Gian Ryan
These days, breaking up with a job is about as casual as breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend in the seventh grade. The new socially crippling iPhone app, “Break Up With Your Job,” will actually create a text for you and send it to your boss informing them of your resignation. All you have to do is select a reason for quitting and who you would like to direct it to, and the app types up a message that is ready to send. Once the deed is done, a page pops up on your phone screen with a link to “The Ladders,” which displays job openings in the area. If you are wondering if this is a complete joke, it’s not.
Although the app was created for humorous purposes, Alex Douzet, the chief executive officer of the company behind the app, hopes that it will take off and that eventually, “people will actually use it seriously.”
“There’s a lot of anxiety around the resignation process,” said Douzet, “so we used technology to ease the pain in that moment and make it seamless to breakup with your boss.” This is the same company that created the app “Breakup Text” which creates a text to end relationships with a significant other.
If anything, this app reflects the scary reality of the new generation’s inability to communicate face to face. It actually provides a way to avoid confrontation at all costs and eliminates the need to have basic social skills. Resigning from a job, although nerve wracking, is a good experience for someone to have. It only helps your communication skills and prepares you for the many social situations you will be thrown into in life.
If people begin to use this app seriously, there will be one less social obstacle to overcome—and one less opportunity to improve on yourself. Of course, the fact that people are downloading this app rather than realizing its implications says something about us as a society. Resigning from a job is something that takes time and thought, and those are two things that do not fit in with the fast-paced world of today. Having this app will only encourage the idea of “immediate results” that people are becoming too accustomed to. It makes it possible to hastily quit a job without thinking too much about it—you don’t even have to type the message. Going in to a boss’ office allows you to think over everything you are going to say and the reasons that you are quitting, and this allows you to realize the gravity of what you are doing. There is also a chance that you can be talked out of quitting or offered a different position.
Quitting a job means a change in daily surroundings and income and is not something that should be taken lightly. Douzet said that “Despite all the advances in technology we still quit our jobs the same way we did hundreds of years ago.” But why should we change the way we leave a job? Why is there a need to have technology control every part of our lives? Some may argue that this app caters to the shy or to those working at more temporary jobs such as retail or waitressing. However, giving people an easy way out will only cripple them and our society even more. Some things should be kept the way they are and leaving a job is one of them. This app will only claim another victory over our society’s social skills.