You Don't Have to Hate Your Job to Leave It
Remote Work Secrets - Edition #34
What's Inside:
Why the relationship rules you already know apply directly to your job search. Open communication, trust, and compromise aren't soft skills. They're survival skills.
How to figure out what you actually value before you waste time looking. Flexibility isn't a perk. For some of us, it's non-negotiable.
Why going back to the office felt like a step backwards, and what that moment of clarity can teach you about your own search.
This Week's Remote Roles. Real remote roles for Senior Professionals.
I worked at a company where I was paid well, treated well, got on with my colleagues - I even had a hybrid setup before anyone was calling it that.
So why did I leave??
At one point they read out the results of an employee engagement survey to the whole team.
Every score - including the poor ones. Slightly awkward in parts. But one of the company values was to be open and transparent, and that kind of blunt honesty has always been my love language.
It got me thinking about what I actually value. At work, in life, and in relationships.
We spend more time with our colleagues than with the people we love. So it actually matters that we enjoy what we do. And it really matters who we're doing it with.
My parents' generation had a different deal. You were grateful for a job. You put your head down, didn't rock the boat, and got on with it. Fast forward to today, and companies are throwing ping pong tables, free beer and meditation rooms at people just to get them through the door.
Neither extreme is right. There's always a middle ground.
I'm no relationship guru, but most of us know what makes a relationship actually work:
Open communication
Trust
Respect
Gratitude
Compromise
So why don't we apply this at work??
Some companies are doing their part through flexible working, genuinely caring about mental health, and creating environments people want to be in. But what are YOU doing to meet them halfway?
Are you asking for more money without offering more value? Complaining to a colleague instead of addressing the issue head-on? Expecting things to change while changing nothing yourself?
And I'll flip it on companies too. Can you really expect the best from people if you're not giving them the tools to do their best? Are you hiding information and expecting trust in return? Are you getting to the root of problems or just papering over them?
Both sides have to work for it. That's the deal.
At my old company, I did a job I enjoyed, with a group of weird and wonderful people, for a company whose values I could actually relate to outside of work too. Open communication meant I was trusted to do my job without being micromanaged. I worked hard, they showed gratitude. Nobody pretended to be perfect. It was, genuinely, a good working relationship.
And then lockdown happened.
I got a taste of what REAL flexibility felt like. No more commute or stuck at the same desk. Just work, done well, from wherever I happened to be. When the return to office came, I couldn't do it.
I'd seen another way of living and I couldn't unsee it. True flexibility, where work and personal life are integrated, not at war with one another. Where location is irrelevant because the work speaks for itself. Once you've had that, going back to any office feels like a step backwards.
So I left. And I built something on the other side of it.
This Week's Remote Roles
🎯Fully Remote Jobs (No "Fake Remote" Here):
If you're reading this and you recognise that feeling, you're in the right place.
The Remote Rebellion Job Fair is coming. Real remote roles, real companies, real humans, not a list of "remote-friendly" hybrid jobs dressed up as something they're not. You'll even get to meet the recruiters for the positions above!
Stay Rebellious,
Michelle & The RR Team