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Lauren Long (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Blog Writer

“You quit right now, you quit every day the rest of your life.” I heard these words in Glory Road, where basketball coach Don Haskins, played by Josh Lucas, warns one of his players that if you quit once, you’ll quit rather than face obstacles for the rest of your life. Ultimately, these words are what got me through high school and other challenges.

But what about the times when quitting is the best option? 

Pre-pandemic, I worked as a server. When I first started, I looked forward to working because I genuinely liked my coworkers and, more often than not, I stayed after my shift to visit and have post-work drinks. Over time though, as my workplace saw a turnover in staff, this became less frequent. 

I went from enjoying my job to hating it and regularly came home in tears or just downright grouchy. My parents, seeing how miserable I was, encouraged me to seek employment elsewhere. 

I found another job at a glass shop, and for a few months I did both. I worked at the glass shop during the day and served in the evenings. Hindsight is 20/20, and while the financial gains of the other job were good, the impact it had on my mental health and psyche were less so. When I went home, I would still be going through everything I did at work that day. I was burnt out, stressed out and getting closer to telling my boss at the glass shop that I couldn’t do it anymore. 

However, they beat me to the punch when they called me in for a meeting. The manager of the business where I was working was a very nice person, and I could see in his face that he wasn’t looking forward to telling me that I was fired. It was me who ended up saying the words because I could tell that he didn’t want to.

Instead of feeling angry and hurt, I was relieved, and I told him not to feel bad because I had been getting to the point where I was going to give my notice. We parted on good terms and I went back to having one job.

While my energy levels returned to normal and I was no longer burned out, there was still the problem of not being happy at work. It didn’t matter if I was dealing with obnoxious customers or picking up the slack of coworkers, at the end of each night I went home feeling downhearted, stuck and lost on how to make it out of this job that I had grown to dread. The final straw came when I served my high school principal and I could read the judgment on his face when he asked what my younger sister was doing and compared it to me working as a server. 

I’ve never forgotten that moment and how much it hurt, but it also taught me a valuable life lesson: it is never okay to judge and shame someone on their job, because you don’t know their reasons for taking that job in the first place. It also refuelled my desire to find other employment, but fate had other plans. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, that was my out. During the time I was laid off, I took a number of writing courses, and by the end of summer 2020, I had applied to and been interviewed for my first writing job. In the four years since, I have worked several writing jobs that have added time and experience to my resume while honing my writing skills. 

The pandemic was difficult for everyone, but I’m also grateful because it allowed me to pursue writing as a career. 

Even if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I still would have left my serving job. It was getting harder to go to work because I was done with people treating me like I was less than them. There were people who treated me and my coworkers like objects instead of human beings. 

While serving improved my social skills and increased my self-esteem, it took a toll on my mental and emotional health, and no job is worth that. 

I believe that if a job is sucking the life out of us, the best thing we can do is quit. 

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Born and raised in Quesnel, BC, Lauren Long is a strong advocate for mental health and well-being, as well as being a major Swiftie and a role model for positive body image. She believes in the value of truth, and that truth matters. When she’s not writing, you can find her on the pole, on the training mats or curled up with a good book.