Survey: 40 percent of U.S. professionals want to quit

[keep_it_real]

Forty percent of U.S. professionals are thinking about quitting their jobs after the summer vacation, according to a new survey by workplace supplier Regus. They’re tired of not being promoted, bosses that don’t share company goals and being overworked, the survey found.

Read more:
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2010/08/09/daily43.html

[liberal N proud]

1. If only we could pay for that summer vacation 365

I had an excellent vacation this year, didn't think about work, check email or answer the cell phone for 12 days.

It was great, I actually was able to enjoy my family 24/7 for a change.

I am still dealing with vacation withdrawal.

[AldebTX]

10. Wish I Could Afford To Quit

I just got back from a vacation and got written up for not checking "email" and responding "enough".

Apparently once a day while supposedly being off was inadequate.

The new professional meme is you are "always" available. Of course people want to quit.

[liberal N proud]

12. I hope they provide a full function smart phone and pay the bills

When I do check email on vacation, it is simply because it is more convenient that trying to bail out after vacation when everyone is standing in my office with issues they had all week.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. They are supposed to pay you when you are on call like that.

They should pay you if they expect you to answer your phone and check your email.

Talk to an employment lawyer.

Usually they just say you're exempt from overtime and that you are management even if you are the lowest lackey on the totem pole, just to exploit you.

[CTyankee]

33. That "management" stuff is crap. I got that and I responded that I was not on the management team.

I was retiring so I couldn't give a crap any more...

[liberal N proud]

35. I don't get paid for extra time

You are hired to do a job and regardless of how long it takes to do that job you are expected to complete it.

[SteveM]

23. I'm a Professional Leftist, but don't get paid for it. I can't quit.

[Freetradesucks]

32. That's some bullshit!

You were on vacation, checked and responded to emails once a day...and got in trouble? That is BULLSHIT! You should not have to check or respond to emails AT ALL while you are on vacation!

[SpiralHawk]

2. Professional quitters. Is this another Sarah Palin article?

[xchrom]

3. That's interesting. Recommend. Nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. If they did it all at once you'd see change we can believe in.

Done separately, just more meat in the cogs.

[harun]

5. This is one of the big, maybe the primary, reason companies fight a Single Payer

Health System. They would lose their slaves.

If I would maintain my Health Coverage I would likely quit and do something less stressful for less money if need be.

[SocialistLez]

6. Yep yep. Plus it would mean more small businesses and possibly more competition for the big corps.

[glitch]

9. For some big corps yes, for smaller companies no. Small companies supported single payer,

it would've saved them a big chunk of their employee expenses.

[harun]

20. I agree, the big Corp's get more love from Congress than small business.

[LynzM]

43. Same here, harun....

:hi:

[NC_Nurse]

7. I have been trying to get out of nursing for the last few years. The work is

More and more stressful for less and less reward.

[old mark]

11. I worked in psych nursing and found the management was crazier than the patients.

We has so many lawsuits against the hospital by staff members that the lawyers would not take any more calls- he was booked solid for the forseeable future.


mark

[Warpy]

16. 50% of licensed RNs have quit the profession

because of the brutal working conditions. I know I wanted to strangle every single suit who came around with a "do more with less" pep talk.

I got out of the trenches when I got too sick to work. I've even let the license go because I'd rather blow my brains out than go back to that.

In the meantime, we all called them GOON degrees, "Get Out Of Nursing," anything that would allow us to make any sort of living any other way. We retreated into accounting, teaching, business administration, anything else.

The irony is that we loved what we did.

[etherealtruth]

26. Is there any other profession where ...

... close to half of the profession chooses to just walk away? People that have obtained degrees and intensive training ...? As you have noted, most of us that leave love providing patient care and feel a tremendous sense of pride associated with our work ....its the other 'stuff" that becomes impossible to deal with.

[Warpy]

28. If it were a predominately male profession, the screaming would be

deafening, especially considering the type of educational investment it takes to become an RN. Since most of us are only women, they don't seem to care.

[w4rma]

42. You mean like I.T. which has mostly been shipped to India? This isn't a sexist issue. This is an

exploitation issue by Wall Street.

[Warpy]

45. IT people didn't up and quit, preferring to drive cabs

or wait tables or do just anything else to escape the job, leaving openings that were impossible to fill.

That's the difference.

Your post was disingenuous at best.

[tblue37]

36. Since there is such a shortage of nurses, a nursing degree pretty much

guarantees a person a job, even in a recession. The fact that so many people who can have that job don't want it any more, even in a recession, tells us how terrible the working conmditions must be.

Usually when there is a shrotage of workers in a high-demand field, the workers are able to demand better working conditions and pay, but since nursing is still a predominantly female profession, the shortage of nurses just makes the employers demand more of the nurses, instead of listening to nurses' demand for better pay and working conditions.

[etherealtruth]

17. I walked away from nursing in 1993 (after the birth of my second child)

When it was time for me to return to paid work(~2003) I opted to return to school and enter an entirely new field.

I miss patient care terribly ... I do not miss working holidays, working odd/off shifts, the importance of "paper compliance" over patient care.

