How an incompetent employer can make you regret changing jobs

Are you thinking of moving jobs? It’s a risk, and the biggest risk of all may be entirely out of your control.

Many of us have a list of concerns about starting at a new job. We worry if we will like our work colleagues or our boss. We wonder whether the new commute will be as easy as our current one, or whether the new employer’s working from home systems work as smoothly as they do now.

The biggest risk in getting a new job does not relate to your personal or interpersonal performance, it emanates from your employer’s whimsy, incompetence or both.Credit:

These are all legitimate concerns, and with a bit of research generally we can get the answer to all of these questions, including what our new colleagues are like.

The worries amplify if we are moving interstate or overseas, like to Tasmania or worse. Will I like the way of life? Will I understand the local systems? All of these risks are manageable with a bit of due diligence.

But the biggest risk does not relate to your personal or interpersonal performance, it emanates from your employer’s whimsy, incompetence or both.

To illustrate, it is helpful to draw comparisons to dating. A friend of mine, who was secure in her job, had a lovely home she owned, found a new man. They decided to marry, she gave up her home, and it was all smooth sailing until he decided to turn the lights off only months later. She was rightly devastated. She had made a huge commitment, turned her life inside out, and lost her house.

Now consider your employer doing the same thing to you. You leave your job. Perhaps it was slightly dull or irritating, or could pay a bit more. Your new job comes with a promise of filling the void you feel currently. And for a few months, perhaps a year or two, all seems well.

Then the employer has a change of heart, and decides whatever you are doing is now surplus to requirements, and out you go without a second thought. It is almost a textbook definition of tragedy: the fateful decision that initially seems a good one only for it to unravel.

Of course people are not employed in vacuums. It is not uncommon for a new employee to bring or attract other people to the new employer. All too often those acquaintances find themselves thrown overboard and in the same lifeboat, and you are burdened with guilt to go with your anger and anxiety.

The bigger the distance you have travelled (both literally and figuratively) to take up the new role, the bigger the chances the reversal is devastating. Burnt bridges, lack of support networks and even work visa problems can all serve to compound the issues.

The game is rigged in favour of the employer. Seducing people into their organisations, I think they have a moral obligation to look after the people whose life’s they may have destroyed and that goes above and beyond a few weeks of superficial “outplacement” counselling.

If your move to a new role involves a lot of personal upheaval, at least ask your employer about these risks, and preferably negotiate a firm minimum contract.

Dr Jim Bright, FAPS owns Bright and Associates, a Career Management Consultancy and is Director of Evidence & Impact at BECOME Education, an ed tech start up. Email to [e-mail]. Follow him on Twitter @DrJimBright

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.