Is it time to quit your job? UAE experts share warning signs and when staying on is the better option
Some decisions cannot be made on raw emotion alone; they require strong evaluation
Unable to stay, unwilling to leave.
It's a common sentiment: You settle into a complacency at a job. There might be nothing wrong here: The boss is pleasant and the work is easy; you know it all like the back of your hand, and at the same time, you wish that you didn't.
Sometimes, you just want to jump ship and not test the waters, because the inertia has just consumed you. Yet, sometimes, you wait to see if your foot is in another boat before trying to leave, especially if you have bills to pay.
The danger of making a decision too quickly
When people begin fantasising about resignation letters during stressful workdays, their first instinct is often to assume the job itself is the problem. Yet, that’s a high price to pay.
According to Dr. Rima Bizri, Associate Professor at the School of Management at Canadian University Dubai, one of the biggest mistakes professionals make is rushing toward a career move before fully understanding what is driving their dissatisfaction.
Her first piece of advice to professionals, who are contemplating a career shift: Do not rush. As she explains, you need understand the real reasons behind your desire to shift. “It may have nothing to do with the role or the organisation, in which case, quitting is not the answer.”
As she explains further, what may feel like a dead end is not always one. With the right conversations, new projects or training opportunities, the situation can often be improved. Many employers are willing to support employee growth but may simply be unaware that their staff feel stagnant. "Often times, one can work around what appears to be the reason by having a candid conversation with the line manager or company counselor," she says.
Before looking outside the organisation, it is worth honestly assessing whether all internal opportunities for growth have been exhausted. Once that you feel you have genuinely used your bandwidth and explored available avenues, does it make sense to consider moving elsewhere.
Exploring new options does not mean resigning immediately; it means gathering information about the market and where one stands in that market. By knowing what’s out there and where you fit into the larger scheme, you are protecting your career agency. The best time to understand the market is before you are forced to act urgently...
Are you just exhausted?
Sometimes, it isn’t the job itself. People can also be experiencing burnout, and that sense of pervasive discontent can colour how they feel about their work. You think you can breathe freely after that resignation, but sometimes the enormity of your decision hits you a little harder than you expected.
Dubai-based Ellen Mannaert, serial entrepreneur and transformation coach and keynote speaker who has spent more than 25 years building businesses across industries ranging from textiles and fashion to hospitality and real estate, believes many career decisions are made when people are physically and emotionally depleted.
The first thing she assesses when feeling stuck is not the job itself. "Whether the problem is the role or whether it's me. That's the only honest question." She also points to research showing that burnout levels remain exceptionally high among professionals, particularly women in senior leadership positions.
She cites McKinsey's 2025 report, which says 60 per cent of senior-level women are experiencing frequent burnout, the highest level ever recorded, which means most career decisions today are being made by people running on empty. "You cannot make a clean career decision until you can see your own patterns clearly." For that reason, she refuses to make major career decisions when she is exhausted, emotionally overwhelmed or reacting to external pressures.”
As a result, she doesn’t make the call, when she is exhausted, or when she has just lost something or if someone else’s success is overpowering her feed. “I write it down. I ask whether I'd still want to leave in three months — with rest, with money in the bank, with my nervous system regulated. If the answer is still yes, the role is done. If the answer is maybe, the work is internal first.”
The answer often reveals whether the problem is temporary frustration or something deeper.
When to consider staying
Dr. Steven Glasgow, Deputy Head of Edinburgh Business School and the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, agrees that perspective is essential. "You should ask yourself two key questions," he says.
The first is deceptively easy: "'Am I truly unhappy with my role or is this a temporary blip?'"
Every career contains difficult periods. Projects do fail and managers can disappoint. Workplace politics consumes you. "There will be times when you come home angry and upset and commit to leaving, but we should never make career decisions on raw emotion alone," he says.
His second question: "Am I in the right place in my life for substantial change?'"
These career transitions do not happen isolation: There are family responsibilities, economic uncertainty and personal challenges to take into account before making a decision. "There is likely never a perfect time, but some are more opportune than others, and you should not be reluctant to wait."
The answer may not always be to stay forever. But sometimes, the wisest decision is to give the current role a chance to evolve before deciding it has reached a dead end.
You have to separate who you are from what you do for a living. Most people can't make a clean career decision because their identity is fused with their job title, their company, the way their LinkedIn reads at a dinner party. Once you can hold yourself separately from the role, the factors become clearer: who's around the table with me, what my calendar will look like in 18 months, and who I am inside that role...
Warning signs it may be time to move on
While patience matters, there are also moments when staying becomes the bigger risk. According to career experts, the key is to look for patterns rather than isolated bad days.
Bizri says it may be time to start planning your next move when "the gap between your growth needs and what the organization can offer becomes persistent rather than temporary."
Some common warning signs include:
Your learning curve has flattened. You no longer feel challenged, stretched or excited by the work.
