‘Why I Quit My Job Today’

I quit my job today. I wasn’t asked to resign, I just left a note on my boss’ desk and walked out. The decision to leave was sudden; it hadn’t been festering for weeks or months.

I had worked at this company for more than three years. Within the last year, I held five positions--each a promotion requiring new skills and accompanied by a good pay raise. Together, my husband and I earned more money than we could spend in a month.

With this new income came financial freedom. I no longer worried about what was on sale at the grocery store. Shopping for clothes was easy; I simply purchased what I wanted. Everything went on a frequent flyer credit card, which, after a certain amount of charging, brought in ticket vouchers for anywhere that airline flew.

The problem with all this money is that I could not enjoy it; I was working all the time. Officially the hours were from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Those hours were for the public. For me, the day began before dawn and lasted until after sundown. And still this was not enough time. I started coming in on Saturdays because I needed the quiet to do some paperwork with little interruption. I had no time for work breaks. Lunch was the moments it took to push food into my mouth. But I was making more money than ever before and it was piling up in the bank faster than I could spend it.

When I ended my workday and drove home--a mercifully short four miles--I was drained, not so much physically, but mentally. My husband would greet me with a smile, and receive a blank stare. I had no energy, didn’t cook a meal, stopped reading. I even stopped going to the gym because my regular gym class was early in the evening while I was still trying to catch up with work. With all the work, my sleep became filled with unsolved problems. I would awake in the middle of the night and try to solve them, unable to fall back to sleep. Finally, with little sleep and no problem solved, I would again have to leave for work.

With all this time and energy spent making money, one would think I really loved what I did. The truth was I was beginning not to care at all. The final straw for this camel’s back was when I found it difficult to take care of me, and that was disturbing. I needed to go to the dentist and learned that he saw patients only up to 5 p.m. weekdays. Next week I have to see the dentist again for some repair work to a filling, get a haircut and have a physical from my doctor. All these appointments would have required me to leave my job earlier than normal, which puts the unfinished tasks further behind.

Next month my husband and I are going on vacation to Costa Rica, a country I have been looking forward to visiting for years. Can you imagine the amount of work that would pile up on my desk while I am gone? Of course, at this company, good employees just don’t take vacations.

On Martin Luther King’s birthday, I worked my usual hours and came home with my stomach twisted in knots. I went to bed but this time I could not sleep at all. All I could think about was my job and how I had lost my personal freedom. That was when the thought of quitting entered my brain. I actually could not face the office on Tuesday and called in sick. All day long I debated what to do.

My reasoning to quit was simple: I didn’t like what was happening to me, to my husband, and to our life together. The money situation does play a factor in my decision. My husband works and makes enough for us to live more modestly. We have no debts. And when the airline tickets to Costa Rica arrive, we will be able to use them.

I do plan to go back to work, but after the Costa Rica trip. And the job I will look for will be less demanding on my time. It’s just a matter of making choices.