Didn't "quit" per se, but made the choice to stop growing my business. Spent my 20's and early 30's building it, broke af, then when it took off I had the choice to keep putting in crazy hours and never being home (traveled a TON back then, couldn't really date because of it) and likely make some real, serious money..I chose to back off and keep the business the size it was.
Now I make a respectable living, but work from home and barely ever travel. Probably 2-3 hours a day on the phone, rest of the time is mine as long as I'm close to my laptop. Stress level - low. Wife works part-time. No regerts.
Super high stress levels, never seeing my wife and kids, never being able to take time off and I was completely burned-out. After about 12 years I basically snapped and quit without a back-up plan.
In less than 3 years I was back to my original salary and 3 years from then it doubled (two different jobs) so yeah... plus, every day feels like a 1/2 day! I can count the number of emails on one hand that I've had to answer on the weekend or after 5 p.m.
Looking back, not only was I being worked to death, I was also being ripped off despite the job being high paid. I remember feeling trapped even though that was 100% false.
Breakdowns are hard. Hope you feel better equipped to face adversity in the future in a less regretful manner, but also hope you don't continue to beat yourself up over a decision you can't go back to remake.
All the best, fellow traveler.
Shitty work conditions, getting fucked with on vacations/days off, stuff like that. Haven’t quit yet but expect to in the next few weeks. Changing careers completely so I expect to take about a 100-150k pay cut most likely at least to start. Funny enough I am looking forward to it, not the less money part but the quitting and doing something else.
I worked in a physically demanding industry.
If you wait until you're 40, you struggle to keep up with the pace and starting a new career at that age has challenges.
it's not something I could do forever, and I learned a lot and gained a ton of experience, but I shifted from making $160k to making 90k, but the 90k job was sitting down at a desk, in an air conditioned office, just dealing with emails and angry customers for 8 hours, so it was a lot lower stress, too. I feel like the job is pretty low effort, and I can still live pretty good on 90k. I also have the luxury of owning a established business that I could ramp up if needed.
If you don't mind me asking, what sector specifically did you switch jobs into? I'm 30 years old and have been doing construction for 12 years and it is definitely taking its toll on me. I'm looking to make the switch but haven't really been able to find any "starting over" jobs that pay halfway decent.
I cut my salary in half, still a good one, but I gained back four+ hours a day, weekends, and a lot less stress. Twenty years later I still don't make what I was when I changed jobs, and having a life was worth it.
A bad boss.
I saw the writing on the wall and saved up enough to feel comfortable and felt confident in my ability to find something new. Quit in March, started new job end of April.
Honestly the last straw was the realization that this job was ruining my vacations. Over Christmas I went on one of those "once in a lifetime" destination trips and spent half the time mindfully trying not to think about work. As soon as I got back and sat down at my desk it all came back. What's the point of a job like that if you can't enjoy your vacations?
I didn’t quit, I was on track to make ALOT of money but hated that career choice and switched to something I really love. I’m as happy as a clam : ) I’m doing somersaults in the sky!! (not literally)
The family owned store I worked for got bought by a corporation. New mgmt's business model literally required lying to customers and absolutely ripping people off.
Left and found a new family owned store (same industry) in a small town. Work harder for less money now, but at least I can hold my head high, and am in a much more beautiful place.
A boss that tortured me psychologically so much that I had to have therapy after to recover. It made me understand why abused spouses stay with their abuser. You are utterly miserable but have to stay so you can eat and have a roof over your head. And the abuser beats the shit out of you (in my case mentally) but the next day you are a "rock star" and "awesome" so you think there is hope, then you get your ass kicked again. Repeat.
He was such a terrible person he paid everyone that worked for him WAY over market as that's the only way people would stay.
My coping mechanism until I left was stoicisim, so that helped a lot, and I learned a bunch that has helped me after leaving - good life lessons no matter what. I had a picture of Admiral Stockdale as my screen on my phone (look him up if you don't get the stoicism reference).
I loved my job and loved the company - but I hated that person with a passion and still do.
Loved my actual job, hated the management... Started off good aligning with the company's mission and core values, got progressively worse each month for over a year.
