Leave your job
Cassie McDaniel explores why leaving your job can be a blessing in disguise
I first wrote about leaving my job a few years ago for a blog that paid me $75 (75 dollars!) for my efforts. It was the first article I ever published. In addition, the act of leaving my job launched me into a space where I became more comfortable asking for something more, or different, as well as admitting defeat when I could not get what I wanted. These skills have proven valuable time and time again.
The first time I quit
I have spent months, and sometimes even years, in jobs that were not well-suited to me, which affected not just my happiness at work but my relationships and general wellbeing. The more unhappy I became at work, the less sure I was of what was making me unhappy, which made everything that was great in my life vulnerable to critical scrutiny. It is not a pretty cycle. What I know now, but which I didn’t know then, is that leaving your job can give you more than it takes away.
In 2009 I left a job where six people were fired in a day. Six may not sound like a lot,but we were a small team. The company blamed the layoffs on the economy, but the truth was they were eliminating ‘dead weight’ and correcting bad hiring decisions. It seemed cruel that employees who had been there for years were not allowed to pack their belongings before they were walked out. Meanwhile I, who was hired a few months prior, remained.
What stood out to me was how many colleagues complained behind closed doors about the management’s decision but ultimately chose to stay with the company. Why? I realised then that change is something that happens to most people. But change is inevitable, no matter who you are or what you are doing — and I found that I wanted to own the change in my life instead of letting it own me.
Quitting to win
The next job, and the job after, were harder for me to leave. These companies had qualities I adored — like the work culture, the work itself, great managers or colleagues, but never all of them at once. I could compromise for a little while, but since I had already jumped ship once, it seemed odd to have inched closer to my ideal position, only to stop short of a quality or two that would have allowed me to really love what I was doing.
I regularly think of an article on The Pastry Box Project by Karen McGrane about how it’s inevitable that you will hate your job sometimes, and that if you’re doing work you love more than 25 per cent of the time then you’re doing A-OK. Some days I agree with her, especially on the point that no job is enjoyable all the time, and that tolerance of down-sides will help improve your job satisfaction. But other days I wonder why we endure work, people or practices that don’t align with our values. It seems hard to imagine that if you make a bad decision now you can’t correct your course later, or that more opportunities won’t arise if you let go of this one.
The desire to enhance one’s career is not an anomaly. A study at the
University of Phoenix found that 80 per cent of people in their 20s wanted to change career, as opposed to 64 per cent of people in their 30s, and 54 per cent in their 40s. Changing careers is symptomatic of the modern day worker’s attempt to find fulfilment in their day job.
A Worthwhile Risk
There are consequences to consider: how will this look on my résumé? How will I pay my rent? Will I be able to find something else? But I have come to the conclusion that the only way to find a job you love is to take risks in your career, and sometimes that does mean saying no, or leaving a job. However, when doors close, windows open. Getting rid of things allows you to fill spaces with something different. And almost certainly you find that when you have nothing, you have no choice but to be resourceful.
Cassie is the design director at the Mozilla Foundation, a dream job that took a decade to find. She speaks and publishes regularly about using design for good
