My latest Memphis Daily News column is out, “Know When To Cut Your Losses at Work.”
Typically, we think of sunk cost in terms of investing or economics. It’s the concept that money or some other cost you have already lost can’t be recovered. In business, the idea of sunk cost might come in to play when a project has failed. Management eventually decides that no amount of additional work will save the project. It’s best to cut their losses and walk away while they can.
The same idea can also apply to your own career. Consider this example – you’re midway through a master’s degree program you aren’t interested in and know you’ll never use. You continue on with the program because you’re already halfway through.
Another example is the length of time you stay at a company. If you’ve been at the same job for 10 years, you may want to stay longer even when things are bad. This is due to the feeling that you’ve been there so long and invested so much that you shouldn’t leave.
To read the rest of my column, and learn the important questions you should ask yourself, visit the Memphis Daily News website here.
