- Former teacher Maggie Perkins, 30, is now an employee at Costco after quitting her career.
- Perkins says she's much happier at her new job and no longer fears for her life.
A former teacher who left her career in education to work at a local Costco now she says her life has improved massively.
Maggie Perkins quit her teaching job in 2020 after two years of "quiet quitting" because "the conditions were not sustainable to have a quality of life," she told Insider in August. She said while passionate about teaching, she was burnt out and working 60-hour weeks for under $50,000 for five years.
Perkins had been a public and private school teacher in Georgia and Florida during her career, working with sixth-grade through high school students.
Now, the 30-year-old is working in the membership department at her local Costco and loving it, she told Fox Business this week.
"We grew up going to Costcos, and so I've always known that Costco employees are treated well and have a high quality of life. So when there was a new Costco being built in my town, I immediately applied," Perkins said in the interview.
She shared her story to TikTok and has garnered over 4 million views since posting the video in December. Perkins said she most days as a teacher "surviving every moment," according to one video.
"I do not miss it at all," she said in the caption. "My pace of my work life now is so much better, I am not sick or exhausted like I used to be when I was a teacher."
@millennialmsfrizz I used to be a teacher and now I work at Costco. This is my first year not having a winter break. I do not miss it at all. My pace of my work life now is so much better, I am not sick or exhausted like I used to be when I was a teacher. When I was a teacher I used my winter break basically to recover and go into the next semester of just surviving. #f#formerteachert#teacherquittokc#costcotiktokr#retailworkere#exteachertiktokc#careertransitiont#teachersonbreak ♬ original sound - Millennial Ms. Frizzle
In a more recent post about how she felt about her new gig, Perkins said she no longer fears for her life or lies awake a night. She also pursued at PhD at the University of Georgia while teaching, but now Perkins said she is focused on her current career, BuzzFeed reported.
"My passion couldn't pay my bills, and my passion couldn't help me sleep at night when I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop," Perkins said in the Fox interview.