[Warpy]

18. You missed the best part of all

the "customer service" model of health care in which the customer is always right and any nurse who tries to set behavior limits with any patient can be written up and her job threatened.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. A mere 1.5M in retirement funds is all that is keeping me from quitting right fucking now. nt

[harun]

21. I hear ya

[unblock]

13. "switching" jobs would be more accurate "quitting"

few, especially these days, have enough "fuck you money" to just plain quit and wait for something better to come along.

most who "quit" find another job first, then give two weeks notice.



and these are exactly the kind of times when this happens quite a lot, as it becomes less satisfying to work at failing or struggling companies, and more attractive to work at companies who seem to be emerging in better shape.

[Brickbat]

14. I resigned two years ago this month from my white-collar job and have been freelancing since then.

I had micromanaging bosses who were freaked because of a cost-cutting corporate owner, I was expected to be available after I went home for the day, I was resented because I put in my eight hours and went home without any gossip or backbiting, I had ideas that didn't conform to what bosses or the corporate owner wanted, I was held to a different standard to reasons I could never figure out...it went on and on and on. I am extremely lucky that I am able to work from home at what I want. But this article doesn't surprise me at all.

The business world has a sickness -- the drive for short-term profits and the fear of accountability (from CEOs to the lowliest shop-floor worker) have combined to make our business climate a dismal place.

[Silent3]

15. I'd quit if I could afford to, but it's not because my own job is so bad

It's because I'd much rather have the freedom to do whatever I want rather than what someone else wants me to do. I sometimes feel mildly (but only mildly!) guilty knowing I've got what many people would consider a damn good job situation, but I still dream of having the same or more money and doing little or no work to get it.

The one reason I'll probably never be wealthy is that I think many wealthy people actually enjoy playing the power games, the competition (for the more sociopathic among them, making others lose when they win), as much or more than the money, which for some I guess is merely a way of keeping score.

Me, I just wish for the money and the leisure time and being able to pursue my own projects at my own pace. I'd probably still "work" at what I do for a living now -- software engineering -- but do open source projects in a low-pressure, fun way.

[lostnfound]

19. What percent wish they were doing something more meaningful or useful..

There are unmet needs in our society everywhere you look; children living in poverty, bridges ready to fall down, libraries that can't stay open, people that need medical care. But our current economic system does not put priority on human need so much as on human greed.

Meanwhile there are millions whose jobs are mostly about pushing dots around on a computer screen, especially the dots that mean dollars, keeping track of the beans for the corporations that mostly serve the middle and upper classes.

[LynzM]

44. I absolutely wish I were...

I dream of having the money to be a "stay-at-home" mom, to make pottery, play music, volunteer locally, teach little kids to read, work on solving the hunger and housing problems so many people face... do some things where I can concretely see either what I produce, or the difference I make.

[OwnedByFerrets]

22. Quit and do what? Dont that realize that there are few panacea jobs out there

that DONT require them being overworked and underpaid? Why do you think productivity is at an all time high. Honestly, its nothing to be proud of in America...it only means we work harder for less money or benefits.

[RandomThoughts]

24. I been on strike for years.

And do not do work. Although some might think that, I just have fun.

[SteveM]

25. I have seen the future! It is part-time temporary. nt

[Kat45]

27. That might not be the case if companies didn't squeeze so much out of workers

One person is supposed to do what two or three used to do. Greed at the top rules. Hire more people to ease the burden on those who are employed and to make jobs available to those of us who are unemployed. But of course that won't happen. Because greed at the top rules.

[Ramulux]

29. Have these people looked at a newspaper

in the last 2 years? Do they realize how fortunate they are to even have a job?

[Luciferous]

38. That's exactly what I was thinking.

I would gladly take one of those jobs!

[tblue37]

39. That is exactly the fear that our corporate overlords

Have deliberately fostered with their constant cutting of the workforce and their obstinate refusal to hire, despite sitting on $1.8 trillion in cash reserves. They want us to be afraid like that and pathetically grateful for jobs in even the crappiest of working conditions and at the most unreasonable of pay scales--so that they can exploit us mercilessly.

[Edweird]

31. Conversely, I have a bust ass dangerous as hell blue collar job that I love.

It suits me perfectly. I have done the white collar route and it's a bunch of bullshit. Experienced guys in my field can easily pull in 6 figures. I will be applying for permanent residency in a country that needs my help and is willing to pay well for it as soon as I am finished with a licensing program this December.

[Boojatta]

34. What percentage of U.S. smokers want to quit?

[Greyhound]

37. What a happy coincidence that the "new" economy comes with a permanent unemployment crisis.

Fiddle-dee-dee...

:kick: & R

[Lisa0825]

40. This is typical after a recession.... after the economy begins to show signs of improvement,

people who either stayed in their jobs only for the security, or who felt they were treated poorly during a period of being understaffed due to layoffs, then begin to look for other opportunities as soon as they present themselves. This is a phase in which employers would be wise to try to woo those they wish to keep, or risk rebuilding their workforce.

[Stand and Fight]

41. Funny! This is exactly how I feel to a T.q

However, I haven't taken vacation in about 5 years.

[Juche]

46. Supposedly about half the public is considering switching jobs when things recover

Hopefully it'll intimidate corporations. Since the labor movement has been gutted, the only real form of power workers have left is voting with their feet. But with the recession and no jobs being out there, employers can mistreat employees, cut their pay and benefits while extending their hours and they can't do anything about it.

The problem is all the other jobs out there may be just as bad. But hopefully when flexibility comes back to the job market employers will be forced to start treating people better.