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Is It Time to Change Jobs?
Today's healthcare executives must honestly evaluate the professional
and personal costs of their current jobs.
Reed L. Morton, Ph.D., FACHE
Restructuring, cost-cutting, and downsizing are just a few of the many
factors reconfiguring the formerly linear career paths of
today's healthcare executives. In the 1960s, the typical
healthcare executive expected to work for two or three different
employers over the course of his or her career-and most
likely, solely in acute care. Today's executive not only
moves from employer to employer but from field to field-and
often, with great success and satisfaction.
This newfound mobility can be simultaneously threatening and
liberating. Admittedly, job instability can be financially,
professionally, and emotionally stressful. Yet timely change
can bring new opportunities-financial, professional, and
emotional-as well. Sometimes to seek gains and other times
to avoid loss, healthcare executives are increasingly asking
themselves if it is time to consider changing jobs.
Evaluate Your Motives
Numerous factors influence the way an individual considers
this question. Serious concern can stem from external issues,
such as changes in the marketplace, or from more personal
concerns, such as a change in one's family unit. Professionally,
we must constantly assess the opportunities provided by
our current positions. Although changing jobs on whim is
inadvisable, inaction in the face of potentially career-stunting
developments is an equally unattractive prospect.
Consider the following compelling issues to help you decide if it
is time for you to move:
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Organizational stagnancy. Is your organization managerially,
clinically, and technically lagging, making you feel
trapped and preventing you from working on the cutting
edge? Have you maximized your skills in your current
organization, leaving no more to learn and no opportunity
ahead?
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Organizational instability. Have formerly profitable divisions become
threatening to your company's bottom line? Is pressure
for merger, restructuring, or realignment placing your
current job in a precarious position?
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Compensation. Do you feel that your paycheck accurately reflects your
responsibilities and the value you contribute? Are your
superiors willing to renegotiate?
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Vision. Are you philosophically in synch with your employer? Can
you embrace new programs, directions, products, or marketing
plans? Do you receive the cooperation you need from your
coworkers?
Although many corporations try to cultivate a clear separation
between one's work and personal life, most recognize that
such a split is nearly impossible to achieve. You must
honestly evaluate the personal costs of your job by examining
these points:
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Balance issues. Work is not everything. Are there other
"once-in-a-lifetime" opportunities that you
cannot let slip by? Are you experiencing "burn
out" from an unrealistic workload or courting "road
rage" with a taxing commute?
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Personal development. Have you earned a new credential (academic
or professional) that might qualify you for a more prestigious
position? Do you want more opportunities to learn, travel,
or volunteer?>
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Quality of life. Do you have a challenging child or an elderly
parent who needs more of your time? Are you or a member
of your family convinced that relocating to another
part of the country would improve your quality of life?
Weighing Your Options
Once you have addressed these issues, do you stay or go?
One of your most important resources when making this
decision will be your network of professional and personal
contacts. Too many executives err by thinking of networking
only as part of a campaign to find a new job. Ongoing
networking, however, can be an invaluable resource for
comparison and assessment. An objective outside source
can often clarify uncertainties regarding the viability
of your position and your organization. Such information
can also provide guidance as you assess your marketability
and help you decide whether you should move on or renegotiate
your current status.
Networking will be crucial in gathering the data to make an informed
decision about the personal, professional, and economic
satisfaction one can expect to derive from switching positions.
Use your network of colleagues who have expertise in other
facets of healthcare to help you gauge the marketplace.
If you work in a hospital setting, seek the experiences
of executives in integrated delivery systems, long-term
care facilities, or insurance companies. You may know
what kind of business they do, but how they do it might
be quite different-and more or less appealing-from your
initial perceptions.
Time to Go?
When you do decide it is time to go, you must manage your
leaving appropriately. It is as important as ever to avoid
burning bridges when making a change. Sound references
are an important consideration in hiring decisions. With
more frequent position changes as part of our career patterns,
leaving on good terms and staying in contact makes good
sense and preserves good feelings.
Reed
L. Morton, Ph.D., FACHE, is director of ACHE's Healthcare
Executive Career Resource Center, which offers career
services and information to enhance career management
skills. He can be reached at (312) 424-9444.
This article is reprinted from Healthcare Executive.
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