May 29, 2025 • 22 mins
Feeling stuck, stressed, or simply “meh” at work? This episode is your wake-up call. If you’ve been wondering whether it’s time to leave your six-figure corporate job, listen in as I reveal 7️⃣ clear signs it’s time for a change.
Whether you’re thinking about a new role in your industry, switching fields, or finally going all-in on your side hustle, this episode will help you recognize the signs—and trust yourself to make the move.
From burnout and boredom to ethical misalignment and missed opportunities, I’m walking you through the real-life red flags that high-achieving women often ignore until it’s too late. If you’ve been stuck negotiating your exit with yourself, this is your permission slip to stop settling and start designing a life that lights you up.
💡 REMEMBER:
You don’t need to feel totally miserable to make a change. Recognize the signs, trust your intuition, and give yourself permission to pursue the next chapter—before burnout forces your hand.
📱 BOOK A CALL:
Ready to explore your Empowered Exit™? Book a free consultation and start exploring your corporate exit plan today.
If you're looking for additional support through coaching, visit my website to learn more about working together and my signature program EDIT Your Life™: www.karinfreeland.com/life-coaching
Then book a call here!
Not ready for coaching? Get a copy of my self-help book: Grab Life by the Dreams!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karin Freeland (00:00):
Welcome to Rock Your Reinvention, where I help
high-achieving career women likeyou get unstuck, make your
corporate exit strategy, andsuccessfully transition to your
next chapter.
Hi, I'm your host, KarinFreeland, a certified life coach
and corporate exit strategist.
Whether you want to start abusiness, become a speaker, or
something else, I'm here to giveyou the tools and strategies to
(00:23):
shift your mindset, build yourconfidence, and take bold
actions so you can rock yourreinvention.
Ready?
Let's go. Welcome back to RockYour Reinvention.
We have another hot episode foryou today.
We are talking about the 7signs it's time for a new job.
(00:44):
Have you ever wondered if itwas time to leave your job for
something else?
But then maybe you talkedyourself out of it.
You figured you were justhaving a bad day or maybe a bad
week or maybe a bad year.
well today we're going to lookat seven signs that you can look
out for to confirm if it's timeto leave your job and when i
(01:08):
say go and find a new job rightit could literally mean anything
another corporate job at thesame company or maybe a
different company it could begoing to a non-profit it could
be becoming an entrepreneur oranything else that you would get
paid to do there's lots ofother options out there and I
(01:29):
don't want you to be thinkingthat it's one size fits all.
So I hope that this episodewill take some of the guesswork
out of your decision to make apivot or reinvent your career.
So the first sign that youshould be looking out for is you
dread going to work.
We don't need to sugarcoatthis.
I'm not talking about theoccasional case of the Mondays,
(01:52):
right?
You're all out miserable.
You might hit snooze a milliontimes in the morning, show up
late because you're kind ofself-sabotaging and taking
forever to get out of the house,or even just to get out of your
bed into the couch and get on aZoom call.
You might feel sick before,during, or even after work.
(02:12):
And if these things sound likeyou, it's time to dig a little
bit deeper because what we needto understand is what's really
bothering you.
Where's the dread coming from?
We want to get as specific aspossible about this because
that's going to give you cluesto what you want to pivot to
next.
Is it the people that you workwith or that you work for?
(02:36):
Maybe you're bored and you'redreading it because you're not
challenged enough.
Maybe your boss ismicromanaging you to the point
where you feel useless.
I know I had a few seasons likethat.
I was like, why am I even here?
You just tell me what to do.
You could tell someone for halfthe price, what to do.
And they would just do thething that you wanted them to
do.
Do you find yourselfbad-mouthing your employer or
(02:59):
your coworkers?
Cause see, when you know whatyou dread, then you can make a
better plan to successfullypivot because you can try to
avoid those things in thefuture.
If you love your work, but notthe people, then going to a
different company to do asimilar job is probably a smart
move.
But if you hate the work andthe people, well, then it's
(03:22):
probably time to make a complete180.
Moving to another company doingthe same thing isn't going to
fix that underlying problem ofyou not enjoying your work
anymore.
So any sense of dread is gonnabe a clear sign that this is no
longer a good fit and that'sokay.
This is all part of thereinvention process.
Congratulations, you finallyrealized, oh, I dread going to
(03:45):
work.
Now I can do something aboutit.
I do wanna share a quick caveatthough, a quick client story,
because it isn't always abouthow miserable you are, right?
There's no like miserable meterthat, okay, if I hit this level
of miserable, then it's time togo.
And I had a client who justkept trying to negotiate her
(04:07):
exit with herself, right?
She'd have a bad day and saylike, okay, today's the day.
Now I'm going to do it.
I'm really going to startbuilding my exit plan and I'm
going to leave.
But then the next day she'd beokay, right?
