Great Resignation (Big Quit) 2021-2022

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

If more businesses are offering work-from-home for their employees then what we're really seeing is a disillusionment with going into the workplace. There are still jobs that take place in a cubicle, but these jobs are absolutely turning a company's workforce into mindless zombies. The whole work/life balance is completely out-of-whack and it seems this is why so many people are leaving their jobs in their late 30s/40s. People are not machines and this is what these US corporations are starting to realize and if they don't, then the CEOs are in big trouble.

My job is no big deal. I work retail, but have opted to only work four days a week with three off in a row. This is better for me and it allows me to actually enjoy the life I have. The drudgery of 8 to 5 never appealed to me and I'm thankful that I'm in a situation where work doesn't dominate my existence.

John, 4 days a week is a good deal. You want to work more only when you find a job very valuable to you.

That was me in 2020. When I started in IT it was exciting to learn on the job, come up with ideas, use my initiative and have a go even if things sometimes went wrong, there were also constantly changing systems to learn. It was really a great career for the talented amateur. Eventually though it all became so restrictive I was completely fed up with it and drained but was fortunately able to retire early at 58.

I understand what you're talking about. I want to retire before getting 6o y/o too.

[Karl Henning]

Since that conversation (sorry I never replied to you, David, now I will!), I have successfully quit my terrible job and started a better, higher paying new one. I'll fill in the backstory here first, and then a few lessons I have learned from the quitting experience.

Backstory:
Yes, I was the food critic for a major newspaper, but unfortunately that paper had already downsized to the point where the job was a freelance/part time role. My full time job was with a community college, doing marketing department things, writing stories to help convince kids to go to college, get degrees, etc. Food writing was lucrative as a hobby ($20k or so), but it occupied me for 12-15 hours a week on top of my 40 hour day job.

The college went through a corporate style restructuring, everyone was made to reapply for their own jobs at the 2020 peak of the pandemic, and the resulting layoffs caused obvious understaffing and overworking. However, the restructure was seen as a huge success by executive leadership, who then created a layer of middle management to cater to their every desire. Suddenly we were supposed to market deans and chancellors as celebrities, for example, instead of focusing on stuff that matters.

This is all of course a metaphor for America's economy at large, in which the people at the top have deliberately created a system which, to the rest of us, seems broken, but which is in fact functioning exactly as intended.

End backstory

I'm now the full time restaurant critic at a glossy local magazine. It came with a raise that almost gets me to the pay of my two old jobs combined.

Lessons I've learned:
1. Working from the office/cubicle is much more tolerable if your work is good!! I used to be so resentful that the college required us to go to the office when we were required, once there, to have all our meetings online in Teams. We were driving to a place, then hiding from people, then driving home. I spent probably 3 hours of 8 goofing off on the internet. I genuinely was running out of websites to read every day!

Now I work a fully flex schedule, about half and half. And I actually like going to work?? And I like talking to the people there?? And today for example I didn't spend any time at all going around reading all the usual websites?? It's crazy. It helps that it's a 21st floor office with a spectacular view.

But it really helps to like the job.

2. Same for commuting. I went from 22 minutes driving daily to 37, but I don't mind because I like going there.

3. Exhaustion and emotional fatigue set in very slowly and therefore are hard to diagnose. I was sick and tired of all those people and their drama and their idiotic "strategies." But I tolerated it day by day, assumed it was normal, and thought all jobs were like that. Moving to a new office was revelatory.

4. You have a little bit of paranoia when you leave a terrible situation. I keep popping out to lunch, which is literally my job, and expecting to get a call from my boss demanding to know why I'm not at my desk. Hasn't happened. Turns out, that was only my old boss! But I'm still scared of it.

5. Re: the comments about doing what's important to you. Previously I had a job doing what was important to me, and another job which paid the bills, provided stability, and didn't interfere with my other goals. That was a good deal for a while. It was nice to support my passion with an easy, pleasant everyday work.

But as that day job grew more stressful and more irritating, the calculus changed. One of my colleagues quit to become a pizza delivery driver. Another quit to make large scale woven tapestries. Another quit to raise her twins. Another quit to travel the world on his life savings at the age of 28.

The pursue your passion vs. have a stable job decision is not a decision you make one time, forever. You have to keep making it as your passion intensifies and your stable life becomes less stable.

6. I'm very very lucky!

Most interesting. Yes liking the job, and having decent people to work with, makes all the difference.

[Mirror Image]

John, 4 days a week is a good deal. You want to work more only when you find a job very valuable to you.

This is true. I mean I don't hate my job, but I imagine I could find something even better that pays even more, but my dream is to do something with music. But I'm still unsure at what capacity I'd work in this field. My parents have encouraged me to pursue a music education degree since I could talk about music all day and night, but I'm still thinking about it.

[steve ridgway]

A music education degree sounds good. At what level would you have to work with it to earn what you do now, and how many of those positions are available?

[vandermolen]

I retired from full-time teaching aged 60 in 2015. That is the youngest age that you can collect 100% of the Teacher's Pension in the UK. Nearly all of my older colleagues retired at about 55-57 and took a reduced pension. When I mentioned my imminent retirement to a colleague from a nearby school at a Teacher's conference, she asked me if I'd like to apply for a job-share with her - which I did and was successful. I have always enjoyed the teaching but the increasing amount of time that I spent doing totally pointless admin tasks and dealing with increasingly coercive management (it became like working for a ruthless multi-national company rather than a school) was dispiriting. Many other people were treated worse than I was, but we all had to reapply for our jobs etc, causing great stress. I used to escape into the classroom to get away from other aspects of the job. Teaching part time (c.3 days a week) and no longer being a Head of Dept. is much nicer. I am lucky to have a very supportive boss. When I was 50 I decided to train as a counsellor (as in therapy) and did this for 3 years in London (attending after school) and qualified about 3 years later. Now I work as a part-time teacher, school counsellor and have a small private counselling practice (dealing with addictive CD collecting issues - only joking!) I also see clients for CRUSE which is a bereavement charity.

