To quit or not to quit: Signs you're ready for a career move

Thousands of graduates continue to enter the job market every year, while opportunities dwindle, and that will continue to be the professional landscape of 2026. Do you hold a job? Good. To stay relevant, you may have to ditch the traditional concept of loyalty and embrace strategic alignment.

As the global economy shifts into a post AI-integration phase, the decision to leave a role is no longer a reactive move born of desperation, but a calculated pivot designed to protect your value.

For the modern professional, recognising when you have outgrown a role to the point of being a liability requires a keen eye for subtle, systemic indicators that go beyond the obvious red flags of a toxic environment. So, you may be thinking of resigning as we enter a new year, sure, but is the decision logical and data-driven to ensure your next move is an ascent?

So, one of the most insidious signs that you should consider an exit is the onset of skill atrophy. If your current workplace is not actively integrating you into the latest operational frameworks or AI-augmented workflows, tick, tick, tick, your market value is actively depreciating. Subtle stagnation occurs when you realise your day-to-day tasks have become a loop rather than a ladder. When you realise that the innovative projects are consistently being outsourced or handed to a specific department other than yours, you are becoming obsolete.

Our current corporate world is dominated by hybrid structures and fractional leadership; visibility is currency. A subtle sign it is time for you to leave is the quiet sidelining. You’re no longer considered for training, or you’re excluded from high-level strategic meetings. This isn’t always an overt snub; it is a slow drift away from the centre of influence.

If your contributions are being sidelined, your strategic inputs are being ignored, there is a high chance that your path to promotion has hit a glass ceiling. When you are no longer being groomed for the next level of succession or when external hires are consistently brought in for roles you are qualified to fill, your current employer is telling you that they see you as a permanent fixture rather than a rising leader.

If you find yourself in a state of constant fight or flight mode, even during weekends or holidays, your career is costing you more than it is paying you. Think about it. This isn’t just about hard work; it is about the unproductive friction of navigating a dysfunctional system. When the ‘’Sunday night ulcers’’ begin on Friday evening or when you notice a persistent decline in your creative output and cognitive clarity, that environment is toxic to your specific physiology. A high-performance career requires a sustainable internal environment and if your job is eroding your health, you have a serious decision to make.