She'd have like a fine day, nobig fire drills, no major
headaches.
So she talked herself intostaying a little bit longer
because she wasn't really thatmiserable.
(04:27):
And I want to give youpermission today to make a
change without having to feelmiserable or have like
overwhelming dread, okay?
Maybe it's more about tradingokay or the status quo for
something better.
Maybe it's trading good forgreat or even good for just
(04:50):
different.
Sometimes we just need a pivotand we might go from good to
good.
So just pay attention if you'reputting stipulations around
making a change, like you haveto have a certain level of
unhappiness in order to make achange.
You don't, okay?
That is a convenient excuse andsomething that we often use to
stay stuck.
But if you are feeling dread,then you can definitely check
(05:15):
that box and know that it istime to move on.
The second sign that you knowit's time for a new job is you
have no room for advancement.
Every job should be enhancingyour skills because if you're
not learning, you're notgrowing.
And if you're not growing,you're stagnant, AKA withering
(05:39):
away.
This is a very clear indicationthat it's time to go somewhere
else or maybe leave that fieldaltogether.
Now, by changing companies, youmay find you have more room for
advancement, and it may giveyou this additional surge of
excitement for that new job.
There could be lots of benefitsto making a change.
And one of the challenges thatI see in the corporate world is
(06:03):
like once someone has a certainperception of you, it is very
difficult to change.
Not impossible, but it isdifficult.
And so sometimes we are justperceived a certain way inside
of our current organization.
And when we make a leap out,then we have this ability to
change other people'sperceptions.
(06:25):
and to actually be seendifferently, thereby making
opportunities for advancementmore present, more tangible.
But I do want you to be awarethat sometimes we make a pivot,
maybe because we don't have roomfor advancement and we go to
another company and it's allgreat for like the first six
months.
And then the honeymoon phasewears off.
(06:47):
And that's happened to me,that's happened to several of my
clients.
But what I will tell you is thegood news here is that now you
know with 100% certainty thatcorporate is no longer for you.
And you can confidently startmaking that full-on exit plan to
go do something totallydifferent.
And just so you know, that isone of the main things that I
(07:09):
help my clients with.
So if you're interested oryou're in that season where
you're like, no, no, I reallyknow that I want to make my
corporate exit plan.
You can book an empowered exitcall with me.
It's a 45 minute call.
We'll talk about what's holdingyou back, what your ultimate
vision is, and we'll make a gameplan for going forward
together.
That link as always is in theshow notes.
(07:30):
So make sure you go set up yourcomplimentary call.
I'd love to have a chat withyou.
All right, the third sign youknow that it's time for a new
job is you've got lack ofenthusiasm.
And if this resonates, I havedefinitely been there.
You're just like no longerinterested in your work.
What used to make you tick isnow, ugh, boring.
(07:53):
You just could do it with oneeye shut, you know, and like
your hands tied behind yourback.
You might be phoning it in alittle bit more than usual.
Checking the time all day long,like, oh my gosh, it's still
only noon.
Like I have four more hours orfive more hours of this.
Make it end.
If your job doesn't interestyou, I mean, there can certainly
be a couple of differentthings, right?
(08:14):
And I know one of the bigsymptoms of perimenopause is
losing interest in things thatyou used to love.
So that could be a situation,right?
You may want to go have a visitwith the doctor and chat with
them and see if there'ssomething going on with the
whole perimenopause.
but it could also be signs ofadvanced burnout.
(08:35):
And I see this in a lot of myclients.
But no matter which one ofthose or something else that it
might be, right, this is still asign that you need to jump ship
and find the thing that isgonna make you tick for this
season of life and allow you tohave a little bit more balance.
Because here's the problem withlack of enthusiasm for your
(08:58):
work.
Over time, apathy at workstarts to spill into the other
areas of your life.
You might stop caring about thethings outside of work or the
work that you used to enjoy,like volunteering or hobbies,
right?
You just start to feel like,oh, I don't care about my work
(09:18):
anymore.
Now I don't even enjoy this funhobby.
Now I don't even like doingstuff at my church or I don't
like doing this othervolunteering stuff.
Everything starts to feel likea chore because you're so
overtaxed.
The opposite side of that,which I see sometimes in my
clients, is that you find youspend so much time at work
(09:38):
because, hey, you're anoverachiever and anything less
than perfection won't do, right?
That you have no time foranything outside of work that
you actually care about.
The things that light you up,that make you feel more
well-rounded and fulfilled,right?
And that's not a good feelingfor anyone.
So you kind of stay stuck.
You dive more into your work,work that you don't even care
(09:59):
about.
And it's just like this viciouscycle of unhappiness.
So if you're experiencing alack of enthusiasm, it's
definitely time to startcontemplating, what's next for
me?
The fourth sign it's time tomove on is you're burnt out.
