I ghosted my toxic job and never looked back: Here’s why it was worth it

There’s no greater high than rage-quitting a job you hate.

In 2014 and 2015, I quit — okay, more accurately, I ghosted — multiple temp jobs in the fast fashion industry in New York because I couldn’t stomach the guilt of participating in such an exploitative and environmentally damaging business.

In 2018, I quit a job at a start-up with a one-month notice because the workplace had become toxic. I struggled financially and went through a dark time, but I also pivoted successfully into writing.

In 2023, I was laid off from a corporate neoliberal newsroom during Hot Labor Summer. I loved being paid a big-boy salary to write professionally, but the newsroom’s tagline was “Better Capitalism” and it felt soul-crushing to write stories in that voice and mentality. At that point, I decided to invest my severance check into my own business, Queer & Trans Wealth, which provides financial services and education for queer and trans communities.

Each time, there’s an incredible adrenaline rush. But weeks later, the financial reality of my decisions kicked in. I was unhoused for months in 2015 while ghosting those temp jobs. I went into 5 figures of credit card debt after quitting that job in 2018 without a backup plan. In the last year, I’ve pulled from my retirement savings to bootstrap my business.

According to the Bureau Labor of Statistics monthly Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), 50.9 million Americans quit their jobs in 2022. The JOLTS survey also shows that November 2021 saw the highest quit rate on record, about 3%, predicting an era known as “The Great Resignation” where workers — fed up with company culture and struggling to cope with economic changes from COVID-19 — started quitting their jobs.

Two years later, less people are quitting their jobs. Between January and June 2024, an average of 3.4 million workers quit their jobs compared to 4.2 million workers per month in 2022. While fewer workers are quitting, nearly half (46%) are still considering leaving their jobs, according to Monster’s 2024 Work Watch Report.

With my bank account in a constant state of flux and so many people settling for jobs they dislike in exchange for a paycheck that barely meets their needs, I constantly sit with the question: “Was it all worth it? Did I make the right choice?”

I asked 3 other people who quit corporate jobs to live within their values the same question. Here’s what I found.

Corporate jobs were making people physically and mentally sick

Many workers who are trying to leave their jobs are concerned about how their work affects their physical and mental health. The 2024 Workforce State of Mind report by meditation app Headspace says that 47% of employees experience the majority of stress in the workplace. Additionally, 77% of workers say that work stress has impacted their physical health and 75% say work caused a personal relationship to end.

In Brooklyn, New York, 31-year-old advertising art director Liz Bass earned $105,000 per year working at big-name corporate advertising agencies.

“In high school and college, I saw how damaging negative stereotypes in advertising could be,” they say. “Maybe naively, I joined the industry because I thought that I would be able to make a little bit of a difference, make things a little bit more progressive.”

Instead of moving the needle for representation, Bass said they were forced to work up to 100 hours per week in a hyper-competitive industry. “I was not sleeping. I was crying all the time. I was crumpling under the pressure trying to keep up [with] relentless energy where you are always pit head-to-head with creatives all over the world, trying to come up with the best ideas.”

Even when Bass signed up for burnout workshops and set aside time for her mental health, the company kept piling work onto her plate. “There was an agency-wide mental health day that, of course, we were supposed to have off, and I worked 14 straight hours that day.”

Similarly, in Los Angeles, in their early 20s, Rex Thomas worked as an aerospace engineer at Elon Musk’ SpaceX with a starting salary of $86,000 that gradually increased to $96,000 four years later.

A salary of $96,000 might seem like a pretty sweet check, especially for someone as young as Thomas, but they explained that these rates were below the industry standard at the time. “That was the whole thing about SpaceX culture. Nobody does it for the money,” says Thomas. “We do it for the mission.”

According to Thomas, SpaceX’s culture used workers’ insecurities against them to get them to compete with each other. “They really preyed on people who had childhood trauma,” they said.  “It was like, you could never do enough to be loved or accepted or whatever it was. I was definitely the perfect candidate for exploitation at SpaceX.”

Thomas says there was an onsite doctor, dentist, therapist, post office, daycare, and hobby groups at SpaceX. Workers were even fed 3 meals a day. “[SpaceX] really made it so that we had no reason to leave and no reason to connect with the public,” says Thomas. “I really do feel like my experience… was kind of cult-like.”

From both Bass’ and Thomas’ experiences, I learned that high salaries come with high expectations to sacrifice your time and well-being to meet deadlines and produce intellectual property for your bosses. Even when companies offer mental health resources, those resources are performative because the culture itself thrives on competition and urgency.

