Quitting in the Recession

June 19, 2009— -- Back away from the keyboard, pack up your desk and go tell the boss you won't be in again -- ever. Sounds crazy but, even in today's economy, some people are willing to say goodbye to their bosses and quit their jobs, whether it's to help a colleague or satisfy an urge.

Take Tara Dairman and Andy Cahill of Weehawken, N.J., both 29, for instance. They want to travel the world for the next 18 months. "It just made sense to travel and see how things will end up," Dairman said.

So they left their jobs and, with a bit of savings, hope to stay on the road one way or another. Dairman was the Web editor for a small publisher while Cahill worked in finance, where layoffs were imminent.

Cahill isn't the only one who is heading off an expected layoff.

Newfound stress in the office is causing many people to consider alternatives to their old way of life, experts say. "A lot of people are saying, 'I don't want to sit here waiting for the shoe to drop,'" said career expert Liz Ryan, who has her own Web site.

Dairman and Cahill married June 6, and plan to begin their journey at the end of the month from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. They'll spend the next six months traveling South America by bus and foot, before returning home for the holidays and resuming the journey.

"We're trying to talk to people who are from or have been to South America," Dairman said. "People tend to exaggerate how dangerous it is -- you don't have to fly everywhere."

They hope to do a little freelance work on the road, specifically writing, for extra cash.

While dramatically lower airfare is certainly helping the couple save money, they'll have little left after their excursion has ended. The future is unclear for the newlyweds, but Cahill hopes that by the time their trip is over, finance is back on its feet.

"If someone offered us a job in New Zealand, we'd be there in a heartbeat," Dairman said. "Otherwise, we'll probably end up back here."

Travel isn't the only motivation to quit. Sometimes, depending on an employee's confidence, he or she might give something up so someone else doesn't have to, experts say.

Amid a crisis in the newsroom at the Boston Globe, resulting in a 12 percent cut in the staff, Nicole Wong volunteered to walk away. Not because she had something already lined up or wanted to see France, but to save the job of a fellow Globe employee.

"It's tough being out of work," Wong wrote in a Facebook post. "And even tougher when you have a family or mortgage to take care of. I happen to have neither."