Been sacrificing for too long…

47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021

“More and more Americans are realizing that voluntarily leaving your job today isn’t always just about securing a better lifestyle; it’s also about the redefinition of self… even though the coronavirus pandemic upended people’s lives and changed their priorities, the idea that an individual’s worth is tied to their productivity remains deeply ingrained in many of us… Being a ‘good employee’ in the U.S. has traditionally meant being highly engaged and sometimes working much more than 40 hours a week, according to Ellen Ernst Kossek, a social scientist who studies work-life boundaries. But our new normal, she told me, made overworked Americans ‘wonder what they were getting for all of that.’ They also discovered that hours consumed by laboring and commuting robbed them of important parts of life, such as being with family… ‘But the pandemic was saying, You can do other things. You can do things differently… As Americans discern that their job title isn’t the most central part of their identity, Kossek said, ‘smart employers will realize they need to give more space to employees to develop other parts of themselves, and develop other parts of their lives that they’ve been sacrificing for so long… The people who have found new fulfillment outside their career remind us that tectonic change in American society begins with individuals realigning their life to reflect their deepest values.”

— Excerpt from What You Find When You Leave Your Job, The Atlantic (Maggie Martens, writer in Seattle) 

I am taking note. I am one of those “good employees” who is overly engaged, overly connected to work, striving to over-deliver for my company, my boss, my boss’s boss, myself. But I know I need to re-think this. Am I over-delivering for myself, in the right way, with the right outcome? I am with a lot of other people, after two years of working through the ever shifting landscape of the pandemic, in wondering about the return on investment for my time, effort, emotion and energy. These resources are finite and therefore sacrifices are required. With the cost of living skyrocketing and companies seemingly wanting even more from us, with nominal yearly pay raises (and potentially fewer perks/bonus as well), there is much to think about. Just sayin’ :) Hugs. XO

Blessings,

Chatgirl