Achieving personal goals and dreams is taking precedent.

Simply "having a job" is no longer enough. Personal growth, quality of life and health are valued higher than job stability and a rising salary. We've found that many Escapees are willing to give up a portion of their salary and stability in favour of careers that are more meaningful to them.

There's an Impact Gap.

Today's desire for impact is clear. This shift towards an economy centered on social benefit is often termed the 'Purpose Economy.' Many of us desire transcendence from our own needs in order to prioritize the needs of all of society and future generations. 55% of Escape members surveyed are looking to leave their work because there isn't enough meaning or impact. A recent YouGov survey agrees: 37% of UK workers believe that their jobs are not contributing to the world.

Entrepreneurial ambition is entering the mainstream.

15% of UK undergraduates are striving towards self-employment after graduation. But this trend transcends age: the number of those over 65 starting new businesses has doubled in the last five years alone. 50% of Escape survey responders are looking to strike out on their own.

Institutional challenges are changing who we trust and how we organize ourselves.

Forget 'job for life': the retention challenge is bigger than ever.

A job for life is a dying concept. According to an OPP report, over half of European employees (53%) have changed careers twice. 46% have changed their career three times or more. Why is this? Our survey found that 39% of professionals felt that they couldn't be their true selves at work, while a third said that the work culture in their organizations didn't work for them. Another 30% said they don't share the same values as their organisations, and nearly 25% don't share the same values as their co-workers. One third don't feel they have any role models within their current organisations either.

The smaller the better: big organisations have gone out of favour.

On the global scale — big institutions and corporations aren’t adequately addressing our biggest shared challenges. On the individual scale — these are often frustrating, unfulfilling and painful places to work.