Quitting Your Job In This Economy

Over the past few days, it has come to my attention that, despite being in a ridiculously shitty economy and job market, people are still quitting their jobs. This makes me feel a little bit better as I recently quit my previous job without a backup plan.

I'm going to be honest here for a second. The experience has been scary at times, but I think the worst part was the tremendous amount of guilt I experienced. I felt guilty because I had a job and, no matter how miserable I was in that job, I didn't feel justified in quitting because there were so many other people out there who needed employment. My mind kept telling me I should have been grateful for even having a job in the first place. Finally I had to come to terms with the fact that I didn't need to feel guilty about quitting my job. Somewhere along the line, I had forgotten that I needed to make myself a priority and that quitting my job was the right thing to do.

It seems to me that there are two different trends in the current job market. There are people who desperately need to find employment to pay their bills and take care of their families and would gladly take any position offered to them. And then there are other people who seem to be reaching their boiling point. In the latter category it feels like some employers are almost taking advantage of the employment climate. As if they suddenly feel like they have the authority to push people to their boiling points, make them work even harder for less pay, and strip them of any semblance of a work/life balance. Because hey, it's not like people are going to quit right now, right?

This makes me pretty angry. We need compassionate employers right now, not "The Devil Wears Prada." It's important in times of financial insecurity, especially when experienced on a national level, that employers take it easy on employees. I know the bottom line is always looming, but let's be realistic. It's going to take at least another year, maybe two, for things to start getting better. And happy employees do better work for their employers. It would seem natural that employers would just fucking accept those facts. "We're not going to have a record breaking year this year," and "Everyone on the team needs to leave on time on Friday because it's stressful enough out there and we'll have a better Monday if people come in after a refreshing weekend." Attention Corporate America: get it through your head.

But I've come across two people in the past two days who have taken quitting to a whole new level. It's usually advisable upon leaving a job to NOT burn any bridges, but I feel like these two folks have thrown that advise to the wayside and have gone out in style.

A young gal, known only as "Jenny" at this point, really went out in style by taking 33 pictures of herself with messages on a white board. She then sent those pictures to her office of about 20 individuals. Those messages detail why she quit. (Click on her name to see the photos. Her facial expressions are priceless!) The fact that she didn't file suit against her boss for referring to her as a "HPOA" is beyond me, but for some reason, I believe she'll come out alright in the end (as the states on her last white board).

Also, please meet Steve Slater. As a flight attendant for JetBlue, it seems that Mr. Slater had his fill on his inbound flight to JFK from Philadelphia. When a passenger hit him in the head with his luggage from the overhead compartment, Mr. Slater demanded an apology. He and the passenger then got into a heated argument which ended with Mr. Slater cussing out the passengers on the plane, grabbing a couple of brewskies from the galley, and deploying the emergency exit slide. He then went down the slide, ran across the tarmac, got into his car, and drove home. Some folks are speculating at this point that Mr. Slater is gunning for a reality TV show of some sort. But as of now, he's in jail and presumably JetBlue has accepted his resignation.

So to those of you out there who think you just can't take another minute of your job and are worried about what may happen if you leave, weigh the pros and cons. While I can guarantee you that there are going to be scary aspects to your decision, remember, you only have one life to live. It's better to spend it being happy.