Some possible job thoughts

[selenay]

So Friday wasn't any better than any other day last week and was coupled with yet another nightmare commute (2 and 1/2 hours home...) so that I barely had the energy to eat when I got home.

Everyone is telling me that this is crazy and ridiculous, I can't keep going on like this, and I'm starting to think they've got a point. Last week was absolute hell and I was so exhausted I couldn't think. Next week promises to be just as bad because Da Boss and his boss have decided that if I survived it one week I can obviously do it again! Preferably every week!

I am now so fed-up, exhausted and pissed at this blasted job that I honestly don't care whether I stay or not. Nope, I tell a lie, I really need to get out now.

I gave the location move a chance, I've been there a month and the job has actually managed to get worse since we made the move with more stress, higher workload and less concern from the management about what's going on. Couple that with a much longer commute on roads with a far higher incidence of jams and crashes and you've got a totally stupid situation. Our department is seriously undermanned, we've got another guy leaving at the end of June and the earliest we can expect possible new staff is two months from now. But possibly longer, and even that one will only be replacing the guy that's about to leave and doing nothing for the other three vacancies in the team. Da Boss (and, even more, Da Boss's boss) are in no hurry to fix this because we're all coping *snort* and they prefer to source from within the company or through personal recommendations. Da Boss is aware enough of the problem to take bets on whether I'd turn up after Tuesday's stupidity, but not concerned enough about it to actually do something. So this situation has no end in sight.

< /rant >

It has been suggested that I print off an undated resgination letter and carry it around this week. If I get to Friday and I'm feeling no happier (and, let's face it, I'm starting to feel rather depressed about it) then I add the dates, sign it and hand it to my boss. I'll work out my four week notice but then I'm gone.

I'm scared of the idea of walking out of there with no job lined up to go to, but I'm starting to lose my mind. I think the changed location is a perfectly reasonable justification for future employers about why I left.

Except I'd be walking out with no guarantee of an income. On the other hand, I've got contacts with agencies and could easily find temp work to tide me over until I get something permenant.

Another point in favour of this plan is my health - the long commute is definitely not helping my back to heal and I suspect that the stress and general unhapiness is just as bad.

But is this really a good enough reason to leave a steady income? Am I quitting too easily?

At least tomorrow is a bank holiday, giving me another day to think it all through and try to find some reasonable plan *sigh*

Comments

[feather-autant.livejournal.com]

{{{{{Sel}}}}} That's a really tough spot to be in! If you can easily find temp work, though. . . I know I'd be very tempted.

[selenay]

Thanks, hon. I've been wondering whether I'm crazy to be considering this, but at least other people are just as crazy...

I'm giving it the week and quite probably doing the deed on Friday unless something startling happens.

[huffytiger.livejournal.com]

Except I'd be walking out with no guarantee of an income. On the other hand, I've got contacts with agencies and could easily find temp work to tide me over until I get something permenant.

If I knew I could easily find temp work to tide me over until the situation was sorted, I'd be out of there faster than my little legs could carry me. This is clearly an intolerable situation for you, and your health, which isn't brilliant at the moment, is suffering more and more.

Look after number one and get out. You'll be OK.

Good luck. :o)

[selenay]

Thanks. The reassurance that I'm not crazy - or a lazy quitter - helps a lot. I've had bad jobs before, but never quite to this degree and I'm feeling rather guilty about not being able to cope.

It's not me, it's them, so I must stop feeling guilty and do what's best for me *nods*

If only I could persuade myself that easily!

[huffytiger.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, 2 weeks ago, things came to a head in an intolerable job where I was being very badly verbally abused on a daily basis. They engineered my sacking on the Thursday night before I could tell them to shove their job up their ass on the Friday morning when I was going to quit, but it's the best thing that could have happened.

By Friday lunchtime I had a nice job via the agency I use, not great money, but enough to tide me over and hours I like, but most importantly, in an environment with nice people where I don't actually mind going to work.

There really is more to life than waking up every morning feeling physically sick because you have to go to a place you hate.

(((HUGS)))

[selenay]

I don't quite have the energy to dread work at the moment *sigh* I just feel wiped out and as though there's a big weight sitting on my head every time I think about work. The people I'm with aren't bad, but the commute...and the work...and the bosses...

I'd like to not be dreading the drive home every day, not constantly waiting for something to fall on my head and not dreading the appearance of the department boss with yet another thing to squeeze into my day with a line manager that can't say no to it. I'd like to not feel dead by Monday evening when I've got another four days to get through.

And I really don't want to have to care whether baked beans were available on the shop shelves this week or not. The fact that I spend my day trying to save the business money when they're posting massive profits and can't find the money to invest in some decent facilities, enough staff and decent IT pretty much says everything about what I don't like about the corporate culture.

And I'm venting again.

[gmul.livejournal.com]

Leave. Just do it. I'll do you the complete list of reasons if you insist but you know what they all are anyway.

[selenay]

I'm starting to be persuaded that the leaving option is the sane option. I hate feeling like I'm a quitter for not even being able to stay long enough to find another job first, but how am I going to find another job if I'm half dead all the time?

I'm giving myself the week and handing in the note on Friday unless a miracle occurs.

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

*Totally unsolicited advice from a stranger.

I'm reading other people's friends lists, and this really struck a nerve with me - I hope you don't mind a random comment from a total stranger...

There seems to be nothing that can wreck your life as fast or as completely as a bad job can. I have been in a couple that were so bad I nearly lost my mind: Tears, fear, starting to dread work by mid-morning on Sunday...

Life is too damn short to waste it in a bad situation like that. Only you can decide if there enough benefits to make it worth your while to stay, of course, but...everything you wrote here sounds so bad.