And we just touched on that fora minute.
(10:20):
But I want to expand because...
This is something that I thinka lot of people don't even
realize they're in burnout oftenuntil it's too late.
So the work might be reallychallenging or the environment
is just so chaotic that you areoverworked, right?
You never get any downtime.
(10:40):
There's always a fire drill.
There's always the next bighoop.
It's like, okay, if I can justsurvive till Friday.
Okay, no, if I can just survivetill the end of this month, if
I can just get through thatmeeting or that trade show or
whatever your big milestone is,but there's always another one.
There's always a thing that youjust have to get through.
And it's been so interestingfor me lately because my husband
(11:01):
has definitely beenexperiencing some like stage
three burnout.
And one of the symptoms isoften little things become
really big things, right?
Something that really probablyisn't that big of a deal starts
to feel like the end of theworld.
Now he's an electrician, soit's kind of a different world,
(11:24):
but he came home the other dayand he was complaining about
something that to me soundedlike not like a big deal, but to
him, it was the most, it wasjust like, he couldn't believe
that they were asking him this.
So his boss was concerned thatthere were a few tools that went
missing on the last job.
(11:44):
And so now the boss wantspictures of all the tools at the
end of the day.
And I'm kind of like, yeah,that kind of seems like a no
brainer, right?
Like if you were the foreman onthis job, shouldn't that be
your responsibility to managethe tools and the people?
Like, I don't know.
It doesn't seem like a big dealto me, but he was just like, I
can't believe he's asking methis.
(12:05):
I'm not a baby.
You don't have to babysit melike all these complaints.
And it sounded like the end ofthe world to him.
And I just stopped him and Iwas like, babe, it's time to go.
It's time to go.
This is the end of the road foryou.
And sure enough, on Wednesday,he put in his two weeks.
And it's funny because hesounded just like me when I was
(12:26):
in my last marketing job.
And I remember my boss comingto me and being like, Karin, we
ought to send out this email.
Because I did email marketingin my team.
We ought to send out this emailabout EV charging.
And I...
was over the moon about howstupid this was.
And I was so frustrated.
And I'm like, we can't evensell it here.
Like we don't have the salesteam to enable this.
(12:48):
We're going to lose people fromour, our database.
And once they're gone, we can'tget them back.
Like I had a million reasonswhy this shouldn't, we shouldn't
do this.
Right.
But like, really all I had todo was be like, yes, ma'am.
No problem.
We'll send the email.
Like it was such a It couldhave been such not a big deal,
but because of the level ofburnout and stress, I was just
(13:11):
so upset.
And you might be findingyourself in the same situation.
And if everything feels like aburden, everything feels like
the end of the world, girl, it'stime to go.
And that's okay because you areworthy of a better quality of
life.
And if you want to dig intoburnout a little bit more, if
this one's like, oh my gosh,this is so me right now, go
(13:34):
listen to episode 16 of the RockYour Reinvention podcast, where
I bust three myths aboutburnout.
And I think that that will giveyou some more insight as well.
The fifth reason that you needto leave your job and look for
something new is your lifeoutside of work is suffering.
(13:55):
And suffering can mean a lot ofdifferent things to a lot of
different people, right?
It might be neglecting yourhealth.
Maybe you're not getting enoughexercise.
Maybe you're feeling sick orexhausted all the time.
Maybe your balance is justtotally out of whack and you are
feeling really bad about nothaving more time with the And
(14:19):
this could be both romanticallyor your friendships.
You know, a lot of my clientscome to me and they're like, I
don't have any friends.
I'm like, oh yeah, I rememberthat season of life.
And it's not fun.
It can be very painful.
And you might not even be theone realizing your personal life
is suffering.
Sometimes it's your loved oneswho are coming to you and
(14:40):
they're picking up on thingslike your mood swings or how
short you are, right?
You're always short-tempered orsnapping at the kids or your
spouse.
And they might be the onesbringing this to your attention
and saying something about it.
I remember in my case, oh mygosh, even my poor sweet little
dog, Peanut.
Oh, rest his soul.
I can't wait to see him somedayand give him like the biggest
(15:02):
hug and just love on him again.
But he was such a good dog andhe was an absolute nuisance for
me.
And I feel so bad saying thatout loud.
Like who says that about theirdog?
But I was in total survivalmode at that time.
And I was just like, you'reunder my feet.
I can't get anything done.
This dog's always in the way.
It needs walks.
(15:22):
It needs this.
And I just didn't have thecapacity to handle anything else
outside of my work life becauseit was so full on.
But a lot of that also was myoverachievement tendencies,
right?
You might be spending allSunday just giving yourself a
pep talk.
Like, okay, I can do this.
It was just one more week.
(15:43):
Hang in there.
Keep adulting.
