By Stephanie Leydon and Emily Judem
GBH News
September 27, 2021

Three years after she left her native Nepal, 23-year-old Dipika Chaulagain had a firm foothold in her new country. She had landed a job at a Dunkin’ Donuts shop in Boston where she learned to make coffee and sandwiches and, most importantly, speak English.

It helped that her boss was also from Nepal. And that her husband had a job there, too. She moved up the ranks, from cashier to assistant manager. The shop was more than just a workplace, she said — it also felt like home.

“We were happy,” she recalled in an interview at her Cambridge home.

Then the pandemic hit, and everything changed. Interacting with co-workers and customers was now a potential health threat. The bus ride to work felt risky. She needed the paycheck and felt loyal to the boss who helped her land on her feet, but by last winter she had had enough of the constant fear for her health. She quit her full-time job.

“I feel like, no, I’m not made for this,” Chaulagain said. “I have to try different things.”

She’s not alone. From April to the end of July, nearly 16 million Americans quit their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The service sector has consistently been hit the hardest, but across the board, one survey after another indicates that people are looking to make a change.

Others were forced in a new direction when their jobs quit them. Some 13 million Americans were laid off in March 2020, which led to more widespread rethinking, research shows. A Pew Research survey this year found that 66% of unemployed adults say they have seriously considered changing careers.

And COVID disrupted more than just attitudes about work; it’s led to a massive reassessment of nearly every aspect of life.

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“People’s priorities have changed,” said Leslie Forde, a workplace consultant who started conducting surveys with thousands of parents for her website Moms Hierarchy of Needs shortly after the COVID shut downs began in March 2020. “And five or six months in, it was clear that people just wanted to blow up everything that wasn't working and wanted to quit their spouses, they wanted to quit their city, they wanted to quit their job. They wanted to quit their community, to relocate their home.”

“The pandemic put a stop to everything. No one had the option of not thinking and beginning to reflect on their life,” said Priscilla Douglas, executive coach and board vice president of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum. “It was put in people’s face because of our mortality.”

GBH News’ new reporting project “The Big Quit: Why I’m Moving On” aims to capture this collective identity crisis, telling the stories of people who — by choice or circumstance —- are living their lives in a different way because of the pandemic.

Kate Barry, 32, worked punishing hours throughout the pandemic managing the Back Bay restaurant, Uni. She recalled 12 to 14 hour days spent dragging outdoor heaters down sidewalks in the rain. But it wasn’t the workload — or even the challenge of coming up with new ways of serving customers — that led her to leave. It was a realization that the industry itself was failing its workers.

“I don’t see myself as ever having been burnt out,” she said, “it was just the emotional toll, for sure. It was hard to see employees, who you’ve worked with for ages, struggle.”

She gave up not only her job, but also a long-held dream of owning a restaurant.

“I was really sort of thinking, what kind of a restaurant do I want to own one day, and if I don’t feel like I can run that restaurant the right way and take care of my staff the right way, then, do I really want to own one?” she said.

Barry started law school this fall with the goal of creating policy that changes the economic paradigm for restaurant owners and employees.

“I absolutely think this is a moment of change,” said Miriam Ortiz, director of education and training at Just-A-Start, where an uptick in interest has led to a waiting list for qualified students. “People are looking for alignment.”

Among those enrolled at Just-A-Start is Dipika Chaulagain. She left her full time job at Dunkin’ Donuts to pursue a nine-month information technology training program. She hopes it will lead to the kind of job she’s been dreaming of since the pandemic began; one she can do remotely.

“I’m positive in my future,” said Chaulagain. “I’m very excited to move forward.”