January 2nd, 2008 → 1:11 pm @ Jay // 7 Comments

The purpose of this article is to motivate those who are currently thinking about leaving their desk jobs for something else, but are clinging to one or more reasons why they should stay.

There are many perks to working in an office. You’re comfortable, there’s no need for labor intensive work and you have access to a kitchen. Perhaps you should consider all of the things you’ve given up for that comfy office job. This is a broad topic however, so this article will focus on the kind of feedback I have received from others when bringing up the subject of “why don’t you give up your office job, and do something else”.

Here are a few common responses I have encountered:

1. It’s a respectable job

This is a common misconception. Having an office job is no more (or less) respectable than any other type of employment. Our society incorrectly labels certain professions as superior and others as inferior. If you are putting food on the table for yourself and your family, then you deserve a pat on the back regardless of your occupation.

It is healthy to disconnect yourself from the identity of your profession. If your occupation is the role of a Software Engineer for example, this is something you do and not something you are. It is you who is respectable, it is not the job. You can be a sleazy doctor, or a respectable janitor, the job itself should play no part in your self worth.

2. It pays well

Yes, but what is the price you’re paying? You are sitting in your cubicle all day long, this is not what nature had intended for you. Staring at a computer screen, with the fluorescent halogen lights bearing down on you. This causes eye strain, headaches, and difficulty with sleep later in the evening. In addition to the physiological effects of being indoors for the whole day, your body pays.

While working in an office, I met more than my share of individuals suffering back pain. One such person was young and in relatively good health. His back pain was linked to sitting in a chair all day. I suggested that perhaps he take employment outside of an office environment.

He insisted that his back would likely be affected more if he was to work outside of an office. Not so. In 2006, BBC reported a survey conducted by the British Chiropractic Association. The survey concluded that office workers are at the highest risk for back pain. Rather than thinking about how well you are paid, ask yourself what price you are paying instead.

3. I have more in common with office workers

I do sympathise with this response to a certain extent. Leaving office work to work in a labor intensive environment could make you feel like a fish out of water. Perhaps this is exactly what you need. It may give you a different perspective on what work and relationships are like.

I once met a lawyer through a friend, who had given up his role in a successful legal practice and became a plumber for building constructions. I was quite amazed that someone would make such a transition. He described in detail how much more enriching his new friendships were outside of a corporate environment. He said that his new co-workers had a pleasant absence of drive towards promotion, greed and political agenda. This contrasted heavily to people he met through his former employer.

This is not to say that office employees are natively unpleasant. This is not the fault of the individual. Unfortunately, it is the role of the corporation to pin employees against one another to best increase performance through competition. I have witnessed some terrible cases of back-stabbing in the name of career development. Put simply, you may unexpectedly find that you have more in common with people who have taken another path in their lives.

4. I studied hard to get a degree. I’m not going to throw that away.

Having a degree does not automatically qualify you to do the same thing for the rest of your life. Yes, you may have spent 4 or 5 years and invested your time and effort into obtaining a qualification. This is still a very short proportion of your time on this planet. Education is certainly important, and the degree itself is a proof of achievement, not a contract to sign your life away.

The achievement is in knowing that if you knuckle down, study hard and put in the hours, you can accomplish your goal. This lesson stays with you throughout life. Your degree will never go to waste as long as you remember what it symbolises. If what you are doing now does not make you happy, you owe it to yourself to change things. You have no obligation to your college, University or your parents, only to yourself. If you are in a field that makes you resent your day-to-day activities, pouring and more years of the same thing will not make it better. Any wise investor will tell you, cut your losses and move on.

5. I’m very close to a promotion

The reasoning behind this reason is very similar to the above. You have invested time, effort and energy and want to reap the rewards for your hard work. Though, you should keep in mind that this only feed the cycle, and extends the time you need to endure as an office worker.

Next year, it will be even harder for you to leave. Every year, you have invested more time, and will likely invest even more time in the future. This is not a problem if you are at your dream job and love your current lifestyle, but if this is not the case, you are wasting your life away. You will never get your time back, so how much more of it do you want to squander sitting in your cubicle?

So what is the alternative?

Quite simple. Get out of the office! Work from home, work in a bookstore, freelance. Become a teacher. Work outdoors. Work in construction, lay bricks, work with your hands, and build things. Work in a cafe, make coffee, become a chef. Just get out of the cubicle.

Seriously though, the best advice I can give to working professionals is to begin to migrate your skills to work for yourself, and in an environment you can enjoy. There are some professions that allow this transition to be seamless, such as graphic design or software development. If your profession does not allow you to make this transition, then it may take some creativity and bold steps on your behalf.

Remember that while you unhappily sit in work chair, wondering what the weather is like outside, a piece of you is yearning to get out. During my lunch breaks I would often frequent coffee shops and witness the playful friendships waiters, waitresses and cooks had. Upon returning to my desk, I wondered why I saw so few examples of this in the many corporate environments I worked in. If you deny yourself of the things that make you happy in life for the pursuit of image and wealth, you pay the highest cost of all: your dignity. So give yourself a break, get out of the cubicle, and find a path that allows you to experience life without the suffocation of cubicle walls.

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Tags: cubicle, degree, education, Health, office, promotion, quit your job, wealth, work