And now you're not evenenjoying your weekends because
your whole weekends become a peptalk to prep you for the next
Monday.
And you probably feel like younever have time for anything
outside of work, right?
I was just sharing with aclient, too.
Like, at one point, I couldn'teven enjoy sex.
I was just so in another placewe'd be doing it.
(16:04):
And I'm like thinking about myto-do list and even sex felt
like something on my to-do list.
Right.
Just like cook, check this off.
Okay.
And how sad is that?
I didn't want to be distant oremotionally unavailable for my
husband.
I mean, that's not what Isigned up for when we took our
vows, but at the same time I wasrunning on complete empty.
I was like running on fumes andcoffee.
(16:26):
And when we get to this state,it's time to reevaluate our
priorities and make a shiftbecause I believe that life is
way too short to settle for thishectic survival mode where work
is always number one.
So if you are feeling like yourlife outside of work is
suffering, I promise you, thereis somewhere else that you can
(16:49):
work and make good money ifthat's a priority for you and
find balance and actually have apersonal life.
It is possible.
It does exist.
And I see my clients do it allthe time.
I got two more for you.
The sixth sign that you areready to make a pivot and find a
new job is that your ethics andthe company's mission no longer
(17:14):
align with your values.
And I think we underestimatethe importance of this one.
And ethics and mission was sobig for me when I was changing
jobs and leaving corporate.
I remember when I was intelecom, I had very different
ideas about how plugged in weshould all be and how many
devices people needed and atwhat ages people needed those
(17:35):
devices.
And, you know, my companywanted every kid plugged into an
iPad and a watch and a phone asearly as possible.
And I just had two young kidsand I would look at them and I'm
like, this isn't healthy.
I don't want to get behind thisanymore.
What am I exposing them to?
You know, I'm the parent thatmakes them put a pillow on their
waist when they're using atablet or any device, because I
(17:57):
don't want it to, as I say tothem, fry their balls.
But you know, like theradiation is not good for their
sperm.
And I don't want them to not beable to have children someday
because they sat with an iPad ontheir lap when they were kids.
So you know, do you, I'm nojudgment here, but like for me,
there's just all of a sudden waslike this big misalignment,
right?
(18:17):
Between what I could get behindand the company that I wanted
to work for.
And then I went into energy andeverything was great.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm workingon renewables.
I'm saving the earth.
This is great.
And then all of a sudden theycome to me and they're like, oh,
we want to get into thecannabis market.
And I'm like, wait, what?
Huh?
the cannabis market because ittakes a lot of energy to produce
cannabis.
(18:37):
So they wanted to get in withlike solar and all these
different things.
But I was like, I've seen waytoo many people become addicted
to weed and then completely blowtheir life and get into other
things and just never amount toanything like way too many
friends.
And I'm like, I can't I can'tdo this.
I can't support that.
And so once again, I foundmyself like I need to make a
(18:59):
pivot.
There is a massive misalignmenthere.
So the question to yourself is,what values do you feel are
being compromised?
How is the mission misalignedfrom yours?
And it might be time to listento those concerns and jump ship.
All right, and the seventh signit's time to get a new job is
(19:21):
your side hustle is taking off.
So if you have started a sidegig and things are starting to
pick up, especially to the pointwhere your day job is getting
in the way of that side hustle,It is time to jump in with both
feet and pursue this full on.
No more backup plan, right?
Because the great thing here isthat you've already tested this
(19:44):
business idea.
I mean, you know it works.
So why not make it your plan A,right?
Why not go all in on that andbe your own boss?
And hopefully you've built up abit of a cash cushion so you
can make that transition moreseamlessly.
I mean, I know when I left myjob, I was consulting on the
side for almost two years whileI was building up my coaching
(20:05):
business, you know, and both ofthose jobs were part time.
So I kind of had like two sidehustles in a way.
And consulting paid me so muchthat I was able to save up a
pretty significant amount ofmoney in a short time so that I
could stop consulting and thengo all in on my coaching
business.
Now, You may not have that bigof a cushion, but if you could
(20:27):
get even like a six monthssalary, right, six months
window, then I say go all in.
And if you're consistentlythinking about that side hustle,
if you find yourself so muchmore lit up and happier when
you're doing that work, I mean,it's just a clear sign that
you're ready forentrepreneurship.
So trust yourself.
(20:47):
Whatever you do next, though,do not stay put.
You don't need any more signs.
I see this temptation all thetime.
Well, just give me one moresign, God, whoever your creator
is.
One more sign and then I'llbelieve you.
And then you get the sign andyou're like, no, no, was that
really a sign?
I don't think that was a sign.
Give me another one.
We just keep negotiating ourexit.
(21:09):
You don't need to have all ofthese signs either, right?
So if you were like, well, Ionly had two or three of those
signs.
Who cares?
That's enough, right?
