by Roberta Chinsky Matuson

Change is difficult for many of us, so we often ignore the signs that indicate it is time to move on.  Often, it isn't until a work situation becomes unbearable that we finally decide it's time to change jobs.  By the time we reach this point, we feel desperate and are willing to take the next thing that comes along, which might not be any better than the situation we left.  If you learn how to recognize the signs that indicate it is time to leave a job, you will be able to plan your next step rather than be forced to make a quick move just to get out.  So what are some of these signs you should watch for?

1. Key personnel no longer ask for your opinion. If you used to be invited to participate in meetings where important decisions were made and you are no longer invited, it may be time to think about your other options.  Management may have lost confidence in you.  If your opinion is no longer valued, how effective can you be in your role?
2. You have been passed up for a promotion. Your company has been grooming you for a better position and has assured you that you are next in line.  But they fill the job with an outside candidate.  Somewhere along the line, someone has not been totally honest with you.  Is this really the type of organization you want to work for? Can you be guaranteed this won't happen again?
3. You have gone from being a stellar performer to doing nothing right. You have always been praised for your work.  Now every time you complete a project, you are told you are not meeting expectations.  Has there been a change in management lately?  Perhaps the new team would like to bring in its own people?  Why wait to go out on a bad note?  You might want to start putting your feelers out now.
4. The plum assignments keep going to other people. You are in your job because you want to learn.  Yet every time an opportunity comes up for a challenging assignment, it goes to someone else. It is clear that you are the one in the department who will be doing the lower-level work.  If you have already mastered those skills and it looks like your situation won't be changing, it may be time to find a position where there is actually room to grow in your job.
5. Your boss tells the staff he is open to suggestions.  But is he open to suggestions from you? You are constantly suggesting how to improve your department.  Your suggestions are ignored.  It is obvious that your opinion is not being valued.  Ask yourself again, why are you still in this job?
6. A larger company is buying out your company. Although management insists there will be not be any staff reductions, you will need to look at the reality.  Do they really need two of you? Remember, you are much more employable if you are currently working.  If you are not willing to move to the new corporate office, then perhaps you should see what other opportunities are available close by.
7. Everyone in management seems to be bailing. Do they know something you don't?  Do your best to find out what is really going on and then decide if you should start looking.
8. Work is not fun anymore. This is perhaps the best sign that it is time to move on.  After all, you spend most of your waking hours at work.  If you no longer enjoy what you are doing, then why are you still there? Keep your eyes and ears open for these signs and make sure you keep your resume updated, just in case your time to go arrives sooner than you expect.  Being prepared will make the transition that much easier to make."

By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

Since March 2001, the national payroll has shrunk by more than three million jobs. Still, at any time in any economy, it isn't hard to find people with jobs who have decided that enough is enough - and that it's time to move on.

Promises, promises. Some of them turn out to be empty. Leida Snow of Manhattan says she remembers how happy she was when her boss at a nonprofit advocacy organization told her that her contributions would be recognized with a significant increase in salary. Six months passed, and nothing happened. Ms. Snow recalled that when she reminded the boss of her promise, she said: "You're right. I'll make it happen." Another six months passed. Ms. Snow reminded her boss again, and the woman was noncommittal. Ms. Snow made up her mind to leave, and some months later, when she handed in her notice, the boss was furious. "How can you do this to me?" she remembers her boss asking. "Why?" Ms. Snow, now the director of public relations for the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, explained that the significant raise that she had been promised had never materialized. She said her boss responded, "I didn't know it was important".

George Zucker has some simple advice about knowing when to change jobs: "When loyalty becomes a one-way street, it's time to move from the block." Mr. Zucker, a retired journalist who lives in Haverford, Pa., says: "I learned this in 1961 when I was a young radio reporter for a big station in Indianapolis and the program director gave me a tough assignment: snag entertainer Danny Thomas for an interview." Two problems confronted Mr. Zucker. The first was that Thomas, in town to meet with a major supporter of St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, which he founded in 1962, would have time only for a news conference, not for an interview. "The second was a union problem," Mr. Zucker writes. "As a reporter, I could run a tape recorder to collect sound bites. A union technician was needed for a complete program." When Mr. Zucker pointed out the union problem, he said the program director told him: "You get the interview. Let me worry about the union." Mr. Zucker went off on his assignment. "Thomas, impressed that my station would air a whole program on the interview, agreed to devote his entire news conference to my questions. This was glum news for reporters from the city's three daily newspapers, who were told to sit quietly and take notes. "I returned in triumph to the station, expecting to take a bow or two." His joy was short-lived. He said angry union technicians marched into the station owner's office to file a grievance. The program director was summoned. He puffed on his pipe but said nothing in Mr. Zucker's defense. Mr. Zucker was informed that he would be fired if he ever caused another problem with the union. "I quit the following day," he writes. "My next job led to a 34-year career with The Associated Press.""