This week’s guest on the Great Resignation Uncensored went from nearly graduating college to dropping out, to an apprentice electrician, copywriter, facilities management, admin, and HR assistant, to calling it quits and making a living as a freelancer working part of each day in his pajamas and taking afternoon naps.
He’s a jack of many trades with an eye for fixing problems. He’s had good jobs and not so good jobs. He encountered an ethical conflict with his final job at a small non-profit and now works 60 to 70 hours a week doing things he loves as his own boss. He shared with us that he never sees himself returning to the traditional job market, and he has a plan.
He’s building a career as a freelance writer (as he loves to write), works two days a week as a solar installer, occasionally works as an arborist, and owns a small self-storage business which is his retirement plan.
Josh is intelligent and kind and shared about a certain kind of pain that many people feel in the working world, which is not feeling appreciated for how hard they work while others take credit for their achievements. I experienced this many times in my corporate days, and as Josh expressed, he’s not looking for the limelight, but just to feel appreciated.
In the modern age of the Internet and the almost post COVID world we live in, we can find myriad non-traditional ways of making a living. Josh has been creative and successful in carving his living out doing various things that bring him joy. He expressed, “I have decided that being my own boss is the way to go.”
The big takeaway from Josh’s interview was revealed when he said, “There’s just so much more to life than getting up and working that 9 to 5 and coming home and then being too tired to enjoy anything.” Even though he works 60 to 70 hours per week now, it’s stress free for him. Whereas 40 hours in the corporate world gave him serious stress-related health conditions.
Josh’s story illustrates the often-subtle shift taking place on a mass scale, which is that it’s no longer acceptable to do meaningless or overly stressful work merely for a paycheck. And the more people resign and find their way in the world without a traditional job, the more their stories encourage others to do the same.
Even more importantly, the more people resign, the more leaders will be forced to focus on culture. This will have a profound and far-reaching effect, not just for workers, but the businesses themselves. It’s a tipping point for something huge.
When I asked Josh what advice he has for others in his position, he said to research options and accept “the fact that you are worth more than a paycheck.”
Separately, Maria and I have been doing a brand project with a tribal college, and one of their key areas of focus is “decolonization,” which is important for indigenous people as they learn to free their minds from the conditioned thinking of colonialism, which has reinforced a belief that Indigenous people are not capable. The Great Resignation is a form of decolonization for the working world as a whole, where we are gradually learning to claim our right and capability to live our best lives doing work that is meaningful and enjoyable by rejecting the narrative that says we can’t.
Ep. 7 “Accepting the Fact That You Are Worth More Than a Paycheck”