You don't even need any signs.
You could just feel in yourgut, no, I think it's time for a
pivot, and that's enough.
Some of these signs might bereally strong, and some of them
might be like, no, it's notreally a big deal.
(21:31):
Again, it's okay, right?
It's enough.
Trust your intuition, believein yourself, and start making a
plan to finally pivot.
Thanks for tuning in.
I hope you're inspired to takeaction by committing to one of
the tips or strategies we talkedabout in today's episode.
(21:52):
If you want more accountabilityand support, I've got your
back.
Book a complimentary empoweredexit strategy call today.
Visit karinfreeland.com tolearn more and book your
45-minute session.
Welcome to Rock Your Reinvention, where I help
high-achieving career women likeyou get unstuck, make your
corporate exit strategy, andsuccessfully transition to your
next chapter.
Hi, I'm your host, KarinFreeland, a certified life coach
and corporate exit strategist.
Whether you want to start abusiness, become a speaker, or
something else, I'm here to giveyou the tools and strategies to
(00:23):
shift your mindset, build yourconfidence, and take bold
actions so you can rock yourreinvention.
Ready?
Let's go. Welcome back to RockYour Reinvention.
We have another hot episode foryou today.
We are talking about the 7signs it's time for a new job.
(00:44):
Have you ever wondered if itwas time to leave your job for
something else?
But then maybe you talkedyourself out of it.
You figured you were justhaving a bad day or maybe a bad
week or maybe a bad year.
well today we're going to lookat seven signs that you can look
out for to confirm if it's timeto leave your job and when i
(01:08):
say go and find a new job rightit could literally mean anything
another corporate job at thesame company or maybe a
different company it could begoing to a non-profit it could
be becoming an entrepreneur oranything else that you would get
paid to do there's lots ofother options out there and I
(01:29):
don't want you to be thinkingthat it's one size fits all.
So I hope that this episodewill take some of the guesswork
out of your decision to make apivot or reinvent your career.
So the first sign that youshould be looking out for is you
dread going to work.
We don't need to sugarcoatthis.
I'm not talking about theoccasional case of the Mondays,
(01:52):
right?
You're all out miserable.
You might hit snooze a milliontimes in the morning, show up
late because you're kind ofself-sabotaging and taking
forever to get out of the house,or even just to get out of your
bed into the couch and get on aZoom call.
You might feel sick before,during, or even after work.
(02:12):
And if these things sound likeyou, it's time to dig a little
bit deeper because what we needto understand is what's really
bothering you.
Where's the dread coming from?
We want to get as specific aspossible about this because
that's going to give you cluesto what you want to pivot to
next.
Is it the people that you workwith or that you work for?
(02:36):
Maybe you're bored and you'redreading it because you're not
challenged enough.
Maybe your boss ismicromanaging you to the point
where you feel useless.
I know I had a few seasons likethat.
I was like, why am I even here?
You just tell me what to do.
You could tell someone for halfthe price, what to do.
And they would just do thething that you wanted them to
do.
Do you find yourselfbad-mouthing your employer or
(02:59):
your coworkers?
Cause see, when you know whatyou dread, then you can make a
better plan to successfullypivot because you can try to
avoid those things in thefuture.
If you love your work, but notthe people, then going to a
different company to do asimilar job is probably a smart
move.
But if you hate the work andthe people, well, then it's
(03:22):
probably time to make a complete180.
Moving to another company doingthe same thing isn't going to
fix that underlying problem ofyou not enjoying your work
anymore.
So any sense of dread is gonnabe a clear sign that this is no
longer a good fit and that'sokay.
This is all part of thereinvention process.
Congratulations, you finallyrealized, oh, I dread going to
(03:45):
work.
Now I can do something aboutit.
I do wanna share a quick caveatthough, a quick client story,
because it isn't always abouthow miserable you are, right?
There's no like miserable meterthat, okay, if I hit this level
of miserable, then it's time togo.
And I had a client who justkept trying to negotiate her
(04:07):
exit with herself, right?
She'd have a bad day and saylike, okay, today's the day.
Now I'm going to do it.
I'm really going to startbuilding my exit plan and I'm
going to leave.
But then the next day she'd beokay, right?
She'd have like a fine day, nobig fire drills, no major
headaches.
So she talked herself intostaying a little bit longer
because she wasn't really thatmiserable.
(04:27):
And I want to give youpermission today to make a
change without having to feelmiserable or have like
overwhelming dread, okay?
Maybe it's more about tradingokay or the status quo for
something better.
Maybe it's trading good forgreat or even good for just
(04:50):
different.
Sometimes we just need a pivotand we might go from good to
good.
So just pay attention if you'reputting stipulations around
making a change, like you haveto have a certain level of
unhappiness in order to make achange.
You don't, okay?
