Nobody likes to face the prospect of looking for a new job. What a hassle that is, and a major disruption to your life. But there are times when it becomes necessary to do so. What are those times? Here are six that I can think of:

• Conflict with supervisor. Probably the key relationship you have in the workplace is with your supervisor. If that relationship is positive, that is a good thing. However, if there is conflict and stress in that relationship it can spill over into other parts of your life (family, church, etc.). If you have unresolved conflict with your supervisor, you may need to change jobs.

• The job is not in line with your calling. You may be doing work that you are very good at, but it may not fall within your particular calling. For example, you may feel called to be a leader, but the job you are in currently is not allowing you to lead. That could be a reason for you to look to make a job change.
• You don’t have the proper skills. There are times when we find ourselves in a job in which we just don’t have the skills necessary to be successful. We may have good relationships with our supervisor and co-workers, but if we don’t possess the skills necessary to do the job, and can’t develop them through training or mentoring, we will most likely need to change jobs.
• Conflict with co-workers. Similar to having conflict with our supervisor, unresolved conflict with co-workers can spill into other parts of our life, causing stress, lack of sleep, etc. If the conflict cannot be resolved, you may have to change jobs.
• Not playing to your strengths. You may be successful at the work you are currently doing, but you feel drained while doing it. Marcus Buckingham has said that strengths aren’t “what you are good at” and your weaknesses aren’t “what you are bad at.” When you are working in your strengths, you are energized by the work you are doing. I’ve written previously about a team member who was good with accounting/budget work. As a result, she was always asked to do that work on the team. The problem was that the work weakened her and she disliked doing it. If you are doing work that weakens you, you may have to change jobs.
• Lack of advancement. Nobody likes to be in a “dead end” job, a job without any reasonable chance for advancement. If you find yourself in that situation, you may want to consider changing jobs.

These are just six reasons you may want to consider changing jobs. There are many more. What other reasons can you think of?