Are you feeling trapped? bored? Do you ever wish you could escape the cubicle life?

I hear you. And let me tell you this:

You are NOT alone.

64% of millennial workers have expressed their intention to leave their corporate job by 2020 (2016 Deloitte survey).

Long gone are the days of a ‘job for life’ and the security that our parents longed for.

And there are a few reasons why that is.

 

Freedom

 

 

Millennials have high expectations when it comes to flexibility on the job. They look for more remote work opportunities and want to be in control of their own schedule.

With the digital age, it’s never been easier to achieve that freedom. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection.

While some organizations start giving more flexibility to their employees, most companies are still against relishing control over the whereabouts of their workers.

And because millennials are not here to pursue somebody else’s dreams, they prefer to trade their well-paid corporate jobs to work on passion projects from the comfort of their home or while travelling full time even if that means living paycheck-to-paycheck.

 

Burnout

Not everyone is miserable or frustrated at work but almost everyone is stressed out. Long hours, too much work and pressure are leaving our generation frazzled. More and more people find it difficult to unwind after a long day in the office.

As companies get greedier and put numbers over employees’ health, the rate of burnout is rising worldwide.

Chronic stress is a real danger to our health and well being. Insomnia, anxiety, ulcers, heart problems are only a few of the symptoms showing up when burned out.

 

 

Bound to your desk

Dr Levine who came up with the mantra ‘sitting is the new smoking’ spent years studying the effects of long term sitting on our health. His conclusion was:

‘Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death’

50% of US employees admit spending 40 to 60+ hours a week in the office. That’s half of our waking hours consumed by work, most of which we sit on our butt typing our life away.

The other half we either eat, commute or binge watch some series on Netflix, all activities that are performed in the same position: on.our.butt.

Levine credits our sedentary lifestyle with illnesses such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression, muscular issues and many more.

 

Not enough creativity

Do you feel like something’s missing in your life but don’t really know what that is? You’re happily married, have beautiful kids, lots of friends, a well paid job and yet, you are not entirely fulfilled…

That may very well be because your creative potential isn’t fulfilled.

Only 1 in 4 people worldwide believe that they are living up to their own creative potential. (Adobe study: ‘State of Create 2016’).

This may be because employees:

• Feel under growing pressure to be productive rather than creative
• Don’t feel safe enough to unleash their creative potential
• Work in uninspiring, stiff offices / environments

 

Not enough variety

Specialists are the most sought after candidates. Recruiters are on the hunt for thorough knowledge in a specific area because the more knowledge, the quicker the results. This ‘thorough knowledge’ is only acquired through years of working in the same function.

Sadly, this can be discouraging for people looking to change career path.

Changing direction in your career may mean starting right at the bottom and sacrificing your paycheck for a while. This alone is enough to discourage people from taking the leap.

Millennials are hungry for change. They want to learn and grow. They know that variety will provide them with far more opportunities to develop than a long-term expert job ever would.

 

Purpose

Finding purpose and making an impact has become a top priority for many millennials.

Living a life of purpose is knowing who you are, why you are here and find the drive to reach your potential while staying true to your own values.

It can be hard to find purpose while working a corporate job because:

• You work towards somebody else’s dreams and goals which often don’t align with your own purpose
• Your company’s value system may not match your own value system
• Large corporations tend to focus on profits rather than purpose

 

Millennials are starting to figure out that corporate might not be the answer to a happy and fulfilled life. It’s leaving many burned out and fails at providing them with what they crave the most:

• Freedom
• Variety
• Purpose
• And a creative life

All elements that many now find in entrepreneurship. It’s never been easier to start a business with the digital age. A laptop, an internet connection and very low start up costs make millennials the best equipped generation to succeed outside the corporate world.