The 27th Floor

Feeling so fed up with your job you're ready to bail and take any offer that comes along?

Stop. I highly recommend you write down "Out of the frying pan into the fire" on a piece of paper and spend a good 3 minutes staring at it before you commit the unreversible.

I know what you're going to say. You can take anything. Anything but this, right?

Yes the situation may be bad and you have every right to be upset but please allow me to say this. There's a good reason why someone coined the phrase, "The grass is not always greener on the other side."

Before you throw in that letter, do yourself a favour. Go outside, walk around the block. Divert your mind to the things around you. The sky, the grass, the sounds. Take emergency leave if you have to. Go catch a movie, hang out with friends, sleep over it. You've had this job for years so what's a day or two off?

If after that couple of days you are still determined to go, then you can go with a clear conscience. Its perfectly okay to go if the problems are truly irreconcilable but before you go, please don't forget that one last critical step before you tender. Its something you might regret for the rest of your life if you didn't.

Read the termination clause in your employment contract one last time.

Check for old forgotten clauses you might inadvertently trigger by resigning, like the bond they made you sign when they sent you for overseas training. I know of one case where an employee was slapped with a demand to pay back RM 100,000 in compensation, a bond he had overlooked in his haste to resign. He was earning less than RM5,000 a month. Instead of enjoying freedom, he suffered a mental breakdown and had to be briefly hospitalized.

A general note.

There's no guarantee the rot in your company won't turn around suddenly. Your boss might resign, be transferred or get fired.

There's no guarantee the new company you're joining won't turn into the mental asylum that you're leaving. You have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.

The only thing that can be guaranteed is change so when you say, "I can take anything but this," please remember this: the corporate world is filled with people who wish they can take back what they said.

Time is your best ally in moments like this. Take your time. Never make a life-changing decision when you're emo no matter how tempting. If after deliberating through everything and you're still certain its time to go, then go. Sometimes, a well-thought move may be the best decision you ever made in your career.