Why does quitting a job feel SO GOOD?

Been in my current job for 11 years!

When you find a good post that respects you and has great work colleagues its worth sticking around.

Only other job before that was only for 2 years and I hear you on the satisfaction of quitting front!

Because for one brief glorious moment you get to throw off your shackles and experience life as someone who isn't a wage slave.

It feels good if you're unhappy

Because you hated that job and should have quit a looooooong time ago. Just had a buddy put in his 2 weeks at work and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Quitting my shitty job was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done. Was euphoric for days.

Because it's one of the few times you get to feel any genuine sense of autonomy and freedom as a worker.

Unless of course you have a great union, which I encourage anyone to join if possible.

Chikor said:

Because all jobs fucking sucks, any person that say they love their job ask them if they're sad when the weekend comes.

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How about people that choose to spend their weekends in the office?

Spite has been quite a big motivator in my career to date so I've always enjoyed a good resignation.

AstralTurfWarrior said:

That doesn't seem very reasonable. Everything has it's time and place. I love my hobbies but I wouldn't wanna do them 24/7. Things often aren't nice when done in excess. I also have other things I love to do.

The same goes for work.

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Would you have done your job if you weren't getting paid?
If not, then it's nothing like a hobby, I mean the difference between a hobby and a job is that a hobby is job as something someone has to pay you for you to do.
And "everything has a time and a place" is just normalcy bias, it really means nothing.

p.s.
Remember how you felt going back to the office after New Year's?
Has a hobby ever made you feel like that?

Chikor said:

p.s.
Remember how you felt going back to the office after New Year's?
Has a hobby ever made you feel like that?

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I don't recall feeling any particular way about my job after New year's. I definitely didn't feel any sort of dread or anxiety about returning if that is what you are getting at.

I've had jobs that made me feel that way before, but I took my career in a different direction and now I truly enjoy what I do. I almost have the opposite problem, where too much free time gives me anxiety over what to do. I blame winter.

Because damn it feels good to be a gangster

Because almost everybody hate their job...

Gwarm said:

I don't recall feeling any particular way about my job after New year's. I definitely didn't feel any sort of dread or anxiety about returning if that is what you are getting at.

I've had jobs that made me feel that way before, but I took my career in a different direction and now I truly enjoy what I do. I almost have the opposite problem, where too much free time gives me anxiety over what to do. I blame winter.

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I didn't say dread and I didn't say anxiety, though you should be considered yourself lucky if your job do that for you.
It's kinda telling that you went there, like, if we were talking about something you actually enjoyed rather than something you tried to persuade yourself that it's not that bad, you would have talked about it differently.
I mean, no one talk about their actual hobbies like that.
"I really like playing video games, it's so much fun I don't even recall feeling dread or anxiety when I was about to boot up my console".

And if you regret it, just pretend it never happened.

I was in retail for 16 years, and 7 of them were me being the 3rd shift manager. In the last 8 months of 2018 we had gotten almost an entirely new set of Upper managers from other companies and they must have lied on their resumes because they were completely inept at their jobs. They started forcing out people that had been there for a long time, and eventually set their targets on me.

I saw the writing on the wall and found a new job OUT of retail in about 2 weeks, put in my resignation letter and left. I've only been gone 5 months and almost my entire crew of around 13 people have either quit because I left and was holding the pieces together, or been fired since.

I am quitting my current job very soon. I am going to probably cry from the relief of severing my ties from that clusterfuck.

Because it´s one of the few moments in life where you are truly free.

Chikor said:

I didn't say dread and I didn't say anxiety, though you should be considered yourself lucky if your job do that for you.
It's kinda telling that you went there, like, if we were talking about something you actually enjoyed rather than something you tried to persuade yourself that it's not that bad, you would have talked about it differently.
I mean, no one talk about their actual hobbies like that.
"I really like playing video games, it's so much fun I don't even recall feeling dread or anxiety when I was about to boot up my console".

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Nah, I only went there because it feels like that was what you were implying with the New Year's comment.

Believe it or not, there are people who are truly passionate about their careers. People that are energized by their work, and would do it for free if they had to. You don't have to understand it, but pretending like it isn't possible is ignorant.

Updike wrote a short story about this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A&P_(short_story)

Gwarm said:

Nah, I only went there because it feels like that was what you were implying with the New Year's comment.

Believe it or not, there are people who are truly passionate about their careers. People that are energized by their work, and would do it for free if they had to. You don't have to understand it, but pretending like it isn't possible is ignorant.

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I'm passionate about my career as well, but that's because I am passionate about not being poor.
And let's not talk about people, let's talk about you.
Are you sad when the weekend comes?
Are you happy when a holiday is over and you get back to work?
Would you do you work if you wouldn't be paid?

If the answer to these question is no, and I got to assume it's 'no' for practically all people, then no, you don't like job, you like not being poor, and that's good, and you're lucky enough to have a job that is way less awful than most jobs out there, but don't lie to yourself and act like this is something you would have been doing if you didn't have to. Especially since this is exactly what your employer wants you to do, and this is why there's a whole industry of people telling us all how working is really awesome, because remember, if you they made you think you like it you're gonna be more content.