Quitting led to more agency over their labor — and a cut in pay in the long run

After months of planning and saving, Bass left their corporate job in March and started their own freelance practice. At 40 hours per week, Bass’ $105,000 salary equals $53.84 per hour. If they worked 80 hours per week, that hourly rate gets cut in half to $27.34 per hour.

“At a salary job, you just have to… [do] whatever they ask you to do, no matter what,” says Bass. “You only get to push back so much before you start to feel like your job is in jeopardy. That’s the pitfall of creative industries.”

Bass now charges $120 per hour and $750 per day for freelance art direction. They say, “I have the ability to kind of pick and choose my own clients. It was definitely a scary leap of faith. It was a moment of needing to trust myself and trusting my own creative instincts.”

Of course, Bass’ circumstances are privileged. Their six-figure salary allowed them to save up for the transition. Even if they couldn’t start seeing freelance clients right away, Bass was able to rely on their savings. Support from mentors and industry contacts allowed them to start building a list of potential clients before leaving their 9 to 5 altogether.

In my financial coaching practice, I see dozens of burnt-out workers who want to make this change yet are trapped in a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle with no savings to do what Bass did.

According to a 2024 Society of Human Resources Management survey, 44% of American workers burnt out at work. In addition, 51% feel “used up” and 45% feel emotionally drained from their work. The 2023 Work in America Survey by the American Psychological Association shows that 57% of American workers experience negative impacts like emotional exhaustion and a lack of motivation to do their best.

On top of that, even when a worker successfully pivots their corporate skills in values-aligned work, starting over in a new industry can lead to a cut in pay in the long run.

This was the case for 32-year-old communications manager Beck Levin, who started their career at Facebook in 2015 with a contract position that paid $50,000 per year.

Levin says the culture at Facebook had always been toxic and stressful, but the company’s role in influencing the 2016 election was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“My coworkers and I were walking up to each other, hugging each other, and crying. It was really bad,” says Levin. “It really hurt my soul to be working there… and that experience just led me to realize that I didn’t want to ever go someplace 40 hours a week that did not align with my values.”

Levin started applying for jobs in the nonprofit sector. They were pleasantly surprised to find a position at the Positive Resource Center (PRC) in San Francisco that resulted in a $20,000 pay increase to accompany the refreshing culture change. “Most nonprofits do have a problem culture-wise,” they say. “But in my roles at PRC, I felt appreciated and celebrated for my work at every turn.”

However, as they chose to move back home to Orange County in Southern California, Levin noticed that their salary at different nonprofits continued to decrease. In the long run, Levin says, “[My career change] caused a huge decrease in pay. I started looking back into for-profit jobs because I just couldn’t really manage on that budget that I was being given.”

Levin’s salary fluctuated while they job-hopped between nonprofit and for-profit companies. “I’m working in disability rights now,” they explain. “I’m a systems change advocate for a Center for Independent Living for people with disabilities.”

Independent Living Centers provide services like peer counseling, housing assistance, and independent living skills training to other disabled community members. Many Independent Living Centers, like centers in California, are designed and operated by people with disabilities.

Levin says, “One benefit, I will say, this job is very secure because I am one of five core services that every center for independent living has to offer.”

A values-based career change is worth it — if you can afford it

Despite the decrease in pay, in the end, Levin says the decision to switch careers to align with their values was worth it. They add, “There could have been a better way to go about it. I was thinking more about doing good things for the world and not thinking about the longevity and sustainability of it.”

Levin adds that they definitely feel the impact of the continued pay cuts when comparing themselves to their brother, who makes multiple six figures working in tech in Silicon Valley. Their advice to anyone looking to make the change: “It’s not an easy thing when you’re working for the literal devil, but work there six more months so you could save money… just because you never know what’s going to happen.”

On the other hand, Thomas wants to pursue a career in music production and visual arts, even though their skills in aerospace and nuclear engineering are more likely to bring in a sustainable paycheck. In the meantime, Thomas has been selling a sizable amount of SpaceX stock that they earned earlier in their career to make ends meet.

After speaking with three people who braved uncharted territory to live within their values, I’ve come to realize that evaluating the “worth” of this career change goes beyond numbers and financial sensibility. Regardless of the financial reckoning — or healing, in some cases — after the career shift, I recognized immeasurable gratitude for the agency we now have over our labor and time.

Leo Aquino (he/they) is an award-winning independent journalist covering anti-capitalist personal finance at Queer & Trans Wealth. Leo is also a trauma-informed financial coach and educator who provides affordable services for queer, trans, and BIPOC communities.