I get all of you folks “quiet quitting” and not doing the mindless / boring / inefficient work you are (under)paid to perform. Just sharing my “loud quitting” story to share another way of walking away: I left W2 employment, stayed on to do the less bullshitty work I care about, and bill for that work as a 1099 contractor.
I am not a quiet quitter. For one thing, I am cursed with the need to know my time is spent in valuable and meaningful ways—doing dumb work doesn’t do this, but nor does filling my time with entertainment or hobbies.
At the same time, if I were achieving big things outside of work not only would I be anxious that my work productivity would be questioned LEGALLY my employment contract claims my work “owns” whatever I come up with while I work with them, and explicitly prohibits “moonlighting.” States like CA have laws that invalidate this kind of employment contract but still creates sticky legalities.
I loathe my creative ideas, innovations, and my time being owned by anyone but me. One of my loud quitting triggers was 5 PM Friday Zoom calls where I was reminded how “important” this week’s “top priority” is, and don’t worry: my boss will be available all weekend if I need anything. The expectation that I keep thinking/working through intractable problems on my own time was crystal clear.
I solved this problem by quitting my job and agreeing to stay on 20 hours a week as a 1099 contractor. I basically make the same hourly rate (with a little extra so I can afford health insurance), but a lot of my expenses are instantly tax write offs because I am now a small business. I am on my second week as a contractor and I couldn’t be happier.
This change took years to undertake and required moving out of CA because AB5 (employment rights for Uber drivers and gig workers) had the unintended effect of making it impossible for me to be a 1099 contractor in that state, and also I could never afford to just cut my income in half. I moved to the Midwest.
The part that makes it “loud quitting” is that in cutting my time to 20 hrs I made it clear that meaningful productive work would have to be the priority for me to stay on. I couldn’t be happier with the elimination of 20 hours of drudgery and the addition of 20 hours to focus on more things that are meaningful to me. I would not be giving a single hour of time outside these 20 hours, and I’ll be working on my own priorities the rest of the time. No more evenings or weekends rehashing the same faux-crisis over and over.
I sincerely hope I am never a W2 employee again in my lifetime with a possible exception if I end up co-founding a company. American corporate work culture is so toxic and I want no part of perpetuating such toxicity.