Is it time to turn over a new leaf yet?

Let's admit it, we've all faced this dilemma at least once in our work-life. We might have compromised on our job choices, or landed ourselves into roles that weighed heavily on our hearts and our minds. We have all been fence-sitters at some stage of our career.

The obvious choice is to quit - some of us do it in a hurry - ending up with possibly another wrong choice, or, some of us live with it till it killed our passion to contribute effectively and creatively.

For me, it was the latter. I went through some of the worst possible experiences in my last role, that impacted me physically, mentally and emotionally. I even contemplated quitting the corporate career for good, till I landed my new job role, that holds all the promises of a better work-life. Thus I decided to pen down some of my learning while I transition out of that difficult phase.

So how to ascertain if you should quit your job if its failed to create the magic you expected. I suggest answering these questions before you craft your next move -

• Have you served your job enough? Say a minimum of 12 to 18 months. The initial days can be quite over-whelming for most of us. A new environment, new tasks and new challenges. Give your self enough time to absorb all of this, till you figure out if its just the initial jitters or you are really not cut out for the job at hand, or vice versa.

• Is your workload right for you? If you think you are over-worked, then do a re-balancing to suit your effort and output. A heavily loaded day can throw a lot of things off balance, and make you think that you have landed yourself in a wrong spot. Delegate or re-arrange your "to-dos", seek support or talk to your manager/team with data on how the workload is impacting your effectiveness.

• Have you contributed to take the role to the next level? Yes, strange but sometimes monotony can set in quite early on. Things could be so process driven and 'templatized' that they cease to be exciting. Look at this as an opportunity to bring in fresh lease of life and add your creativity into the job. Work on changing existing monotonous processes, that don't work for you and others on the team. Believe me, if you add value, your management might just buy in the changes you propose.

• Is your personal life out of gear? You might wonder why did I bring this up here, but believe me, our work-lives do not exist in isolation. In fact in most cases, they are a means to our personal fulfillment. Both work in tandem. So sometimes we end up blaming our work, while the problem really lies outside of it. If it is the case, we should be able to pause, ascertain and fix things rather than quitting our jobs in a jiffy as a response.

• Are you marketable? Have you built your skills and experiences enough that will help you sail through the next job interview? Will you be able to sell yourself as someone who will add value to the next organization. If not, stay put, and build your skills and your resume that the next probable employer might find intersting.

So these pointers were straight out of my recent experiences like I said. However, each of us have our own reasons that might limit our vision to see through these tips objectively. Thus one last word of caution in such a scenario would be to quit only if you have another job or an opportunity lined up. This because it will be twice as hard to find a job of your choice, if you lose continuity. Employers do not appreciate it, and most of us are not adept to handle the difficult questions that are posed by them in order to explain those gaps on our resumes :)