With social media becoming ever more filled with individuals sharing the realities of their working conditions, more and more people seem to be leaving their jobs behind.
However, Prince Harry's recent claims that people should simply quit their job were received...well, poorly to say the least.
When asked about reports of more and more people quitting jobs that they are unhappy in, Prince Harry claimed:
"Many people around the world have been stuck in jobs that didn't bring them joy, and now they're putting their mental health and happiness first. This is something to be celebrated," according to SkyNews.
And, while the idea may seem like quite a positive notion, it unsurprisingly sparked something of a vitriolic backlash across social media. It is obvious that people making positive moves for their mental health should be "celebrated," but that was not what most people had an issue with.
"Unfortunately, for an average person, especially one who lives paycheck to paycheck, one who doesn’t have a trust fund….. it's extremely hard. Joy is not always the goal, getting paid and providing for the family is," wrote one individual.
It is understandable that people would get angry at the notion of being told that you should simply quit your job by someone in a place of privilege, so why do those in positions of power keep doing it? Even if not intended as malicious, which some people seem to somehow assume Harry's comments were, the comments read to some as simply being staggeringly tone deaf.
And yet, many people such as self-help gurus, trust-fund entrepreneurs trying to appear cool and just "one-of-the-people", and your one friend Brad who quit his job to get sucked into an MLM will still give it out without thinking of the ramifications of such a lifestyle shift.
Asking yourself hard questions about such things as where you are at in life, how you could physically survive after having made such a move, how family obligations will influence your decision, and what your next steps following that move will be are all vitally important things to consider when thinking about quitting your job.
Therefore, being told to quit your job by people for whom money has never, and never will, be an object is naturally quite hard to swallow — especially when their advice seems to stop after, "Just quit and then try really hard at...stuff! Oh, and try not to starve to death, that's a pretty big one I've been told."
Everyone has that one friend who will happily tell you that, "Quitting my job was the best thing that ever happened to me!" And, while it is great for some, the fact of the matter is that everyone's situation is different and therefore it is not that simple for some people. Sure, there are a growing number of people out there who have found a much better quality of life after leaving a job they hated, but there are also a horrific number of people who simply cannot afford to leave their job else they face unsettling real-world consequences.
The challenges that many workers are facing in the workplace is a systematic issue that needs to be addressed. This is not a simple issue that will be solved by everyone just quitting their jobs; rather, we surely need to ensure workers are treated better from the ground up — with the result then being that workers are not feeling as though their job is grinding them into the very ground beneath their feet with no form of escape in the first place. Quitting your job may be the perfect thing for you (in which case, go for it), but that is sadly not an option for many.
No matter how well-meaning, people from positions of privilege thinking that the answer to so many people being unhappy at work is for those people to simply quit is ignorant, tone-deaf, and avoids them having to do any real thinking about how we fix the systems making those people, and so many more, unhappy in the first place.