Hope to be out of mine by the start of March. Shame I won't be able to use all of my PTO, but I did submit a request to take every Friday in February off.

Time to find something that pays more, is less tedious and offers benefits.

When you leave a shit job, yeah, it feels great. When you leave great people it's a bit more difficult.

My pre-college jobs were difficult to leave due to the people, but minimum wage was an easy thing to break away from, especially when I wanted to focus on school.

It sucked to leave my first job out of college since I had wonderful mentors and enjoyed the work, but the contract was over and it was time to get more experience. My second job had great people but awful management, so it was 50/50. My current job is more comfy, but I don't think it will be too difficult to leave since I don't see myself getting attached to the people I work with.

Chikor said:

I'm passionate about my career as well, but that's because I am passionate about not being poor.
And let's not talk about people, let's talk about you.
Are you sad when the weekend comes?
Are you happy when a holiday is over and you get back to work?
Would you do you work if you wouldn't be paid?

If the answer to these question is no, and I got to assume it's 'no' for practically all people, then no, you don't like job, you like not being poor, and that's good, and you're lucky enough to have a job that is way less awful than most jobs out there, but don't lie to yourself and act like this is something you would have been doing if you didn't have to. Especially since this is exactly what your employer wants you to do, and this is why there's a whole industry of people telling us all how working is really awesome, because remember, if you they made you think you like it you're gonna be more content.

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I'm sorry that you are having difficulty understanding what I am saying. It's clear that we are in two very different places with how we view our work.

Mr. X said:

because getting fired doesn't lol

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This would be my opinion on it. I have an unhealthy mental fixation with categorizing everything that happens to me as either winning or losing. If you resign you win, if you're laid off or fired, you lose. Resigning is the only way to "win" at a job if there's no opportunity for internal promotion.

Coincidentally I have strong hopes that I'll get an offer tomorrow or Wednesday and will be able to put in my two weeks the following Monday.

Gwarm said:

I'm sorry that you are having difficulty understanding what I am saying. It's clear that we are in two very different places with how we view our work.

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I totally understand what you're saying, I used to think that I liked my job as well, but that's because I grew up poor and that was my first job that both paid well and was significantly less awful than every other job I had before.

But answer me this, if you answer the questions I asked you in the negative (and even though you keep side-stepping them, I'm pretty sure you, like 99% of the people answer them like that), in what way are you really liking your job?

And remember, your employer wants you to think you like your job, it's in their economic best interest for you to think that, there is literally giant economic interests trying to make you and every other person with a job thinking that they like it.

Always feels good to tell your employer to go fuck themselves. Especially when you loathe the job and most of the people in it.

Because you hate your job. Otherwise you wouldn't like being out of it, simple as that.

Control. Often employers and employees have such a lopsided relationship rendering many employees feeling helpless.

If you can quit and walk away , you can initially feel a rush of regaining control.

Of course in a healthier employment situation you don't tend to feel such exaggerated emotions when leaving.

M52B28 said:

I just placed a resignation letter in for a job and I felt so good signing it. I had been at the retail job for 3 years, which is a good chunk of my twenties.

Cool thing is that no one at the job actually knows that I'm leaving and I don't have to worry about doing a two weeks of work because they fucked up my schedule.

It's crazy how good this feels.

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In retail... I feel ya.

I wouldn't want to quit my job nor do I have any desire to unless it was replaced my the exact same job but like, at least 1/3rd more salary.

It's a lot different once you have a career path.

Chikor said:

Because all jobs fucking sucks, any person that say they love their job ask them if they're sad when the weekend comes.

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Ha, that's a good one! I'll have to remember that.

I am happy for you OP! I want to resign so I'm jealous.

M52B28 said:

I didn't hate the work that much, but I just hated a lot of the people in it. Just think of a very wannabe country goodoleboy and gal mentality who like to act like they're not racist so that people don't think they're pieces of shit.

I was the only black guy there. I guess it's easy to imagine the fucked up behavior I got towards me. I was always assumed to be making excuses if late to work, or making things up if I can't make it.

Eh, last day of work is today. Just gonna go in, keep it low key and leave.

What's funny is that I was relatively quiet and only talked when I needed to. That pissed them off and they started looking at me as if I'm some sort of village idiot.

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Man that's rough, sorry to hear that.
I'd say disliking your co-workers and disliking your actual work both have pretty much the same weight in how you see your work place. I can definitely see now why you feel good getting out of there. For example, when I was working with people I liked I honestly didn't mind work that much, but this past year many of those people left and one of them is a good friend of mine and I definitely feel less like working there as time passes.

Chikor said:

Would you have done your job if you weren't getting paid?
If not, then it's nothing like a hobby, I mean the difference between a hobby and a job is that a hobby is job as something someone has to pay you for you to do.
And "everything has a time and a place" is just normalcy bias, it really means nothing.

p.s.
Remember how you felt going back to the office after New Year's?
Has a hobby ever made you feel like that?

