So, here’s the deal. I wrote this post back in March when I was leaving my Corporate job and I think I was a little scared back then. I think I was still under the influence of working in a cube and still brainwashed by all the “employee perks” that came with the job.
Now that I have some distance and a lot more confidence in my writing, I wanted to shake the dust off of this one and tell you all what I really think.
Originally shared March 03. 2026 (but now with MORE!)
Have you ever laid in bed and dreaded opening your eyes while the chirp of the alarm a few inches from your head urged you to wake the hell up and get ready for your 11 hour day babysitting grown people who have weaponized their incompetence? No? Just me?
Well, this is that story, so if you can’t relate to hating your job and wanted to disappear into the forest to escape the shackles of modern society, then I can tell you know, this post is not for you. If you’re still reading though, let me set the stage… I am in my early 40’s, a project manager for a BIG engineering firm and I hate my job. I hate everything about it, except for the pay — which that part is great (like six figures great); don’t get me wrong. But the money earned is as a major cost: My freedom, my happiness, my sanity, my tears.
I’ve been daydreaming about early retirement. I want to open a coffee shop and just serve drinks all day. I want to do real work. Like, REAL work where I create a thing, serve a thing, the customer enjoys the thing and we are done. Our client-customer relationship is over until they want me to make another thing for them.
Currently, my relationship with my “internal clients” (which thats code for co-workers who are above you on the rungs of the corporate cult ladder) takes forever to complete. We have Teams meetings about meetings. We have per my last emails to cover our asses and we have revision after revision after revision because one guy with a few letters behind his name had a “whiz bang” idea at the last minute.
It’s exhausting and I am exhausted and I literally hate every single moment of it. But you know what…
The best part of this week is that I am giving this place my two-weeks notice.
Before coming back to this post and revising, this is how I kicked it off back in March, 2026:
Life lately has been wild, to say the least. I’m excited to share some really BIG news about my little world. I am officially ‘retiring’ from my cubicle job and will be running a little coffee shop while also making more time for artsy stuff and enjoying living.
I had just given my two weeks notice a few days before and was honestly terrified. I was literally about to “throw it all away” to be a barista. Now, my dream was to open my own cafe somewhere in the vicinity of my homebase so that my early mornings would yield a shorter commute and that once the cafe door was locked up for the day, I’d have some time to live, ya know, live a life.
Things came to me in a slightly different package, I don’t technically own this cafe as it is an “employee benefit” — meaning, thats its a complimentary service offered to folks who work for the publisher three days a week, the tiny but mighty little 14’x16’ sized coffee shop lives in the lobby and it’s closed on the weekends, major holidays and I earn a salary and have health insurance, like really good health insurance at that.
Oh yea, did I mention I technically work for a publishing company? Insert squeal here.
Back in March, 2026 before actually working in the cafe, I had some hopes and dreams for the experience. Here is a snippet from my original version of this essay where I gush about all the great things ahead:
the dream has always been to build the coffee shop, but boy, did I get lucky, because this coffee shop already exists, its closed on the weekends due to its location AND in comparison to my cubicle gig (consisting of 11-hour days) I’ll “feel” like I am only working part-time since my typical work day will soon be just about 8 hours.
At the end of each day, I’ll be out the door early enough to enjoy some sunshine, and with it being just a jump away from home, the commute to work will be shaved down from 40 minutes to just about 6 minutes! Not to mention that it’s equally super close to the art studio, so I see lots of artsy stuff happening in my future (finally!).
I think I am dreaming, right? All of that seems way too good to be true.
For the most part, I would say that everything rang true to this hope, but of course, life finds a way and the art making wasn’t as abundant as I had hoped, and there was of course a major adjustment that I knew going into this whole thing but didnt realize just how old and tired my body was — the standing. I knew that my feet were going to HURT and another down side was that coffee making money isn’t exactly the same as mega-corp cubicle money, but at the time, I just kept thinking “life is way too short.”
My cubicle job kept be distracted, tired, frustrated and any chance of living outside in the real world was squashed. Even on PTO days I would get calls and texts about things that truly didn’t need me but because I was just a bottom feeder, it was my job to make my bosses job easier. Again, weaponized incompetence.
It was probably a month or so before I applied for the job to run the cafe at the publishing company, I was getting coffee with a mentor and he told me that just because ‘this’ place is a great place to work for some, doesnt mean its a great place for me and I’ll tell you what, that really opened my eyes to the realness around me. He also advised that I try to start teaching art again to see if that brought back a spark — which I tried to do that but it was a flop (maybe I’ll write about that another time).
After that meet up, the decision to leave Corporate America was made, I just didn’t realize it yet. I knew I needed some type of balance that let me experience these years of my life. I mean, afterall, whats the point of making all that money if I am too broken down and depressed to enjoy it, or I am on call 24/7 and can never get away from it long enough to take a fucking breath.
I felt zapped at the end of each day. I wasn’t making time for my hobbies, and my days in the studio had longer and longer stretches in between them. I think subconsciously, that mentor meet up rebooted me and gave me the ability to realize that I am the type of human who needs a ‘real’ job, doing real things. Helping and serving real people. I need a job that gives me the mental space, away from screens, to be inspired.
I know that my choice to jump ship on a “normal” life may be jarring for some, I mean, so many folks at the giant cube corp had no problem telling me that I was taking a major step back, and brought up plenty of what ifs, but I felt it in my soul that I was dying. I guess I wanna say this to you if you have gotten this far and if you are ever feeling off about your day-to-day life like I was; consider that the version of success that you’re currently eating may not be for you.
Find your bliss! Curate your life! Define success on your terms. We only get so many days on this floating rock, please go out and live them to the best of your ability. Coming back to this article with a few months of serving coffee under the belt has proven to me that life goes on after the 9 - 5 and that the money isnt everything, that taking a vacation and not spending half of it on email and teams is worth leaving the job alone. That doing good work at work and living a good life outside of it can be real if you are willing to invest in yourself first.
Just quit. just quit that job that’s killing you and get a blue collar gig. Go get a real job (like I did) and experience living.
Yay! Every time someone burns down a life they hate, a fairy gets it's wings 🤍✨
Genuinely can’t wait for the day I leave my day job!
I have quite the flexible day job, so I don’t do the normal 9-5, but it’s still a company I work for, and sometimes they got me shaking my head… AND eventually I want to to work for myself, or maybe together with someone on something I find more purposeful and creative!
Lovely read 💖