Want to Quit Your Job?

Hate your job? You’re not alone by a long shot. I’ve hated every job I’ve had since graduating college in one way or another. I’ve got all kinds of friends and colleagues that also hate their jobs. According to a Gallup study only 33% of Americans are engaged in their work. The other 2 thirds of the working population are either disengaged doing just enough to not get fired, or they’re actively disengaged trying their best to be detrimental to the mission of their employer in one way or another.

Why do most of us hate our jobs? I think the answer to this question is relatively simple. Humans are not meant to sit at desks in offices for 8 to 12 hours a day. According to an online U.S. news article 86% of American workers sit all day at their jobs. It’s common knowledge that sitting for prolonged periods day after day is bad for our physical health, but I don’t think it’s as commonly speculated to be detrimental to our mental health. Human physiology evolved in a way that makes us amazing distance runners and according to a quote from a nature article “horses galloping long distances average about 6 meters per second, which is slower than a top-class human runner.” We’re capable of running faster than a horse over long distances! What? So here we have a being quite clearly designed to move long distances over long periods of time, and for the vast majority of us most of our daily movement consists of going from the house to the car to the desk back to the car and then finally from the car back to the house, likely covering distances less than a few hundred yards per day. Distance running is more than exercise. I believe that it’s a critical component of our mental well being that we may not yet fully comprehend.

Running is to humans as hunting is to cats. Well-fed house cats will still find it within themselves to go out and hunt. This seems like a waste of time, “Whiskers already ate why is he out murdering innocent birds and mice?” The answer to this question lies in the fact that cats almost never express joy and their base level of existence appears to be firmly cemented in a state of aloof annoyance. That being said there’s no way to define the behavior of a cat that’s recently made a kill other than with the word joy. Hunting and killing are essential components of what it means to be a cat, it’s built into their biology, much the same as running is built into our biology. Not running means ignoring a crucial part of what it is to be a human. We’re literally designed to do it and therefor we must do it if we hope to live well and be happy. Have you ever met a depressed runner? I haven’t. I have met depressed office workers though and I know definitively that it’s hard to move and run the way we need to when we’re chained to a desk for most of our waking hours.

We hate our jobs because they require us to sit still for 1/3 of our day when we’re clearly meant to be moving for most of it, but that isn’t the entire story. I believe the content of the work most of are required to do for our jobs is also to blame for the disenchantment of the American worker’s spirit. Show me a person that loves data entry and I’ll show you a liar. Entry level desk work is or is like data entry no matter who you work for. Upper level desk work is primarily composed of going to meetings and answering emails, which is a lot like data entry when viewed through a “how boring is this?” lens. As far as we know the human brain is the most powerful piece of computing hardware in the universe, hopefully aliens will someday prove this false, but for now it holds up, and the most powerful computer in the universe is not meant to enter characters into forms and answer emails for 8 to 12 hours a day. This particular computer is supposed to spend its day making art, designing space ships, and finding meaningful ways to help improve the lives of the other 7 billion super computers it shares this earth with.

So you hate your job because it’s boring and detrimental to your human spirit? Good for you! My advice is to quit and start living your life the way you would if you didn’t have to worry about money and bills. But what about the money and bills you say? You can’t just not pay them. Well….I have to caveat my advice to quit your boring job with additional advice. Stop accumulating debt for shit you don’t need, but also even if you’re not accumulating debt stop buying shit you don’t need. Learn to live more modestly, it’s not that hard, and once you commit to it you’ll find that there’s tremendous joy in simplicity. The American economy is dependent upon you frivolously consuming as much as you can, but you’d be amazed at how little money you need to survive in this country when you stop wasting so much of what you earn.

So stop buying shit to fill the happiness void in your life, pay off your debts as quick as you can, and then quit that boring soul crushing job you’ve been festering in. It feels scary to do it, because you have to embrace so much unknown, but I promise the moment you step into that unknown you won’t be afraid anymore, you’ll be reinvigorated by life and its’ possibilities. It’s time to stop being afraid and to go do the things that engage your mind and make you happy.

Also, for the love of god, go run; I know it can be painful, but it’s a major part of what you are and if there’s an order to our physiological needs it is as follows: air, water, food, sleep, shelter, running.