30 People Share The Exact Moment At Their Jobs That Made Them Go ‘Radical’ And Join The ‘Antiwork’ Movement

“The pandemic has given all of us more time to think about what we really want to do in life. Furthermore, given so many fun things we used to do have been curtailed, there's been this huge increase in people being dissatisfied with life overall. With the help of government benefits, millions more people quitting suboptimal jobs is an inevitability,” he explained to us.

“Personally, I left my investment banking job in 2012 at age 34 because work was no longer interesting or fun. I was doing the same old thing for 13 years,” the expert opened up.

“I wanted to take a leap of faith, while I was still relatively young. Feeling regret for not trying something new is one of the worst feelings,” Sam explained to Bored Panda that young employees tend to have much more flexibility when it comes to career changes or doing passion projects.

According to the financial expert, there are some concrete ways to bring workers back to the job industry. “Not only could higher compensation entice more people to come back to work, but more flexibility as well. It's clear that very few people work or need to work 40 or more hours a week. There's a lot more productivity happening if you're able to work from home,” he pointed out.

A large part of an employee’s job satisfaction relates to what their coworkers and bosses are like. When you’re part of a friendly, talented, and passionate team, you can’t help but adopt their enthusiasm.

On the flip side, if you’re constantly being micromanaged, overworked, and underpaid, you start looking for greener pastures. They say that people leave managers, not companies. Whether you agree with this or not doesn’t change the fact that for some people this is the reason why they go elsewhere.

Eddy Ng, the Smith Professor of Equity & Inclusion in Business at Queen’s University, explained to Bored Panda during a previous interview the difference between strong and weak leaders.

For him, a strong leader in the workplace is someone who is principled, moral, and who always does the right thing. Meanwhile, weak leaders are those who dither or only ever do the things that make them popular.

“The notion of servant leadership is gaining attention in the workplace. Although it is associated with many of the strong leadership traits such as empathy, selflessness, and humility, the focus is on the leader’s propensity to serve (or support) their followers. Servant leaders empower and lift up followers (employees) to motivate and fuel their passion,” the professor told us.

According to the expert, at the core of leader-follower relationships lies the principle of exchange. “Employees can manage that relationship to have work satisfaction. In this instance, employees need to communicate what they need (tools) or work conditions (autonomy) in order for them to perform optimally when working with a controlling boss. Employees need to convey what they can and are able to perform,” he stressed the importance of clear communication.

Another part of doing well at work is very individual. It requires that employees focus on their physical needs by getting enough rest, movement, and having good diets. Fitness expert Jack Bly told Bored Panda that “to increase our work output, the #1 place I look at is health.”

“Better health leads to more energy, more focus, and more productivity. To improve our health and ultimately our output, we need to make sure we’re doing things like sleeping 7-8 hours consistently, [having] good nutrition, [and maintaining] consistent exercise,” he said.

“Prioritizing things like workouts actually give us more energy rather than take energy,” the expert said. He highlighted the fact that sleeping and eating well, and exercising make a “night and day difference in our output.”