Morning Brew - 🚩 I quit!

Time-saving tools and products we’re really into rn.

Clean up the unidentified crumbs, dirt, and dust at the bottom of your bags and suitcases with a sticky ball that can be cleaned and reused.

Are you drowning in Instagram screenshots of places you’d like to visit? Clean up that mess with Liist. The app saves travel destinations while you scroll and loads them into a map (and there’s a TikTok integration coming soon ).

🫖 Get some tips on sharing information about yourself at work without scaring away your coworkers in this Fast Company article.

What’s top of mind at the watercooler.

Your job shouldn’t raise as many red flags as someone who likes pineapple on pizza. But if you’re starting to notice things that are kind of sus, and can’t shake the Sunday scaries, it might be time to dust off your resume. To learn when it might be time to look for a new job, Sidekick spoke with two career experts—Vicki Salemi and Blair Heitmann.

Heitmann said you should first consider “if you’re experiencing challenges that are normal growing pains at work, or a situation worth sticking around to overcome.” Identify whether your pain points are caused by your specific employer or could be an issue with any job.

Salemi and Heitmann agreed you should look for red flags that indicate your employer is the problem. These red flags aren’t always glaring or obvious, Salemi cautioned. These are the telltale signs:

• Toxic work environment. This can take many different forms. Your boss may have taken credit for work you did, or perhaps someone threw you under the bus for a mistake. You might feel “undervalued, under-appreciated, under-recognized, and you’re not paid enough,” Salemi said. Or you may not feel proud of the workplace culture, Heitmann noted. “Ask yourself if you’re proud to talk about your job, and if you and your company share the same values. If you answer no to these questions, it might be time to look elsewhere.”
• Limited room to grow or learn. “Are you bored? Are you learning anything new? Have you mastered your position? And if you’ve mastered it, have you reached a dead end?” Salemi offered, noting that it may be time to leave if there are no promotions or places to grow into. Heitmann agreed: “If you’ve explored multiple growth paths within your current company and you’ve been vocal about your needs and still aren’t getting the opportunities you want, it’s likely time to move on.”
• Lack of flexibility. “You could be doing excellent work day in and day out, and ask your boss if you can work remotely two days a week, [because] you’re actually more productive at home, but they don’t even want to listen to you. That’s a red flag,” said Salemi, that could be “the point of no return.”
• High turnover. “It’s not a great sign when there’s a rotating door of people leaving your company, especially if people you respect seem to resign out of the blue. This could be an indication that there are systemic issues within your company, or that something’s coming down the pipeline that people aren’t happy with,” Heitmann said.

Don’t ignore these red flags and hope things will magically change, Salemi said. Jump in front of it. “You may be able to get paid better elsewhere. Ask what the going rate is for someone with your experiences and skills,” she suggested. Maintain open communication with recruiters, set up job alerts on your devices, and keep your eyes peeled for other opportunities. “Join professional networking groups” and attend remote or in-person events, Salemi advised. “Look for opportunities to gain valuable leadership skills and visibility among other departments” and in your industry. When you decide enough is enough, you’ll be ahead of the job-hunt game.—SS

Your punch list for when you punch out.

Listen: Billie Eilish’s voice is very soothing, but Ambar Lucid’s Spanglish version of “Bossa Nova” is ethereal.

Read: Here’s what I call peak adulting: Millennials and Gen Z are saying “I hate it here” and watching ’90s shows from when they were kids to feel a sense of calm, according to this WSJ article. I’m not at all surprised. In the past two months, I’ve rewatched The Nanny twice.

Eat: Release your inner child and take it back to simpler times (you know, before the bills) with this copycat recipe for cosmic brownies, because nothing says “nostalgia” like satisfying that sweet tooth.

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Pearls of career wisdom.

What career advice would you give your younger self?

“Find a job you love…if you haven't found it yet, stay curious. Let your day job be a safety net while you try and learn new things. When you do land on something, the secret to keeping work from consuming your life is to develop interests outside of it. Keep trying and learning new things; just make sure at least one of them is solely for fun.”—Evan Lian, New Yorker cartoonist and content strategist