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I don't really remember feeling anything special when going to work after Near Year's. Actually this year I was really happy to go to work because I messed up my sleeping schedule on New Year's and I knew having to go to work would fix it. Maybe back years ago when I worked as a storage house worker, though I did really enjoy that work too.

Here's a question for you. Do you not have anything yourself that you really like doing, but that you probably wouldn't do if you didn't have some specific reason to do apart from simply loving to do it, whether the reason is in your mind or if it's some kind of external pressure?

See, I don't think your way of thinking really proves anything. People can love to do things even if they wouldn't do them if they didn't have to. For example I love working out but damn it's hard at times to make myself do it. Actually I probably wouldn't do it if I didn't feel the need to keep myself in good shape, no matter how great I feel when working out and after the workout. Not because I secretly hate it but because deep down I'm actually a lazy bum and it's hard to motivate myself to start doing anything even when I know I'll like it.

A little bit of pressure isn't a bad thing and I think the vast majority of people actually need it in their lives. Without any pressure at all, both external and internal, some people would actually do really interesting things I'm sure, but a lot of people would probably just watch TV all day and eat unhealthy things. That's nice and all but it's not good to do all the time. When you have some pressure, whether it's something like being ashamed of getting a bit of fat or knowing you need to be in work on time, it drives you to do things and people often like those things even if they're not always easy to start doing.

Regarding the "everything has a time and a place", it quite literally means what it says. I'm not sad when the weekend comes because I've done plenty of work for the week and now it's weekend time. Then when the weekend is over, it's work time and I'm not sad about that. It's how my life is structured and structure and routine is pretty important for me.

Anyway, I'm a software developer and I also code in my free time, so a lot of the time I already do pretty much do the same thing as I do in my work.

AstralTurfWarrior said:

I don't really remember feeling anything special when going to work after Near Year's. Actually this year I was really happy to go to work because I messed up my sleeping schedule on New Year's and I knew having to go to work would fix it. Maybe back years ago when I worked as a storage house worker, though I did really enjoy that work too.

Here's a question for you. Do you not have anything yourself that you really like doing, but that you probably wouldn't do if you didn't have some specific reason to do apart from simply loving to do it, whether the reason is in your mind or if it's some kind of external pressure?

See, I don't think your way of thinking really proves anything. People can love to do things even if they wouldn't do them if they didn't have to. For example I love working out but damn it's hard at times to make myself do it. Actually I probably wouldn't do it if I didn't feel the need to keep myself in good shape, no matter how great I feel when working out and after the workout. Not because I secretly hate it but because deep down I'm actually a lazy bum and it's hard to motivate myself to start doing anything even when I know I'll like it.

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There's a ton of things that I like doing, and the different between them and my job is that that you don't to pay me to do them.
You honestly don't understand the difference between going to the gym, some that people pay money to do be able to do, then a job, something you have to get paid to even consider doing.

AstralTurfWarrior said:

A little bit of pressure isn't a bad thing and I think the vast majority of people actually need it in their lives. Without any pressure at all, both external and internal, some people would actually do really interesting things I'm sure, but a lot of people would probably just watch TV all day and eat unhealthy things. That's nice and all but it's not good to do all the time. When you have some pressure, whether it's something like being ashamed of getting a bit of fat or knowing you need to be in work on time, it drives you to do things and people often like those things even if they're not always easy to start doing.

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You don't need to pressured to do you hobbies, you do need to be pressured to do your job, THIS IS THE FUCKING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A JOB AND A HOBBY.
I don't know what to tell you, maybe you hate the weekend, maybe you really are just excited when monday come in, maybe you would have done your job even if they didn't pay you anything, only you know what it's your heart, but you're the outlier to end all outliers if that's the case.

AstralTurfWarrior said:

Regarding the "everything has a time and a place", it quite literally means what it says. I'm not sad when the weekend comes because I've done plenty of work for the week and now it's weekend time. Then when the weekend is over, it's work time and I'm not sad about that. It's how my life is structured and structure and routine is pretty important for me.

Anyway, I'm a software developer and I also code in my free time, so a lot of the time I already do pretty much do the same thing as I do in my work.

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We didn't always have the weekend off, were things not in their time and place?
What if we move to a 4 days work week?
"Everything has a time and a place" is an argument (and I'm using the term loosely here) that can only be used in support of the current status quo (or an imagine status quo that never existed).

AstralTurfWarrior said:

Anyway, I'm a software developer and I also code in my free time, so a lot of the time I already do pretty much do the same thing as I do in my work.

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You really don't understand the different between picking a project in you do spare time and having a job?

Gwarm said:

I'm sorry that you are having difficulty understanding what I am saying. It's clear that we are in two very different places with how we view our work.

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That's great that you love your job, but realize that you are part of the minority. Most people are not happy. For most people, it's a job and not a career.

CreepingFear said:

That's great that you love your job, but realize that you are part of the minority. Most people are not happy. For most people, it's a job and not a career.

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None of my posts implied otherwise. My point is that there are people that truly love their jobs, even if other posters think they must be deluding themselves.