Article: Hate your job? Quit it on 31st March with everyone else!

Watercooler

Hate your job? Quit it on 31st March with everyone else!

Its the International Quit Your Crappy Job Day on March 31st. So, will you call it quits?
Hate your job? Quit it on 31st March with everyone else!

Do you hate your job? Do you wish everyday was the last day of your current work? It is estimated that nearly 20-25% of working people absolutely hate their jobs. The reasons ascribed are different of course, with uninteresting job profile, job satisfaction, colleagues, bosses, office space and culture being a recurring theme. Keeping in mind the stress, doing a job you hate can bring you, people at the Chief Happiness Officer Blog, have declared 31st March as the International Quit Your Crappy Job Day! They had started the event last year, and are going at it again this year.

The website to mark the events reads, “Too many people stay for too long in jobs they hate. ...  and wish they could quit tomorrow. This is bad for you. Being unhappy at work can destroy your career, your health, your family and your private life. Quitting is an option and often it’s the best option. That's why we're declaring March 31 to be International Quit Your Crappy Job Day.”

In order to help people realise, prepare and take the decision, a four-step guide is also present on the website. The first step is answering a survey of 10 simple questions, and realising whether you hate your job enough to quit it right away. The next step involves gathering information about quitting, and the future course of action. The third step is about making a decision to call it quits, or deciding to commit to the job with more vigour than ever, to give it another shot. Last, you are supposed to share all of this with another friend or colleague in need. The website also lists some success-stories, about people who realised their innate hatred towards their current stressful job.

The same website claims that over 5,000 people have taken the survey up until now and the results were as follows:

  • 65% - Neutral: Could consider quitting
  • 20% - Miserable: It’s time to quit
  • 15% - Love their jobs

However, a riding disclaimer about the sample of the survey is also present, and prevents us from generalising these results. 

This seems to be a novel and unique movement of sorts in claiming the right to a healthy work-life balance, but a look beyond the surface raises several uncomfortable and unanswered questions. Sure, a lot of people are stressed more than they should be, because of their current jobs, but if they had other options, wouldn’t they have quit already? The idea to mark a day, to display unison and togetherness, in leaving behind a job that does more harm than good, is a great symbolic gesture, and maybe that is all that it is. The real question is how many people will actually go ahead and take this step, based on the motivation from a survey or the fact that others are doing it as well. Unfortunately, the economic and corporate structures we live in, do not give us the opportunity to mark such events, unless a solid back-up plan is in place. People stick onto their stressful jobs for several reasons, and maybe the biggest one of them is that it pays the bills. Undoubtedly, quitting a stressful job can be an opportunity for you to turn things around and make amends in health, family, relationships etc. but it is also means that the hardships will increase until you have made these amends and come up with another plan of action, and there is minimal interventions listed in the latter. Thus, even though the concept, by the virtue of its novelty, is a great approach to help people take an otherwise drastic or bold step, the writer of this article is left wondering about its feasibility of the same. Should you consider, and ultimately leave a job, which causes undue stress and is taking a toll on your life outside of work? Yes. Is marking a day to make it a collective effort reason enough? Maybe not. 

Would you quit, or consider quitting, your job this 31st March – International Quit Your Crappy Job Day? Let us know!

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Topics: Watercooler, Life @ Work

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