If you’re a human person who has ever had a job, you’ve probably had fantasies of quitting abruptly — maybe in a spectacularly cinematic fashion, involving speeches, rude gestures, and possibly an overturned desk or two. But if you’re wise, you’ll resist the impulse. Alas, it seems that storming off the job is never the right answer in terms of your career.
A recent article in the New York Times says that this urge is worse than ever right now, partially because many folks have been biding their time in less-than-ideal gigs, waiting for the recession and its aftermath to finally fade away. So with employment numbers (slowly) improving, why not give into our impulses?
Because of a little something called “peak end rule,” says psychologist Daniel Kahneman in an interview with the Times, quitting abruptly is never a good call. Basically, your coworkers will remember the last impression they have of you far more strongly than the ones that came before. So even if you’ve spent the past ten years slogging along dutifully with a smile on your face, that one Real Housewives moment where you flip over a table is what everyone will remember.
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