[Misc] The Great Resignation and career changes

raymondo said:

I worked hard in my IT career until I was 48, then decided to get out (before they carried me out) as my remote US management always demanded more, no matter how successful my team and projects were. I was single and a workaholic, terrified of leaving the main thing I felt good at. With fantastic support from friends I finally found the courage to leave!
I traveled for 18 months (France, Oz, NZ), some fantastic walks and bike rides, wrote and self published a ( fairly crap �&#56611 book. Came back, found a 9-5 part time job in a shop for ten years and loved it - a great antidote to corporate life. During this time I got married and had a kid...what?!?!...I can't believe it... strangers think I'm the grandad.
I tell myself I should have had the guts to leave my career earlier, but the truth is that I emotionally needed enough financial security first: not rich at all, just enough to feel I (now 'we') should be ok.
So, it's very personal, but be brave, be sensible, get a supportive network around you, and have a bit of trust that you can make a different future.

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Rambo said:

Great thread.

I am also working out my notice. I am 47 and due to recent events and losing both my parents I have decided life is just too short to be unhappy.

I really like my job but the company I have joined has a toxic culture and the people in my team are just not on my wavelength and full of corporate BS. The leader is a narcissist control freak and generally not a very nice person.

I have also reached the stage where I have realised I just can’t handle being managed by people who don’t know what they are doing.

I have been a small business coach for many years and it’s about time I listened to some of my own advice.

Therefore I start my new business in November working for myself and having my destiny in my own hands. Going to be tough but I am up for it.

I also get to choose the people I work with.

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Happy Exile said:

My job exposes me to conversations about "future of work" and the changing nature of work from time to time. I was at a talk a few years ago where it was mentioned how some governments - Singapore was singled out as being particularly good - recognise how the economy depends on people staying "useful" by developing their skills throughout their career and being encouraged that education was lifelong and enabled career progression and change, and just because it was good and not just something that stopped at 16/18/21 or whatever. I can't remember the specifics, but it was something like businesses given tax incentives to allow employees to retrain in a more employable or just different skillset, and that training being funded by the government. Probably safeguards to prevent a nation of perpetual students, but it feels like a very forward-thinking policy. Get the feeling a lot of us on here would jump at the chance to retrain and change careers with the safety net of having a job while we do it and the learning being funded. Imagine being able to say to your boss after a certain number of years that you want to train in a completely different career and them being compelled to support that (and being incentivised to do so) while the government funds it? A totally different perspective on the value of work and workers.

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The_Viper said:

Good. People should be resigning if they're unhappy, I have a few ideas as to how bosses can 'scramble' to keep their people though:

1. Adapt to a pandemic world allowing freedom to work from anywhere if your job is able to do that (obvs not trades or teachers or retail etc)
2. Pay them what they're worth
3. Listen to what your employees ACTUALLY want as opposed to thinking "we know this is what you want, so here's casual friday or heres a pizza lunch!" as opposed to some actual decent stuff
4. Lower your needs when it comes to degrees, with more people going to uni, employers are more than ever wanting more and more shit from their applicants. A person with a 2:1 or a 2:2 could do a good job if you give them half a chance, as opposed to snubbing them for people with 1sts and X amount of experience and wondering why you can't find enough.

Do all of those, and your problem is almost solved IMO.

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Cheeky Monkey said:

A colleague of my dad’s, customs officers back in the days long before Border Force, was instructed on one shift by the powers that be to allow a particular drugs consignment to pass unhindered through a UK port, which he did, the shit then hit the fan as to why this had been allowed to happen and he was hung out to dry at 45 years old, lost everything, signed up to a law course at Uni and went on to have a stellar legal career. Here endeth the ripping yarn. If life gives you lemons make lemonade (or similar)

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dazzer6666 said:

Great post……and good luck. I lost my (much) younger sister and then my dad within a couple of years, this coincided with my kids becoming at least partly self-sufficient, so all together massively impacted my ‘life choices’ and perspective. Working for someone who had no understanding how my function operated made my decision easier than it might have been.

