I had a straaaaaaange idea the other day: What if every single person on the planet who doesn’t like their job quit on the same day? Let’s call it International Quit-Your-Crappy-Job-Day.
Yeah, yeah, I know, chaos would ensue because all the bad jobs are now not being done. Garbage wouldn’t get picked up, sewers wouldn’t be cleaned, etc. etc. etc. But… many garbage men love their jobs. So do many airport baggage handlers, inner city teachers, taxi drivers and other holders of jobs that many think “must be awful”.
So maybe it’s not the jobs. Maybe it’s the workplaces, the managers, the culture, the whatever that make people hate their jobs… And maybe if all the people who hate their jobs quit at the same time, John Smith, the CEO who runs SmithCo with an iron fist and who just lost 63% of his employees would be forced to rethink his ways. Or would simply be out of business.
This would be the ultimate, very loud wake-up call for every company where employees hate the boss, hate work, are bullied, are sexually harassed, are discriminated against and/or only come in for the pay check.
And maybe on the same day where the mortuary worker quits the job he’s hated for years, that job as a park ranger becomes free and he can finally get that job outside in the fresh air he’s always dreamed about. The park ranger gets the bartending job he wanted, the bartender becomes a cab driver and the cab driver goes to work in the mortuary.
Remember: One person’s dream job is another person’s living hell. The longer you stay in that crappy job, the longer you’re keeping someone who might actually love it from getting it.
This is not an actual proposal for action. This is more of gedankenexperiment.
What do you think?
Nice idea :)
Couple of thoughts:
1. You don’t have to wait gor someone to leave your dream job… There are thousands of opportunities unless you’re looking for a God vacancy (hmm.. maybe it’s time to make yourself believe in multiple gods and grab your chance!)
2. Everyone even those who hate their jobs will stay for 1 day longer and see what others do. That’s people nature: “All together, when I say THREE!” – and noone jumps :)
Good thinking Pauly. And this is just one more area where the hindus have us beat with their 30.000 gods!
I as an athest am of course hopelessly behind :o)
I applied for the God job, but flubbed the skills test. Something about not being able to keep track of six billion projects at once…
It’s sad that there are enterprises out there that would need this kind of sudden departure of a large part of their workforce to recognize that something was very wrong with their work culture. These enterprises likely have higher than average turnover anyway, which should be a clue.
I’ve worked for at least two organizations with high turnover, but neither the executives nor the boards seemed to think it was a problem. Every time someone left, we’d wonder “will the board notice now?” In one case, the executive dismissed the turnover by saying she was proud that “every day I run in to people who used to work for us.”
John: Yes, modern work environments demand employees that can multitask effectively :o)
It is sad. There’s gotta be a specal mental block around these kinds of issues, most probably because many leaders don’t feel they have a skill set to deal with it.
They’ve learned economics, management, finance, sales, etc… but few leaders have a strong background in relating well to other people. And few management training programs focus on this.
I think you should actually try it… build up a groundswell of support, set a day several months in advance, and promote it on TV, radio, etc.
Sure, there’d be people who’d chicken out at the last minute: but if you could encourage them to come up with a transition plan beforehand, maybe there’d be less.
I think it’s realistic.
The sad thing about that is that all people that quit their jobs will be without job…, even if they are good and smart. And since there will be too much people without work, good companies will not be able to recruit them all and good people will stay without job.
Hmmm… You think we should actually do it, Andrew? Interesting…
Vianney: You’re right, some of the people who quit won’t find a new job right away. But hey, at least they got away from that job they hated :o)