What do I do if I hate my NEW job?

Yikes! You just went through an extensive time of hunting for the right job and it isn’t. You want to bail, right now, you don’t want to stay and stick it out.

In a great economy, you have more options but even then moving and switching jobs has to be done with utmost care and thought. If you just landed today and realize it isn’t a good fit, you need to think about it carefully.

  • Is your current position just not a good fit because you don’t like what you are doing? Perhaps you have only started to learn the job. Don’t make snap judgments.
  • Do you feel like you are not being listened to by management? If you have just arrived, even if you were in management before, you may not yet have a good feel for the total operation. After a month or two, if you feel confident that you have a firm grasp of the organization and have some honest concerns, share them. Productivity improvement and process improvement have become a keen focus of management. If you know you can improve operations with a few tweaks, share your ideas with someone you trust to listen.

What if there are different problems with the new job?

The above bullet points assume you are in a reputable company and overall are treated with respect.

  • What if you know your company or one of the management team is breaking the law? If you know someone is deliberately committing fraud or some other kind of corporate crime, let’s get organized with the value you did get out of the job, update your resume, and move on. You could report them if you had enough evidence but if you know you are in a place that is breaking the law, you can be guilty by association, time to move.
  • What if your boss or someone in leadership is harassing you on a regular basis? Time to go. You don’t need that. Start a new search and do deep research to make sure your next position is with a company with people who respect each other.
  • What if the salary changed after the offer (downward) or you suddenly find yourself working 80+ hours and being paid for 40? Time to reassess. Companies who change the rules or push unreasonable overtime hours on people without compensation or with no end in sight generally drain the lifeblood out of the employee. Start your search.

You might also find these posts interesting as you contemplate whether to change or stay put:

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2 Comments

  1. Paul on May 5, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    The first thing I would make sure to do is nothing. Make sure that you’ve really considered all the aspects of the job that you “hate”. Are there underlying issues? Just don’t be hasty, because even a brief time period (2 weeks) can change things considerably!



    • Julie Walraven on May 5, 2012 at 8:07 pm

      My point exactly, Paul. Thanks for stopping by. However, as I pointed out with the last three scenarios there are a few circumstances where you may want to make a move.



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