For the most part, it feels easier to just stick around. Even if we know our jobs aren’t right for us, or how much of a toll they take on our emotional and physical wellbeing, we tell ourselves it’s not so bad, that we’re lucky to even have jobs, or give ourselves milestones to work towards before we can move on. But sometimes, things take a turn for the worse, beyond the usual trials and tribulations of capitalist hustle culture, and we’re left with no other choice but to just quit our job.
Quitting has been pretty common these days, too, with ‘The Great Resignation‘ standing as one of the major changes to come out of the past few years. Everyone has their reasons and their stories, and for the pure voyeurism of it all, we relish hearing about them.
Scroll on for why six women finally decided to quit their jobs.
Violet, 26
“I worked at a video game retailer for four years and faced all kinds of bullshit, from sexual harassment to general disrespect. It started as ‘the cool job that everybody wanted’ and turned into ‘the bane of my existence and the worst part of my week’. The discounts were good and I made some important friends along the way, but ultimately I ended up quitting after I was offered another job. Quitting that job immediately gave me the purest sense of elation, and I’m still amazed that I stayed for as long as I did without going completely bonkers (I only went a little bonkers).”
Ayesha, 40
“It was a combo of being really burned out, realising I was getting paid less than other people at the same level as me, and a really shitty boss (a 50-something cis-hetero white male CEO and classic gaslighting; I don’t even need to explain that one). I found a company that I really wanted to work for and hustled my ass off to get the role. I did take a significant pay cut but I have no regrets — you can’t put a price on mental health!”
Francesca, 32
“My grandmother very nearly died and I took off a few days to be with her in intensive care. My then boss texted me while I was on the way to the hospital, pressuring me to come back to the office. She asked me to think about how she was feeling at that time.”
Jana, 30
“I always loved the work I did but the multi-million-dollar company I was working in was always spouting on about resource scarcity, sacking people and making everyone pick up the slack until we were worked to the bone. During the pandemic, they let go of half my already halved team on the basis of preserving revenue. But two-and-a-half years later — after having two of their most profitable quarters of the last decade — they still hadn’t lifted their ‘hiring freeze’. Instead of killing ourselves with unpaid overtime and doing the work of four people each, for a company that was never going to love us back, a few of us quit all at once. It was so satisfying and I don’t think I’ll be looking back anytime soon.”
Kai, 28
“I knew I was a token hire, but I told myself that it didn’t matter what their reasons for hiring me were because I knew I was qualified and I did my job damn well. Over a couple of years, I shrugged off all the casual racism, the seniors taking credit for my work and the blatant tokenism — putting me on a diversity board I never wanted to be a part of that had to meet outside of work hours.
Where I really reached my tipping point was when I was finally due to be promoted into my dream role. I knew that I was more than qualified and I was constantly told the role was practically mine. In the final hour, one of the higher-ups in a completely separate department put his daughter up for the role. She was practically straight out of university and made no secret of this not being her desired career path. When it was announced that she got the role, I knew that there really wasn’t any space for me in the company anymore. Nothing against her but the frustration wasn’t worth the toll on my well-being.”
Sharni, 29
“Being a receptionist is not easy work. I know people might think it is, but we’re the ones copping the brunt of any and all customer complaints and it can be really taxing. The day I decided I was done with it all was after a particularly harsh incident in which a customer got so aggressive at my manager that I stepped in to ask if they’d prefer we get a security guard to remove them. The customer was throwing racial slurs at me, and the shopping centre’s security eventually arrived to escort them off of the premises. It was not okay and my manager just stood there behind me while it was all happening. They said ‘thank you’ but I was happy to help.
Things turned when it came to writing an incident report. My manager wrote that they had tried to de-escalate the situation I had instigated and that they couldn’t calm me down, and the company believed them. For someone who has never raised their voice at a fly, and is very equipped at just sitting there and letting customers unleash their rage, I was so insulted. I was already over the job, but the fact that my own manager would lie just to make himself look better for not having a handle on the situation was the final nail in the coffin. Fuck him!”
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