Why I Quit My Job

For my birthday this year, I decided to quit my job. I can’t stress this enough: the people I worked with are wonderful and the mission of the company is phenomenal. But it was time for me to go.

Who wouldn’t benefit from a little advice from Steve Jobs? As he aptly put it:

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

I read that quote again a few weeks ago and realized that as much as I love reading and talking about company innovation, especially when it comes to employee engagement, I wasn’t living my beliefs. I love envisioning how I would run my own company but it’s important to step back and let other people run theirs.

As many insightful founders have said, it’s crucial to hire the right employees. It’s also pivotal to fire others. With that logic, I decided to fire myself. That isn’t to say that I was performing badly. Quite the opposite. I’m dedicated to my work, often to a fault. I’m as comfortable in Ops as a frothy cappuccino on your tongue. Don’t drink coffee? Think about how cozy you feel when you snuggle under your covers tonight. That’s me in Ops. However that same feeling of comfort and routine can also breed complacency if you fall so deep into your work that you forget to re-assess your highest contribution and what matters most to you.

In my post about favorite work habits, I mentioned that you can be great at something but you also need to be passionate about it as well. I have immense respect for my previous co-workers and confidence in the long-term future of the company. That being said, given where they are right now, my dream role was still many years away and I decided that I couldn’t wait that long. Timing is key and I wanted someone to fill my role who dreams about that position the same way that I dream about People Ops. I’ve been in a lot of different positions and industries over the years but I decided that it was time to carve out my ideal role instead of chasing it in my free time.

The path ahead is scary. My burn rate is low. I don’t know if I’ll continue on my own or find a great match with another company. As organized and fiscally responsible as I am, it would’ve been better to find the next opportunity before I left the previous one but sometimes life doesn’t work that way. It’s nice to mix it up and be a little less responsible for once. I have the good fortune at the moment to take a sabbatical and I’m going to appreciate it every day that it lasts.

Here’s to taking the time on your birthday to set-up new priorities that align yourself with where you are now instead of where you were or where you thought you wanted to be.