[Misc] The Great Resignation and career changes

[essbee1]

I totally admire people who have the guts to jack in what they are doing.

Me? I'm doing a sly re-training on the quiet and as soon as I can - it's goodbye
to my employers. They're *******s, so it will be sweet revenge.

 

[raymondo]

I worked hard in my IT career until I was 48, then decided to get out (before they carried me out) as my remote US management always demanded more, no matter how successful my team and projects were. I was single and a workaholic, terrified of leaving the main thing I felt good at. With fantastic support from friends I finally found the courage to leave!
I traveled for 18 months (France, Oz, NZ), some fantastic walks and bike rides, wrote and self published a ( fairly crap ) book. Came back, found a 9-5 part time job in a shop for ten years and loved it - a great antidote to corporate life. During this time I got married and had a kid...what?!?!...I can't believe it... strangers think I'm the grandad.
I tell myself I should have had the guts to leave my career earlier, but the truth is that I emotionally needed enough financial security first: not rich at all, just enough to feel I (now 'we') should be ok.
So, it's very personal, but be brave, be sensible, get a supportive network around you, and have a bit of trust that you can make a different future.

 

[essbee1]

I worked hard in my IT career until I was 48, then decided to get out (before they carried me out) as my remote US management always demanded more, no matter how successful my team and projects were. I was single and a workaholic, terrified of leaving the main thing I felt good at. With fantastic support from friends I finally found the courage to leave!
I traveled for 18 months (France, Oz, NZ), some fantastic walks and bike rides, wrote and self published a ( fairly crap �&#56611 book. Came back, found a 9-5 part time job in a shop for ten years and loved it - a great antidote to corporate life. During this time I got married and had a kid...what?!?!...I can't believe it... strangers think I'm the grandad.
I tell myself I should have had the guts to leave my career earlier, but the truth is that I emotionally needed enough financial security first: not rich at all, just enough to feel I (now 'we') should be ok.
So, it's very personal, but be brave, be sensible, get a supportive network around you, and have a bit of trust that you can make a different future.

Well done mate. Loved the story - thanks.

 

[Acker79]

https://charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/ageism-and-the-fallacy-of-stale-dreams-f07

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Found a job I loved in my mid fifties. I felt valued and my ideas were listened to. Six years on, a recent staffing change has meant toes are being stepped on...mainly mine. The new blue eyed boy is putting forward ideas I have been suggesting for a couple of years and it's turned the work environment a bit toxic. I've being accused of resisting change and so set in my ways, it really is getting me down that I now don't give it my all. I start when I want and can finish when the work is done. No chance of working from home as it's not that sort of work.
According to .gov.uk I have 48 months left until official retirement. Such a shame I'm not in a situation financially to tell them to stick it up their arse

 

[Gwylan]

I've gone the other way. I got made redundant six years ago and, at 58, I wasn't hopeful of finding another job. I've been working as a freelance journalist for a while but it was getting tougher and tougher (there have been lots of magazine and newspaper closures in the past few years and a hell of a lot of journalists went freelance - so there was something like a 25 to 30% reduction in writing gigs being chased by more people). I've survived by dipping into my pension pot but that's not ideal. I applied for a few jobs but scarcely got any interviews - my age was a bit of a handicap.

Then, earlier this year, I finally got a job. It's not perfect and it's less money than I was on before but having experienced life on the other side, I'm hanging onto it as long as I can.

 

[Happy Exile]

My job exposes me to conversations about "future of work" and the changing nature of work from time to time. I was at a talk a few years ago where it was mentioned how some governments - Singapore was singled out as being particularly good - recognise how the economy depends on people staying "useful" by developing their skills throughout their career and being encouraged that education was lifelong and enabled career progression and change, and just because it was good and not just something that stopped at 16/18/21 or whatever. I can't remember the specifics, but it was something like businesses given tax incentives to allow employees to retrain in a more employable or just different skillset, and that training being funded by the government. Probably safeguards to prevent a nation of perpetual students, but it feels like a very forward-thinking policy. Get the feeling a lot of us on here would jump at the chance to retrain and change careers with the safety net of having a job while we do it and the learning being funded. Imagine being able to say to your boss after a certain number of years that you want to train in a completely different career and them being compelled to support that (and being incentivised to do so) while the government funds it? A totally different perspective on the value of work and workers.

