🫠n Quitting

Quitting gets a bad rep - its synonymous with “giving up” “not cutting it” etc…

but I revel in quitting because quitting sometimes feels like the only power workers have these days to leave a sub-par situation

(again all of the major caveats that I’m reflecting on my time in tech not other industries)

and to be fair I don’t quit just to quit, I don’t love quitting for quitting’s sake

but as a someone who will remain childfree, soon will have no debt, interviews pretty good,  comes fully loaded with modern software/ops skillz, is an american citizen, holds a college degree that has the word “engineering” in it, not old enough to run into ageism, and a “fuck you” fund that’s filling back up I kinda feel duty-bound to be the canary in the coalmine and leave bad situations

at a certain point promises that are quarters away that get stacked on top of broken plans and visions that lack substance wears on me and there’s just a Moment where the switch flips and I am d-o-n-e

and to be fair its not like one lil thing will send me off updating my resume (jk I just strategically drop hints to folks at companies I’ve been following that I’m “low key looking” and then slide in the back door with some informational interviews, but I digress)

its often because I take the long view, the systems view, the sustainable view which clashes with the short term quarterly cycles of public cos or the manic pace of startups racing towards IPO

another reason is it takes a lot of fucking focus for me to Get Things Done and I do not like wasting my own focus or time, I hate repetition, I hate manual processes and I hate the aversion some folks have to continuous improvement. so when I don’t see toil being actively managed or reduced despite organizational awareness…….I look at my paycheck and go “hmmm if they wanted me to solve these greater problems i’d probs have another 0 on this paycheck” and then I feel like I’m there to just keep 8 plates spinning and idk that’s just not a job that matches my skills/interest

some tidbits my mind served up

• The first time I quit a Big Girl job I didn’t really know what to do or what to expect. I handwrote goodbye cards for each member of the team (even my shitty “mentor”)  and was 100% blindsided when my manager called me out in standup to share an announcement
• I have failed to quit - when overwhelmed by unexpected expectations and a frustrating project I put in notice. I delivered that notice to my entire team during stand up and uh….reneged when my manager was like “yo we can totally put someone else on the project with you”. so yeah if you find quitting convos awks…just imagine telling your team you quit and then like 2 days later un-quitting
• There’s only been one time I did not provide a full 2 weeks - it was to a shitty contracting company for a job that never had enough work for the 3 of us and I’m sure to this day Rhonelle will never forgive me LOL

you know how cashmere is like soooo luxurious and expensive af?

at the state fair I got to meet some of these cashmere goats and look at how silly and hay-filled they are! they have no idea they’re near the top of the fiber pyramid