Is 2023 the year of leaving your dream job happily?

I'm calling it a post-pandemic trend...

Last week, Ryan Tubridy announced he was leaving the Late Late Show after fourteen years of hosting RTE’s flagship light entertainment show. I’m not saying I influenced this decision, but it’s VERY CONVENIENT timing - Tubs, do you want to join the Substack massive? Are you going to write a novel too? He’d be very good at both, to be fair.

I kid, of course. But I do think that his announcement and the wording he used around it is emblematic of a new trend developing in which people leave high profile ‘dream jobs’ for the great unknown. NOW, I am well aware that Tubs will still be raking in the RTE coin with a weekday radio show. He is not just seeing where the universe takes him exactly, and he’s already a wealthy, famous man. But he has decided to give up his biggest, most conspicuous and distinguished role, and by the sounds of it he did it because he just had a feeling that his time had come:

“The truth of it is that in life sometimes, you make decisions based on your gut and this was my gut. It was based on, ‘when you know, you know… it feels right and I have been blown away by all the well wishes in the last few days; I’m very heartened and very grateful.”

OMG, same hun! It must be strange on another level for Ryan, though, because his announcement triggered a sort-of nationwide mania, a Late Late Show Idol-style frantic rush to guess his successor. Some people are raging at the timing, others are preemptively withdrawing their names from the ring, the bookies are absolutely madferit and meanwhile, I’m imagining pitching a show to RTE in which people compete for the seat a la You’re A Star. There it is - Compete For The Seat! Call me, Shinawil.

There’s also the case of the stylist Law Roach, who announced his retirement from celebrity styling at the seeming apex of his career right off the back of creating incredible client looks for the Vanity Fair Oscars party. His experience, which he discussed in a brilliant in-depth with The Cut, seems a little less clap happy and perhaps a tad more reactionary than Tubridy’s, but the instinct is the same:

“Isn’t it always best to leave when you’re on the top? [Laughs.] I think the real reason is that it’s been building for a while because, you know, I looked up one day and honestly realized that I’m not happy. I haven’t been happy, honestly, in a really long time. And the culmination of everything that’s been happening in my career these last few days kind of just pushed me over the edge. And it’s just like, You know what? I’ve done everything. I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to move and climb in this industry the way I have. But I can’t say that I didn’t do that without suffering.”

Law is now putting his energies where he feels they’ll be best served - creative direction, working directly with clients and brands, trying new things and taking risks. And hasn’t he earned the right to do that? Haven’t we all?!

I can’t speak for the guys, but my hot take on the matter is that we are valuing life, freedom and mental health far more than perceived success and ego these days. Burnout is very real, and I loved this article by journalist Marianne Jones about the job she loved nearly killing her.

But it’s also a very privileged stance, because not everyone is in the position to just say “I quit!”, especially in a cost of living crisis. However, the fact that a lot of people are worse off than you or I doesn’t mean that our problems aren’t real, and that attitude is to blame for a lot of mental health issues. If you’re suffering, or simply no longer loving what you do, you have the right to do something about it.

I think that after the long covid lockdowns, and the post-pandemic hybrid working landscape, many of us are looking at our current situations and reevaluating them. Some are opting to work for themselves, some retraining for a different career path entirely. For some, a new position is enough. It makes me think of the old saying “a change is as good as a rest,” which has always rung true to me.

Many people fear change, but it’s as inevitable as the sun rising. I always think of two quotes by the great and wise George Bernard Shaw when I’m struggling with it - “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself” and “progress is impossible without change, and those. who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

(DEEP! Maybe I did learn something in college)

For me, it was a culmination of things. A realisation that my job would never love me back. A feeling that I’d done all I could. A desire to try something new, to go for long-held dreams. A desire to NOT be anyone else’s boss, but to try being my own. I’d tried that once before, but in very different circumstances in which I felt like I had very little control or support. Now, things are different. Everything is different. So I leapt. And the overriding feeling since is one of pride in myself.

It takes a lot of courage to walk away from any job, but especially a role that many think defines you. I’d been working on detaching my identity from my career for a while, which then allowed me the space to really look at things critically. What would I do if I could do anything? What would I do if money wasn’t an issue?

For me it very much IS, btw, and deciding to forego a monthly salary for the sake of change and adventure is something that took a LOT of thought and late night talks with my husband. Money (or lack thereof) is one of my biggest anxiety triggers, so that was my biggest obstacle. But I am very lucky, very privileged and very grateful that I can make it work.

I am quite certain that my pals Law, Ryan and I will be absolutely grand. Fortune favours the brave, jump and the net will appear etc. I for one am over the girl boss success trope, over being ruled by ego, over being afraid.

Things might be different yet again in a year or two, and that’s fine - I like to think I have a sort of fluid approach to employment and self-employment when it suits me, and that’s fine too. For now, I shall live in the moment, something that’s very difficult for a control freak planner to do. But so far, so good. And sure isn’t that the best we can ask for?