Look Before You Leap

The recession has had a psychological impact on the BV professionals who kept their jobs. In many practices, they hunkered down and stretched themselves to maintain their value. Now that conditions are improving, they are starting to lift their heads above water to look around. You may be one of them.

There’s nothing wrong with that. You just need to do your homework in advance of any potential move.

Minor irritants (some not so minor) tended to be pushed to the background when job change options were few. When job options increase, those irritants come to the fore and can take on greater importance. What you once could readily put up with becomes something you must get away from. Nothing wrong there. That’s human nature.

Before you open the door to a job change, you’ll want to investigate whether those problems really can be fixed. You might be surprised to learn the lengths your boss would go to do that, and avoid having to replace you. Imagine, for example, that you have accepted an offer from a new employer and telling your boss that you’re leaving.

“Why are you leaving?” he asks. “Because of X, Y and Z,” you reply. “Well,” he says, “we can fix that. Here’s what we’ll do.” The problems fade and you’re stuck between leaving for what turns out to be no good reason, and embarrassing yourself by turning down an offer that you just accepted.

You can avoid all that by addressing the issues up front. Go to the boss. Speak frankly about the issues you see. You don’t have to be shy about telling him you’ve become aware that there are more options than recently for BV professionals. It shouldn’t be news to him.

If he can fix them, he probably will. If he can’t – or won’t – then you can begin a job search from a more informed point of view. You’ll also know that any promises to change once you do offer your resignation are promises you can’t rely on.