Sometimes, quitters do win

Three months ago, I was miserable with my job. My coworkers were not fully trained or corrected on mistakes. Each shift, I was fixing errors and catching up on tasks that always went undone between my times there. Multiple guests each week were commenting about me being visibly overworked, and management wanted to shift some of their responsibilities onto me without any other adjustments (including my hourly pay).

Yesterday on LinkedIn, I saw my former manager share a post saying that it’s unacceptable to say “that’s not my job” in hospitality, and it got me thinking.

I’m not surprised she shared that. After months of my skills being taken advantage of and my grievances ignored, that was something I finally started saying. It took me way too long.

My former supervisor shared this image with a comment about its application in hospitality on LinkedIn, prompting the reflection that led to this blog.

I won’t say the post was targeted. It likely wasn’t, but that manager did joke about me being “weak” shortly after I put in my notice in order to work at a different hotel. Seeing that post made me reflect on just how drastic the change in environment was when I started working down the road.

At my new job, I felt welcome instantly by everyone there. My mistakes were corrected as they occurred during training, and my coworkers’ mistakes were corrected if they came up during my training. The speed of my adjustment was celebrated, and I get feedback often. There are no cycles of incomplete tasks shoved onto my shifts’ to-do lists or repeat errors to fix from coworkers. I am expected to do my job (and only my job responsibilities) when I show up for work.

It made me want to do more. Instead of leaving upset or angry like I did every day before I switched to a different hotel, I leave tired on my worst days now. I pick up extra shifts working in the laundry room, come in on my days off when we’re busy, and help out my coworkers as much as I can. I don’t feel like I have to do those things. Everyone does what they can to help out there. It feels like being part of a team, while my old job felt like there was an unspoken competition among everyone else to do as little work as possible.

There’s a sense of personal responsibility. Everyone takes ownership of it when they mess up. If someone is wrong, they apologize and do better.

At my previous job, there was gossip. Everyone complained to everyone else if they had an issue with someone at work. Even management would insult employees to other employees. Trying to maintain any level of professionalism wasn’t possible. I got made fun of for taking the check-in process and phone calls too seriously while my managers would yell in the back as though people at the desk couldn’t hear them. In hindsight, I understand why information about HR was never made accessible to me as a front desk agent. Nothing about that work environment was healthy or acceptable.

I knew the second I left that I had made the right decision. The more time I spend in my new position, the more relief I feel for getting out.

One of my former coworkers told me I would regret it. He insisted that we had a good work environment, refusing to see the difference between my role and his job away from the desk at the sales office. He refused to acknowledge that him being an almost 30-year-old man and me being around the same age as our manager’s daughters might have contributed to us being treated differently at work.

I heard that line that “the grass is always greener” like I was making a mistake getting out of a work environment that I felt was toxic. That coworker tried to convince me that “work is just like this” and I needed to get used to it. He treated me like a clueless kid who doesn’t know how the world works.

I’m lucky that I knew better. I had multiple jobs throughout college, and I knew what a healthy work environment looked like already. I had never hated a job before, and I didn’t want to let that become something I adjusted to or accepted.

There are so many places hiring right now. Employees in positions like mine can leave and find a better fit more easily at the moment, and I’m glad that clicked for me.

If you’re looking for a sign to leave your toxic workplace for something else, maybe this is it. Indeed and LinkedIn are a great start to looking at your options. After all, it never hurts to look at applications. The grass might really be greener on the other side.