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Say “I Quit” — but Do It for the Right Reasons
“I quit”
I received a text this morning from a friend and former MBA classmate who works in strategy consulting. We’ll call her Nancy.
“I am giving my notice today,” the text read. “And I thought about you and your decision to pause, to do something different with your life. Would love to connect.”
I gave her a call. During our conversation, we touched on many topics:
- the feeling of freedom after quitting a job;
- the joys and overwhelms of parenthood;
- the absurdity of gender stereotypes;
- the perils of extrinsic motivators like money & success;
- the value of building a marriage with a solid foundation; and more…
Nancy felt tired, overworked, and underappreciated by her work environment. She’d put in hundreds of billable hours in the past few weeks. It wasn’t enough. It was never enough.
She couldn’t get ahold of her team lead. They’d spoken only four times in her six months working there. This time, she just wanted to talk for a few minutes — to quit over the phone instead of over email. Just that was proving difficult.
