Many of us have been there; when you can’t quite seem to put a finger on it but you’re coming to realise there’s a building sense of unease in your career. Maybe you’ve been at a company too long or you’ve outgrown your position. Maybe there’s no room for growth or you’ve realised you no longer care about the company mission. However the sense of unease is showing up for you, if you continue to ignore it, the implications can be grave.

So what are the major signs you should you be looking out for? What’s stopping you from being able to take action? And what small, simple steps can you take that can lead to significant and positive change?

Engagement, or lack thereof…

Engagement: coming in at number one is that horrible feeling of being disengaged with your job, your company and your career. When you’re engaged and loving what you do, everything is turned up a notch. You have endless amounts of energy, you’re buzzing about your work projects, you’re feeling great and you’re nominating yourself for extra work – just because you’re so into it all.

When you’re not feeling any of these things, when in fact you’re feeling the opposite, everything in your career and life feels heavier, like you’re walking through thick mud. The symptoms of disengagement include; being late more regularly, clock watching, leaving as soon as the clock strikes ‘hometime’, increasing levels of daydreaming, lack of excitement for work projects, not wanting to be involved, a worryingly high amount of just not giving a shit… Sound familiar?

‘Sunday Blues’ aka ‘Monday Dread’ aka ‘Living for the Weekend’

This is a common one; the inverse relationship between Sunday afternoon time ticking by and your increasing levels of anxiety and bad mood. If you’re riding the weekly emotional rollercoaster that begins with the stomach plummeting Monday morning and slowly rises with a humpday twirl, crescendoing on a Friday afternoon with a fanatic loop the loop, only to start all over again as you twist down into Sunday, then no wonder you’re so exhausted. This is a sure-fire sign that something needs to change – you only live once but if you’re living for the weekend, you are literally fast-forwarding your life and missing out on 5/7 days of happiness. Not cool.

Office politics becoming unbearable

When you’re pulled down into the daily bitching about some inane office subject then you really know you’re not on the right path. Office politics are toxic in immeasurable ways and are usually a clear sign that your company culture is riddled with negativity and dis-ease. When you mix up a bunch of dissatisfied employees and throw in a few extras like redundancy risk, overwork, no pay rises, bullying or lack of support from management then the result is office politics. People don’t like to be treated badly and when they are, they talk, mostly to their colleagues, and sometimes office politics can even creep into your precious time outside of work. If you’ve started to bitch about work to your friends, it’s time to take stock and ask yourself “is this really worth it”?

While these are, in my opinion, three of the most common signs that you need to shake things up career-wise, other signs include; lack of appreciation for the brilliant work you do, lack of trust in your colleagues/ boss and my favourite – being so bored that you make a million cups of coffee throughout the day.

Think carefully – are any of these signs showing up in your career? If the answer is yes, it could be time to move on and move up.