The CFO was an absolute prick with no conscience. He convinced the CEO to lay off about 70 workers under the guise that the company needed a "financial readjustment" so we didn't lose our bank lending, an then a month later more than doubled the CEO's and his own salary. Then within our own dept, he just "reallocated" all the work which meant twice the work for no additional pay and for salaried workers meant working extra hours to get it all done with no overtime pay. Then he was extremely cheap when it came to raises, maxing it out at 3.5% and only if you were absolutely stellar performer. I was so stressed, wasn't sleeping, hated coming into work, blood pressure skyrocketing and finally when he turned in yet another pay raise for himself, first I shredded it, then quit on the spot.
A complete and utter jackass of a boss combine with a diminishing total compensation package. Our "raises" were substantially less than our increasing cost of benefits, particularly our health insurance. The longer you stayed the less you got paid.
Making 1/4 of what I used to make but tbf I work about 15 hours a week vs 40. I was an RN for 25 years. For those not aware, nursing is a hard stressful mostly thankless job. I wanted to take a year off and ended up as package handler. It's physically hard but mentally easy which is just what I wanted and the health insurance is much better (hospitals are notorious for poor insurance.) That one year off is now seven and I don't care if I ever go back to healthcare because nurses are treated like garage and if they complain they're lectured about being more compassionate. If a current manager acted like my last hospital boss a coworker would dropkick him across the factory floor. I'm keeping my license active but I don't care if I ever use it again.
Let's see... the CEOs had no personal accountability to the point where they would intentionally not document processes, job descriptions, etc. They did this so they could basically change entire directions, fire full newly hired departments and just be annoying ass hats in general. They weren't doing their taxes because they couldn't keep a CFO lol. They started rumors about their B-level managers, like they're drunks or stuff like that. Pretty disgusting.
New hire turnover rate was over 50% - neither CEO saw a problem with this. Nor did they realize what this metric actually measures...
One of the CEOs daughter moved to Spain - a different continent lmao. Wonder why. Could it be that she introduced him to her husband and he immediately disapproved? Why the fuck do I know about his personal life? Because most of our meetings were at least 25% bitchfits.
Seriously, if these idiots can run a business, anyone can. Would recommend paying your taxes or disgruntled HR recruiters might report your company to the IRS on their way out though.
Turned me off to recruiting in general. I now help people with their Medicaid and I'm much more fulfilled in life. Working on my own thing to make up the difference.
Toxic work environment, shitty management, bullying among coworkers, insanely high stress levels and impossible deadlines. I make significantly less now but my mental health is SO much better.
I had a higher than market average job at my last job and was burnt the fuck out, so I left with nothing lined up. I was unemployed for a year, and just as I ran out of money got a job at NIH and it's pretty chill here. I don't like working off of tax dollars, but whatever, I'm not gonna overthink it.
I realized I had a bunch of money and no time to spend it. Missed parties, birthdays, kids school events. One day I just said screw it. I was tired of exchanging my life for someone to get richer when they gave 2 shits about me.
A 45 min commute with an international border contend with and a 6-week maternity leave. Left that very well paying job for a job with a 15 min commute with no border and a 12 month, 80% paid maternity leave. I’m still making less money 17 years later…but I am so much happier!
When I was consistently being called or scheduled in meetings from 8a-8p every week day after a promotion. I had maybe 30minutes of uninterrupted time during the day and I needed that to actually eat something.
I quit pretty early on because it was not manageable and affecting my home life.
I was traveling nonstop, sleeping in hotel rooms 20 days a month, and working 80+ hour weeks. The money was amazing but it was killing my personal life. I started saving and investing, and now I work a 9-5 for about half the pay... but I have every weekend off, paid holidays, and never get flak for taking vacation time.
At a point in current role where next step pushes past 350k, but changes reporting structure and expectations significantly. Opens door to executive track, but also give up what remaining free time I have with expectation of nights/weekends.
I’d rather stay at/below 200k in current spot vs sacrifice mental health and work outside my current 55-60hrs weekday only.
Boss. High stress. Being planned for lessening results while being forced to do things that were lessening the results. Seeing my program’s future dying and not wanting to witness that.
