When you like what you do and you’re happy doing it, you’ll be pretty good at it and others will likely think so too. When the economy is strong and you’re good at what you do, have a positive attitude, and make a positive difference to the intended end user, you’ll keep your job and have a pretty decent chance of getting another one.

When the economy is weak, your talent and tenacity, work ethic and ethical behavior may not be enough to keep your job. If you’re moving up and your company is falling down, it’s time to look for what’s next:

They said they’d pay me a bonus to stay on ‘til the lights went out.’ I thought I was doing the right thing, doing them a favor, being a stand-up guy. My family was all over me to leave when I could, while I still had a job, but I said, no. Not me. I was going to go down with the ship. And I did. Not only did I not get that bonus check, I didn’t get paid for my last two months with the company. And as I recall, no one thanked me for my loyalty.

It’s time to look for the next opportunity if you work for people you don’t trust:

I’m an honest person and I’ve always prided myself on the accuracy of my work. It didn’t take me long to realize that accuracy and honesty weren’t valued at this company. My boss would change the numbers to suit his needs and meet his boss’s expectations. Facts didn’t matter, he said, failure mattered and he wasn’t about to fail. When I told him the company could get in serious trouble if he were caught, he laughed it off and said it was my problem. Turned out he was right. We got audited. I got blamed and got fired. My boss got a promotion for turning me in.

It’s time to look for the next opportunity if you work for people you don’t respect because they disrespect you:

My faith is personal and important to me. I don’t impose my beliefs on others; I do expect others to respect my beliefs as I would respect theirs, if they had any. My co-workers are profane and narrow-minded. As much as I like what I do, I can’t work where I’m bullied.

It’s time to look for the next opportunity if what you do is no longer in demand:

I’m in an industry that provides a service that’s no longer valued or required. I’ve tried everything I know to rebrand, rethink, and reposition what we do, hoping that we can breathe a few more years life into it. Truth is, we should have shut it down or sold it when it was still viable. Hindsight’s twenty-twenty.

Rather than wistfully wait for what’s not coming back, update your skills and learn new ones. Apply your innate strengths to how you want to make a difference. Rather than rely on the past to provide for the future, build on it.