Workers talk about what makes them want to quit their jobs

'Time to go for it'

The pandemic gifted Freeport residents Alicia and Brandon V. Ray with a rare opportunity — "precious time to self-reflect," said Alicia, 31.

They were able to reassess their priorities and zero in on "what we want out of life," she said. They soon realized they wanted more out of their careers and decided "this was the time to go for it."

"I realized I wanted to work for a brand I believed in and for a company that aligned with my personal principles and overall interests," said Alicia.

She also didn't want to commute to Manhattan again for her job as a product marketing manager for a telecommunications company. So she started looking.

She soon connected with a recruiter on LinkedIn. Last month, after quitting her previous job, she began work at a social media company that announced its permanent work-from-home plans in the spring.

Brandon, 38, who spent seven years as regional director of external and legislative affairs at AT&T, said the "stillness and pause" created by COVID-19 led him to question his own career trajectory.

"For so long, we’d been used to always being busy and ... focused on ‘doing this, going there’ that when all that suddenly stopped … it made me think, ‘OK, where am I going? Have I done everything I can do in this role, in this job? Have I gotten all I can from it? So, when I realized the answer was ‘yes,’ I knew what I had to do."

In August of last year, after a friend referred him for a job, he quit and took a position in community relations at Amazon, also working remotely.

"With everything going on with COVID, with the pandemic," Alicia said, "it’s just like, life is short. You have to enjoy it."

Less pay, lower expenses

Cristina Arroyo, 38, a single mother of two, ages 10 and 12, in May left an in-person office job at a Valley Stream trucking company for what she calls her "dream job." She’s now working remotely as an editor for the LI Herald.

Arroyo had held editing positions in the past and has two bachelor’s degrees and a master's.

"At the office, the situation was very stressful. All eyes were on me," she said. "If I went to the bathroom or was not on my computer for literally one second it was like ‘C’mon, what are you doing?’"

And despite high performance reviews, Arroyo said, the pressure from management to "just look busy" was constant. One afternoon, things got so bad she broke down in tears. That’s when she knew it was time to make a change.

Making the move meant taking a pay cut. Even so, "The peace of mind, freedom and flexibility I have now is priceless," said Arroyo, recalling a time when she worked remotely while visiting her parents in Puerto Rico.

"I was poolside calling people in Nassau County, calling the comptroller’s office for a story, typing on my computer, sending emails and then taking a break and getting in the pool," she said. "How great is that?"

But more important than the perk of working poolside, she said, is the fact that the flexibility of her new job allows her to "take care of my kids myself instead of having to rely on someone else to do it."

"I can actually spend more time with them now," she said. Another bonus? "Saving money," Arroyo said.

"Before I used to shell out about $375 a month per kid for after-school care; I’d spend money on gas, driving back and forth from here to there and back, money on lunches … it’s a lot, and it all adds up," she said.

"But working remotely, I don’t have to worry about any of that, and I can be a productive, efficient employee, and a present mom, all at the same time."

Health, safety and flexibility

Before the pandemic, Lita Davidson, founder of the Long Island Job Search & Job Postings Facebook group, said she never saw "a single post in search of remote work" from the group's 33,000 members.

"Now, that’s all I see," she said: 90% of people who post in the group are looking for remote work. In the last month, said Davidson, 31, of Bay Shore, there were more than 500 posts shared on the page.

"Most of the messages are from people saying how working from home has changed their lives ... and expressing why they don’t want to go back to the office," she said. "For a lot of people, health and safety remains a big factor, especially with the new mutations of the virus."

But Davidson said for others, it just boils down to flexibility and cost-efficiency.

"People don’t want to be stuck in traffic every morning and afternoon. They don’t want to spend all their money on gas or on child care," she said. "Others don’t want to leave their pets home alone for so long … the list goes on."

Davidson said some people mentioned the ability to care for sick or elderly relatives, mirroring her own experience. For her, being able to work remotely means "much more than being able to work in my pajama pants."

"It means I can ‘be there’ for my mom. She has breast cancer," Davidson said. "If I’m here, I can be a much better support system, I can take a break and drive her to a chemo appointment or just be around to make sure she’s okay."

Davidson’s mom, Christine Sass, 53, said her diagnosis would have hit her a lot harder if it weren’t for the support she’s gotten from her daughter. "She’d be working on her computer but also reminding me of a pill I had to take or, during her lunch hour, she’d make me a healthy lunch," she said. "And just knowing she’s here [is] such a big emotional support."

Davidson, who is on paid family leave, said the Farmingdale beauty product company where she works as a media assistant is trying to bring people back to the office. "If they don’t allow me to continue working from home, I’ll most likely have to leave a company I love and search for another job that’s remote."

So, what’s the post-pandemic lesson for employers? "It’s that employees are now prioritizing their lives," Davidson said.

Correction: A caption on an earlier version of this story gave the wrong first name for Brandon V. Ray.