Hi, Liz!
Well, I did it. After years and years of talking about it, I took the plunge and quit my job. It wasn’t the right place for me. I was good at my job, but I felt terrible doing it, and I realized, if not now, when? Why keep putting off what I knew I needed to do? There’s a labor shortage, and I figured I could probably find another job I feel good about. But I’m dreading actually going out for one. I’ve spent my entire life working for other people and there was something really thrilling about figuring out that my boss needed me more than I needed him. The prospect of having to put on a nice outfit and trying to convince hiring managers that I’m fueled by, I don’t know, a passion for selling bathroom fixtures or something in the hopes that they’ll hire me fills me with dread. I’ve changed a lot over the last two years, and I guess that level of supplicating is not something I want to face again.
I’ve got savings so I’m not in crisis mode or anything, and I don’t have any idea for a business of my own (so I’m far from ready for entrepreneurship just yet), but this little vacay can’t last forever. Any advice?
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Hi, Hannah!
First of all, I’m thrilled for you. Leaving a job you don’t feel good about isn’t easy. It takes a lot of confidence. The mass resignations happening across the country, which for a second there many thought might at least conceivably have been connected to extended unemployment insurance, have continued undaunted. The pandemic, and the unique work situations it created, seems to have jogged something loose in America’s collective brain, and I think you hit the nail on the head: that the employer needs the employee at least as much as vice versa. So, across the land, workers are exercising their newfound leverage and walking away from jobs that don’t pay enough, or don’t offer decent hours, or expect the employee to put up with disrespect or abuse. This is a positive development.
So I’m genuinely not surprised that you’re appreciating this time away and dreading the interview process. But Hannah, my dear, let me tell you a secret: it’s not like it used to be.
One of the great projects of the last forty years has been the creation of the efficiency economy, the “just-in-time” model of industry. Usually, we talk about it regarding supply lines; the materials you need to manufacture arrive just as you need them, not a second before. But that same mindset has extended itself into employee management. Over the years, the tendency has been to strip jobs bare of extraneous elements—like, for instance, health benefits—and run them to the bone, because, some believed, a little turnover is ultimately more efficient (though I’ve always argued otherwise, there’s just no match for a committed, loyal team). This was less true for professional jobs, but even there, you see companies implementing efficiency systems where they have no earthly business. But the pandemic upended all that, and the labor shortage it created—by mass layoffs and furloughs and Americans reevaluating their priorities and many still wary of returning to outside work—has turned the math in your favor. The oversupply in jobs gives you leverage that the employer used to have.
While I can’t speak for all employers, most workplaces can far less afford to be choosy, and as a result, there is far less prostrating yourself on the floor so that the gods of Olympus might deign to bestow you with their blessing; they need people, and they need them yesterday. This doesn’t give you carte blanche to walk in there chewing gum, kick your legs up on the desk, and demand a company car, but it doesn’t have to. If they’ve called you for an interview, it means they’re interested in you; there’s simply far less likely to be a lineup of candidates down the hall and out the door all fighting for that one position. So go in there with confidence and be yourself—that’s how you ensure you’ll wind up with a better fit this time around. Demonstrate professionalism, competence, and confidence, and you’ll have one hell of a hand to play.
WRITTEN BY
Liz Elting