Should I stay, or should I go? Dissecting comfort-zone inertia and the price of loyalty

AS SOMEONE who is on my third job in 12 years, I know what it feels like to stay for slightly longer periods at the same company.

Not having been educated in the approach of switching jobs every two or three years to keep yourself agile and (perhaps crucially) your pay going up sustainably, I instead took the old-school mentality of staying put, learning as much as I can and growing in the company – hoping to be rewarded for my loyalty.

These companies were mostly places I was reasonably happy working for – I found the work I was doing meaningful; the people I worked with friendly enough; and I was able to get by on the wages I was being paid.

So while of course things could be better, I wasn’t unhappy enough to want to leave with certainty. You could say I was in a sort of comfort zone – I wasn’t being promoted; my salary was significantly stickier than I would like; but the inertia preventing me from dusting off my resume to look for a new job was too strong.

I should say that what eventually made me leave my previous jobs were circumstances that lay beyond my personal control. But that also means I understand the feeling of what I call “comfort zone inertia” as well as one may possibly be able to, as it relates to work.

Chances are, you’re not like me. But if you’ve been working for years at one place, by now at a reasonably senior role but perhaps not feeling too appreciated, it’s possible you’ll find the dilemma of whether to leave, when, and where to, creeping up on you.

What is comfort zone inertia?

Relating to work, I define this as the state of knowing that you are probably not growing in your role – doing mostly the same thing, day to day – but are reasonably happy otherwise.

Existing in this “comfort zone” state gives rise to inertia that prevents you from doing something about the situation. That being said, this may not even be a situation for you if that happens to be what you need or want in life at the moment: Namely, a job that pays the bills, that you can do with reasonable ease and skill, and are suitably satisfied with.

But what if you want more? What if you’ve got an itch, and you’re looking for a change? Deciding what to do about that itch or desire for change comes down to a few things, in my view:

1) Whether you’re happy at work

Do you enjoy and/or find meaning in the work you do? Do you like your manager, and do you like your colleagues?

Is the work culture of the company still a good fit for you? Are you satisfied with your salary and how it’s been progressing? What about your job progression – have you been promoted as you feel you deserve, or as you would like to be?

If for the most part, your answer to these questions is yes, but you’re still being nagged by an itch, exploring a switch of teams within the company might be an option – although, know that you are taking a risk with a new boss, who may not be as pleasant to work with as your current one.

If your answer to many of these questions is no, well – I think you know what you need to do.

2) Where you are in your life right now

If this is your first job fresh out of school, chances are you’re raring to go, full of energy, able to pull a couple late nights from time to time and perhaps may also be prepared to have dinners with your colleagues, clients or other business partners.

If you’re in a fixed-hour role with a reasonably static scope of work, though, you might want to see how you can find a company that can give you a bit more of a challenge, to help you grow and learn more.

The story for you will be wildly different if you find yourself getting married and having children, however. In this stage of your life, priorities include having flexible hours, so you can attend to your children in the early evenings and mornings, with evening corporate engagements kept to a minimum.

For a struggling young parent, therefore, a static role that doesn’t demand too much of your time might look pretty idyllic.

And certainly, this informs how you decide…

3) What your career goals are

If you’re looking to ascend the corporate ladder more speedily, you’ll want to ensure you’re at a company that has the upward trajectory and mobility that meets the pace you seek.

This takes some time to suss out, but the nature of the role you have or are looking to do also might give you some clues about this. Try to ask people who work at the company how quickly it moves, as well how much room for progression exists in the teams you’re looking to join.

Now if that doesn’t happen to be what you’re looking for at work at the moment, it’s worth assessing if the company you’re in runs at a pace you are comfortable with – it’s entirely possible that it moves faster than you might want to, and if that persistently bothers you, a change may be appropriate.

What you’re looking for in your career right now is of course not restricted to pace or progression – maybe you seek growth, more learning, taking a step back, gearing back a little to seek more work-life balance. All these could warrant moves from the role you currently have. You might feel the need to act on short-term or long-term goals, too – there really isn’t a right or wrong here, in my view.

Is it worth being loyal to one company?

As a millennial, I find it worth dwelling on this because it’s a belief many in our parents’ generation have held and lived by – spending decades at the same firm plodding slowly up the ranks, or even retiring after holding a rank-and-file position all this time.

This may have worked for them, given the prices of housing and goods in those decades – and in some cases for government employees, the fact that pension schemes existed certainly helped as well.

But as we all know now, inflation is real. Adulting is tough in this day and age in a big way because of how relatively expensive everything is, and feels, relative to how much we earn these days. Our dollars fetch much less than they used to, so the pressure to earn more at our jobs is way higher than it used to be for our parents’ generation.

Another thing to recognise as quickly as you can is, on the off-chance you aren’t aware, wage gains for people who switch jobs consistently outpace those who stay with a single employer. This is true wherever in the world you work, really.

This holds true for me as well – after working at a multinational as well as a scrappy local startup, I can tell you that for the most part, it’s definitely wiser to act in your own interests and your own career, instead of hanging on, and hoping the company will look after them for you.

My biggest takeaway from trying to be loyal to the companies I worked for, sadly, is that it doesn’t pay to be, and the employee who is loyal ultimately pays the bigger personal price because the company will always act in its own interest – which usually doesn’t dovetail with the employee’s.

In conclusion – got the itch? Explore it, pursue it – talk to potential employers in the market for people with the skills you possess. Talk to friends in the industry, find out what opportunities are out there, see if anything excites you enough to credibly consider jumping ship.

And if you like the company you work for, do sit down and talk to your bosses about how you’re feeling, to see if they might be able to help you find new purpose at your current job – you’ll be surprised; they may support you leaving as being in your best interests too.