Rethinking Work: Why So Many of Us Are Redesigning Our Careers Right Now
It’s not a midlife crisis. It’s a collective recalibration.
We keep talking about “The Great Resignation,” “quiet quitting,” “career pivots,” “boundary-setting,” “slow work,” and “rethinking everything”… but we rarely say the quiet part out loud:
People aren’t leaving work.
They’re leaving work that no longer makes sense.
Over the past decade — and especially in the last three years — I’ve watched a growing pattern across my coaching clients, colleagues, and the Bosscraft community:
People who were once deeply committed to their field suddenly questioning whether the field is committed to them.
High performers losing interest in performing.
Mission-driven professionals realizing that caring is not a substitute for capacity.
Leaders who once lived for the adrenaline now craving a slower rhythm they can actually sustain.
Entire teams whispering the same sentence: “I don’t think this version of work works anymore.”
This isn’t a trend.
It’s a shift in consciousness.
Here are three big reasons behind it — the ones people talk about in coaching sessions, DMs, and quiet text threads but rarely admit publicly:
1. People are burned out, not broken.
There’s a difference.
What many are calling “lack of resilience” is actually the outcome of environments that reward overfunctioning and punish humanity. Especially in nonprofit and international development work.
When systems are overloaded, individuals compensate.
But eventually?
Compensation becomes collapse.
And collapse becomes clarity.
2. The old deal between workers and employers quietly expired.
For decades the expectation was:
Give us loyalty, availability, and your best years — and we’ll give you stability.
But stability vanished.
Wages stagnated.
Workloads ballooned.
Layoffs surged.
And people started asking better questions.
Questions like:
“If the system isn’t protecting me, why am I protecting the system?”
3. Identity is shifting — and work can’t carry the weight anymore.
We were raised to believe work should define us.
Now, we’re starting to believe the opposite.
People want:
A life that fits their body and capacity
Work that doesn’t swallow their identity
Income that doesn’t require self-abandonment
More creativity, more spaciousness, more autonomy
A future that’s not dictated by someone else’s crisis or deadline
The pandemic cracked the façade.
The last few years shattered it completely.
Now we’re all sifting through the pieces, asking:
What do I actually want to carry into the next decade of my life?
So what does redesigning work really look like?
Not necessarily quitting.
More like:
Choosing freelance work to reclaim autonomy
Setting boundaries even in salaried roles
Dropping the 10-year plan in favor of seasonal planning
Restructuring businesses in ways that honor capacity
Trying “portfolio careers” instead of picking one lane
Saying no faster
Resting earlier
Aligning work with actual values instead of inherited ones
This isn’t a personal failing.
It’s a cultural reimagining.
And you’re part of it, whether you intended to be or not.
If you’re in this season of rethinking… you don’t have to figure it out alone.
The reason I created the free Rethinking Work course wasn’t to push anyone toward freelancing or coaching or entrepreneurship. It was to give people a starting point for sorting through the noise — gently.
Not a big leap.
Not a reinvention.
Just space to think clearly.
If you’re feeling the shift too, start here:
and give yourself permission to explore what’s next without rushing to prove anything.
The world of work is changing.
You’re not late to the party — you’re right on time.