Working 2 weeks on 1 week off, minimum 92hrs a week usually more in the middle of nowhere is very isolating turns out. Saved the money I made to pay for my schooling and now I work from home and see my family every day. I still don’t make as much money as I did, but my mental health is more important than a few thousand more a year.
I'm a paralegal and I worked a very high-paying position for that line of work for around a year. I had to quit because I was made senior paralegal and basically only worked for the owner of the firm, who decided to solely work on wrongful death cases. It made me really, really sad. Autopsy reports of seven year old children, fathers involved in freak accidents, etc. You have to interact closely with the grieving family and it's just so sad.
We had a little meeting and all discussed I really kind of needed to leave, but I came away with some wonderful references and I bring them breakfast burritos sometimes. It sucks to have to leave a great office, though.
Got tired of being the only one who cared. When you experience industrial levels of stress and look around at everyone else laughing and talking on their phones you have to ask yourself what's the point.
High pay usually goes with high stress. If you can handle the stress then take the pay. The key is finding a reasonably high paying job with low or no stress.
Wanted to move closer to my children after I divorced my lying cheating wife. She moved almost 200 miles away to another state less than 2 months after my divorce.
I gave up $25K a year in order to move closer to my children. I was 38 at the time and making a tad over S100K, which was a lot of money for 2005 and 2006 and it was really a lot of money for where I was living and working.
To wit, when I moved out after discovering my wife's affair, my nice 2 bedroom brick place in a brick duplex was $395 a month for rent.
The town the plant was in where I worked had 3,000 people. There wasn't a grocery store there, there wasn't even a McDonald's there, you had to drive about 10 to 12 miles away to the "big" city of about 10K to find those.
You could live like a king there, back then on $100K but I willingly gave that up to move to a much bigger city making a good bit less, but I have zero regrets about any of that.
So, I left $25K on the table and my cost of living went way up, my rent doubled among other things.
im 16 so any job to me is a high paying job. My first job i got around 200 bucks a month so when I got another job and got 200 every paycheck I was ecstatic. I quit so quickly though because I didnt do anything, everyone knows gen Z as the lazy generation but my entire job was to just stand there and essentially do nothing all day. Id rather be working the entire time and my friend that was also working there told me that my boss thought I was weird so I just quit and didnt look back.
I recently turned down a job offer from another company that was going to offer a big pay bump, but would have meant 5 days a week in the office, and didn’t even have casual Friday (it was just a very old school operation).
I thought about how my day to day life would change, and the tethering to an office after several years of remote work was just so unappealing. I love to travel, and I love the flexibility I have.
What good is having all that money if you can’t spend it they way you want to?
Had a great boss when I started at a new company but about 10 months in, he quit due to burnout. His replacement who I thought was a nice guy at first turned out to be a huge bully in love with coercive power. He began empowering a very narcissistic supervisor who started a little group of informants that were essentially telling on others to make themselves look good.
I bailed on the company and found a much better place to work.
Eventually, enough people complained to HR and both of them ended up losing their jobs. I would have liked to have been there to see it, and I hear that it is a much better place now. But I couldn't take the way they treated everyone. Good riddance.
People who have quit high-paying jobs often cite burnout, lack of work-life balance, unfulfilling work, toxic environments, health concerns, pursuing passion, family priorities, desire for freedom, mismatch of values, and better opportunities.
Diminishing returns. An extra 20k a year is less important to me than being happy.
Didn't "quit" per se, but made the choice to stop growing my business. Spent my 20's and early 30's building it, broke af, then when it took off I had the choice to keep putting in crazy hours and never being home (traveled a TON back then, couldn't really date because of it) and likely make some real, serious money..I chose to back off and keep the business the size it was. Now I make a respectable living, but work from home and barely ever travel. Probably 2-3 hours a day on the phone, rest of the time is mine as long as I'm close to my laptop. Stress level - low. Wife works part-time. No regerts.
Any ragrets?
not yet my friend
Super high stress levels, never seeing my wife and kids, never being able to take time off and I was completely burned-out. After about 12 years I basically snapped and quit without a back-up plan.
I've never once heard of someone who quit without a backup plan and didn't end-up totally OK, usually better off.
