Speaker #0If your career looks great on paper but feels wrong in your bones, you're not alone. Welcome to From Corporate to Calling, your lifeline into meaningful work. I'm Alyssa Murphy, a regenerative business mentor and former startup CEO who walked away from corporate systems to create work that brings life. Each week I share stories, reflections and provocations to help you recognize the signs of burnout and make a career change with purpose. If work looks good but feels wrong, this is your invitation to get out of corporate and into your calling. Last week I took myself on a little field trip to Canary Wharf in London. I rarely go to London these days, I certainly don't go to places. like Canary Wharf, which if you don't know is the kind of business or specifically I think financial district in London. And the reason that I went on this trip was specifically to light a fire in my belly, to light a fire in my work. And that's not to say that the fire wasn't there. It's not to say that I didn't have passion for my work, that I didn't believe in it. But it was more like a consistently burning candle than a roaring fire. And I think that's because it took a long time for me to sort of embrace gentleness and a slower pace and a more feminine energy in my work. And that all kind of came together in this candle-like expression. And my work was previously known as Regenerative Work Life. and I really wanted to focus on why I feel that a regenerative approach to work is so critical, so life-changing, so life-giving and I still 100% believe that but as you'll know if you've listened to the bonus episode that I relaunched the podcast with, I really realised I needed to go where my clients were, I needed to go where the people who feel the pain, pain of corporate work the most are and that is what brought me to Canary Wharf and it absolutely worked in terms of lighting that fire. Interestingly it was actually a really beautiful sunny day and there's been a lot of very nice planting done around the kind of waterways there and I kind of came out the tube station and thought oh this is this is not so bad and I sat on a bench and I... People watched for a while and I thought, you know, this isn't quite the sort of, I don't know, the sort of lifeless experience that I expected it to be. But then I realised I'm sat out here in the sunshine in the middle of the day, going absolutely at my own pace. No real agenda to follow. I'm not sat inside these glass buildings all around me. I'm not. on the 25th floor of the Morgan Stanley building. Like whoever is in there, they're not out here in the sunshine, enjoying some food, like smiling at passersby. You know, those are the people who are really feeling the pain. And I took myself into this little espresso bar. It's very near the station. And as I was looking out the window and looking at all these kind of financial corporations, It came to me so strongly that my fundamental belief is that we all need to quit corporate. I have known that since I started this work a little over a year ago and now I feel emboldened to state that really strongly and clearly. And as I was sat there drinking my coffee, I got my notebook out and I wrote down about the three types of people who urgently need to quit corporate. And that's what I want to share with you in the podcast today. So have a listen, see if you agree with me. See if you agree with my proposition that everybody needs to quit corporate. See if you can recognise yourself in one of these people. And if you do, please consider this to be a lifeline for you. You do not need to tolerate the work situation that you found yourself in. It is not normal just because so many people are living like that. There is something better, there is an alternative. I know in my bones that we can reimagine our relationships with work, we can build businesses and careers that bring us back to life and that bring life to all those around you. Okay, so let's get into it. And I'll be honest with you, I am going to just read this to you the way I wrote it down. There's not a lot of filtering here. I'm being pretty blunt and just kind of being honest with how strongly I feel about this. If you happen to work for Patagonia, and I'm sure there are a handful of other examples of corporations that are genuinely doing this differently then you know Maybe this doesn't apply to you, but for pretty much everyone else, I'm confident that it does. Okay, let's talk about the first type. This is you if you quite literally need to quit your job in corporate. This is you if you know that your work is soulless, that you don't align with your company's values. Frankly, you're not even sure that your company has any values. And the reality is you are here for the money. And if it's... not the money, it's maybe, I don't know, prestige or lifestyle or self-worth. And you're not doing that because you're greedy, but because you've got caught in the trappings of a lifestyle that demands to be fed with cash. And you've made this kind of unholy bargain. You give huge swathes of your life, we call this time, for that money to fuel that lifestyle. And oh my goodness, it feels wrong. It's soul destroying. You leave your humanity at home and you grin and bear your way through the day. And you tell yourself because you