I was talking to someone who recently left another company after almost 20 years.

They described it as feeling liberating, even healing, to leave.

When you're in a given job, you are obliged to treat the kayfabe as real--a heavy emotional and intellectual burden, especially in a dysfunctional, high-kayfabe environment.

But when you leave that job, that obligation instantly evaporates. You no longer have to even pretend to care about the kayfabe.

You can drop the burden of holding onto the kayfabe, and you in that moment you feel like you're flying.