Quitting Is Not a Bad Thing

[downtown]

As you might expect, I'm a huge advocate for this. I'm only 27 and I'm actually on my 7th job...I've averaged changing gigs about every 9 months. Almost all of those moves have been a promotion of some kind (one was a political job that simply ended). FINALLY, I've found my "dream job", and if family circumstances allow, I hope to be here for a very long time...although I'm aware that rarely happens in my new industry.

I pretty much completely agree with Mise in post #18. People should constantly assess whether their career is going the way they want it, and shouldn't be afraid to leave, and as a society, it's critical that we give people the safety net so they can leave (or start a business), if they need to. In the US, typically, situations where the worker can actually extract leverage or so rare, and quitting is one of those times. Using it is certainly not a sign of moral failure.

 

[Zelig]

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my current job, and today marks the first time I will ever be attending a job after more than a year of employment.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It used to be that most large companies had extremely good retirement plans backed by extremely sizable and heavily regulated institutional investments. These were professionally managed to assure that they continued to provide a steady source of income to pay those benefits into the future.

People stayed at their jobs because they were loyal to the company, and the company was loyal to them in return.

That is almost completely vanished now. Instead, companies typically still demand that their employees be just as loyal to them as they were in the past, while doing little or nothing to repay that loyalty and commitment.

The only group who typically now still enjoy decent retirement plans are ironically government employees, or those who work for public schools if you don't want to lump them in the same category.

Is the current system better? Will even the piddly Social Security program still be available when the twenty-somethings try to retire?

 

[Commodore]

The only group who typically now still enjoy decent retirement plans are ironically government employees, or those who work for public schools if you don't want to lump them in the same category.

And even those retirement plans might disappear soon. My mother works for the IRS and is getting close to retirement and she has been telling me how Congress has been talking about reducing retirement benefits for federal employees. Hell, they have even been trying to get those that are within 5 years of retirement to accept early retirement plans that offer significantly reduced benefits.

 

[Azale]

In the US, typically, situations where the worker can actually extract leverage or so rare, and quitting is one of those times. Using it is certainly not a sign of moral failure.

States (guess which ones) are drafting & passing legislation to ensure that if you quit due to virtually any kind of disagreement with your boss, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. Not sure if these are all coming cookie cutter from the usual suspects, but it feels like it.

Quitting already affords minimal leverage in the industries that are fastest growing and employing most people (fast food & retail obv). There is very little organized structure to support you if you think you're being treated unfairly, and if the gvt can't even insure I won't have money literally stolen from my paycheck, who can I trust? I might as well just keep my head down and never conflict with my superiors.

Also lots of legislative movement to bring more youths into the workforce, and to do it properly so they don't get notions of "talking back". Proper workplace virtues.

This is what a society controlled by the rich looks like. They don't want people quitting and they don't care about the longterm health of anything but their own accounts.

 

[Oruc]

I'd be screwed if I quit my job. Took me three years to find a permanent job, I keep hearing it's even worse on the dole then when I was on and it was a depressing soul destroying place then.

 

[Harv]

Every so often, something happens that prompts me to call a recruiter I know.

Four and a half years into my current job, this recruiter thinks I am overdue. However, we will have some discussions about location and numbers.

 

[luiz]

You know the type, "give me more money or I'll quit".

There's nothing wrong with that, just like there's nothing wrong with quitting for whatever reason.

It's ridiculous to expect people to remain indefinitely in jobs they dislike, or find inadequately rewarding (financially or otherwise), just as it is ridiculous to expect employers to keep employees they find underperforming indefinitely on their payroll.

 

[Mise]

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. I said it was "to their credit"!

 

[luiz]

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. I said it was "to their credit"!

Ah, OK, we're in agreement then.

Yeah I really don't see how quitting can be considered a moral failing of any sort. But then again the whole "Protestant work ethics" is alien to me. For me a job is just a business deal, one that I will renew for as long as it suits me. I feel no sense of " loyalty" to my employer whatsoever, they're not my family nor my friends. I'll just fulfill my part of the deal as long they fulfill theirs. And I really like my job!

 

[Mise]

Yep, that's exactly how I feel.