50 Signs Your Co-worker is Quitting the Job

In the IT industry, switching jobs is a common thing and should not be taken too seriously. Every now and then we see our co-workers send the "last day" email and leave the company due to various reasons. One reason is a better opportunity.

There are so many signs that a co-worker will exhibit when they are about to leave or have decided to leave the company. I will wrap them into the following major signs and provide you with a deep analysis. I'd highly recommend not to read only the headlines but to read the explanation as well because we are going to understand very deeply about what is going on.

I will refer to your co-worker who is leaving the company as "he" in this entire blog post so that you can relate the situation better.

Sign #1: He gets into trouble with management often.

If he has decided to leave or has already put down papers, he constantly refuses certain management decisions and gets into a 'cold war' with the management. This is because he just doesn't want to agree with the management anymore as he doesn't 'care' for the decisions made. He doesn't have the need to impress that management anymore because he neither needs a pay increment nor needs a promotion anymore.

Sign #2: His performance/productivity is not as good as before.

Performance is subjective to the individual but if he was performing really well all these days and suddenly if it drops, he might have checked out already. This is because he doesn't find contributing to the project or the company useful anymore as he won't be there for too long to see the project's progress/success.

Sign #3: He takes long vacations.

All of a sudden he starts taking week offs and demands comp off vacations. He used to be very regular to the office but after deciding to leave, he starts taking more vacations to utilize all the vacation balance left before he moves out.

Sign #4: His attire gets professional.

If he was not always dressing well and suddenly changes to a more professional look, he might be attending interviews during lunch breaks or coffee breaks. He might be attending an interview before coming to the office so he should be dressed for the occasion.

Sign #5: His attitude towards co-workers changes suddenly.

Since he has already decided to leave, he doesn't have to maintain a very good relationship with his co-workers anymore. He no longer needs help from others to perform tasks in the current project because he knows that he will stop working for the project eventually.

Sign #6: His office timings change and become stable.

He used to work late nights in the interest to achieve project deadlines but now he doesn't feel the need to do so. He makes the office a 9-6 job and refuses to work more than 9 hours. He also won't be willing to spend time during the weekends when the project/business demands because he has to attend/prepare for other interviews.

Sign #7: His involvement in the project reduces.

The project's success is no longer affecting his future. He might not be getting enough time to involve deeply in the project because he has to prepare for interviews which consumes a lot of his time too.

Sign #8: He doesn't want to showcase his work much.

As he will be moving on, there is no need to showcase what he has done in the past. He is not expecting a pay scale rise anyway. Neither is he expecting any promotion from the company.

Sign #9: He reduces involvement in social activities.

There is no need to involve in Facebook posts or replying to a Slack channel. There's no need to write blog posts in the company's internal blog domain. His overall social activity reduces.

Sign #10: He is up-to-date with the latest technologies.

Because he has been preparing for different interviews he's always up-to-date with the latest and greatest technologies. He starts writing syntactically correct code in the project work. He has developed so much knowledge on technologies that are not relevant for the project.

Sign #11: He gets very active on LinkedIn.

You will find him spending long hours on LinkedIn. He will be connecting to different people and applying to jobs continuously. He will start writing articles and his profile is always up-to-date.

Sign #12: He wants to attend meetups, conferences and training workshops.

He wants to keep himself up-to-date. The current company is not giving him enough information about the latest technologies. Conferences and meetups are also a great way to meet new people outside the company.

Sign #13: He becomes very quiet at the desk.

He doesn't talk as much as before. He's avoiding generating many relationships with the co-workers. He also doesn't want them to know that he's been preparing for interviews.

Sign #14: He got a promotion recently.

This is a shocker for a few people. The moment he gets a promotion, he is also awarded a lot of job offers which are better than the current company. So in spite of the fact that he recently got a promotion and a raise, he would choose a different opportunity which is far better.

Sign #15: He has not received a promotion for a long time.

The longer he becomes stagnant in the current role, the more he thinks to leave the company. Nobody wants to remain as a software engineer for more than four years. People want to grow along with the company.

Sign #16: His major friends have all left the company recently.

He has been contacting them and getting to know about the different opportunities that are present outside of the current company. They might be pushing him to leave as well and influencing him with a lot of pay scale.

Sign #17: He gets into a war with co-workers.

Since there is no reason for him to maintain good relationships with the co-workers he decides to enter into conflicts. He doesn't agree with their emotions and inputs for the current project.

Sign #18: He starts delegating his work often.

Even though he knows how to do the work, he will start delegating to other workers. This way he gets extra time to prepare for different interviews.

Sign #19: He complains a lot.

Whether it is completing office work in office time, or trying to spend some extra time at home for the office work, he starts complaining about everything.

Sign #20: He stops responding to emails and phone calls.

Even if the email is very important, he will choose not to respond to it or even simply ignore it. He doesn't want to be held accountable for anything that happens in the project.

Sign #21: His friend circle reduces in the company.

Since he has reduced all his social activities, his friend circle also reduces. He doesn't want to make more friends because he's leaving anyway. You will find him having lunch alone many times.

Sign #22: His friend circle increases outside the company.

He reduces his friend circle in the current company but there is a heavy need to increase his friend circle outside. He starts making new friends who are very professional whether it be on LinkedIn, Facebook or face-to-face.

