{"id":5084,"date":"2025-05-13T18:33:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T18:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=5084"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:46:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:46:33","slug":"when-its-time-to-look-for-a-new-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/when-its-time-to-look-for-a-new-job\/","title":{"rendered":"When It\u2019s Time to Look for a New Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Sometimes it makes sense to say \u201cThis too shall pass\u201d and weather the storm at work. In other cases, it\u2019s best to jump ship.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Abbie Shipp<\/a> of Texas Christian University, who coauthored an Academy of Management Review article <\/a><\/em> on how people craft career narratives that affect how they fit in their current organization with Karen Jansen<\/a> of North Carolina State University, said few jobs are forever.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou thought you were going to stay here forever, and then your boss suddenly leaves, and you get a horrible boss,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big event in your story, and how well you fit now has changed, so in response to the question \u2018Am I going to stay here?\u2019 is now very different.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe fit literature had not addressed that question of change, so we have done some additional work to really explore what that means; we can\u2019t just ask people, \u2018Do you fit?\u2019 at a moment in time to get the whole story,\u201d she said. \u201cYou and I might report the same numerical number of job satisfaction on a questionnaire, but if the trajectory you\u2019re expecting is going down and the trajectory I\u2019m expecting is going up, I\u2019m going to be super happy to stay, whereas you\u2019re going to be planning a departure\u2014yet, on the engagement survey, it will look exactly the same.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about bringing in that temporal context.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

It\u2019s easy to stagnate in a job even after the situation changes for the worse due to inertia. Employees shouldn\u2019t be afraid to examine their changing work environment and make a call whether it still makes sense to be loyal to their employer. As for bosses, they need to actively try to boost morale after a period of more changes than usual.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat it means for leaders is: You have to ask people, \u2018What\u2019s your story? Where have you been? Where are you going, and how does that provide an incentive for you to stay here, at least for the time being?\u201d Shipp said. \u201cWe call it temporal baggage.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhen you come to an organization, you bring the temporal baggage of the past and the future, which is, \u2018Where have you been before, and what do you expect if you\u2019re going to stay here?\u2019 and we have to understand that whole story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe ask about fit in the middle of things at one point in time, but we need to understand that whole story, and we have to keep asking, because it will naturally change as personal situations or work events change.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Shipp\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n