I Told a Job That Working There Was Like Being in a Meat Grinder

And then I turned around and executed my great escape!

Looking back over my life it’s difficult to say whether my decision-making skills have been wildly empowering or just flat out stupid.

This decision was probably not one of my most graceful moves but still, ghosting a job felt like a glorious personal triumph. You should try it sometime.

I’m sure you’ve been in a similar place at one point or another. You feel in your bones that you’ve got to do what is best for you rather than sticking something out that isn’t serving you anything besides a mediocre paycheck.

My caper wasn’t a ghosting in the true sense. I did get in my car that morning and drove half the commute before I realized it was not at all where I wanted to be.

So I pulled over, took a few deep breaths, then sent an email. I told them I felt like I was being shoved through a meat grinder and I wouldn’t be coming back.

Before pulling a stunt as brash as a meat grinder email quit, I had resolved to show up that day and do it in person. But then I realized it would just be more mileage and several hours of my life I’d never get back, so I turned the car around and went home.

It’s funny, when you do something bold you immediately begin to wonder what people will think of you. Little needles of dread prick at your skin for a few minutes.

But then the realization hits you…

You’ll never see them again so who cares what they think? Out of the hundreds of people who worked the same job surely they wouldn’t remember nor care about the one who opted out.

I’m the type of person who likes to enjoy and excel at any job I do. I also like to feel fulfilled by how I spend my time, but I wasn’t getting that vibe from this particular workplace.

It genuinely felt like a meat grinder up in there. As though they were throwing a bunch of words, numbers, and humans into a vat, turning a big crank, and squeezing out bland sausages packed with vague knowledge at best.

The job dished out just enough information to scrape by and do mediocre work. Except I’m not a mediocre person.

Corporations have money. They should be investing it in ensuring their employees know what they’re doing so they can feel confident in what they do.

They should not assume we’re all eager to spend our unpaid personal time brushing up on what they conveniently gloss over in the name of saving time and money.

Back in the day, when I had mouths to feed and corporate ladders to climb, I was willing to tolerate the career I chose because I needed to. I traded time with my child for the almighty dollar because it’s what people must do to survive and support their families.

But the dollars I earned back then were more than enough to cover the cost of living so it was slightly more worth it.

Nowadays, just scraping by and being miserable doesn’t seem like a step in the right direction. I feel real sympathy for young parents who have to endure that type of unfulfilling life out of necessity. I used to be one of them.

I’m at a stage in life where I no longer have anyone to feed but myself. No one else will suffer as a result of my decisions so I have the freedom and the ability to make self-serving choices.

In 2011, I left a ten-year government career  (much more tactfully than sending a meat grinder email ) because it wasn’t fulfilling to me. I thought my coworkers would think I was completely nuts for doing so but what I found was the opposite.

Many of them cried when I left and told me what an inspiration I was. I could only assume it’s because they wished they’d had the guts to do the same.

I’m still friends with some of those old coworkers today and they still work there. I’ve seen one of them take college-level courses toward a completely different and more fulfilling career path, yet she still stays at the same job.

I can never claim to know what drives others but I do know I need to be stimulated by how I earn my money. I like my income to be driven by what I’m good at and I need my reason for getting up each morning to be worthwhile.

Life is far too short to live it uninspired.

What’s your version of freedom?

The beauty in that question is that only you get to decide what has meaning in your life and what doesn’t. And that right there? Is a healthy dose of freedom.

If this simple concept doesn’t resonate with you I highly encourage you to take nine minutes and listen to the following video. It was originally a college commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace. This version is the same speech but more visually stimulating.

The real message happens at 3:30 but it’s useless without watching it from the start.

Quitting my job didn’t magically make my life all unicorns and rainbows. Far from it. But it did give me the space I needed to be able to breathe and see life outside of MY life.

And there it was, in all its glory!

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In the true spirit of finding your Wildhood, what’s one of the most ballsy moves you’ve made AWAY from something that didn’t serve you and TOWARD a more fulfilling life?

Maybe it wasn’t a job. Maybe it was a bad relationship or a move across the country. Tell us! You might inspire the next person to do the same!

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Speaking of fulfilling…