 

[dazzer6666]

Great thread.

I am also working out my notice. I am 47 and due to recent events and losing both my parents I have decided life is just too short to be unhappy.

I really like my job but the company I have joined has a toxic culture and the people in my team are just not on my wavelength and full of corporate BS. The leader is a narcissist control freak and generally not a very nice person.

I have also reached the stage where I have realised I just can’t handle being managed by people who don’t know what they are doing.

I have been a small business coach for many years and it’s about time I listened to some of my own advice.

Therefore I start my new business in November working for myself and having my destiny in my own hands. Going to be tough but I am up for it.

I also get to choose the people I work with.

Great post……and good luck. I lost my (much) younger sister and then my dad within a couple of years, this coincided with my kids becoming at least partly self-sufficient, so all together massively impacted my ‘life choices’ and perspective. Working for someone who had no understanding how my function operated made my decision easier than it might have been.

I’m not working, we’ve modified our lifestyle a bit to make sure we can survive relatively comfortably and I now have an immensely rewarding trustee role with a local school for severely disabled children and young adults that keeps me occupied several hours a week. The corporate world can do one.

 

[Milano]

My job exposes me to conversations about "future of work" and the changing nature of work from time to time. I was at a talk a few years ago where it was mentioned how some governments - Singapore was singled out as being particularly good - recognise how the economy depends on people staying "useful" by developing their skills throughout their career and being encouraged that education was lifelong and enabled career progression and change, and just because it was good and not just something that stopped at 16/18/21 or whatever. I can't remember the specifics, but it was something like businesses given tax incentives to allow employees to retrain in a more employable or just different skillset, and that training being funded by the government. Probably safeguards to prevent a nation of perpetual students, but it feels like a very forward-thinking policy. Get the feeling a lot of us on here would jump at the chance to retrain and change careers with the safety net of having a job while we do it and the learning being funded. Imagine being able to say to your boss after a certain number of years that you want to train in a completely different career and them being compelled to support that (and being incentivised to do so) while the government funds it? A totally different perspective on the value of work and workers.

What you are describing already exists in the UK. The gov backed apprentice scheme has no upper age limit and large companies are actively encouraged, both financially and culturally, to offer retraining to existing employees.

 

[dazzer6666]

Good. People should be resigning if they're unhappy, I have a few ideas as to how bosses can 'scramble' to keep their people though:

1. Adapt to a pandemic world allowing freedom to work from anywhere if your job is able to do that (obvs not trades or teachers or retail etc)
2. Pay them what they're worth
3. Listen to what your employees ACTUALLY want as opposed to thinking "we know this is what you want, so here's casual friday or heres a pizza lunch!" as opposed to some actual decent stuff
4. Lower your needs when it comes to degrees, with more people going to uni, employers are more than ever wanting more and more shit from their applicants. A person with a 2:1 or a 2:2 could do a good job if you give them half a chance, as opposed to snubbing them for people with 1sts and X amount of experience and wondering why you can't find enough.

Do all of those, and your problem is almost solved IMO.

No. 3 just made me spit wine over my Ipad.

My (last) boss decided morale needed a boost, so he mandated that everyone should attend a ‘free pizza lunch’ with him one Friday. The first response I got was ‘I really don’t want to waste any time pretending to like that ****, can I work from home on Friday please ?’

