Our Most Popular Stories are About Quitting

Since starting Happy Spectacular, I’ve been tracking the stories that get read most (thanks!) to understand what resonates with people. It’s all quitting all the time. Quitting job titles, how to quit the right way, what to do if you want to quit, and how to quit your boss.
Is everyone really ready to leave their jobs in the dust? Or is it the fantasy that we love to dream about as we stare at the cubicle wall?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, people move on from their jobs after an average of 1.5 years. It also reports that more than 3.2 million people quit their jobs in May of 2017, which is more people to quit in a single month since 2001.
We address the fantasy versus reality in the “grass is always greener” article (which you should read!), but we have some opinions on this (big surprise). It’s natural and smart to always be thinking about how to make things better. The easy answer may be to quit and start something new and hope that it’s better, but that probably isn’t the right answer.
We believe:

1. Quitting your job isn’t going to help if you don’t know what you want or care about.
2. Quitting your job if you don’t have the next thing lined up is going to make it harder for you to get the next thing.
3. Quitting your job won’t help you if it’s the job that’s making you miserable. The same work at a different company is still the same work.

We don’t think that everyone needs to quit their job to find a happy and spectacular career.
You should do some work before you quit to make sure that it’ll be the best decision for you. And if you do decide it’s time to blow your popsicle stand, you should think about your story. Have you crafted a professional story about yourself and why you’ve decided to leave this job? Being able to talk about your career journey, especially if you’ve had shorter stints, is an important skill to gain before you quit.
A good rule to follow is: if you’re running away from something, slow down enough to make sure whatever you’re running to is better than the situation you’re in. Because sometimes quitting is the best thing for you, we just want to make sure it’s not a hasty decision.