are a good person. You are a human, a living, breathing creature. You tell yourself that you will find a way to make a difference someday. You know how capable you are. You know the kind of impact that you could have. And you tell yourself that what you're doing right now makes sense. Yes, it's a compromise, but it's responsible. It's necessary. and you ignore all the parts of yourself that are silently screaming in despair. You distract yourself by becoming ever busier, by taking on even more responsibility, by frankly not leaving any moments long enough for the doubt about what you're doing to come creeping in. Okay, let's look at the second type. This is you if actually you're not technically in corporate. But your experience of work is highly corporate. So you may have chosen a different path because, well, you thought it would be different. But it's not. This is you if maybe you work for a non-profit whose compassion doesn't seem to extend to its workforce. Or maybe you chose a career in sustainability only to discover that sustainability is a sticking plaster. It's an excuse. for business as usual. It's very often nothing more than a box ticking exercise and you are so frustrated that this passion that you have for wanting to make a difference, the reason that you chose this kind of work in this kind of organisation is just being left, it's being, it's sort of withering on the vine because your lived experience doesn't match up with the promise of what you thought you would be able to do in this work. Or maybe, like me, you work for a startup. I had my own startup. And you joined fired up about the mission, the possibility to do things differently. You joined because the culture felt great and you wanted to be a real innovator. But the deeper you dig, the more you see the influence of entrenched powers and corporate systems until it reaches the point where you start questioning whether the startup world is actually just corporate in disguise. And then there's the third type. And this is you if you definitely don't work for corporate. Maybe you already got out or you chose your own path or you found one of those rare gem organizations to work for that genuinely do things differently. How amazing. But there is something within you that is still deeply tied to corporate paradigms. Maybe you work for far more than you need to or you panic when you're not producing something of value. You really struggle to find balance between your work and life and you don't know who you are outside of work. This is you if corporate is alive and well within you and that is true of many, many, many of us, myself included. And whichever type you may identify with, all three Urgently need to quit. Why? To reclaim our humanity, to be part of building new economic systems, to build and imagine new relationships with work, to reimagine what work means, to regenerate ourselves, our communities and the world around us. And I have no evidence that that is possible inside of corporate culture. That is why I believe we all need to quit. And whatever group you're in, quitting takes courage, so much courage. Because you are choosing the road less travelled, you are going against the grain, you're often having to pull against very strong societal conditioning that tells you to take the responsible route, that you must prioritise stability and safety, the comfort of being a cog within a big system. It's genuinely really hard to quit. There are very few people who will just feel that urge, acknowledge what is going on inside them and, you know, down tools, walk into their boss's office and say, I'm out of here. I mean, if you can do that, like stop listening to this podcast right now, go quit right now. But for most people, it's going to take a little bit more planning. It's going to take facing the fears. that come up when you think of taking that step. It's going to take some serious resourcing for your nervous system so that you can look after yourself through this scary and exciting big shift you're going to make in your life. It takes having a concrete plan that you know you can act on with confidence. That is what I offer inside of Courage to Quit. It's a 90-minute confidential session just you and me, where we will feel the fear of quitting and plan your corporate exit anyway. And you're going to come out of that feeling grounded, feeling empowered, feeling super clear about your why with this actionable plan that takes you step by step all the way out of corporate. And however you move forward, please don't delay. Our inaction is not neutral. Staying inside of corporate systems harms the world and oh my goodness does it harm us. That is what this podcast is for. It is designed as a lifeline out of corporate or corporate systems and into meaningful work that brings us back to life. Thank you for being here and I look forward to speaking with you again next week. If this episode of From Corporate to Calling was helpful or inspiring, follow the show so you don't miss an episode. And if you know someone who's questioning their career, send them this podcast. Lifelines are meant to be shared. Remember, you don't have to tolerate burnout or misalignment. You can redirect your skills into meaningful work that brings back life to you and to the world around you. Thank you.