 

[Questions]

A colleague of my dad’s, customs officers back in the days long before Border Force, was instructed on one shift by the powers that be to allow a particular drugs consignment to pass unhindered through a UK port, which he did, the shit then hit the fan as to why this had been allowed to happen and he was hung out to dry at 45 years old, lost everything, signed up to a law course at Uni and went on to have a stellar legal career. Here endeth the ripping yarn. If life gives you lemons make lemonade (or similar)

So was he an actual drug dealer or not ?

 

[Rambo]

Great post……and good luck. I lost my (much) younger sister and then my dad within a couple of years, this coincided with my kids becoming at least partly self-sufficient, so all together massively impacted my ‘life choices’ and perspective. Working for someone who had no understanding how my function operated made my decision easier than it might have been.

I’m not working, we’ve modified our lifestyle a bit to make sure we can survive relatively comfortably and I now have an immensely rewarding trustee role with a local school for severely disabled children and young adults that keeps me occupied several hours a week. The corporate world can do one.

Thank you, and good on you for the trustee role. This is something I want to do when things have settled a bit. My 2yr old son has epilepsy and has global development delays. My wife raises money for the children’s hospital charity and I would also like to help more.

Self actualisation can be achieved without money and corporate crap!

Glad it’s going well for you.

 

[Rambo]

At the same age, having worked decades for exactly that sort of tw@t, I created a plan to leave for a far happier work-life situation.

A few years on, it was the best thing I ever did in every conceivable way.

Initially I missed the banter with workmates there about football or anything, but that was a tiny price to pay. I think we chatted so much as a remedy because the owner had created such a toxic and micro-managed environment.

Imo your business coaching background will ease the transition and you’ll make a success of it.

Thank you for the positivity. I know it’s the right thing to do for my own well-being having the confidence to value yourself and your experience is often what holds you back.

I have found that surrounding myself with the right people in my network has really helped.

The crazy thing is that the bad guys actually think they are the good guys! Classic case of cognitive dissonance.

 

[The Clamp]

The Great Resignation is here and no one is prepared
Around the world, workers are quitting their jobs in record numbers – and bosses are still scrambling to figure out how to keep them

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/great-resignation-quit-job

It seems a global pandemic is a thing which causes people to become introspective and reconsider what work, and life, means to them.

I'm one of them. I've been thinking recently about changing jobs but remaining in the same field (I.T.) When I look at what's out there though nothing excites me. It's just more of what I'm already doing in a different office that I might have to visit once a month depending on their attitudes to home working.

So, does that mean a career change? How the hell does one do that?

I'm nearly 37, been working since I was 17, and I've only ever been any good at what I'm doing now. Being good at something doesn't mean I enjoy it though and I'm not able to just trudge through my days and enjoy life outside of work.

Work is 40 hours a week - why would I want to be unhappy, or at least underwhelmed, for that amount of time, every week, for the next 30 years?

Got me wondering if any others on here are thinking the same. Or if anybody has done the career change thing. How did you do it? How did it work out?

Next year I am planning on buying a boat. I am going to spend the winters working and the summers travelling the waterways of Britain and Europe. With no dependants, it’s only myself I need to finance.
I plan on getting my SIA license, quitting social work and just spend the winter working as much as I can doing security work to fund my summers.
Fed up of trying to find a "career", I'm in my 40's now so if I want to enjoy my life, there's no more time for messing around.

Why not?

 

[Baldseagull]

Thank you for the positivity. I know it’s the right thing to do for my own well-being having the confidence to value yourself and your experience is often what holds you back.

I have found that surrounding myself with the right people in my network has really helped.

The crazy thing is that the bad guys actually think they are the good guys! Classic case of cognitive dissonance.

In that case, can you be sure you are one of the good guys?

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Some great stories on here - hats off to anyone who has bettered their work / life balance.

