It’s nearly a couple of months into 2020. So how many communications professionals have followed through with your New Year’s resolution to leave your permanent role and move on to pastures new, and how many of you are still genuinely happy with your job?

If you’re still wondering whether to stick or twist, here’s some things to help make up your mind.

Should I stay?

A job’s worth doing when..

• communications is at the centre of your organisation, a key part of achieving your organisation’s objectives
• the agreed communications strategy is integral to work right across your organisation
• communications is valued as a discipline as highly as any other, and appreciated by colleagues
• you can see the impact of your work
• your organisation’s values are real and lived every day
• you like going to work
• the team you work in is motivated, clear about its role, and allowed to deliver
• the team you work in laughs – a lot.

Should I go?

It’s time to leave when..

• the communications strategy is no more than a document on your shared drive
• the product or organisation you’re trying to sell doesn’t match up to the messages you’re trying to communicate
• communications is seen as an add on, or a finishing house for other departments, rather than integral to achieving your organisation’s objectives
• a toxic environment is just seen as ‘the way things are done around here’
• you’ve stopped being offended by the bad behaviour of others, or calling it out – you may now be part of the problem
• the organisation’s values are just spouted, and not embedded or even real
• the views that hold sway in your organisation are of those whose personal ambitions far outweigh their individual or collective talents
• you feel you’d rather do something else now. Act, don’t fester – there are too many people saying “I’ll give it another year”.

There’s a big world out there, and a great organisation waiting for you. Don’t let it pass you by.