Unless you’ve been living in a cave without TV or internet you’ve heard about JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater’s resignation. As the story goes, Mr. Slater had enough after being verbally assaulted by a passenger and so he got on the loud speaker, announced he was leaving, grabbed two beers, and slid down the airplane’s emergency slide to freedom. Hailed as a workplace hero, Steven Slater has been talked about by every major media outlet. Jimmy Fallon even wrote a hilarious song about him:

The same week Steven Slater quit his job an article about a young woman quitting her job via a whiteboard went viral (see below). It turns out this was fake resignation, but nonetheless the piece spread very quickly; on my Facebook newsfeed at least five people posted this humorous take on quitting a job.

Girl Quits Job on Dry Erase Board.

Both of these incidents have me wondering what is wrong with the culture of work in America? I’m sure almost everyone has daydreamed about quitting a job like a rockstar, but is this healthy? I realize we are still bouncing back from a recession, but it seems our workplaces have become toxic to our health. According to workforce.com in 2009-2010 40% of employers reported a higher use of health care benefits due to workplace stress.

Speaking as someone who quit her last job due to workplace stress, I’ve often wondered if I was the problem and not the job. Don’t get me wrong, I am much happier now and I don’t regret the decision, but I wonder if I was too weak or if I just lacked the proper coping skills to deal with a work environment. Ultimately, I think I could’ve benefited from additional coping skills, but the fact was the environment was toxic for me and so did what I needed to do and I took myself out of it.

As a nation, I think we have several major problems in our workplace, but at the core of all of them is the way we define work for ourselves. In our culture of perfection it’s easy to internalize our jobs because we want to do the best we possibly can and there is nothing wrong with this; internalizing our work motivates us. The real issue is how much we let our work define our personalities.

Since quitting my last job I’ve had time to think about what I could do differently in the workplace. Now instead of getting upset I try to ask myself two questions:  In ten years will this particularly stressful day matter? If my family/friends were watching, would they be proud of me after the things that have taken place today?

99% of the time I can say no, this won’t matter in 10 years, and I can say yes, my family and friends would be proud of me. And while I still love the badass way Steve Slater quit, I do wonder if he had taken the time to ask himself these questions if he still would’ve grabbed “two beers and jumped”?