Should I go or should I stay?

The Clash may have been talking about girl trouble but they could just as easily have been talking about how long you should stay in a job nowadays. Over the past several months, friends and colleagues have been asking themselves the above question, with many taking the opportunity for change and others continuing to struggle with the question. HR and recruitment companies indicate that over 30% of employees will leave their employer this year, with another 50% seriously thinking about it. This morning I heard that 50% of all nurses will leave their profession within the next decade, showing that even the most dedicated of professions are asking themselves the question. Many leave for cultural, monetary, promotional, recognition and management reasons and most saw the signs early, helping to validate their reasons for departing. As Joe Strummer so eloquently puts it, there could be trouble if you stay, there could be trouble if you go, so look for signs you've been working too many hours, working with the wrong people, working for the wrong company.

The gold watch for lengthy stays has long disappeared and the reality today, is even a few years, can be a long time in one place, with technology prolonging your days. A two year job stint, can look and feel like a four year stint if you add up all the hours you work. Surveys indicate that emails start getting checked at 7.30am and don't generally finish before 9.30pm, giving you a solid 14 hour day. Even if you don't recognise it, that's close to 50% more work time than most people get paid for and no matter how convenient it may feel, with technology as the enabler, it is time away from the important things in life. Sometimes the signs are obvious, as in hours to satisfaction ratio but often people "just do" their job and never notice how the little things creep up and accumulate. Is the extra time spent at work, worth it? Is the extra time spent at work, making a difference to your work? How long do you keep this up?

So how long to stay, when to start looking and when to leave are tough questions and difficult answers to find if you are not aware of your circumstances and the landscape around you. A recent trip with a client walking through an airport where he knew everyone from the sandwich lady to the check in attendant gave rise to a few laughs but the serious side of so much time away from his family, didn't go unnoticed by either of us. The throw away line of not knowing his neighbour as well as the people at the airport should be a litmus test, a bench mark, for realigning work hours, for a change at work or perhaps to leave for greener pastures. If you don't recognise some of the more serious signs, you could end up under the greener pastures.

It sounds serious but in today's climate of low unemployment the indications to change shouldn't be mounting up until you can no longer suffer the weight of expectations, hours required to do a job or the concern of changing jobs more frequently. If you know the flight attendant, the cleaning lady or even the boss better than you now your family and friends, you should be asking yourself the question.