Development opportunities have dried up. Promotions, training, mentorship or new responsibilities seem permanently out of reach.
You receive little meaningful feedback. There is no clear path for growth or understanding of what comes next.
You feel ethically uncomfortable. The organisation's values or practices increasingly clash with your own.
Your contribution feels underused. As Bizri puts it, "You feel that your learning curve has flattened and your contribution has dwindled in value relative to what you can actually give."
You've stopped being curious. For Mannaert, this is one of the clearest indicators. "The signal is always the same: you stop being curious about the work."
You no longer champion your employer. You've stopped recommending the company to people you respect or speaking positively about where you work.
Your body is sending signals. Persistent Sunday-night anxiety, disrupted sleep, chronic irritability and a lingering sense of resentment can all point to deeper dissatisfaction.
You're protecting your energy rather than investing it. Instead of looking for ways to contribute, you're simply trying to get through the day.
Left unchecked, these signs can gradually erode motivation and lead to burnout. As Mannaert notes, many people wait too long. "Most people wait until burnout makes the decision for them, by then you're not choosing, you're escaping."
You should ask yourself two key questions. The first is ‘am I truly unhappy with my role or is this a temporary blip?’. Jobs can be incredibly frustrating, and there will be times when you come home angry and upset and commit to leaving, but we should never make career decisions on raw emotion alone, and sometimes these phases pass. The second is to ask, ‘Am I in the right place in my life for substantial change?’...
Why staying isn't necessarily the safer option
Conventional wisdom often frames career decisions as a choice between stability and risk. Stay, and you remain safe. Leave, and you take a gamble. If only, it was that easy.
The experts suggest reality is more complicated. "Staying is also a choice," says Mannaert.
While professionals often spend significant time evaluating the risks of leaving, they rarely calculate the potential cost of remaining where they are. And this could also mean, missed opportunities, stalled development, reduced earning potential and fading motivation, all of which carry consequences.
To help professionals evaluate these trade-offs, Bizri uses a framework she calls DWFE: Development, Wellbeing, Fit and Employability.
The framework encourages people to examine four critical questions.
Is the role helping you grow? Is it supporting your wellbeing? Do your values align with the organisation? Is the position strengthening your future employability?
"The role strengthens your future market value and expands your employment options rather than trapping you in narrow routines." Compensation matters, she acknowledges, but should never be the sole factor driving a decision.
How to tell if a new opportunity is actually better
Dubai-based Nisha Chaudhary (name changed on request) was in a dilemma two years ago: Stay at her old job, be comfortable or move to something completely different, out of her comfort zone. It was exciting, no doubt, and as she says, she loves challenges. “I wanted to leave. I knew it was time. But I had to make sure it was a good opportunity. I couldn’t compromise my family’s well-being for a whim,” she says.
She did shift, but after spending nights evaluating. “I just had to keep researching and seeing how it would benefit me. I asked other people, read reviews, talked to people, to make sure that I was making the right decision.
Check if the role actually advances your growth. Bizri advises evaluating whether the new role offers you deeper responsibility, exposure to strategic work, stronger learning opportunities, and access to people or projects that can accelerate your professional development.
Ask if it fits your long-term career story. A useful filter is: Is this move consistent with your long-term career narrative? If it feels disconnected from where you want to go, it may be a lateral shift rather than progress.
Look beyond the excitement of change.
Do proper due diligence on the organisation. Glasgow warns that appearances can be misleading: "This is where you need to do your due diligence; many organisations will sell you the world when recruiting, only to fail to deliver on their promises."
Investigate company culture and retention. Look at how long people stay, how teams operate and whether employees actually progress internally.
Ask clear, specific questions about growth. For example: What progression is foreseeable? Do they have a clear vision for your role and your development?
Study the job beyond the job description. Mannaert takes a more unconventional approach: "I study the person currently doing the job — their calendar, their stress, their relationships, their health."
Imagine the reality of the role, not the pitch. The aim is to understand what your day-to-day life would actually look like—not what the recruitment brochure promises.
Explore before you're desperate
If there is one point on which all three experts agree, it is this: the best time to explore opportunities is before you urgently need them. Yet, that does not mean resignation. It just means understanding your options. "The best time to understand the market is before you are forced to act urgently," says Bizri.
Glasgow believes professionals should begin looking when repeated attempts to improve their situation have yielded little progress.
"If you have been unfulfilled in your position for about one year and there are no indications that the environment will improve, it may be time to go."
Mannaert frames it as a matter of leverage. "The best moves I've ever made were the ones I didn't strictly need to make,” she says, adding, “You explore from strength, never from desperation."
The practical steps are surprisingly straightforward: update your CV, refresh your LinkedIn profile, benchmark your skills against the market, speak to recruiters, reconnect with former colleagues and have honest conversations with people already working in roles you admire.