Sign #23: He participates more in Hackathons outside the company.

There are companies that give out jobs for the people who have won hackathons. Hackathons are a great way to participate and earn your rights to get a new job. He can also add this in his LinkedIn profile.

Sign #24: He starts taking remote education like MBA.

He might be willing to have higher education. A better job or a better role will demand higher education. Sometimes in order to become a manager, you need to have MBA.

Sign #25: He joins a lot of job seeking groups on Facebook.

Different recruiters start posting jobs on Facebook groups because they are very popular. Check out his activity on Facebook and the kind of groups that he's joining.

Sign #26: He starts contributing to many open source projects.

If he can contribute to different open source projects, his GitHub profile increases. Some companies demand that you have to have contributed to different open source projects for them to consider you as technically competent.

Sign #27: He takes long coffee/lunch breaks.

You will see him taking longer coffee breaks than usual. This is because he can take them as he is not so involved in the project anymore.

Sign #28: He uses his mouse more than the keyboard.

Typically, in IT jobs, people use the keyboard more than the mouse. If you hear mouse clicks all the time, he might be just passing time on YouTube or Facebook.

Sign #29: He gets a lot of phone calls during office hours.

He might be getting phone calls from different recruiters due to updating his resume/CV in different job seeking websites. If you observe him leaving his desk to attend phone calls and finding private rooms, they could be from recruiters.

Sign #30: He suddenly gets sick and is perfectly healthy the next day.

He will suddenly start applying for vacation for the day saying that he is very sick. But the very next day you will find him perfectly healthy. This is because he had taken a vacation to attend a certain interview.

Sign #31: He is found a bit sad often.

Since he already knows that he will be leaving the company, and if he had some really close friends, he will definitely be a little bit sad that he now has to leave them all in the interest of a better opportunity.

Sign #32: He starts doing stuff that generates passive income.

He will start looking out to generate passive income by doing certain jobs online or by trying to market a business that he owns. All this to provide a cushion in case he leaves the company and doesn't find a job quickly.

Sign #33: He has knowledge of unnecessary topics that are not required for the job.

As he is now up-to-date with so many other technologies, he has a lot of knowledge to attend interviews. Sometimes unknowingly, he will exhibit it during meetings.

Sign #34: He becomes a bit secretive.

His usual activities tend to be a bit secretive as he now has to attend phone calls in private rooms and has to take care that his laptop screen is covered. He starts installing screen filters so that a co-worker is unaware of which websites he is visiting.

Sign #35: He is trying to shift his house far from the campus.

He might have already got a different job and is getting ready to make the move by shifting his family as well.

Sign #36: He is selling all the household items.

If you suddenly see him selling all the house furniture and you observe some of the above-mentioned signs, then the reason could be to shift to a different city/country as he got a better opportunity over there.

Sign #37: He starts suggesting other co-workers to quit.

Suggesting/influencing other employees to quit is prohibited in most companies. If he is doing this in spite of knowing the consequences, he has already checked out and it doesn't affect him much.

Sign #38: He exhibits happiness all the time and is relieved.

He is now relieved from the project work, deadlines or even milestones. When everyone on the team is busy and tensed of the pending work before the deadline, you will find him happy and relieved.

Sign #39: He doesn't carry work tension to home.

If you have known that he was carrying his office work to home and all of a sudden there is no work at home, he has checked out from the company.

Sign #40: He complains about his economic status and debts he has.

If the reason for him to leave was a low salary hike, he might have had a fight with the management. He will complain about his own status as he needs more money due to various responsibilities.

Sign #41: He complains about work-life balance.

If you see him complaining about it publicly, he is just trying to find out reasons to go home early as the project is not valuable to him anymore.

Sign #42: He had a major life event/change.

Some employees tend to change their profession along with a major life event like marriage. This is because more responsibilities will be added in life and they need to accommodate enough expenses as a result.

Sign #43: He stops giving innovative ideas to the team/project.

What's the point in giving out innovative ideas and make the project a grand success when he knows that he will not be at the bar when they celebrate after the success?

Sign #44: He doesn't help his team during roadblocks.

If he is a senior engineer and you have always seen him helping others in resolving their roadblocks, and if he stops helping all of a sudden, it is a sign that he doesn't care about the project anymore.

Sign #45: There are rumours about him leaving.

Rumours are still valid when they come from different sources. If he has told some of his close friends that he has applied resignation papers, they might have told others too.

Sign #46: He starts doing freelancing work.

Websites like freelancers.com are very popular these days and they generate a lot of passive income. If you see him logging into such websites often, he is definitely preparing to quit the company soon.

Sign #47: He is actively involved in getting his Passport/Visa.

Unless he has been assigned an onsite travel or has planned a trip with his family, if he is actively involved in getting his visa and the management has no clue why, he is definitely moving to a different company.

Sign #48: He starts playing games in the office.

If you always have seen him work and now he is participating in all sorts of games and starts playing using the office laptop or his mobile phone more than usual, he has definitely lost interest in the project.

Sign #49: He starts marketing his business.

He starts marketing some other business that he is planning to start or one that he already owns. He wants to attract certain potential clients and grow the business so that he can get relieved from his duties.

Sign #50: He starts praising other companies.

He will start praising other companies and will yell about the salary that is currently being paid in the market. He will start these discussions and will have long 1-on-1s with his manager.