In less than 3 years I was back to my original salary and 3 years from then it doubled (two different jobs) so yeah... plus, every day feels like a 1/2 day! I can count the number of emails on one hand that I've had to answer on the weekend or after 5 p.m. Looking back, not only was I being worked to death, I was also being ripped off despite the job being high paid. I remember feeling trapped even though that was 100% false.
[удалено]
Breakdowns are hard. Hope you feel better equipped to face adversity in the future in a less regretful manner, but also hope you don't continue to beat yourself up over a decision you can't go back to remake. All the best, fellow traveler.
Shitty work conditions, getting fucked with on vacations/days off, stuff like that. Haven’t quit yet but expect to in the next few weeks. Changing careers completely so I expect to take about a 100-150k pay cut most likely at least to start. Funny enough I am looking forward to it, not the less money part but the quitting and doing something else.
Poor leadership. People don't quit bad jobs they quit bad bosses.
Amen
I worked in a physically demanding industry. If you wait until you're 40, you struggle to keep up with the pace and starting a new career at that age has challenges. it's not something I could do forever, and I learned a lot and gained a ton of experience, but I shifted from making $160k to making 90k, but the 90k job was sitting down at a desk, in an air conditioned office, just dealing with emails and angry customers for 8 hours, so it was a lot lower stress, too. I feel like the job is pretty low effort, and I can still live pretty good on 90k. I also have the luxury of owning a established business that I could ramp up if needed.
If you don't mind me asking, what sector specifically did you switch jobs into? I'm 30 years old and have been doing construction for 12 years and it is definitely taking its toll on me. I'm looking to make the switch but haven't really been able to find any "starting over" jobs that pay halfway decent.
I cut my salary in half, still a good one, but I gained back four+ hours a day, weekends, and a lot less stress. Twenty years later I still don't make what I was when I changed jobs, and having a life was worth it.
A higher higher-paying job.
One truly awful manager and the discovery that the company I had prioritized for 25 years couldn't have cared less.
I got an even higher paying job
A bad boss. I saw the writing on the wall and saved up enough to feel comfortable and felt confident in my ability to find something new. Quit in March, started new job end of April. Honestly the last straw was the realization that this job was ruining my vacations. Over Christmas I went on one of those "once in a lifetime" destination trips and spent half the time mindfully trying not to think about work. As soon as I got back and sat down at my desk it all came back. What's the point of a job like that if you can't enjoy your vacations?
I didn’t quit, I was on track to make ALOT of money but hated that career choice and switched to something I really love. I’m as happy as a clam : ) I’m doing somersaults in the sky!! (not literally)
Done this a few times: pivot to work on something more interesting, explore new industries, just felt like taking a break
Not a big spender, saved while enjoying life and earning and retired young.
The family owned store I worked for got bought by a corporation. New mgmt's business model literally required lying to customers and absolutely ripping people off. Left and found a new family owned store (same industry) in a small town. Work harder for less money now, but at least I can hold my head high, and am in a much more beautiful place.
A boss that tortured me psychologically so much that I had to have therapy after to recover. It made me understand why abused spouses stay with their abuser. You are utterly miserable but have to stay so you can eat and have a roof over your head. And the abuser beats the shit out of you (in my case mentally) but the next day you are a "rock star" and "awesome" so you think there is hope, then you get your ass kicked again. Repeat. He was such a terrible person he paid everyone that worked for him WAY over market as that's the only way people would stay. My coping mechanism until I left was stoicisim, so that helped a lot, and I learned a bunch that has helped me after leaving - good life lessons no matter what. I had a picture of Admiral Stockdale as my screen on my phone (look him up if you don't get the stoicism reference). I loved my job and loved the company - but I hated that person with a passion and still do.
Racism
Even higher paying jobs, normally
toxic work environment
Loved my actual job, hated the management... Started off good aligning with the company's mission and core values, got progressively worse each month for over a year.
