More than 40 million people quit their jobs last year and millions more are quitting every month. Writing in Fast Company, Mom’s Exit Interview podcast host Kim Rittberg set out to find out where they—or, at least, some of them— went.

This ongoing phenomenon can be attributed to COVID-19, of course. People are “definitely defining and carving out new paths forward that bring them more in balance with their own quality of life standards and health and wellbeing goals,” Misty Heggeness, an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Kansas, and a former principal economist and senior adviser at the U.S. Census, told her.

Rittberg highlighted three paths toward meeting that objective: leaving to become one’s own boss, taking other full-time jobs, and scaling back and setting boundaries.

There are about 13 million women-owned businesses in the United States (though definitive numbers are hard to come by), including Rittberg’s. Many of these women want to “[make]their careers work for them, instead of the other way round,” and that includes the flexibility and freedom to work “differently” and making time for family and children. This balance could be necessitated by the numbers: 40 percent of the total labor force consists of parents with a child under age 18 at home, and 11 percent with a child under five, according to Glassdoor.

“We don’t have to leave our careers,” said Lynn Smith, a former network television anchor who started her own media training company in 2021. “We can find something more manageable so we feel fulfilled in our work and like we are also doing our best at home.”

Others “trade up” to better-paying jobs with brighter career prospects. Rittberg quotes a columnist at a community newspaper who quit for a job in communications, then returned when she “was basically offered my dream job” with a “great salary and flexibility.”

Then, there are the so-called quiet quitters, which Gallup recently found to be half of the workforce. Defined as being disengaged at work, its variations can take many forms. A 24-year-old engineer told the Wall Street Journal that “You’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond.”

The actions taken by some of Rettig’s subjects echo that sentiment. An Ohio teacher told Rettig that “she’s basically checked out. She’s scaling down, refusing to spend all her nights and weekends grading papers and creating lesson plans” while “building a side business she’s hoping will become her main income source.” A technology worker told Rettig that she “stopped jumping at every ‘volunteer’ opportunity and taking every meeting that popped onto her calendar,” resulting in a raise and more respect. She has since left tech and started a virtual financial and career literacy business.

“I believe more people … are reevaluating their relationship to work and pursuing job flexibility that allows them to fit their careers into their lives and not vice versa,” Rettig concluded. “And that may be deserving of a catchy new phrase, perhaps The Forever Flex or The Great Reframe.”