I wasn’t the only one asking “Why don’t they just leave?” after reading the New York Times story about the working conditions some employees face at Amazon. I saw the question all over my social media feeds: how and why does anyone tolerate this? No salary could possibly be worth it.
That said, I know how hard it is to leave a job that provides stability, benefits, a steady paycheck and yes, job satisfaction amid whatever frustrations and hardships there might be. I did it three years ago – quitting my gig as the host of the Marketplace program. I actually loved the job, but the workplace wasn’t right for me anymore. And I left without knowing what I wanted to do next.
Aside from the financial aspects, which can be significant and should never be ignored, there is a larger issue around quitting that comes into play, particularly if you are in a job that by and large defines you. For me, it was: “Oh wow, you work on the radio!” For some of these employees at Amazon, it’s: “Oh wow, you work at Amazon!” No one can imagine why you would leave, and you can’t imagine what your life would look like if you did. It feels foolish to even contemplate.
The psychological hurdle is significant because:
A. You’ve invested time and energy into your career, and quitting or reinventing feels like you’re wasting all of that.
B. Many of us don’t bother to figure out who we are outside of what we do for a living, so we face a potential identity crisis by leaving what we know.
This is why I argue that with proper financial planning, the best thing you can do is to give yourself the time and headspace to ask The Big Questions without the distractions of either workaday life or a full-time job hunt.
What do you love about what you do for a living? What do you not love about what you do for a living? What are your priorities for what you want your life to look like? And what else is interesting about you outside of your job? How would you describe yourself to someone without telling them about your chosen career?
Those questions are much tougher to answer when you’re in the thick of it than when you take a step back and give yourself time to really dig into your beliefs.
And what is the proper financial planning? You may have heard the term “freedom fund” – or its more profane iteration that involves the letters F and Y. This is the safety net that allows you to simply walk away if it becomes necessary.
You have to decide what that figure is for you – three months’ worth of savings? six months? – and you’re the only one who can evaluate what worst-case scenario looks like for you and your family and what you think you can tolerate.
But once you have that fund, you’ll have the freedom to stand back and re-evaluate, to explore what else, besides your job, brings you satisfaction and some element of joy. Is it a creative hobby you’ve tried to nurture but never had time to do so? Is it an entirely new career pursuit that will challenge your mind and requires a whole new set of skills?
Crafting an identity outside of your career is really important, and it’s something we in America don’t do much of. When is the last time you met someone new and asked them something other than “What do you do?” That needs to change. We need new questions.
I was terrified when I left my job without knowing what I wanted to do next. I tied so much of my self-worth to having a traditional (and very good) job, and I felt guilty about stepping off that career ladder (and, as a woman, leaning out!). I was no longer conducting my career The Way It’s Supposed To Be Done. My world was going to fall apart, and people would think I was crazy.
Except it didn’t and they don’t. At first people said to me “What the hell are you doing?!” Then they said I was brave. And then they said they wished they could do the same thing.
With the right planning, they can. When I talked about leaving a job with no plan B, I’m not saying don’t be smart about it. But I’m saying that you don’t have to plan out every next step. There’s a great benefit to preparing, and then quitting, leaping, into an unknown. It gives you the opportunity to decide what’s truly the best next step.
And it gives you the opportunity to figure out who you are outside of what you do. You can’t put a price on that.
Tess Vigeland is the author of Leap: Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want, which comes out 25 August
