Career regrets: What many people regret

Finally ask for a raise in the new year? Find a new job? Completely change your career path? All of these resolutions are certainly not uncommon—and at the same time, they have a lot to do with regretting your career path so far. A study by the platform “Resume Now” takes a closer look at precisely these career-related “regrets” and surveyed around 1,000 employees for this purpose. A total of 66% of respondents said they regretted one or more factors of their current and previous professional lives. The most frequently mentioned aspects included not asking for a raise (60%), not prioritizing work-life balance enough (59%), and staying in a job too long (58%). In general, respondents tend to regret passivity rather than active decisions: while more than half said they stayed in a job too long, only 38% regret quitting. In addition, 53% regret not expressing their opinion in meetings, while 38% would like to take back such an expression of opinion. There are some significant demographic differences. For example, men regret quitting their jobs significantly more often than women (44% vs. 34%). There are also clear differences between generations: most career regrets are found among millennials (70%) and Gen Xers (69%), while the baby boomer generation has a lower percentage of 52%. To end on a positive note and not just look back at the past, the study also asks what resolutions employees are taking with them into the new year. According to the study, 54% want to learn new skills, 26% want to develop professionally, and 45% have decided to look for a new job. We were also interested in these topics:

• Career tips: How can you best implement your resolutions and master difficult conversations at work? Business Insider (€) offers seven tips for this.

• Job satisfaction: LinkedIn also conducted a study to find out how satisfied employees currently are – with mixed results, as t-online reports.

• Sick days: New figures on sick leave in the public sector were recently published. Business Insider (€) reveals which authority ranks first with 27 sick days.

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