White-Collar Opt-Out: How “Good Jobs†Fail Elite Workers

Mustafa YavaÅŸ

American Sociological Review, 2024, vol. 89, issue 4, 761-788

Abstract: Why do elite professionals leave hard-earned, privileged corporate careers? This article examines an underappreciated case of employee turnover, white-collar opt-out, which involves resignations that may not immediately lead to a similar job or life experience, but are instead followed by alternatives to fast-track careers, including seeking another occupation, stay-at-home parenting, or pursuit of leisure and self-exploration. Drawing on 70 in-depth interviews with Turkish professional-managerial employees of transnational corporations located in both Istanbul and New York City, I examine their narratives about the quality of working life and their decisions to opt out through the lenses of worker consent and alienation. I identify the lack of work-life balance and fulfillment with one’s labor as drivers of opting out, showing how these push factors, combined with various pull factors of non-working life and safety nets, encourage elite workers to overcome status anxiety and abandon corporate careers. The article extends labor process theory insights into high-paying corporate occupations, illuminating how so-called “good jobs†may produce a relatively low quality of working life. It also exposes the inherent limits of resource-centered approaches to inequality, showing how alienating work can undermine the quality of life of even upwardly mobile, high-skilled workers.

Keywords: opting out; alienation; consent; working life; turnover (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:amsocr:v:89:y:2024:i:4:p:761-788

DOI: 10.1177/00031224241263497

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