Four Reasons to Quit You r Job Right Now!
Author: Tim Snaith

"For long decades we were shackled by that system under which no worker could quit work of his own accord¡¦it was an insane piece of daring to protest in the place where you lived or worked." Alexander Solzhenistyn, The Gulag Archipelago

1. Quitting your job as freedom of expression

Quitting is the highest expression of personal freedom at work and one of the few means of protest left when faced with poor conditions or stupid management. Economists and big business have long called for flexible employment markets to match the liberalisation and lack of friction in the flow of capital between companies and institutions. If companies are free to hire and fire employees at will, then they have the advantage when it comes to negotiating pay and conditions. This is especially true in an era where the workforce has become disunited and unable to organise itself independently.

Of course, it was never meant to turn out like this. One conception of the flexible workforce was to have well-trained employees who were able to adapt to changing commercial conditions and technology throughout their working lives. Unfortunately for you and me, flexibility means that some employers view the labour force as 'flexible' if individuals can be laid off or given unfavourable terms, longer hours and denied meaningful training. In fact, several studies have argued that a 'flexible labour market' and the 'learning society' are mutually exclusive.

We here at I-resign.com believe this should cut both ways. The company may be the most fundamental unit of corporate economics, but as an individual, YOU are what matters in the sort of society most people would prefer to live and work in. If you think you are a valuable employee but are being treated on a par with stationery or office furniture, it's time to go somewhere better. Your present employer will surely reap what they sow eventually, why stick around?

Alexander Solzhenistyn, the Soviet dissident who catalogued the 'full loathsomeness' of the Soviet state, complained that one of the weapons of a totalitarian society is the restriction it places on individuals' freedom to choose where to work and when to leave. Resigning simply wasn't possible in the Soviet Union. Workers had to stay in the job they were required to do until they were given another or retired. Stirring up too much trouble, any trouble at all, would mean forced relocation to an unbearably harsh prison camp for years of hard labour and almost certain death. So, people have worked and died without the freedom to quit their job as and when they feel like it.

You don't have to.

2. Winners Quit

This is all about ambition. I assume that you wouldn't be visiting I-resign.com and certainly not reading this if you were entirely happy with your present circumstances. Similarly, if you believed that it's unlikely you'll ever find something more satisfying, you'd give us a miss. No, you'd probably rather be somewhere else right now, doing something more interesting, surrounded by people you like and respect. Well, what are you waiting for? After all, winners do quit. Contented people do not stand over stoves flipping metaphorical burgers when they're capable of performing miracles in the kitchen. Are you pushing that pen or is it pulling you?

A human being at rest generates a kilowatt of heat. There is not an internationally recognised unit of human potential, talent or imagination but the chances are that your employer is not paying what they owe you. Better find out what you're worth and charge accordingly, eh? And don't stop at cash, have them contractually obliged to massage your feet, to paint your lips with nectar-dipped eagle wing quills. Even if you have a rotten personality and looks that would cheer two tied sacks of shit, for the sake of millions of years of marvellous evolution, make the best of yourself.

On a more mundane level, is your current job setting you up for the future or are the pressures that mean career extinction slowly being applied? If so, your destiny as a fossil in the muddy sediment you find yourself in right now awaits...

3. Nothing to fear but fear itself

But I can't leave this job, you say! Think again, what is stopping you? Only fear and thermodynamics - spending less energy and psychological effort to stay where you are. Perhaps this job is not as bad as your last and you're afraid that your next move could end up taking you backwards? Or perhaps you fear that your next step will be onto a career escalator that will whisk you upwards faster than you can cope?

Aung San Suu Kyi has had a great deal to be scared of as she fights to overturn a brutal military dictatorship in her native Burma. Her party won the election of 1990, but she had been under house arrest since 1989 and was not allowed to take power. She says "free men are the oppressed who go on trying".

You see, it comes down to this: The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states that "every individual and organ of society" should strive to promote the basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled, regardless of who they are. By exercising your right to quit your job, biting the hand that holds your lead, leaving behind that which holds you back and crushes your spirit, you are actively making the world a better and more liberated place. By staying put, you are passively allowing despair and stagnation to gain a firmer foothold on society and the world at large, as well as in the private world between your ears.

A simple scenario: you've had another terrible day in a long line of terrible days. You are left feeling somewhat aggressive during your journey home. You push, shove and bark obscenities at old ladies and tourists who dare to get in your way. You are curt and dismissive to the cab driver as he transports you from the station to your house. You kick your dog in the ribs and crash around as you boil water for the Pot Noodle you hope to ingest in front of 'Police, Camera, Action: Roadrage Special".

This racket wakes your young daughter and annoys your spouse who rejects your advances later on, further fomenting marital disharmony, and so on, and so forth. A whole slice of reality becomes tainted by your frustration. This is how the world will end, not with a bang but a sneer and a slam and that's certainly something to be afraid of.

4. You'll actually enjoy handing in your notice

Well, we hope the resources on our website help you make the most of the beautiful gift of quitting. If the only thing holding you back is uncertainty about the proper way to go about it read our article Resigning with Style and Dignity . If you're dithering over what to put in your resignation letter, we can help you out with this as well. If you're still looking for a job, use the incredible job-seeking resources of our employment partners . If you have a more specific concern or question, take a look around the Coffee Machine section of the site - somebody may have been there before you. Finally, if none of these help, email the people behind I-resign directly - our combined experience will probably be able to point you in the correct direction.

Walking away from that job for the last time will be a feeling to savour.








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Tim Snaith is the editor of I-Resign.com. He has an MA in Psychology and Philosophy from Oxford University; more importantly, he has quit from about 5 jobs so far in his career. http://www.i-resign.com is the internet portal dedicated to all the working people of the world. Don't leave work without it! tim@i-resign.com

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