering these questions, you can identify the value you will gain from allocating more time towards networking and what changes you will need to make to your current routines to support building your network. With this insight, you will find the motivation to think creatively about how to make time in your busy schedule to reconnect with old acquaintances and seek new relationships.

What gets in your way when it comes to networking?

• Being an introvert
• Being to busy
• Inability to find the right events
• Lack of confidence

See All Options

 Seek ways to add value.

The best networkers are curious people. When you meet new people, ask questions, and demonstrate an interest in their lives. This will help you to start the foundation for a good relationship. In addition, by learning about the strengths, interests, and needs of others, you can identify how ongoing communication and partnership can be of value to both parties. By offering to help people solve problems, you make relationship investments that can create reciprocity for the future. In the book, The Go-Giver, Bob Burg and John David Mann share how important helping others can be for expanding your network and creating new opportunities for growth. Every time you interact with someone new, you have the potential to be exposed to diverse insights, perspectives, and experiences.

Establish a system for staying connected.

Establishing a system for staying connected with acquaintances can be a great way to build and keep a strong network. When you meet someone new, you should connect with them on LinkedIn or other social media platforms within a week of making an acquaintance. Next, you should identify the frequency at which you want to follow up with the person. It is essential to consider the type of relationship you want to have with the new acquaintance. Do they see them as potential mentors or sponsors who can provide advice and guidance? Do you see them as a strategic partner you can collaborate with on projects? Will the person be a potential mentee? Defining relationship goals will help you to determine the frequency of follow-up.

Create a method for following up.

The next step is to determine the method of follow-up. For some contacts, sending a text, direct message, or email once a quarter can be an effective way of staying in touch. For others, scheduling monthly calls or face-to-face interactions may be ideal for maintaining and building the relationship. The key here is to be purposeful in staying connected with people. The broader your network, the more access you will have to information and resource. Relationships are like gardens; they die when you do not tend to them, so be intentional about connecting with those individuals that add value to you.

Summary

In summary, networking is essential because it gives you access to information and resources that otherwise would not be available to you. The keys to effective networking are being curious, allocating time to nurture the relationship, and putting the needs of others first. Developing a system for following up with acquaintances can help you maintain and build healthy relationships. You are only as strong as the network of people you are connected to. Investing in your network will help you to reach your full potential.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by assisting clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

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Resources

1. Roberts, L. M., & Mayo, A. J. (2020, September 7). Remote Networking as a Person of Color. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/09/remote-networking-as-a-person-of-color

2. Cross, R. C., Oakes, K and Connor, C. (2021, June 8). Cultivating an Inclusive Culture Through Personal Networks. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/cultivating-an-inclusive-culture-through-personal-networks/

3. White, S. K., & White, S. K. (2022, February 28). What Is Servant Leadership? A Philosophy for People-First Leadership. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/executive/resources/articles/pages/servant-leadership-.aspx