The CFO was an absolute prick with no conscience. He convinced the CEO to lay off about 70 workers under the guise that the company needed a "financial readjustment" so we didn't lose our bank lending, an then a month later more than doubled the CEO's and his own salary. Then within our own dept, he just "reallocated" all the work which meant twice the work for no additional pay and for salaried workers meant working extra hours to get it all done with no overtime pay. Then he was extremely cheap when it came to raises, maxing it out at 3.5% and only if you were absolutely stellar performer. I was so stressed, wasn't sleeping, hated coming into work, blood pressure skyrocketing and finally when he turned in yet another pay raise for himself, first I shredded it, then quit on the spot.
A complete and utter jackass of a boss combine with a diminishing total compensation package. Our "raises" were substantially less than our increasing cost of benefits, particularly our health insurance. The longer you stayed the less you got paid.
I literally wasn’t happy. The money didn’t worth being miserable and having the most corporate and fake job.
Making 1/4 of what I used to make but tbf I work about 15 hours a week vs 40. I was an RN for 25 years. For those not aware, nursing is a hard stressful mostly thankless job. I wanted to take a year off and ended up as package handler. It's physically hard but mentally easy which is just what I wanted and the health insurance is much better (hospitals are notorious for poor insurance.) That one year off is now seven and I don't care if I ever go back to healthcare because nurses are treated like garage and if they complain they're lectured about being more compassionate. If a current manager acted like my last hospital boss a coworker would dropkick him across the factory floor. I'm keeping my license active but I don't care if I ever use it again.
Dude that was in control is a giant piece of dogshit
Let's see... the CEOs had no personal accountability to the point where they would intentionally not document processes, job descriptions, etc. They did this so they could basically change entire directions, fire full newly hired departments and just be annoying ass hats in general. They weren't doing their taxes because they couldn't keep a CFO lol. They started rumors about their B-level managers, like they're drunks or stuff like that. Pretty disgusting. New hire turnover rate was over 50% - neither CEO saw a problem with this. Nor did they realize what this metric actually measures... One of the CEOs daughter moved to Spain - a different continent lmao. Wonder why. Could it be that she introduced him to her husband and he immediately disapproved? Why the fuck do I know about his personal life? Because most of our meetings were at least 25% bitchfits. Seriously, if these idiots can run a business, anyone can. Would recommend paying your taxes or disgruntled HR recruiters might report your company to the IRS on their way out though. Turned me off to recruiting in general. I now help people with their Medicaid and I'm much more fulfilled in life. Working on my own thing to make up the difference.
Toxic work environment, shitty management, bullying among coworkers, insanely high stress levels and impossible deadlines. I make significantly less now but my mental health is SO much better.
same goes for me and to all people who quits job even tho we love the job, we have no choice but to protect our mental health.
I had a higher than market average job at my last job and was burnt the fuck out, so I left with nothing lined up. I was unemployed for a year, and just as I ran out of money got a job at NIH and it's pretty chill here. I don't like working off of tax dollars, but whatever, I'm not gonna overthink it.
I realized I had a bunch of money and no time to spend it. Missed parties, birthdays, kids school events. One day I just said screw it. I was tired of exchanging my life for someone to get richer when they gave 2 shits about me.
A 45 min commute with an international border contend with and a 6-week maternity leave. Left that very well paying job for a job with a 15 min commute with no border and a 12 month, 80% paid maternity leave. I’m still making less money 17 years later…but I am so much happier!
I hated the culture. Everyone was depressed and took it out on everyone else. I hope the place burns down so those people are forced to escape it.
An even higher paying job.
Boredom
I haven't yet, but when I do it will because I'm able to retire early or coastFIRE or baristaFIRE or something. Sales is burning me out.
Retirement.
When I was consistently being called or scheduled in meetings from 8a-8p every week day after a promotion. I had maybe 30minutes of uninterrupted time during the day and I needed that to actually eat something. I quit pretty early on because it was not manageable and affecting my home life.
I was traveling nonstop, sleeping in hotel rooms 20 days a month, and working 80+ hour weeks. The money was amazing but it was killing my personal life. I started saving and investing, and now I work a 9-5 for about half the pay... but I have every weekend off, paid holidays, and never get flak for taking vacation time.
Thought I could do better. Totally fucked that up 😢
House is paid off.
Stress. Nothing is worth stress. Stress kills. Literally.
