Hacker News Reader

Comment by makeitdouble | Hacker News Reader

I have no idea about your walk of life, but people leaving low paying jobs doesn’t feel irrational or lazy, or bullshitty in general. Why shouldn’t they ?

View on HN

The reason it sounds bulshitty is that in order to leave a low paying job in which you are truly on the cusp you have to have another job lined up. There isn't a lot of savings to manage time to find another job if you just get up and go. If they didn't have another job lined up chances are they wouldn't walk out on the job. Not agreeing or disagreeing just adding some perspective on why it sounds a bit odd of a statement.

"Walking out" of a job implies leaving the employer without warning in the middle of a workday, something many people in the US pride themselves on not doing (despite largely having the legal right to do so).

It's related to strong senses of personal responsibility and pride in reliability and dependability, in my experience.

Let’s not split hairs about the manner in which some folks leave their jobs. “Walking out” can imply leaving without warning, or might better represent the worker’s state of mind when they make the decision to give notice.

The underlying problem is that wages are so low in some places that it’s not possible to survive without:

- multiple incomes in the household

- multiple jobs

- going into debt

- living in a dangerous place

Etc.

These conditions leave the person without much choice but to leave.

Anecdotally, I remember multiple instances of coworkers walking out in the middle of a shift when I worked as a cook in a chain restaurant due to the combination of high stress (including abuse from customers and management) and low wages.

I wasn't at all trying to say this doesn't happen.

I was trying to explain some of the common attitudes that might be related to the OP's response.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com