After mindlessly working a day job for years, I've finally decided to take the steps to leave it and make a real change in the world! This is why

Versão portuguesa

I am working in a company that does consulting and computer programming. It is a small company and, despite we work a lot, the atmosphere is relaxed and fun. The boss is a great person and gives me almost total freedom to manage projects and daily tasks. The paycheck is not brilliant but it is above the market average, for the type of work that I do.

Despite having a job that many would envy, after thinking a lot, I decided that I want to leave it, not to change to a better paid one or with better perks, but to do something much more important. Here are my reasons:

Time

The time spent on the job, including travel, is about 10h / day, which translates to 62.5% of the 16 waking hours of the day! In a broader perspective, considering that average work 21 days/month and 11 months/ year, the total time consumed annually is about ~ 40% of the year’s 5840 waking hours. This is equivalent to 6.3h of work a day EVERY day of the year, including holidays, vacations and weekends. And these are only the working hours. Another crucial component of this equation is the extra hours, a recurring need in work my type of work, which combined with the problems and concerns that I bring home, eat up much of what remains of my time.

It goes without saying that all this investment of time has a profound impact on my personal life. The little time I have left after a working day is spent juggling between the daily tasks and giving the required attention to the important people in my life. The weekends serve mainly to replenish energy and deal with pending issues. It was in this rat race that weeks quickly turned into months and months into years, and I found myself looking back and thinking where did all the time go...

Mindset

The main goal of any business is to make money, everybody knows it. In the company where I work, the main strategy to achieve this goal is to serve the customer well. It's an honest approach, one of the oldest and solid, and I'm not against it at all. However the old cliche "the customer is always right" seems to have a negative effect on my mindset.

In many situations, I saw my ideas being ignored or undervalued simply because the customer had a different view of things and was not open to other perspectives. This forced me, in most of these cases, to adopt approaches that I knew in advance that would not work or were inefficient. As these scenarios repeated, I felt increasingly discouraged and I found myself rejecting responsibilities - "The idea is not mine so, if it goes wrong, is not my fault." On the other hand, as I was not getting to see the outcome of my own ideas, I have lost several opportunities to learn and improve, and I pretty much took over the role of a blind performer. All this hindered the expansion of my critical and creative thinking and made me less responsible for my actions and more subject to the will of others.

Purpose

While the other reasons I mentioned are overcomeable, to some extent, by seeking other jobs less time-consuming and more decision-making driven, the intrinsic purpose of the job has proven to be the decisive factor.

When I started working everything was new, I learned a lot, on a technical and interpersonal level. I was applying what I have studied and meeting new people and different realities. However, over the years, I began to question my actions and I began to feel more and more that, taking the monetary issue, there is no purpose in what I do. I'm not contributing to our evolution as a species, nor saving lives nor helping people in any meaningful way whatsoever. I know that I am indirectly contributing to the economy of my small country, helping a bit to society’s prosperity. But is it worth continuing to work on something that has such a reduced and even hypothetical impact? Wouldn’t my time be much better spent on projects more actively directed to the common good?

Picture 1: Source

Thanks for reading this far!

This is the first post in a series that describes my journey, to leave my day job and create an organization with the aim to make a positive impact on the world. In this post I told you what are the reasons that led me to want to do this. The next series of posts will talk about the approach that I will follow and the steps I need to achieve the goal. The road will be long and difficult but I am determined to prevail and I would like to be able to count on your support.

And what do you think?

Have you ever felt that your job drains most of your time and energy, leaving you with little to no time for what really matters? Have you ever felt frustrated by being forced to do what the clients/bosses want, instead of using your own reasoning and experience to solve problems?

Share your questions and opinions!
Do you want to know more about me and my work? Consult my blog.

See you soon!
Ricardo