Compare your cash, health, scope, location and learning priorities; this worksheet organizes trade-offs and does not tell you whether to resign.
How the worksheet works
Displays weighted values you assign to each option. The values are not an outcome score, recommendation, or forecast.
Inputs and privacy
Calculations run in the browser. Entered values are not sent to the API, stored, added to the URL, or used as analytics events.
Limits
Educational arithmetic only. Verify contracts, tax questions, and employer-specific terms against current documents and qualified sources.
Use the comparison to expose assumptions
For each area, enter how important it is to you, then how the staying and moving options currently look. The displayed products are arithmetic reminders of your own stated priorities; they do not measure a career, reveal a correct answer, or establish that one option is safer. Use the same scale consistently. If a factor is non-negotiable, note that separately instead of allowing a high rating elsewhere to cancel it. When the evidence is thin, mark the uncertainty in your own notes and choose a verification step before treating a tentative impression as a settled comparison.
Illustrative scenario: make the unknown visible
Illustrative scenario: a person enjoys their team but has no written promotion scope, while another employer has described a role verbally. The stay side can reflect known colleagues and familiar work; the move side may reflect potential authority alongside unanswered questions about manager, funding, and variable pay. The useful result is not whichever total is larger. It is the short list of facts that could reverse the choice: an approved role description, a conversation with the future manager, a written compensation plan, or a clearer review date at the current employer.
What to verify before choosing a date
Read the employment agreement and later amendments for notice obligations, bonus recovery, training repayment, confidentiality, and post-employment terms. Ask the prospective employer to confirm title, reporting line, location, decision authority, compensation components, conditions, background checks, and joining date in writing. Check whether resignation changes insurance, childcare arrangements, commute, visa status, or support for dependants. The worksheet does not interpret legal enforceability or personal wellbeing. Where a clause or consequence could materially change the decision, seek a qualified explanation instead of translating uncertainty into a confident score.
Questions to ask yourself
- Should I resign because the move total is larger?
- No. The total is not a recommendation. Inspect the individual rows, identify any non-negotiable constraint, and test which unverified fact matters most.
- What if I cannot decide?
- Choose a reversible action that creates evidence: request written terms, review a budget, clarify authority, or set a date to reassess after a specific conversation.
Separate urgency from readiness
A difficult week can create urgency without supplying evidence that a change will solve the underlying problem. Conversely, a calm period can hide a deadline in a contract, benefit, or household budget. Write down what has to happen soon and what can wait for more information. If the issue is safety, health, discrimination, or a legal threat, this comparison is not an emergency service and should not delay qualified help. For ordinary career uncertainty, define a small test that protects your options: a confidential conversation, a revised scope request, a budget review, or a carefully chosen external interview.
Give each option a realistic description
Describe the staying path as it is likely to operate, not as the best version of a promise. Include the manager's authority, available work, team dependencies, and date for a decision. Describe the moving path using the written offer, current stage of checks, actual work location, and any unresolved approval. If the new role is not yet documented, compare it as an opportunity under discussion rather than as guaranteed employment. Include a third path when it is real, such as an internal transfer or a temporary pause. A comparison becomes misleading when one option contains facts while another is filled with imagined benefits.
Decide what evidence would change your view
Before entering preferences, name one fact that would make you reconsider either option. Examples include a manager confirming budget and decision rights, a revised written offer, a household cash calculation, or a conversation with someone who performs the work. Set a review date tied to that event rather than waiting indefinitely for certainty. Keep a record of what you asked, what answer arrived, and what remains unresolved. If no answer arrives by the date, decide whether the delay itself matters. This process does not remove risk; it makes the trade-off explicit enough for you to discuss with people who understand your circumstances.