Why you’re just one event away from quitting your job

Although quick quitting is sometimes warranted, it is often a one-way ticket to regret.

[Source Photo: Freepik]

BY Next Big Idea Club

Below, Anthony Klotz shares five key insights from his new book, Jolted: Why We Quit, When to Stay, and Why It Matters.

Klotz is a professor of organizational behavior at UCL School of Management in London. He is best known for predicting the pandemic-related Great Resignation. He has written for the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal, and his research is regularly published in leading academic journals in management.

Even when quitting feels like a slow burn that dances around your mind for months—or even years—the truth is that finally leaving is caused by a sudden spark. Unexpected “jolts” drive us to rethink our work, often leading to impulsive exits, but we can respond more deliberately to make smarter career moves.

Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Klotz himself—in the Next Big Idea app, or buy the book.

1. We’re all one event away from quitting our jobs.

If you were to get enough money to live as comfortably as you would like for the rest of your life, would you continue to work or stop?

Every two years since 1972, the General Social Survey has asked a representative sample of Americans this very question. For most of that time, the results have steadily indicated that around 7 out of 10 people would keep working even if they didn’t need the paycheck. Global surveys indicate similar findings. But then the pandemic hit, and the number of people reporting they would keep working if they won the lottery dropped precipitously to an all-time low. This drop corresponded with a historic surge in people quitting their jobs: the Great Resignation.

When teaching and speaking, I ask the lottery question and always find similar results. However, one time, a professional in the audience asked me to rephrase the question so that instead of asking How many people would keep working, it asked How many people would quit their jobs if they won the lottery. I have asked it in this rephrased way many times since, and consistently find that only around 10% of people would keep working at their current job if they struck it rich.

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