Resignation-a-go-go
December 27th, 2006
According to a December study, 75 percent of U.S. employees are looking for a new job. Their top reasons for bailing? Money and career advancement — and in that order. Not surprisingly, the majority of employees looking to trade up are lackeys (rather than managers).
This number may sound high, but it doesn’t shock me. In the past year I must have printed up a dozen of these disgruntled-employee polls, most of which stated that at least half of all workers were looking to jump ship at any given time.
Depending on what day you ask me, I might count myself among these ranks, and I’m a goddamned freelancer. It’s been said before, but that, my friends, is why they call it “work” as opposed to, say, “slacking,” “shagging,” or “knocking back a few cold ones on some impossibly gorgeous tropical island with [insert fantasy rockstar boyfriend here] at your side.”
How about you? Happy where you are? Miserable beyond belief? Like your coworkers but hate your boss? Love your gig but wish you could afford running water and electricity? Hate your gig but love the financial security it affords you?
Feel free to dish openly. I won’t tell your boss.
Entry Filed under: Overworked and underpaid
5 Comments Add your own
1. Judy | December 28th, 2006 at 11:07 am
I have a part-time job that is embarrassingly easy, pleasant and pays okay. Yet I loathe it. But it provides me with health insurance and enough money to support my meager lifestyle when those freelance checks run late. (As they always seem to be.) I feel trapped and humiliated just about every day I spend there. Wow. I have the week off, yet I’m getting depressed! I just feel like I should be able to support myself writing and maybe I could if I forced myself to quit. I can’t wait to read your book so I can figure it all out!!!!! Aaarrgh!
2. jill and dave | December 28th, 2006 at 11:34 am
We love your fantasy rockstar bfriend. Super-cool clip. We were grooving to it. Dave wants to know if you’ve seen the Steve Stills album cover of Steve standing in the snow. Check it out.
3. Michelle Goodman | December 28th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
judy, your part-time job sounds pretty sweet, but only in the financial stability/steady bennies way (since you said it kills you to comtemplate it even while on vaykay). but i’m telling you, after doing the full-time freelance thing awhile, you may periodically find yourself wishing you had a job like that.
i go back and forth all the time (mostly in my mind), which is why one friend has taken to calling me HAMLET. or maybe i just like variety. and no-brainer health insurance. but then i start thinking about how i’d have to go in to an office for such a p-t gig and realize that i like where i am a wee bit more. (ok, a lot more…)
sounds like you need a steady client or two that give(s) you tons o work — kind of like the replacement part-time job, only 100% on your own terms. then you can fly solo without as much worry.
and jill/dave, thrilled that you love peter gabriel as much as i so obviously (and dementedly) do. ok, well, clearly not that much, but still… i think the rain up here in the soggy northwest is getting to me, which is why i continue to crawl into the sunny womb that is 70s rock.
after ingesting an hour or so of peter on youtube yesterday (even though i now have a sublime six-hour bootleg on DVD), i actually watched selections from CELEBRATION AT BIG SUR and got all weepy looking at (a) joni, (b) stephen s, and (c) the freaking sunshine. and it’s filmed at Esalen if you can believe that. hilarious. and sad.
oh, and is this the steve s album you mean? http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Stills/dp/B000002J6H
i love that one. so much. the best.
4. kristen | December 29th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
love my job. i’m a freelance writer and i love knowing that i’m settled and happy and can do what i want and support myself and family financially.
5. Michelle Goodman | December 29th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
hey, kristen, and welcome, fellow jersey girl! (i lived near asbury park a short while, and was born in newark. grew up in livingston. lived in hoboken a year too. now i’m all west coast though…)
you bring up a great point. not only am i happy with my career choice, i love that i can support myself and my mutt and keep up with all my bills without having what some would call “a real job.” how i wish i could have had this blog 10 years ago when my parents were still hoping i’d grow out of my “little writing phase.”
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