9 reasons to quit your job during a pandemic
Quitting a job should always be your last resort, right?
At least that’s what my dad always taught me. Having coached me through every retail and administration job before I made a career in writing (which were more than I care to recall), I never took his advice lightly.
So, when I was seeking my parent’s counsel on the phone a few months ago and my dad suggested, “Kristin, do you feel you’re at a breaking point? Do you think you’re ready to quit?”, I knew I was well past it.
In my position, I was a ghostwriter for an executive leader who aspired to be known as a leadership guru. But given the nine reasons found below, I knew it was time to quit my job. Granted, I know not everyone has the ability to quit their job for many reasons, particularly in such a strained economy. Yet at this season of our lives, my husband and I were privileged for me to have this choice, to resign. Still, it was no option we took lightly.
In April my husband was let go from his role as a professor along with 33 others, “due to COVID.” Needless to say, my job became critical for us as we were only four months into our marriage, and I had just moved into our home that we hoped to start our family in. Without my husband’s job it would have been financially infeasible for us to keep our home.
So I’m sure you’re wondering, why would she want to quit her job when in such a dilemma? More specifically, why would anyone quit their job during a pandemic?
Well, I’m here to give you those very reasons.
You don't care to be incessantly micromanaged. Even in the case that a micromanaging supervisor is seeking the optimum outcome, they will always be grappling for more control. You may attempt to automatically reply to their texts before they start counting the minutes in your delay, yet this never seems to dissipate the core issue. Incessant, unrelenting, and suffocating treatment, is in short, suffocating. When employees are being watched like fishes in a fishbowl, it will never allow them the freedom they need to reach notable strides in their role.
You forget what a “healthy work culture” looks like. When you can’t remember what it’s like to be around people who call out the best in you, uphold high standards of morale, and, rather, constantly have an excuse for why they aren’t a “perfectly” healthy organization, it’s unlikely your work environment is a healthy one.
They can’t produce what they advertise. If a business advertises they make sourdough bread, you should get bread. If they advertise chocolate chip cookies, you can expect cookies with a decent bit of chocolate. If they advertise being Christ-centered, Christ should be displayed in their actions and their midst. Try as one may, when human decency and integrity isn’t a core value, a Christ-centered culture will never be produced.
Love isn’t at work. We may not ever think that love has a place at work, but it most certainly should. In fact, without it, no place can thrive. Cultures that celebrate your wins, remember your birthday, go the extra mile to make you feel appreciated, and take the time to hear your frustrations are places where love is at work. The irony is, some of the very best leadership and cultures I’ve worked among have not been Christian. Yet these organizations that weren’t Christian treated me with the respect and love that a Biblical faith promotes.
Interactions with leadership are cold, rare or non-existent. When bosses avoid interacting with employees (with the exception of the office “rockstars”), the common thought is, “Oh, they just have too many important things going on to be bothered with.” But a true leader should be continually engaged in a spirit of kindness, generosity and enthusiasm that its organization can emulate. According to Lieutenant General George Flynn of the United States Marine Corps, leaders must be willing to lay down their own desires. If a leader can’t walk past an employee in a hall without saying “hi”, the characteristics and values they are promoting should be in question.
You thought you left female bullying behind in 8th grade. Bullying doesn’t necessarily always come in the form of sexual harassment. In 2017 the Workplace Bullying Institute reported, although workplace bullying isn’t equally split between males (70%) and females (30%), females tend to bully more females than males. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) states "usually if a person genuinely feels they are being singled out for unfair treatment by a boss or colleague they are probably being bullied". Constant intimidating, insulting, abusive, and berating behavior is bullying. It’s easy to get stuck in this cyclical treatment or try (as hard as you may) to brush it off. But bullying not only harms your work performance but will exasperate one’s mental health.
You’re not passionate about it. When you’re doing what you love for a vision you can’t get behind, carrying out the role will be a struggle to maintain. As Simon Sinek puts it, “Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion." When I first stepped into this role I was thrilled with the opportunity to write pieces that could inspire healthy leadership and organizations. Mind you, these pieces I was writing were published for major news and leadership outlets. But when I began to see that the workspace I found myself in was far from the ideals of what I was writing, the passion quickly dwindled.
You don’t trust your organization. There is always a healthy amount of fear in a job that pushes us beyond our limits, but a culture of fear only debilitates our growth. In an Inc. article, Marcel Schwantes wrote, “Managers that truly care for their employees will create an environment in which people feel psychologically safe… This type of workplace feels more like a community because fear has been pumped out of the organization.” If you can never feel safe in a work environment, you can never trust they will have your best interest or professional career in mind.
Because, at the end of the day, a paycheck simply can’t compare to a sound mind and quality of life. By now, I hope this point can speak for itself.
Certainly, there are some tough jobs you just have to stick out some seasons in life, as I have. But there is a difference between tough and toxic.
While quitting a job may not be a part of the plan, especially during a pandemic, consider if all it is asking of you is worth it in the long run. Having a job that supports, equips, and has your best interest in mind should not be a luxury. It should be standard. Working in a position that inspires, challenges you, and truly enlivens you doesn’t have to be some modern-day dream. It should be our reality. Work should be a passion and fuel, rather than something that has the potential to wear us down and eat away at us.
In these difficult times, I think it is easy to lose sight of the power of choice. We choose the work environments we want, and we can also choose the ones we don’t.