The Big Quit

Right now all over the new you are hearing about a record number of people who quit their jobs in 2021, and now how employers are having a hard time finding employees without giving up the sun and moon in pay and benefits.

In my case, I stopped working “because I had to” when I turned 25, looked at my investments, and said to myself: “What am I doing?” It wasnt because I really didnt like what I was doing, it was more because I didnt LOVE what I was doing.

Ive heard the line from so many different people: “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life”. I wasnt yet working something that I loved doing. And even today, the search is still on for that.

But I had made enough with my investments that if I set them up right, which I have done now, I could stop working altogether. So, when I turned 25, I handed in my resignation, and havent worked for last two and a half years. Great timing, sort of speak, since Covid-19 was about to shut everything down anyhow.

Up until yesterday when I told my parents the truth behind why I wasnt working, they thought Id been laid off due to Covid. Of course it didnt help that I didnt say anything to contradict that either. It was a lot easier to let them believe that Id been laid off rather than saying “oh, by the way, Im rich now and thats why Im not working.” Especially since both my parents arent quite 50 yet, are still working their own full time jobs, and are raising my younger 14 year old brother. I was originally planning to wait until their 50th birthdays, the same year my brother would have graduated high school, to pretty much tell them they didnt have to work again either if they didnt want to.

Im planning now to have a big sit down with my brother to let him know that once he graduates from high school he wont have to work “because he has to” either. But that in order to get that support from me, he IS going to have to get a job or go to college so he can at least build a work ethic and know what it is like to have to have some responsibilities to others and to himself.

I also want him to know that he doesnt have to get a job just for having a jobs sake. I want him to find something that he loves and is passionate about, then go out and do it. Kinda like Dr. Hodgins on the TV show “Bones”. Nobody knew that he was secretly the owner of the Cantalever Group that ran the Jeffersonian. He worked because he loved what he did.

I dont plan on sitting around on idol hands either. I like photography. Once the sale of the house I offered on closes, I plan on turning one of the areas into a studio. That way I can do what I love too.

It just makes me sad to think that the friends of mine who actually let me know of the investment didnt get into it themselves. At the time we were all just out of high school sitting around at McDonalds shooting the breeze and I dont think anyone was really taking it seriously. But after I did some research on it, I found out that it was very serious. So far its turned out to be more than “once in a lifetime”, its more like once in humanity.

Getting back to the Big Quit though. I think Covid has let people realize that they are worth more than the pay and benefits that corportate America is willing to give them. A family of four in 2018 needed almost $100K per year to live on. Figure a minimum wage of $15 x 40hrs/week x 52 wks in a year = $32,760. That amount is not going to do you very well.

Depending on where someone lives, the minimum wages should at least let someone have decent housing, food, transportation, the home necessities, and child care. If not, of course you are going to have a bunch of unhappy employees.

After Covid laid everyone off, and now the employers are trying to hire back, they are realizing that they have given the drivers seat to the employees. Now they have to offer big in order to keep people, or in some cases even have them show up on the first scheduled day. This isnt going to be a quick fix, but I think it opened the eyes of a lot of employers who now realize they cant continue to give low wages and benefits if they want to keep a workforce.

And with a lot of “At Home Work” technologies now, the office type employeers have a whole new sector that they have to compete against. It is going to be interesting to see how the next five years plays out. So hold on to your horses, its going to be a bumpy ride.