Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Do I Stay or Do I Go?
John Sullivan is a working project manager who writes and speaks on project and career issues.
Two years ago, I left my job at Reynolds and Reynolds in Dayton, Ohio, when the hostile and difficult work environment finally outweighed the years of experience and the comfort of a familiar--if dysfunctional--culture. It took some time to make the decision because I was too young to retire but too old to endure the situation. It’s a classic dilemma: “Do I stay or do I go?”
Counselors have numerous models explaining this decision process, but each shares a midpoint somewhere between “realization” and “acceptance”. “There’s that middle stage where a lot of people really don’t know what they want,” says Arlene Hirsch, a career and psychological counselor and author of How to Be Happy at Work (Jistworks, 2004, second edition).
There is no scale to precisely measure getting to and through the midpoint because there are too many variables to consider. “It’s not (that) objective or scientific,” says Hirsch. “But we do look at a variety of factors affecting the decision and try to assess the importance and consequences of each one.”
Trying to Stay
During his five years at Reynolds and Reynolds, Craig Braunschweiger served on several process improvement teams and wanted to expand his skills beyond information technology by getting involved in the product planning…
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It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers. - James Thurber |