The new year is a time for diets, not hasty job decisions

I imagine that you're reading this on your first day back at work after a week and a half of eating, drinking and sitting around with a bit too much time on your hands. The results of the first two can be dealt with by a month or so of good diet and vigorous exercise; the effects of having time to think are much trickier to handle.

Spare time is all too easily spent in introspective contemplation, which in turn leads to a sense of existential purposelessness and, ultimately, the determination that it's time to Do Something With Your Life. Obviously spouses and children can suffer here ("Come on love, I'm sure that you'll make plenty of new friends at the ashram") but most often it's the career that takes the brunt of it: quitting your job looks like a quick and easy route to major lifestyle change. Doubtless that's why - at least according to a press release from Lifelong Learning UK, anyway - one person in ten resolves to get a new job in the new year.

Please don't. Or at least don't quit right now. Keep your decision to yourself for a month or so until you are absolutely sure that you're moving jobs because it's the right thing for you and your career and not out of some vague sense that it's time for a change. If it's change you need, get a haircut. It'll grow out.

To clinch the argument, here are four reasons why it's a very bad idea to resign this week:

1. Everything looks worse with a hangover. A few days eating healthily and getting plenty of sleep of the sort that doesn't involve peeling your tongue off the pillow in the morning will do wonders for your mood.

2. Everyone's doing it. Supply and demand: if, as the research above suggests, 10 per cent of the population is about to sign up with recruitment agencies, there's a risk that your CV will be swamped.

3. Quitting gets you nowhere. If you have a specific position or even company in mind, great. Research it thoroughly, apply (while still in your current position) and it might just work out for you. If you're quitting just because you hate your job/boss/life, stop right there. You'll still be unhappy; you'll just be unemployed as well.

4. You might get a new job straight away. Sure, this sounds like a great idea, but it's quite possibly the worst outcome of the lot. Jump into a new position without researching it thoroughly and, while  you might enjoy the thrill of the new for a short time, it won't be long before you find yourself pulling at the seams and wondering it's a little tight across the shoulders. And guess what: you can't leave for at least 18 months without risking serious CV damage. No employer likes flightiness.