The company badge. The org chart that makes you wonder how anything ever gets done. And those 9 layers of approval you have to jump through just to get anything off the ground. For a lot of people, what used to feel safe and secure started to feel more like a prison cell.
That’s the underlying reason why so many folks are jumping ship and leaving corporate jobs for tiny companies the ones with 20 people or less. It’s usually not some huge, life-changing reason. More like a slow drain of enthusiasm.
What’s Driving People Out of Corporate Jobs
Those waves of layoffs did a ton of damage, let’s be real. When someone who’s always done everything right still gets canned, people start to lose faith in the whole “stick with the company and you’ll be okay” thing.
Then you slap on top of that the whole return-to-office requirement nonsense, the badge swipes, and the whole ‘lets pretend it’s 2015 again’ vibe… and all of a sudden, the perks of a big corporation start to feel like a joke.
Shift from Corporate to Small Companies
And then there’s pay raises at the big companies have been creeping along while everything else has just been going through the roof, so the pay gap that used to scare people off of leaving corporate jobs has actually shrunk a bit on its own.
It isn’t all about running away from something, though. People are running TO something – jobs that actually mean something, have some real impact, and let you see the results of your work. At a small company you can actually see the fruits of your labour, and trust me that’s way more valuable than some fancy logo on a business card.
Before you ditch corporate and start looking for a smaller gig, though let’s have one honest warning: ask that small company how long its finances will last. Get them to put it in writing. Not exactly the most exciting question, but trust me, it’ll save you down the line.
