A woman who's spent over a decade in HR shares the No. 1 sign it's time to quit your job

pulse

July 6, 2017 4:27 PM

Toni Thompson, vice president of people and talent at The Muse, says you always want to leave your employer with good memories of you and your work.

You can leave even if you don't have another full-time gig lined up, says Toni Thompson, pictured.

Toni Thompson is the vice president of people and talent for The Muse, and a human-resources veteran.
She said the top reason to leave your job is you've started doing bad work, because you're angry or frustrated.
Thompson said you always want to leave your job on a high note.

Quitting your job — especially if you don't have another full-time gig lined up — can be terrifying.

But there are tons of solid reasons to do it anyway: You feel sick to your stomach every Sunday evening. You don't think there's room to grow. Your personal values don't match up with your company's.

Yet there's another, more practical reason to free yourself from the drudgery of showing up at a job you hate: You want to leave on a high note. If it's gotten to the point where you've started doing bad work, it's almost certainly time to go.

That's according to Toni Thompson, the vice president of people and talent for The Muse, a popular job-search and career-advice site. Thompson has spent 11 years working in human resources.

When she visited the Business Insider office in June for a Facebook Live interview, Thompson explained what often happens: "You start doing bad work because you are so angry about your situation or frustrated."

Here's why that behavior should concern you. Thompson said you definitely shouldn't stick around in a job "where you are fully capable, and in the right role, and you were really doing great work" or "you're suddenly not doing a good job, and you've become a bad teammate and a bad employee because you're so frustrated."

"At that point," Thompson said, "it's probably best to just move on without a job so that they actually have a good memory of you."

You never know when you'll need to tap an old boss or coworker for a reference or some career advice. Quitting might seem like burning your bridges to cinders — but in reality, getting to the point where your employer wishes you would quit is a lot worse.

Watch the full interview:

pulse