If it were me (and I have done this): I would tell them that I'd had it and was planning to leave - if given half the chance, I'd tell them just what would be needed to keep me there (what have you got to lose?)

But really - I'm just chiming in with another round of: Life is too short, get your temp work, bag groceries if you have to...Don't stay in a toxic sitation.

I've left three jobs because I just couldn't take it any more...and I don't have one single regret. :)

[selenay]

*Totally unsolicited advice from a stranger.

Thank you, that's probably what I need. Unbiased advice that I'm not crazy to be leaving and shouldn't be feeling guilty about it.

I would tell them that I'd had it and was planning to leave - if given half the chance, I'd tell them just what would be needed to keep me there (what have you got to lose?)

I will probably have to do this when (if? when?) I give the resignation letter to my boss, but the major problems with the job (the horrendous commute, the stress and me not actually enjoying the work I'm doing) aren't things they'd really be able to do anything about. And my boss has already said that he can't understand why anyone would enjoy any form of programming, which is the one area of the job that I enjoy, and wants to push me further down the business analysis part of the job. The fact that everyone is a corporate drone and I'm not a fan of money-grabbing, world-dominating big businesses doesn't help us to be on the same wave-length for my career :-)

I've left three jobs because I just couldn't take it any more...and I don't have one single regret. :)

Part of me is worrying that I'm quitting to easily. I left university at the end of my first year because I was so unhappy and felt like a total failure for about a year afterwards. But in the long-run it was the best thing I ever did - I still got myself a degree, a far better one than I would have got in my original program, and I worked out what I wanted from life. This is my first job in a vaguely IT-related area and I feel like a failure again for being so unhappy. The fact that it's not turned out to be the job that I thought it would be and that they moved the job's location last month makes sense of it rationally, but not emotionally.

Except leaving probably would be the best thing for me and I already have a genuinely good reason to give to future employers for leaving this job that won't be quite so good if I stay for another six months. So...

I'm giving it until Friday and then asking for a meeting with my boss. And if he can't find the time then I'll just drop the letter on his desk as I leave :-)

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

I went back and looked at some of your other job related posts after reading this comment - to try to give you an impartial view of your "failure" idea...

The commute alone lets you off that hook. Totally. There's nothing noble, productive or praise worthy about wasting hours of your time (not to mention life or limb) on a hideously long commute to job that didn't have that when you accepted it. (I could see someone doing that for a job they really love, but not for one in which the powers that be are pushing out of the area you enjoy.)

This isn't you just saying "Oh it's icky and not as much fun as I thought it would be....*sob**flounce*"

If you quit - you haven't failed at this job. It's no longer the job you accepted. You have decided that the new circumstances surrounding it don't fit your needs. Personally, I don't see why anyone would ever stay in a job that makes them completely miserable - If you could change things, that would be one thing

I'm one of those people who believes that everything happens for a reason (your degree story seems to fit that idea)...so maybe there's some other really great situation out there waiting for you.

[selenay]

The commute alone lets you off that hook.

*sigh* My job was originally around 30 miles from home, bad enough, but it's now nearly 40 miles. The boss keeps pointing out that it's only another seven or eight miles and that's not much. Ahem. It's changed my route from including five miles of the worst motorway in the country to including twenty-five miles of the worst motorway in the country. The new commute is the reason I've been job hunting for the past few weeks. I'm just feeling bad about the idea of leaving before I've found something else.

This isn't you just saying "Oh it's icky and not as much fun as I thought it would be....*sob**flounce*"

*g* I went into the job knowing it wasn't really perfect but it was at least in an IT area and there would be a significant amount of programming. Even the daily reporting and bits of business analysis that I was doing were OK. Except my job has changed to include much more daily reporting and business analysis and far less programming. And my boss, who seemed rather supportive a couple of months ago regarding my career intentions, has decided that programming is for geeks and business analysis is where the cool people are so why the hell do I want to fiddle around with code?

He certainly doesn't get web programming or why anyone would voluntarily do it *sigh*

If I really loved the job then I'd probably be looking at relocating to get around the commute problem. But I don't, it's not what I want for my career and I'm running out of good reasons to stay. Really, the only good reason is the income and when I can probably find temp work without a problem, that point has much less influence.

I think that I'm just trying to argue myself into doing something rather scary, which I'm not particularly good at. Except the scary things tend to work out better than the safe things :-)

[wadjet-theperv.livejournal.com]

Babe, there comes a time in some jobs where you just have to say 'fuck it' and walk for the sake of your health. It seems very much like this is one of those times. Are you guys still thinking of emigrating? You could almost certainly walk into a decent job with decent money with the skills and experience you have, and if you can get in without having to wait for a Skilled Worker visa, you'll be sorted.

Not that I'm biased. Or anything. Or that I just *don't* want to go back to the UK again for anything other than a *vacation*...

Ahem.

You do what you feel is right, which in this case sounds like quitting. It'll be the best thing in the long *and* short term. You don't have a deadbeat husband and six kids to support. Go for it :)

And take these with you;

((((((((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))))))))))

[selenay]

I have citizenship, so I don't actually need visas to move over, but I'm aiming to have saved a reasonable amount of money before I go and I definitely need to make sure that I've got some decent work experience on my CV. I want to make sure that I'm not borrowing from relatives or scraping around for cash if I can't get work immediately and give myself the best chance of finding work when I do get there. So my timeline for emmigration is still July 2008.

At the moment I'm not quite angry enough to quit yet, but I have got an undated resignation letter in my bag *g* I'm nervous about walking out without a job to go to even though it would make interviewing much easier. I'm also plain old indecisive :-) OTOH, if things over the next couple of weeks are really crap (and they promise to be...) then quitting might be the best way to go. I'm scared of making a mistake, I guess, and regretting it when I have some big bill to pay knowing that I could have still been earning well if I hadn't quit.