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Woman Tells People To Stop 'Wasting' Their Lives & Quit Jobs They Hate

Photo: TikTok
TikToker warning people against staying in a job you hate

It's quite possibly the biggest catch-22 of most of our lives — we need a job to survive, but our jobs end up canceling out so many of the things we've always dreamed of.

Some of us are luckier than others of course. For some of us, our jobs are our dreams; others make enough money to be able to serve both masters. But for most of us it's a trade-off, and for many of us just trying to get by in this world of practically non-existent job security and inadequate pay, it's a trade-off that often involves sucking it up through misery.

One woman has a solution for this — and it's left a lot of people very, very angry.

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A TikToker says people should quit their jobs and live their dreams rather than 'waste' their lives.

She doesn't not have a point of course. As far as we know, we only get one go-around on this ball of dirt, and spending it in misery and frustration is a heartbreaking prospect if you think about it — and one all too many of us have just accepted as the status quo. TikToker "@nadiakhaledd" refuses to be one of them and says it's just not worth it.

She claims your "geriatric self" will have end-of-life regrets about staying in a job you hate.

   

   

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"Let's pretend you spend the rest of your life climbing whatever corporate ladder you're on right now," Nadia said in her TikTok. She then asked people to imagine themselves in their golden years, looking back over their lives.

"When you're in your seventies or eighties and you're thinking back on your life and thinking about your career and all the things that you did and didn't do, do you really want to have to come to terms with the fact that you spent 30 or 40 years climbing a corporate ladder you didn't even give a s--t about?"

She's actually right about this. Working too hard for too long at an unfulfilling career that kept them fully embracing their dreams and especially their loved ones is perennially among the top end-of-life regrets according to mental health professionals, hospice care workers, and others who deal with people facing death.

"You could be fulfilling your literal lifelong dreams right now," Khaledd went on to say. But instead, people continue "wasting your life away because you keep talking yourself out of doing it." She then ended her video with a simple piece of one-word advice: "Quit."

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Mental health experts say staying in a job you hate is more damaging than quitting.

In the scientific and mental health community, there is not even a dispute — Khaledd is absolutely right about the deleterious impacts of staying in a job you hate.

A 2017 study at the UK's University of Manchester found that the negative mental health impacts of staying in a job you hate are actually worse than being unemployed, and can exacerbate any mental health conditions you may already have as well. And because mental health issues like stress and anxiety impact physical health too, having a job you hate can hurt your physical body as well.

In 2016, a study at Ohio State University found that people who hated their jobs in their 20s and 30s not only had a higher rate of mental health problems like anxiety and sleep disturbances in their 40s, but had likely put themselves at greater risk of issues like heart disease as well.

"The higher levels of mental health problems for those with low job satisfaction may be a precursor to future physical problems,” study author Dr Hui Zheng said. "Increased anxiety and depression could lead to cardiovascular or other health problems that won’t show up until they are older." 

So there you have it — staying in a job you hate absolutely isn't worth it. But of course, there's just one problem — most of us aren't able to leave.

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The TikToker's advice about quitting angered many people because they aren't able to afford to leave their jobs.

Right about the core facts as Khaledd is, she didn't make any effort to account for the fact that quitting a job puts most people in danger of homelessness — and a lot of people on TikTok didn't appreciate her eliding this reality at all.

"Yes...but I gotta pay rent," one person wrote. "Baby, I've got bills to pay," another wrote. One woman cracked, "sure girly, if you pay for it." Many accused Khaledd of being too privileged to understand the realities of the situation. "Judging her content she never had to struggle with money problems, these are always the people trying to give advice," one person wrote.

Others found Khaledd's advice outright absurd and not a little insensitive. "Reason: money, everything is money. Do you think that I never think about this?" one commenter wrote. "Cool, I’ll be expecting a $10M wire from you so I can start doing that tomorrow."

But others thought she was kind of on to something. "Once you realize that [there are] actually NO RULES in life to follow, and you can do whatever you want, it’s soooo liberating," one man wrote. Of course, living that way requires life situations and privileges not everyone has, and for many it's not so simple. 

But career coach Shauna Cole says there's still hope. As she shares in the video below, step one if you're a person trapped in your job by your financial situation is to shift your mindset from "I can't quit," to "I can quit," and then begin looking for a better job. Then, you can begin planning your next moves.

In the end, getting out of the cycle of staying in a job you hate is a long-game situation, but it can be done. And if all else fails? There's always quiet quitting!

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John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers mental health and human interest topics.