I’m not working, we’ve modified our lifestyle a bit to make sure we can survive relatively comfortably and I now have an immensely rewarding trustee role with a local school for severely disabled children and young adults that keeps me occupied several hours a week. The corporate world can do one.

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Weststander said:

At the same age, having worked decades for exactly that sort of tw@t, I created a plan to leave for a far happier work-life situation.

A few years on, it was the best thing I ever did in every conceivable way.

Initially I missed the banter with workmates there about football or anything, but that was a tiny price to pay. I think we chatted so much as a remedy because the owner had created such a toxic and micro-managed environment.

Imo your business coaching background will ease the transition and you’ll make a success of it.

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BBassic said:

The Great Resignation is here and no one is prepared
Around the world, workers are quitting their jobs in record numbers – and bosses are still scrambling to figure out how to keep them

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/great-resignation-quit-job

It seems a global pandemic is a thing which causes people to become introspective and reconsider what work, and life, means to them.

I'm one of them. I've been thinking recently about changing jobs but remaining in the same field (I.T.) When I look at what's out there though nothing excites me. It's just more of what I'm already doing in a different office that I might have to visit once a month depending on their attitudes to home working.

So, does that mean a career change? How the hell does one do that?

I'm nearly 37, been working since I was 17, and I've only ever been any good at what I'm doing now. Being good at something doesn't mean I enjoy it though and I'm not able to just trudge through my days and enjoy life outside of work.

Work is 40 hours a week - why would I want to be unhappy, or at least underwhelmed, for that amount of time, every week, for the next 30 years?

Got me wondering if any others on here are thinking the same. Or if anybody has done the career change thing. How did you do it? How did it work out?

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Rambo said:

Thank you for the positivity. I know it’s the right thing to do for my own well-being having the confidence to value yourself and your experience is often what holds you back.

I have found that surrounding myself with the right people in my network has really helped.

The crazy thing is that the bad guys actually think they are the good guys! Classic case of cognitive dissonance.

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rigton70 said:

Lol.

I was made redundant at 45 and i decided to retire. After one year i could not wait to find a job the boredom done it for me. I do realise you will be older but i suggest you plan it out wish i did.

I'm now planning mine i was hoping next year but may have to delay it due to Covid travelling.

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Hamilton said:

There’s a chap called Daniel Pink (Google him) who basically puts satisfaction at work down to three factors.

Firstly, freedom. Are you left to get on with things. No micro management. No being treated like a child. You’re able to make your own judgment calls.

Next, are you encouraged and given the time to learn something new? This can be small steps or giant leaps. Even it you’re not interested in becoming CEO, we all like to learn something new.

And lastly, is what you’re doing meaningful. That doesn’t necessarily mean saving the planet or anything. It just means, are you able to take a step back, see you actually done something that people appreciate or deliver something that someone needs.

If you can tick these boxes then you’ll find something close to happiness. The trouble is, many of these factors are out of your control which is why organizations need to heed them in how they design work for people and how they train leaders.

If you get these factors right, then it makes things like commutes bearable or worthwhile.

For me, we’ll I’ve been doing what I do for long enough and as a result, it doesn’t always feel like what I’m doing is meaningful and I don’t feel like I’m learning much. So, I have to get off my arse and do something about it.

The work routine for so many knowledge workers was broken. Travelling hours into offices in mega cities for 5 days a week was a waste of time. It put a strain on family life and created resentment. The shift to a blend of home working, office working, working in coworking spaces etc that is giving people so much more control (freedom) over how they organise their lives.

However, a total shift to working from home isn’t right. We are social animals. We actually perform better when we work around other people, so we need to spend some time in offices. And younger workers need this so they can learn on the job.

Cities will get reworked. Local towns and cities (like Brighton) will benefit from people working closer to their homes. Think of the money not spent in Prets in London by Brightonians that can now wander to local coffee shops at lunchtime.

As with everything this change has offered us - and the digital tools that come with it - our challenge is to use the technology and time to OUR advantage, and we have a track record of being sh1t at that.


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