When Is A Good TIme?

A couple months back I was talking to my mom and somehow our conversation touched on work. I told her I was going to quit (only being half serious at the time) and she told me that now was not a good time to quit. That got me pondering if there ever really was a good time to quit.

Now for one who has a plethora of skills, talents, papers hanging on the walls from various institutions of higher learning, and the ability to bullshit their way through an interview, I am sure anytime would be fine for them to quit, maybe not ideal but they would get on just fine. But for one who has very limited skills, only one paper from one of these higher learning institutions that is starting to brown on the edges, and the lack of bullshitting skills that will easily get them through an interview, I doubt there is ever really a good time to quit, especially when that said person is getting paid far too much to do nothing for seven hours a day all while losing any knowledge acquired at any learning institution (including elementary school). Finding a job to maintain their standard of life would be almost impossible.

There is never going to be a perfect time for anything in life, let alone quitting a job, but the first group of people should have little trouble finding employment elsewhere in the event they are unhappy at their current employment no matter how poorly the economy is doing. The only hindrance will be the qualities of the new employment these people are looking for (an extra week vacation or a parking spot close to the doors or a corner office or just an office with a view or maybe even the ability to work from home on occasion). The second group of people, on the other hand, will always struggle to find employment no matter how well the economy is doing, with perhaps the exception of low paying and low experience type jobs (working the fryers at McDonald's for instance).

While people in the first group sometimes have great jobs fall into their laps, so to speak, (via headhunters) the people in the second group will never have jobs come to them. Instead these people need to work endlessly to find new employment that will maintain their standard of living or at least one acceptable to them. They need to constantly be aware of their current sitaution so they can get out before they become stuck at a dead end job that would make them even less appealing to other employers. The people in this group who find themselves unsatified with limited opportunities have to decide: remain unhappy at their current job and keep their standard of living or leave the place of dread and lose some comforts of life in the hopes that they will find another job that will be, at the very least, tolerable.

Unfortunately for me, I fall into the second group. I am short on skills, lack knowledge needed to advance, am terrible in formal interviews and selling myself, am miserable and bored at my current job, and may have stayed at my current job too long to be appealing to others. It appears that I have come to my fork in the road: should I stay or should I go? Some would stay and some have left to become much happier than those that stayed. The main obstacle in my way is my financial obligations. Do I remain unhappy and overpaid or do I trade that financial security for happiness and perhaps sanity? For me the answer is obvious.....