That is a convenient excuse andsomething that we often use to
stay stuck.
But if you are feeling dread,then you can definitely check
(05:15):
that box and know that it istime to move on.
The second sign that you knowit's time for a new job is you
have no room for advancement.
Every job should be enhancingyour skills because if you're
not learning, you're notgrowing.
And if you're not growing,you're stagnant, AKA withering
(05:39):
away.
This is a very clear indicationthat it's time to go somewhere
else or maybe leave that fieldaltogether.
Now, by changing companies, youmay find you have more room for
advancement, and it may giveyou this additional surge of
excitement for that new job.
There could be lots of benefitsto making a change.
And one of the challenges thatI see in the corporate world is
(06:03):
like once someone has a certainperception of you, it is very
difficult to change.
Not impossible, but it isdifficult.
And so sometimes we are justperceived a certain way inside
of our current organization.
And when we make a leap out,then we have this ability to
change other people'sperceptions.
(06:25):
and to actually be seendifferently, thereby making
opportunities for advancementmore present, more tangible.
But I do want you to be awarethat sometimes we make a pivot,
maybe because we don't have roomfor advancement and we go to
another company and it's allgreat for like the first six
months.
And then the honeymoon phasewears off.
(06:47):
And that's happened to me,that's happened to several of my
clients.
But what I will tell you is thegood news here is that now you
know with 100% certainty thatcorporate is no longer for you.
And you can confidently startmaking that full-on exit plan to
go do something totallydifferent.
And just so you know, that isone of the main things that I
(07:09):
help my clients with.
So if you're interested oryou're in that season where
you're like, no, no, I reallyknow that I want to make my
corporate exit plan.
You can book an empowered exitcall with me.
It's a 45 minute call.
We'll talk about what's holdingyou back, what your ultimate
vision is, and we'll make a gameplan for going forward
together.
That link as always is in theshow notes.
(07:30):
So make sure you go set up yourcomplimentary call.
I'd love to have a chat withyou.
All right, the third sign youknow that it's time for a new
job is you've got lack ofenthusiasm.
And if this resonates, I havedefinitely been there.
You're just like no longerinterested in your work.
What used to make you tick isnow, ugh, boring.
(07:53):
You just could do it with oneeye shut, you know, and like
your hands tied behind yourback.
You might be phoning it in alittle bit more than usual.
Checking the time all day long,like, oh my gosh, it's still
only noon.
Like I have four more hours orfive more hours of this.
Make it end.
If your job doesn't interestyou, I mean, there can certainly
be a couple of differentthings, right?
(08:14):
And I know one of the bigsymptoms of perimenopause is
losing interest in things thatyou used to love.
So that could be a situation,right?
You may want to go have a visitwith the doctor and chat with
them and see if there'ssomething going on with the
whole perimenopause.
but it could also be signs ofadvanced burnout.
(08:35):
And I see this in a lot of myclients.
But no matter which one ofthose or something else that it
might be, right, this is still asign that you need to jump ship
and find the thing that isgonna make you tick for this
season of life and allow you tohave a little bit more balance.
Because here's the problem withlack of enthusiasm for your
(08:58):
work.
Over time, apathy at workstarts to spill into the other
areas of your life.
You might stop caring about thethings outside of work or the
work that you used to enjoy,like volunteering or hobbies,
right?
You just start to feel like,oh, I don't care about my work
(09:18):
anymore.
Now I don't even enjoy this funhobby.
Now I don't even like doingstuff at my church or I don't
like doing this othervolunteering stuff.
Everything starts to feel likea chore because you're so
overtaxed.
The opposite side of that,which I see sometimes in my
clients, is that you find youspend so much time at work
(09:38):
because, hey, you're anoverachiever and anything less
than perfection won't do, right?
That you have no time foranything outside of work that
you actually care about.
The things that light you up,that make you feel more
well-rounded and fulfilled,right?
And that's not a good feelingfor anyone.
So you kind of stay stuck.
You dive more into your work,work that you don't even care
(09:59):
about.
And it's just like this viciouscycle of unhappiness.
So if you're experiencing alack of enthusiasm, it's
definitely time to startcontemplating, what's next for
me?
The fourth sign it's time tomove on is you're burnt out.
And we just touched on that fora minute.
(10:20):
But I want to expand because...
This is something that I thinka lot of people don't even
realize they're in burnout oftenuntil it's too late.
So the work might be reallychallenging or the environment
is just so chaotic that you areoverworked, right?
You never get any downtime.
(10:40):
There's always a fire drill.
There's always the next bighoop.
It's like, okay, if I can justsurvive till Friday.
Okay, no, if I can just survivetill the end of this month, if
I can just get through thatmeeting or that trade show or
whatever your big milestone is,but there's always another one.
There's always a thing that youjust have to get through.
