It’s A Good Time To Quit

And other musings from the end of one job.

A couple years ago someone in book publishing suggested I write a book about quitting. I am not an expert in the field of quitting, but I had just very publicly quit my job, so it could be a little about that, but also about quitting more generally. People opting out of certain parts of society. Leaning Out, if you will. I did not immediately jump at the idea to start writing the book, possibly because I am scared of doing something new and doing it badly or possibly because I was burned out but did not have the words to describe it, and now I regret it, because when it came to the topic of quitting this book person was prescient in ways I am not. I do not know what this person knew or when she knew it. But I know it is still a good idea, and one that several people are probably already writing.

As you may have heard, or seen via a series of viral, maybe-real iMessage exchanges between bosses and workers quitting their jobs, a bunch of people are quitting their jobs right now. It started in April, when the number of employees who quit their jobs in a one-month span broke a record. Then it happened again in July and again in August, when 4.3 million people quit their jobs — about 2.9 percent of the workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calls these people “quits,” and they’re in every industry, led more recently by bar and restaurant employees as well as retail staff. Most of the people quitting seem to be mid-career, which certainly rings true when I think of the…