How do you know when to quit your job?

Or to put it another way, how do you know if your souls stay in your job?

Checklist:

Money

Lifestyle

Stepping stones

Good at

Enjoy

Checklist questionnaire below answer with a general yes or general no to each point. (Not all questions in each category might be relevant to your circumstance)

Checklist questionnaire:

Money - Do you feel the money you get for what you do is fair? Does it allow you to be reasonably comfortable? Can you pay your bills?

Lifestyle - Does your work allow you to literally or metaphorically have a life? Do you live in an area you're ok with? Do you feel you can recover from a bad day or bad week at work? Can you switch off when you want to? Can you do personal actives outside of work when you reasonably want to? Are you happy with the time of day you work?

Stepping stones - Do you feel you can progress in your job? Does your job directly or indirectly give you opportunities to grow or get better at something that is valued or important? By being around others in your workplace are you gaining insight you are glad to be absorbing? Are you becoming better through osmosis? Are there paths to moving up or pivoting without much friction?

Good at - Does the job come easy to you? Do others seem to work harder than you but you get the same or better results? Do others in or outside the place of work praise you? Do you feel your job is a part of who you are (even if you don't enjoy it)? Can you teach others? Do you seem to know more than others around you?

Enjoy - Do you love the world your in? Is it easy to get out of bed or at least not painful? Do you do more than you have to, because you feel like it? Do you spend time getting better because it's important to you? Do you recover very very quickly after short rests away from work? Do you forget about bad days or weeks quickly? Would you miss the culture if you were to leave?

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Results!

If you get none or one, it's time to move on immediately. It might be better to leave without having another job lined up. Your fear holds you back but it's so easy to always slide into another terrible job - it won't be worse than what you already have.

Two or three. Start looking for a new job, there's better options out there. Don't put it off.

If you get four or five, don't leave! The grass is not greener somewhere else, at best it'll be different, not better.

And remember, things change, you and your work place. So come back and do the test again.