While working via Zoom in February, Brett Williams, 33, a lawyer in Orlando, California, suddenly realized his life consisted of "sitting 10 hours a day feeling miserable."
“What do I have to lose? We could all die tomorrow,” he thought, and the next day he decided to quit his job, leaving behind a high salary to take a job at a small firm with the goal of having more time for his wife and dog. “I’m still a lawyer. But I’m not so excited about working all day,” he said.
Exhausted from work and with savings, many young people are giving up stable jobs to seek adventure after the pandemic.
There’s a trend going on among millennials, after a year of being glued to their laptops, that they’re taking a risk. Some are quitting their stable jobs to start their own businesses or switching to more casual work. Others are resisting the company’s call to return to the office and threatening to quit unless they can work wherever they want.
Part of the motivation for them to "take the risk" is that there are vaccines and their savings at home have increased. This movement has emerged among American office workers in recent months, called YOLO (You Only Live Once).
Olivia Messer, a former reporter for The Daily Beast, also quit her job in February after finding the year of the pandemic draining her. The 29-year-old moved from Brooklyn to Sarasota, near her parents. Since then, she has been freelance writing and pursuing hobbies like painting and kayaking. She admits the change has helped her “find a renewed sense of creativity about life.”
A recent Microsoft survey found that more than 40% of workers globally are considering quitting their jobs this year. Blind, an anonymous social network popular with techies, recently found that 49% of its users plan to look for a new job.
“We’ve all had a year to evaluate whether this is the life we want,” said Christina Wallace, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. “Especially for young people, who were told to work hard, pay off their loans and one day enjoy their lives. A lot of them are asking: What if I want to be happy now?”
The trend of quitting jobs to enjoy life has taken shape among American office workers in recent months.
Worried about the wave of departures, companies are trying to boost morale and prevent burnout. LinkedIn recently gave most employees a week of paid time off, while Twitter employees are getting an extra day off each month to “recharge.” Credit Suisse has given its employees a stipend, while Houlihan Lokey, another Wall Street firm, is covering vacation for most employees.
Higher pay and more time off may convince some employees to stay. But for others, stagnation is the problem, and the only solution is to get out.
“I felt like I had been stuck in my career for a decade and this was an opportunity to change,” said Nate Moseley, 29, who recently quit his $130,000-a-year job at a large clothing retailer.
He made a list titled “Late 20s Crisis,” where he filled in his next plans: Take a programming class, mine Ethereum, run for political office in 2022, move to the Caribbean, and start a travel company. He reviewed it regularly, adding new pros and cons to each option. “The idea of going back to pre-Covid settings doesn’t seem so appealing after a year,” he said. “If not now, when will I do it?”
For some people, stagnation is the problem and the only solution is to escape.
Some of these people may return to work if their savings run out or their startups fail, but the spirit of recklessness seems to be spreading. In part, that's because there's more risk-taking today than ever before.
Covid-19 relief, increased unemployment benefits, and a booming stock market have given more workers the opportunity to earn money. Many sectors are now facing severe labor shortages, meaning workers can easily find new jobs if they need them. The pandemic has also created more jobs in remote areas. “Over the next 18 to 48 months, employees will have more bargaining power with their employers than ever before. Personally, if I’m not happy with my current employment situation, I have a lot of options,” said Johnathan Nightingale, an author and co-founder of Raw Signal Group, a management training company.
For others, an extended vacation or a more flexible work week might quench their thirst for adventure.
Of course, not every burned-out employee will quit. For some, an extended vacation or a more flexible work week can quench their thirst for adventure. Some workers prefer to return to the office for work-life balance.
One executive at a major tech company, who asked not to be named, said she and her husband had discussed quitting their jobs in recent weeks. The pandemic had taught them that they had been too safe with their life choices and were missing out on valuable family time.
Before ending the conversation, she sent a quote from Buddha about impermanence and the value of realizing that nothing lasts forever. Or, to put it more simply, YOLO - You only live once.
