It’s not surprising that “Break My Soul” is topping the charts. In addition to the Beyoncé of it all, the lyrics about quitting a job in order to build a new foundation accurately reflect what so many of us have been dreaming about since the start of the pandemic. And what over a million of us have actually done: According to the National Women’s Law Center, 1.1 million women decided to leave the workforce between February 2020 and January 2022, as part of a phenomenon that’s been labeled the Great Resignation.
While some women put in their two weeks with no plan in place, others did it to fulfill the goal of becoming their own boss and not answering to anyone but themselves. But for all the noise it made—and how good it probably felt at the time—saying “see ya!” to your 9-to-5 left some women adrift and eager to return to corporate America. But they do so with a new perspective and an overhauled set of needs, including more flexibility and opportunities to grow their skill sets. These women have taken what they learned about themselves as entrepreneurs to guide their next roles and found workplaces that can better adapt to meet them where they are.
Below, five women share why they decided to give corporate life a second chance amid the Great Resignation.
After Vannesia Darby felt she’d hit the glass ceiling in her marketing career, she decided to start Moxie Nashville, a social media agency, in 2016. “I didn’t feel that I could grow when it came to skill and even finances,” she says. As she became her own boss, Darby turned her past employers into clients as she developed a roster that included entertainment companies, gospel artists, and religious leaders.
But after a slow season as an entrepreneur, Darby started to reevaluate what she wanted in life. She was open to returning to corporate life, but only if a position matched her needs. She made a list of what she wanted, which included working virtually for a global media or production company with brand recognition—a place where she could learn and grow. A role as a social media manager for Shondaland, which she started in June, checked off everything on her list.
“I think a lot of entrepreneurs don’t always question if they’re growing because when you’re first getting started, the goal is just to maintain and then grow,” Darby says. “I was very intentional about that because when you’re an entrepreneur, you’re often the smartest person in the room relative to your company. I wanted to be able to glean and be sharpened just as much as I sharpened others.”
Michelle Wong spent 20 years in the advertising industry working for various creative agencies until she decided to leap into independent entrepreneurship as a consultant. She left her employer to strike out on her own at the end of 2019 feeling optimistic. Then the pandemic hit.
By the end of 2020, Wong had built a steady client base but faced a new issue: She was too isolated in her day-to-day work. “I’m used to having a creative partner,” she says. “I’m used to having a team. I’m used to having a larger mission about driving a business overall, as opposed to having a smaller, specialized scope of work. That was a huge mental switch for me.”
Wong received plenty of offers to return to agency life, but she held out until she was able to turn a part-time consulting opportunity with Sprinkles into a permanent role. She became the company’s first chief marketing officer in March 2021.
“I was looking at the freedom part as a big consideration [for returning],” Wong says. For Wong, freedom in today’s workforce meant having flexibility, creative independence, creative autonomy, the opportunity to be a decision-maker, and a strong team.
“Going back to the corporate side and being a valued key voice within an organization or a team is vital,” she says. “Because, at any level, people want to be heard and be involved. They want to know they’re a part of something.”
Abigail Gibbons founded her event and media company The Wow Series outside of her full-time job at the end of 2019. A year after turning the side hustle into a robust digital community, she decided to leave her job as a marketing coordinator to focus her attention on scaling the company up.
However, as the Wow Series started to grow and gain traction, Gibbons began to question whether it was something she wanted to do full-time or if it was more of a passion project that got her through the heavier moments of the pandemic. “As much as I love my business and have a true emotional attachment to it, I wanted to do something more tangible with my career and with my life,” she says.
Gibbons returned to the workplace as a wealth management associate for a financial services institution earlier this year. “I saw a new problem to solve when it came to working to close the gap in gender equality,” she says. Women in her Wow community had expressed their concerns about the challenges that come with financial planning and raising capital. Now, Gibbons believes she can combine her talent for making connections with the institutional knowledge she’s gaining at her new job to work toward solving that issue.
After being let go by a public relations agency, Paris Tyler decided to become an independent publicist in 2016. However, the burnout she experienced as an entrepreneur was a challenge. “It can be mentally and emotionally taxing trying to figure out how to plan for the next half of the year,” she says.
She also wanted to put more energy into her personal goals of becoming a homeowner, finding a partner, and starting a family. “I wasn’t necessarily fond of the idea of still building a business while trying to attain and have those things in my life,” she says.
So, Tyler returned to agency life in June 2021 to become a vice president at the public relations firm Weber Shandwick. In previous agency experiences, Tyler says, she dealt with microaggressions, resistance from her team, and the lack of a supportive manager. Experiences that are all too familiar for Black women in corporate America.
However, Tyler was still open to returning to the workplace—for the reasons mentioned above, but also because she wanted to be more active in bettering corporate culture. “Because of the challenges Black women encounter in agency life, I had this desire that I wanted to be a change agent,” she explains. “How can I be a change agent on the outside of it? More than likely, I can become a change agent within an agency.”
Tyler says she appreciates her new company’s DEI commitments and is excited about the brands she works on. Another bonus: The company made the role remote for her. “I was like, ‘How can I pass this up?’” she says. “They carved this out for me.”
The difficulties of being a Black woman in the corporate world was why Ashley Garth, CEO of Garth Media, decided to create her own social media agency in 2018. “For African American women, we’re not always welcome in the corporate space, so I feel like we have an even greater challenge in finding the perfect career,” she says.
But by February 2022, Garth realized she could take advantage of the benefits of a virtual workplace while doubling her income. So she hired a contractor whose job was to find her a job. After three months and more than 200 applications, she landed a remote social media role at a software company. “I was tired of the hustle,” she says of her entrepreneurial life. “I was truly burnt out. I thought, How can I figure out a way where I can rest, still have income coming in, do what I love, and also be able to work on my business?”
Now the Nashville resident works on Garth Media in the mornings before starting her remote role. “If you have a long-term goal and don’t want to always be out here grinding and hustling, if you just want to be comfortable, go back,” she advises.
After sharing on Facebook that she’d returned to corporate America, Garth heard from others who were ready to make the transition back as well but were afraid of what people would think if they put their entrepreneurial plans on hold. “I say this all the time, ‘Opinions do not pay our bills,’” Garth says. “When you’re comfortable financially, those opinions are really irrelevant.”
For Gibbons, it’s about alignment and understanding your strengths. For some that may include returning to the workforce. “When making this decision, ask yourself if your corporate job will align with your mission and help you achieve your goals,” she suggests. “That will guide you in finding the right position while still feeling fulfilled or deciding to stay full-time in entrepreneurship.”
Wong’s advice: Understand the source of your anxieties before making a decision about what’s best for you. “Reflect on what the barriers are or what’s scaring you,” she says. “Is it the loss of freedom, or having to go into an office every day? Ask what are the things that make you uncomfortable, and then really break that down.” The worry may be that you haven’t been in a corporate space in a while, or that past experiences weren’t positive. Wong believes a healthy and positive work environment is possible if it’s a priority in the job search.
“Going corporate doesn’t have to be negative and feel like you’re going back five years,” she says. ”The world has changed and corporate America has changed with it since the pandemic. If you can identify what you want, you can certainly get that on the other side as well.”
Brittney Oliver is a career and lifestyle contributing writer based in Nashville. She is also the founder of Lemons 2 Lemonade, a content platform and event series helping professionals navigate career challenges. Follow her on Twitter at @britt_s_o.
