People discuss how quitting toxic jobs doesn't make one 'soft' or 'weak'

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on December 20, 2021.

For as long as we humans have been around, older generations have had trouble understanding and accepting what they consider to be radical viewpoints and values of their successors. Of course, this is true the other way around as well, as most generations feel strongly against the world view of those who came before them. This phenomenon is caused by the natural development of humankind, which presents each generation with a different world than the one their predecessors were born into and sets them up to develop a different outlook on society.

Twitter user Yugopnik recently shared their thoughts on one such subject in a now-viral Twitter thread that's been liked more than 95,000 times. "Calling this generation soft or weak because they are actually quitting toxic jobs was always hilarious to me. How is staying and licking your boss's boots every day for the rest of your life a show of courage exactly?" @yugopnik asked fellow internet users earlier this month. He added that while sometimes life circumstances may not permit a person to quit a job—no matter how toxic it may be—there is no other reason to torture oneself for a job.

"Unless you have no other choice and have to work whatever you can to feed yourself or your family. That Is pure unadulterated courage," Yugopnik wrote. As evidenced by the tweet's immense popularity, many people seem to share the same sentiment about not staying in a job that has a toxic environment. "Using the words 'soft' or 'weak' are pathetic attempts to shame workers into accepting shit pay and crappy work conditions under capitalism. What is weak and soft is allowing capitalist overlords to steal the surplus value of our labor and doing nothing about it," tweeted @MarcFish15.

@elhadihouheche also chimed in, writing: "When someone says that our generation is weak or soft, the first thing that I think is, yeah we get triggered by police brutality and actual crimes, while the generation calling us weak is triggered by minorities existing." @EvieMystar also agreed that staying in a toxic professional environment isn't brave. "A lot of people do romanticize the idea of 'suffering for the greater good,' then I guess some boomers extrapolate that as 'if I'm suffering, then it must be for the greater good,' maybe even convincing themselves they like the suffering idk," they tweeted.

"I still hear this from my family when I talk about antiwork. It's appalling that someone wouldn't want a 'career' in exchange for their health and well-being. Like I'm not going to kill myself for the majority of my life so that I *might* enjoy the last 15 years," chimed in @Davicho266. Even a self-identified boomer weighed in, acknowledging that they have a lot to learn from the younger generations. "I am a Boomer, and as I have found, finally, that I have so much to learn listening to women and minorities, the same with young people. They have so much to offer! The better sort, anyway," they wrote.