Quitting Our Jobs Is Not Devastating. Giving Up Our Career Ambitions Is.
Self-Awareness = Crystal Clear Clarity
I have no problem quitting a job.
I left 3 of them for different reasons. They are,
- Having achieved all my initial goals.
- Ejecting myself out of a toxic environment.
- Lost out in corporate politics and got sidelined.
I was gleeful when I left. The Good Riddens! sticker was plastered all over my forehead.
However, I never failed to fall into a negative spiral a few days after packing my bags.
It has nothing to do with quitting my job. It has everything to do with giving up my career ambitions.
Moving Up is Normal
I never had a friend who wanted to be a junior for the next 10 years.
Or 5. Or 15. Or 20.
I mean it. I never had one.
We had career aspirations. We wanted career progression. The dream of initiating, instead of receiving work, was alluring.
That was the prevailing sentiment in the consulting analyst school, the 2-week boot camp we attended to learn company-specific methodologies.
My peers, as I was, were ambitious.
And then, years into our job, we started dropping out. Voluntarily.
Internal Politics Is One Hell of a Destructive Force
Often, we do not know what it takes to be up there.
- First, very few people like us.
- Second, long hours are prevalent. Saturdays? Oh, we work, too.
- Third, work is highly stressful when we hate what we do.
And then, there’s that wretched corporate politics.
Your team is pissed with years of long-hour work with a low chance of promotion. You must find ways and means to keep your star players.
Maybe, you are secretly thinking of stealing a star from the other teams, too.
If your team is not keeping you busy, your bosses are.
Let’s say you have a new boss. And he has been giving you a tough time.
Your new boss remained skeptical about you because you have not pledged allegiance to him. He and your old boss are archenemies.
Winning his trust is an uphill battle. You hate it. But you must.
Now, that is a barrage of work. Psychologically, all these happening in real-time, concurrently, can be cognitively and emotionally draining.
Can you cope with such demands?
Sometimes, I cannot.
That marks the beginning of my struggle. I want to stay on, slay these wretched demons in monkey suits, and continue my ascent up the steep cliff.
But… toxic office relationships wear me out.
And this is the thing about toxic office relationships.
It behaves like water chipping a rock. Days of bearable fatigue contributed to years-deep indignance and impatience.
If you want to climb this career ladder — I say this.
Be psychologically resilient. Learn to deal with internal politics.
Because that will be your day job when you finally get up there. Many peers of mine pulled the plug on their career aspirations because they gave out on corporate politics.
And When We Quit Our Career Ambitions…
I have friends rising to the top of their career pyramid and then quit.
They realized that reality at the top… is not what they imagined.
- 90, 95, and 100-hour weeks were commonplace.
- Their calendars are no longer within their control.
- They must assume beyond-imagination responsibilities and business risks.
It is unenviable to many.
Let me start with the 80, 90-hour workweeks. That is real. I experienced it.
Back when I was in technology consulting, every level above me worked longer hours than I did.
- I worked 50 hours a week as an analyst. Consultants worked 65.
- I realized managers worked 70–75 hours weekly when I got promoted to consultant.
- My direct senior manager was pushing toward a 90, 95-hour work week when I was a manager.
This is that exact point when my career aspirations to become a consulting managing director start to sizzle, frizzle, pop, and disintegrate.
I got confronted by my inner voice.
- Why do I want to get paid more for even more work? 85 working hours per week is no joke.
- Am I willing to pay the price to reach the pinnacle of my chosen career?
I’m not going to lie. I wrestled with these questions for months and years.
And I got distracted. I couldn’t focus on serving diamond and low-budget clients in my charge.
I fell into a negative thought spiral dominated by the above two questions when I had sh!t thrown on my face.
Clients and team members saw the same poker face.
But my mind was war torn psychological battlefield.
I threw the towel when 2017 came around. I no longer see myself at the next level.
And I got hit by mental fatigue. I wanted out. Now!
So, I chose to take an olive branch extended by a headhunter and went in-house as a regional business analyst.
Working hours were more controlled.
And I had time to build small businesses on the side, plus write articles online.
In Parting
No one has issues quitting a job. No one.
The real problem is giving up on our career aspirations for now or forever.
That is painful. We spent years moving in that direction, only to jump off the roller coaster ride because we had enough.
That will not last forever, in my opinion.
We are injured. We have scars. But the thing with our minds and bodies is — We always recover.
Give ourselves time. Walk away. For now.
Because when we do, we will be ready to realize our career aspirations again.
Or… build a small business on the side. We will find work fulfillment from a different perspective.
As a content contributor, I write my daily life observations and business exposure. Our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
