The researcher that made her own switch
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The expression "opting out" is a type of switch which
means that you voluntarily drop out of your career to do
something completely different. It is becoming more and
more common, says author and researcher Ingrid Biese,
who has written two books about the phenomenon.
"After Covid, we have started to see something we have
never seen before... people want to work on their own
terms and create their own definition of what it means
to be successful. Many dream of making a switch, it's time,
in the new modern society, but it's easier said than done
to break their patterns. My research shows that it's often
a crisis that leads people to take the step and
change their lives and careers.
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Senior lecturer Ingrid Biese is a researcher at the School of Business and Economics in Åbo (School of business and economics). Her research area is about something she did herself; dropped out of a successful career to do something completely different.
-I trained as an economist and have a background as a consultant in business. I was a partner in a consultancy but felt strongly that I wanted to do something else. I was simply not comfortable in my working life situation. So, I took the plunge, dropped out of my career and thought about what to do instead. I had long had a dream to study social psychology and my switch began with me starting to study alongside my job as a consultant.
Several years earlier, Ingrid had taken part in the debate that followed the American journalist and writer Lisa Belkin's attention-grabbing series of articles "The Opt-Out revolution" published in the New York Times in 2003, where Belkin interviewed well-educated top career women who dropped out to become stay-at-home mothers. The common denominator was that they did not feel that their careers made them happy. That they wanted to live their lives on their own terms.
-When I was accepted to the doctoral program in 2009 and thought about what my thesis would be about, I attended a workshop focusing on professional life in our modern society, which is a lot about "quick fixes" and always being available. Then suddenly I thought of that American series of articles that I had followed with great interest many years before - I saw points of contact and decided what my doctoral dissertation would be about. I wanted to research the reasons why more and more successful people drop out of their careers to do something completely different. Today, you don't drop out to become a housewife - but because you want to live on different terms.
The dropout process
In today's media, you can often read sunshine stories about people living their dream, who found their calling, sold everything and sailed around the world, started their own company, etc. But the threshold to follow one's dreams is very high, says Ingrid Briese, who in her research has interviewed many successful women and men who have concluded that they need a change and have decided to quit their career and start something completely different.
- Leaving a successful career or a well-paid job is not an easy process. It is often very protracted. Many dream of a different everyday life, a change. But it is difficult to make the final decision. Not infrequently, it is a crisis that is the triggering factor. All those I interviewed in my study experienced great relief and satisfaction once they decided and took the step to change careers.
Ingrid Biese mentions several reasons why more and more people seem to feel that they need a change.
- There are, of course, several factors, but many are tired of everything going so fast today and that you have to be available all the time. Humans have a need to have control over their lives and do something that feels meaningful. Then a change in life is needed. For us humans to feel good, it is important that we enjoy our everyday life. But society today has very high expectations of us, and life easily becomes too stressful and hectic.
Ingrid's doctoral dissertation was about women who quit their careers and resulted in the book "Opting out and in". The sequel is about men who jump off the career ladder to invest in something else, "Men do it too – opting out and in".
The difference between women and men who drop out
- When the expression "opting out" came about, it was about women who drop out. After analyzing and studying the phenomenon among both women and men who drop out of successful careers, I am convinced that the phenomenon is human and about today's society rather than gender. More and more people want to work and live on different terms, take control of your time and your life.
Ingrid Biese explains that the dropout process looks relatively the same for men and women. But they reason in different ways about why they drop out. The difference is society's expectations.
- We all pursue a career for the same reasons... Women and men go through similar processes when they come to the realization that "now I can't do this anymore, now I have to do something else." But it's still harder for men to drop out because of social expectations. Even though we are considered to be the most equal in the world, in Finland we still have "the breadwinner ideal"; the ideal that it is the man who works and earns money and has to provide for the family. Women who pursue careers are considered to have drive and willpower, while men pursue careers for more traditional reasons such as expectations, high status and pressure. What I have seen in everyone I have interviewed, both men and women, is that before they drop out, they feel that they somehow lack control over their everyday life or their lives.
The future
Biese's research touches on traditions and how they tend to lose meaning in today’s society.
- I guess that more and more people will make both voluntary and involuntary switches and must change their mindset as society changes.
The rapid changes take place as much at the societal level as at the individual one. This is something the corporate world of the future should adapt to, says Biese, and explains that one reason why people feel they need a change is the uncertainty within the corporate world.
- HR is not really keeping up, I think they will have to adapt more to how people live today. And speaking of the lack of control that all the people I interviewed mentioned as a reason why they quit, organizational cultures should change so that people don't lose control and feel forced to quit their jobs. We need workplaces that can allow diversity and more empathy, which in turn leads to trust. One thing I notice throughout my research is that many people dream of making a switch in life. Not everyone wants to talk about it, but many do.