And it's been so interestingfor me lately because my husband
(11:01):
has definitely beenexperiencing some like stage
three burnout.
And one of the symptoms isoften little things become
really big things, right?
Something that really probablyisn't that big of a deal starts
to feel like the end of theworld.
Now he's an electrician, soit's kind of a different world,
(11:24):
but he came home the other dayand he was complaining about
something that to me soundedlike not like a big deal, but to
him, it was the most, it wasjust like, he couldn't believe
that they were asking him this.
So his boss was concerned thatthere were a few tools that went
missing on the last job.
(11:44):
And so now the boss wantspictures of all the tools at the
end of the day.
And I'm kind of like, yeah,that kind of seems like a no
brainer, right?
Like if you were the foreman onthis job, shouldn't that be
your responsibility to managethe tools and the people?
Like, I don't know.
It doesn't seem like a big dealto me, but he was just like, I
can't believe he's asking methis.
(12:05):
I'm not a baby.
You don't have to babysit melike all these complaints.
And it sounded like the end ofthe world to him.
And I just stopped him and Iwas like, babe, it's time to go.
It's time to go.
This is the end of the road foryou.
And sure enough, on Wednesday,he put in his two weeks.
And it's funny because hesounded just like me when I was
(12:26):
in my last marketing job.
And I remember my boss comingto me and being like, Karin, we
ought to send out this email.
Because I did email marketingin my team.
We ought to send out this emailabout EV charging.
And I...
was over the moon about howstupid this was.
And I was so frustrated.
And I'm like, we can't evensell it here.
Like we don't have the salesteam to enable this.
(12:48):
We're going to lose people fromour, our database.
And once they're gone, we can'tget them back.
Like I had a million reasonswhy this shouldn't, we shouldn't
do this.
Right.
But like, really all I had todo was be like, yes, ma'am.
No problem.
We'll send the email.
Like it was such a It couldhave been such not a big deal,
but because of the level ofburnout and stress, I was just
(13:11):
so upset.
And you might be findingyourself in the same situation.
And if everything feels like aburden, everything feels like
the end of the world, girl, it'stime to go.
And that's okay because you areworthy of a better quality of
life.
And if you want to dig intoburnout a little bit more, if
this one's like, oh my gosh,this is so me right now, go
(13:34):
listen to episode 16 of the RockYour Reinvention podcast, where
I bust three myths aboutburnout.
And I think that that will giveyou some more insight as well.
The fifth reason that you needto leave your job and look for
something new is your lifeoutside of work is suffering.
(13:55):
And suffering can mean a lot ofdifferent things to a lot of
different people, right?
It might be neglecting yourhealth.
Maybe you're not getting enoughexercise.
Maybe you're feeling sick orexhausted all the time.
Maybe your balance is justtotally out of whack and you are
feeling really bad about nothaving more time with the And
(14:19):
this could be both romanticallyor your friendships.
You know, a lot of my clientscome to me and they're like, I
don't have any friends.
I'm like, oh yeah, I rememberthat season of life.
And it's not fun.
It can be very painful.
And you might not even be theone realizing your personal life
is suffering.
Sometimes it's your loved oneswho are coming to you and
(14:40):
they're picking up on thingslike your mood swings or how
short you are, right?
You're always short-tempered orsnapping at the kids or your
spouse.
And they might be the onesbringing this to your attention
and saying something about it.
I remember in my case, oh mygosh, even my poor sweet little
dog, Peanut.
Oh, rest his soul.
I can't wait to see him somedayand give him like the biggest
(15:02):
hug and just love on him again.
But he was such a good dog andhe was an absolute nuisance for
me.
And I feel so bad saying thatout loud.
Like who says that about theirdog?
But I was in total survivalmode at that time.
And I was just like, you'reunder my feet.
I can't get anything done.
This dog's always in the way.
It needs walks.
(15:22):
It needs this.
And I just didn't have thecapacity to handle anything else
outside of my work life becauseit was so full on.
But a lot of that also was myoverachievement tendencies,
right?
You might be spending allSunday just giving yourself a
pep talk.
Like, okay, I can do this.
It was just one more week.
(15:43):
Hang in there.
Keep adulting.
And now you're not evenenjoying your weekends because
your whole weekends become a peptalk to prep you for the next
Monday.
And you probably feel like younever have time for anything
outside of work, right?
I was just sharing with aclient, too.
Like, at one point, I couldn'teven enjoy sex.
I was just so in another placewe'd be doing it.
(16:04):
And I'm like thinking about myto-do list and even sex felt
like something on my to-do list.
Right.
Just like cook, check this off.
Okay.
And how sad is that?
I didn't want to be distant oremotionally unavailable for my
husband.
I mean, that's not what Isigned up for when we took our
vows, but at the same time I wasrunning on complete empty.
I was like running on fumes andcoffee.
