When Other Grass Looks Greener

The emotions that come with thinking about leaving your job can make it difficult to get a good read on the situation. One of our goals is to help you make an informed choice about your future. Here’s something to think about when other grass starts looking greener.

In every successful career move, there’s an equilibrium of push and pull. It’s not necessarily a balance, but an equilibrium; meaning that there’s a minimum threshold of either push, or pull, that is required for the whole thing to work well. Oddly enough, this is best illustrated with examples of unsuccessful moves.

During the dot-com craze, there were any number of folks – some of them your colleagues, perhaps – who succumbed to the siren song of big money and stock options. Clearly, there was enough ‘pull’ to get them out of where they were. In the end, however, there were plenty who were left without chairs when the music stopped.

On the other side of the coin, an ogre of a boss can ‘push’ even the most patient folks out the door. In the rush to act, it’s easy to find yourself jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

Make sure you look for both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ whenever you consider a career move.