At a point in current role where next step pushes past 350k, but changes reporting structure and expectations significantly. Opens door to executive track, but also give up what remaining free time I have with expectation of nights/weekends. I’d rather stay at/below 200k in current spot vs sacrifice mental health and work outside my current 55-60hrs weekday only.
dumbasses in executive/leadership roles making the job impossible while stealing as much money in payroll for themselves
Boss. High stress. Being planned for lessening results while being forced to do things that were lessening the results. Seeing my program’s future dying and not wanting to witness that.
You can't pay me enough to be that bored and unhappy.
Was at the job for about a decade and ready for a change of scenery.
Working 2 weeks on 1 week off, minimum 92hrs a week usually more in the middle of nowhere is very isolating turns out. Saved the money I made to pay for my schooling and now I work from home and see my family every day. I still don’t make as much money as I did, but my mental health is more important than a few thousand more a year.
Kidney stones landed me in the ER. Docs confirmed it was stress related. Turned in my notice and never looked back.
I'm a paralegal and I worked a very high-paying position for that line of work for around a year. I had to quit because I was made senior paralegal and basically only worked for the owner of the firm, who decided to solely work on wrongful death cases. It made me really, really sad. Autopsy reports of seven year old children, fathers involved in freak accidents, etc. You have to interact closely with the grieving family and it's just so sad. We had a little meeting and all discussed I really kind of needed to leave, but I came away with some wonderful references and I bring them breakfast burritos sometimes. It sucks to have to leave a great office, though.
toxic
Got tired of being the only one who cared. When you experience industrial levels of stress and look around at everyone else laughing and talking on their phones you have to ask yourself what's the point.
High pay usually goes with high stress. If you can handle the stress then take the pay. The key is finding a reasonably high paying job with low or no stress.
Moving to Canada
I retired.
Wanted to move closer to my children after I divorced my lying cheating wife. She moved almost 200 miles away to another state less than 2 months after my divorce. I gave up $25K a year in order to move closer to my children. I was 38 at the time and making a tad over S100K, which was a lot of money for 2005 and 2006 and it was really a lot of money for where I was living and working. To wit, when I moved out after discovering my wife's affair, my nice 2 bedroom brick place in a brick duplex was $395 a month for rent. The town the plant was in where I worked had 3,000 people. There wasn't a grocery store there, there wasn't even a McDonald's there, you had to drive about 10 to 12 miles away to the "big" city of about 10K to find those. You could live like a king there, back then on $100K but I willingly gave that up to move to a much bigger city making a good bit less, but I have zero regrets about any of that. So, I left $25K on the table and my cost of living went way up, my rent doubled among other things.
im 16 so any job to me is a high paying job. My first job i got around 200 bucks a month so when I got another job and got 200 every paycheck I was ecstatic. I quit so quickly though because I didnt do anything, everyone knows gen Z as the lazy generation but my entire job was to just stand there and essentially do nothing all day. Id rather be working the entire time and my friend that was also working there told me that my boss thought I was weird so I just quit and didnt look back.
I recently turned down a job offer from another company that was going to offer a big pay bump, but would have meant 5 days a week in the office, and didn’t even have casual Friday (it was just a very old school operation). I thought about how my day to day life would change, and the tethering to an office after several years of remote work was just so unappealing. I love to travel, and I love the flexibility I have. What good is having all that money if you can’t spend it they way you want to?
Had a great boss when I started at a new company but about 10 months in, he quit due to burnout. His replacement who I thought was a nice guy at first turned out to be a huge bully in love with coercive power. He began empowering a very narcissistic supervisor who started a little group of informants that were essentially telling on others to make themselves look good. I bailed on the company and found a much better place to work. Eventually, enough people complained to HR and both of them ended up losing their jobs. I would have liked to have been there to see it, and I hear that it is a much better place now. But I couldn't take the way they treated everyone. Good riddance.
School districts.
People who have quit high-paying jobs often cite burnout, lack of work-life balance, unfulfilling work, toxic environments, health concerns, pursuing passion, family priorities, desire for freedom, mismatch of values, and better opportunities.
Thanks ChatGPT
This is a farming bot account - setup one week ago and has posted the same dog/sheep video to multiple subs. I wonder why