(16:26):
And when we get to this state,it's time to reevaluate our
priorities and make a shiftbecause I believe that life is
way too short to settle for thishectic survival mode where work
is always number one.
So if you are feeling like yourlife outside of work is
suffering, I promise you, thereis somewhere else that you can
(16:49):
work and make good money ifthat's a priority for you and
find balance and actually have apersonal life.
It is possible.
It does exist.
And I see my clients do it allthe time.
I got two more for you.
The sixth sign that you areready to make a pivot and find a
new job is that your ethics andthe company's mission no longer
(17:14):
align with your values.
And I think we underestimatethe importance of this one.
And ethics and mission was sobig for me when I was changing
jobs and leaving corporate.
I remember when I was intelecom, I had very different
ideas about how plugged in weshould all be and how many
devices people needed and atwhat ages people needed those
(17:35):
devices.
And, you know, my companywanted every kid plugged into an
iPad and a watch and a phone asearly as possible.
And I just had two young kidsand I would look at them and I'm
like, this isn't healthy.
I don't want to get behind thisanymore.
What am I exposing them to?
You know, I'm the parent thatmakes them put a pillow on their
waist when they're using atablet or any device, because I
(17:57):
don't want it to, as I say tothem, fry their balls.
But you know, like theradiation is not good for their
sperm.
And I don't want them to not beable to have children someday
because they sat with an iPad ontheir lap when they were kids.
So you know, do you, I'm nojudgment here, but like for me,
there's just all of a sudden waslike this big misalignment,
right?
(18:17):
Between what I could get behindand the company that I wanted
to work for.
And then I went into energy andeverything was great.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm workingon renewables.
I'm saving the earth.
This is great.
And then all of a sudden theycome to me and they're like, oh,
we want to get into thecannabis market.
And I'm like, wait, what?
Huh?
the cannabis market because ittakes a lot of energy to produce
cannabis.
(18:37):
So they wanted to get in withlike solar and all these
different things.
But I was like, I've seen waytoo many people become addicted
to weed and then completely blowtheir life and get into other
things and just never amount toanything like way too many
friends.
And I'm like, I can't I can'tdo this.
I can't support that.
And so once again, I foundmyself like I need to make a
(18:59):
pivot.
There is a massive misalignmenthere.
So the question to yourself is,what values do you feel are
being compromised?
How is the mission misalignedfrom yours?
And it might be time to listento those concerns and jump ship.
All right, and the seventh signit's time to get a new job is
(19:21):
your side hustle is taking off.
So if you have started a sidegig and things are starting to
pick up, especially to the pointwhere your day job is getting
in the way of that side hustle,It is time to jump in with both
feet and pursue this full on.
No more backup plan, right?
Because the great thing here isthat you've already tested this
(19:44):
business idea.
I mean, you know it works.
So why not make it your plan A,right?
Why not go all in on that andbe your own boss?
And hopefully you've built up abit of a cash cushion so you
can make that transition moreseamlessly.
I mean, I know when I left myjob, I was consulting on the
side for almost two years whileI was building up my coaching
(20:05):
business, you know, and both ofthose jobs were part time.
So I kind of had like two sidehustles in a way.
And consulting paid me so muchthat I was able to save up a
pretty significant amount ofmoney in a short time so that I
could stop consulting and thengo all in on my coaching
business.
Now, You may not have that bigof a cushion, but if you could
(20:27):
get even like a six monthssalary, right, six months
window, then I say go all in.
And if you're consistentlythinking about that side hustle,
if you find yourself so muchmore lit up and happier when
you're doing that work, I mean,it's just a clear sign that
you're ready forentrepreneurship.
So trust yourself.
(20:47):
Whatever you do next, though,do not stay put.
You don't need any more signs.
I see this temptation all thetime.
Well, just give me one moresign, God, whoever your creator
is.
One more sign and then I'llbelieve you.
And then you get the sign andyou're like, no, no, was that
really a sign?
I don't think that was a sign.
Give me another one.
We just keep negotiating ourexit.
(21:09):
You don't need to have all ofthese signs either, right?
So if you were like, well, Ionly had two or three of those
signs.
Who cares?
That's enough, right?
You don't even need any signs.
You could just feel in yourgut, no, I think it's time for a
pivot, and that's enough.
Some of these signs might bereally strong, and some of them
might be like, no, it's notreally a big deal.
(21:31):
Again, it's okay, right?
It's enough.
Trust your intuition, believein yourself, and start making a
plan to finally pivot.
Thanks for tuning in.
I hope you're inspired to takeaction by committing to one of
the tips or strategies we talkedabout in today's episode.
(21:52):
If you want more accountabilityand support, I've got your
back.
Book a complimentary empoweredexit strategy call today.
Visit karinfreeland.com tolearn more and book your
45-minute session.
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