I've done some changes:
In 1976 I left school with 3 o-levels and started as an apprentice electronics engineer with Thorn EMI in Newhaven
In 1977 I left to work in a motorbike shop for 10 years - loved it - raced bikes and owned ~100 different bikes [made and lost some good friends]
1987 got married and also made redundant - went to night-school and got a couple of A-levels then signed up for a 5-year business studies degree at Brighton Uni and started working in an office
1992 moved into an IT role - 3-4 different companies over next 15 years - pay was good [thanks to the degree]
2007 - left the IT perm role and went contracting - more for the work/life balance than the money
In the last 14 years I've worked only 8 of them - I called it being semi-retired - did stuff I wanted to do
2021 - will finish work this year and retire
2025 - plan to buy a narrowboat and cruise the cut [only in the warm months]

 

[banjo]

Lol.

I was made redundant at 45 and i decided to retire. After one year i could not wait to find a job the boredom done it for me. I do realise you will be older but i suggest you plan it out wish i did.

I'm now planning mine i was hoping next year but may have to delay it due to Covid travelling.

Trust me I won’t be bored. My plan was always to retire at 60, it’ll just be a couple of years early.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

There’s a chap called Daniel Pink (Google him) who basically puts satisfaction at work down to three factors.

Firstly, freedom. Are you left to get on with things. No micro management. No being treated like a child. You’re able to make your own judgment calls.

Next, are you encouraged and given the time to learn something new? This can be small steps or giant leaps. Even it you’re not interested in becoming CEO, we all like to learn something new.

And lastly, is what you’re doing meaningful. That doesn’t necessarily mean saving the planet or anything. It just means, are you able to take a step back, see you actually done something that people appreciate or deliver something that someone needs.

If you can tick these boxes then you’ll find something close to happiness. The trouble is, many of these factors are out of your control which is why organizations need to heed them in how they design work for people and how they train leaders.

If you get these factors right, then it makes things like commutes bearable or worthwhile.

For me, we’ll I’ve been doing what I do for long enough and as a result, it doesn’t always feel like what I’m doing is meaningful and I don’t feel like I’m learning much. So, I have to get off my arse and do something about it.

The work routine for so many knowledge workers was broken. Travelling hours into offices in mega cities for 5 days a week was a waste of time. It put a strain on family life and created resentment. The shift to a blend of home working, office working, working in coworking spaces etc that is giving people so much more control (freedom) over how they organise their lives.

However, a total shift to working from home isn’t right. We are social animals. We actually perform better when we work around other people, so we need to spend some time in offices. And younger workers need this so they can learn on the job.

Cities will get reworked. Local towns and cities (like Brighton) will benefit from people working closer to their homes. Think of the money not spent in Prets in London by Brightonians that can now wander to local coffee shops at lunchtime.

As with everything this change has offered us - and the digital tools that come with it - our challenge is to use the technology and time to OUR advantage, and we have a track record of being sh1t at that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Whilst that kind of thing isn't usually my bag, it resonates a lot with me. Freedom is the thing that has changed with me and no amount of training for the new boss is going to make him change his underlying personality. And all 4 of the things you list under Freedom are what has changed for the worse. We will see if this results in a change in direction of what I do at the same company or I stay with the same kind of role somewhere else. but C'est La Vie. Health and happiness come first. Might not be easy to find something else as I am good at a lot of things in IT but a specialist in nothing. Old school 90s type IT role that is less in demand. But if I have to go to basic support for similar money then I will do so.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Interesting article in today's Guardian about a guy who was sacked at 64 and then set up his own company - so guess it's never too late. One of the reader comments caught my eye, It was saying that about 80% of people hate their jobs, sounds about right to me, but then went on to say that there is most probably a huge amount of untapped talent out there that will never be realised because so many people end up doing the wrong job or the sort of job where that talent will never be recognised. So it begs the question that surely more good career counselling should be available at schools and places of higher education so you don't end up with a lot of square pegs in round holes.

I wouldn't say I like my job particularly but my skillset has allowed me to work in some cities and countries that I really wanted to and may not have been able to with a different job.

Good luck if you do decide on a career change

 

[BBassic]

Thanks everyone for your replies to this thread!

It's been really interesting and thought provoking reading the responses. I've got a lot to think about and work out.