[Mirror Image]

A music education degree sounds good. At what level would you have to work with it to earn what you do now, and how many of those positions are available?

Honestly, I haven't done any kind of extensive research. Even if I could land a job as an assistant music professor at a university, this would be great, because I would be surrounded by the love of my life: music (well it's music right now until I meet the woman of my dreams, then it'll be her ).

[Mirror Image]

I retired from full-time teaching aged 60 in 2015. That is the youngest age that you can collect 100% of the Teacher's Pension in the UK. Nearly all of my older colleagues retired at about 55-57 and took a reduced pension. When I mentioned my imminent retirement to a colleague from a nearby school at a Teacher's conference, she asked me if I'd like to apply for a job-share with her - which I did and was successful. I have always enjoyed the teaching but the increasing amount of time that I spent doing totally pointless admin tasks and dealing with increasingly coercive management (it became like working for a ruthless multi-national company rather than a school) was dispiriting. Many other people were treated worse than me but we all had to reapply for our jobs etc, causing great stress. I used to escape into the classroom to get away from other aspects of the job. Teaching part time (c.3 days a week) and no longer being a Head of Dept. is much nicer. I am lucky to have a very supportive boss. When I was 50 I decided to train as a counsellor (as in therapy) and did this for 3 years in London (attending after school) and qualified about 3 years later. Now I work as a part-time teacher, school counsellor and have a small private counselling practice (dealing with addictive CD collecting issues - only joking!) I also see clients for CRUSE which is a bereavement charity.

Again, congratulations on your retirement, Jeffrey! You're someone on this forum I truly look up to and admire (there are several others here of course).

[vandermolen]

Again, congratulations on your retirement, Jeffrey! You're someone on this forum I truly look up to and admire (there are several others here of course).

How very kind of you to say that John! Thank you.

[Mirror Image]

How very kind of you to say that John! Thank you.

My pleasure. All my best.

[André]

John is right, Jeffrey: you're up there with the very best ! And modest. And great at self-derision, too ! 

[vandermolen]

John is right, Jeffrey: you're up there with the very best ! And modest. And great at self-derision, too ! 

You are very kind too André! 

[VonStupp]

[...] but my dream is to do something with music. But I'm still unsure at what capacity I'd work in this field. My parents have encouraged me to pursue a music education degree since I could talk about music all day and night, but I'm still thinking about it.

Bless anyone wanting to explore the education field, nonetheless music.

I unfortunately have had too many friends leave the profession of music education in recent years. Often it is not a lack of their love of music, but how little their jobs are actually dedicated to that which they love, similar to what vandermolen alludes to.

Just this year, one friend is now a financial officer at a car dealership, another is in HR for a major company, and another became a counselor/therapist privately. All were superb musicians and it is unfortunate they are no longer contributing.

I don't think I could ever leave the field, nor would I want to, so if there is an inkling of interest, I would encourage it. Of course, I love the sound of your current work schedule! 

VS

[Mirror Image]

Bless anyone wanting to explore the education field, nonetheless music.

I unfortunately have had too many friends leave the profession of music education in recent years. Often it is not a lack of their love of music, but how little their jobs are actually dedicated to that which they love, similar to what vandermolen alludes to.

Just this year, one friend is now a financial officer at a car dealership, another is in HR for a major company, and another became a counselor/therapist privately. All were superb musicians and it is unfortunate they are no longer contributing.

I don't think I could ever leave the field, nor would I want to, so if there is an inkling of interest, I would encourage it. Of course, I love the sound of your current work schedule! 

VS

Interesting. Food for thought. Thanks for your post, VS.

[vandermolen]

Interesting. Food for thought. Thanks for your post, VS.

+1

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Elon Musk tells employees to return to office or 'pretend to work' elsewhere. About 30% of US office workers are still working from home.


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/01/elon-musk-return-to-office-pretend-to-work-somewhere-else

[Karl Henning]

Elon Musk tells employees to return to office or 'pretend to work' elsewhere. About 30% of US office workers are still working from home.


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/01/elon-musk-return-to-office-pretend-to-work-somewhere-else

If I hadn't already had him pegged as a chump ....

[Spotted Horses]

If I hadn't already had him pegged as a chump ....

Chump is not the right word. Ford Produces about 10 times as many vehicles per year compared with Tesla. Tesla market capitalization is almost 20 times higher than Ford. The person of founded and owns a controlling interest in that company is not a chump. He is a wizard. Maybe a sociopathic wizard.

[Mirror Image]

If I hadn't already had him pegged as a chump ....

He's a chump with 218.1 billion dollars --- hardly a chump. You don't make this kind of money for being foolish. Anyway, good for him for making people return to the office.

[Karl Henning]

Chump is not the right word. Ford Produces about 10 times as many vehicles per year compared with Tesla. Tesla market capitalization is almost 20 times higher than Ford. The person of founded and owns a controlling interest in that company is not a chump. He is a wizard. Maybe a sociopathic wizard.

Noted.

[Karl Henning]

He's a chump with 218.1 billion dollars --- hardly a chump. You don't make this kind of money for being foolish. Anyway, good for him for making people return to the office.

Obviously, people on the assembly line cannot work from home.