How Do You Know It Is The Time To Quit Your Full-Time Job

Part of us go through different stages at work; the some are going work daily with eagerness and enthusiasm, and part of us are striving to work sluggishly and think all the way if we they can return home back without consequences from their managers. I read an experience of a woman named Sarah about how these thoughts were constantly circling in her thoughts, until the moment came… I leave you with Sarah telling her story herself.

I couldn’t figure it out all my life…

I would eat healthy food, go to the gym every day, meditate on life, and drink water regularly to keep my body hydrated throughout the day. I used to get buses and transportations that weren’t crowded every day to reduce stress. I’ve never drunk a lot of coffee in my life. I did not suffer from adrenal fatigue or extreme anxiety and was not classified as a tired eyelid person…

But in the mid-day, I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I never slept as I remember at work, but it got to the point where I was squeezing myself into trying to stay awake.

For your attention… I was always thinking of quitting my day job to become a full-time writer. There were always articles for writers who quit their day jobs and ended up hating it. So much boredom after leaving the steady job, much stress that happens to you, much uncertainty and fluctuation in financial income! The advice I was also given that daily work in office makes a person healthier, interact with co-workers face to face, wear office clothes, and have conversations about upcoming vacations which gives life a pleasure.

It’s not wrong to have a good day job for as long time as possible, it’s even smarter to keep a full time job for the long haul. Think of all the writers who spent long stints as patent clerks etc., and wrote masterpieces! And my daily work was a real pleasure at that time. I was working as a subcontractor for an exemplary tech company that chimes in with the biggest companies in my field. My income at that time was not as large from the company as the fixed employees at work, but I enjoy benefits within the work such as free breakfast, lunch and dinner and take advantage of many perks such as the use of washing machines, and clothes dryers. Treadmills and various sports machines, beside many snack kitchens equipped with everything from sausages and dried fruits to crackers.

I have enjoyed the work with my co-workers, and the tasks assigned to me were always administratively simple. So why the hell can’t I keep my eyes open?

As usual, the advice you hear in these moments specially from women’s fitness centers is that stillness and the need to rest in the middle of the afternoon is normal, just as if you eat a lot of sugary foods and processed foods, so choose a snack that contains protein and fiber or replace your coffee with hot lemon water, and so on. But, instead, I walk for an hour every day after lunch, doing all things.

Until this moment I did not understand what was going on and what I wanted, until I started a conversation with a stranger sitting reading poetry. She had just left her stable full-time job. She had left it to write quite independently, and while I found some irritating volatility at times, for the most part she seemed to be delighted on her own.

“How did you know it was time to leave?” I asked her.

“Well, I’ve thought about it for several months,” she said, “but I knew it was time to go when I started to fall asleep at work.”

And I said: Aha….just like me, I always feel alert most of the time except when I’m at my desk. I tried everything to get out of this difficult choice, but nothing worked…except for leaving work at the end of the day, I was getting alert again. So I put a transition plan in place for a while, set a final completion date, and implement it.

I realize this might be an inappropriate thing to say right now because many of us are struggling, and many of us have lost their jobs or couldn’t find work that pays us decently, but if you’re one of those drowsy at their jobs, stop it now, stand up for yourself for a moment.

You do not owe it to your boss, and the business is not your family.

Being able to quit a job you don’t like shows a tremendous ability you’re having. You don’t have to be quiet and gossip, and in a moment between you and yourself, you find yourself dissatisfied and perhaps you scold or flog yourself.

Not to self-flagellation.

You don’t need to pass some kind of moral test and sacrifice yourself while you have the power to do something else. You should revise yourself… that you do no favor anyone by standing still. You don’t have to keep working and wait for promotions to have more responsibilities than you are currently doing, you may be promoted but the pay is the same, just because this is the natural growth within your company.

And if you’re for a second feeling guilty about “who am I to move from my job when so many people lack an opportunity,” then let me tell you that’s nonsense. Let me remind you that the lack of opportunities within your work and in the job market is structural. And maybe this job in which you fall asleep is suitable for someone else who wants to stay silent.

Hard to say! But listen: you make the world a better place when you’re awake and not asleep. This may seem obvious, but it is true. You deserve to be awake. Whatever wakes you up, we need it too.