How bad does a job have to be to leave it?

[Here2Live]

Been at my company for more almost two decades.  Have had some jobs outsourced to India and other lower paid States. 

Raises have been scarce during the years but did what I had to do to provide all the necessities for the family.

I am now in a job that pays well, but is no fun at all. It's not that I want it to be fun...it's all the crap you have to deal with in today's corporate America.  It only gets worse each year.  Fact is, I in longer care about the the work I do. I trade my time for money and take a beating for it.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who feels the same way.

In a few years, my youngest will be heading to college. 

I used to be real hungry for money during my 20s and now that I'm in my 40s I am just getting burnt out.

Anyone been here before?  What did you do? It has taken me all these years to earn this type of money...and now that I have it...all I can do is daydream about spending more time outside, far away from any cubicle.



 

[G-dog]

Been there....got the T-shirt. Conditions at work just kept getting worse. That trend has continued since I FIREd last July (@ 55 yo). Once I learned it was possible to retire early I. JUST. COULD. NOT. TAKE. IT. ANYMORE. Fortunately, I was close to being able to FIRE when I learned about FIRE. I had to stick it out about another 1.5 years. It was hard, but not that hard. Two years or more, would have been very hard

I was in a niche profession, not a lot of similarly paying jobs in this country much less my area.

So, how close are you? You are young enough that you may be able to find another job with comparable pay. Any benefits at work that make it worth your time to stay at your current employer?

I had felt dissatisfied before, and I just rode it out. If your employer provides training opportunities and the like - I used those sort of things to rekindle my positive attitude.

[Here2Live]

I figure I will need to work and save another 10 years. Thats with paying off house 16 years early.

No way I will earn the same pay elsewhere. That's just it. I can continue to get through each day for as long as I can and save.

Or, take a job that I can enjoy and  work a little longer before I can Fire.

[G-dog]

Or a combination - take the pay and suffering as long as you can, then shift to lower paying job later.

I focussed on each day - what can I get done today. The little productivity bites kept me focussed on task, and reduced my lamentations. It is draining. Anything you can do to recuperate each night and over the weekend will help keep you bringing in those big bucks. Eat healthy, exercise, have a hobby, GET ENOUGH SLEEP!

Take your vacation time. Use any time off rules you can to your advantage. I was salaried and we had a very liberal policy on when salaried workers had to take vacation (PTO) hours. If I came in and worked a half day, I could leave without using any PTO. Also, my role was very independent. Coupled with a very meeting rich environment, not being at your desk was common so no assumptions that you were not working.  I used this a little, but not much. But there were days (maybe 2 per year), where I just needed to leave.

I made the mistake of not using all my vacation days - don't make that mistake. I even lost vacation time because there was a limit on how many hours you could carry over to the next year. I was a good little slave for a long time - I have to own part of my burnout.

You can do it - whatever you decide "it" is. It will all work out.

[AK]

I have to echo G-dogs comments. Do what you can to stay healthy, positive, and other activities / hobbies that are fun. If these activities and hobbies can make money, even better. One thing I've done is start a new tech blog where I share out various bits about Salesforce and Microsoft. It is a lot of fun and could potentially make some money in the future.

Can you "downshift" at work where you say no to taking on new responsibilities and decline going to various meetings? This is a tactic I've been using lately and it has greatly improved my work attitude. I've gone from being the very over achiever to the 9-5er.

Can you work from home? If so, try doing that periodically or perhaps full-time remotely. I do it occasionally and it's a good breather from the office.

[Emg03063]

Been there.  What I did was get myself fired, but that's wasn't the best response to the situation.  The right thing to do is to explore your options in the job market.  Even if you don't wind up making a change, just the knowledge that you have real choices is beneficial to your outlook.

[Mrs. S]

Go part time if you can and look for things that excite you even if it is serving /making coffee. There is no exact reason for leaving the job. I have a great job and I believe I help people at large but sometimes the politics of it and incompetent people at the top really make me want to run away. I plan to work on my terms in another 10 years (long time I know) when we FI. Though if it gets too much I'll just move to a different kind of job in the same industry.

[Mr. Green]

The suck part about this situation is that you want advice but no one can tell you where your limit is. I can relate to the big money/bad situation problem. When I was younger I found myself in a string of jobs where I was basically doing nothing for 40 hours a week. The boredom was absolutely soul crushing but I was making all this money and I was afraid another job hop might make me unattractive to potential employers. I mean it's not like you can tell someone in an interview that you do nothing all day because you ask for work and no one will give you any. The only thing I know to say is try to spend some time thinking about how hard it might be to make a move, versus how much the money really matters to you. Is the big money now actually doing something for you or are you just thinking about losing something that has taken you so long to achieve? We humans tend to be terrible with loss aversion. We think losing something will hurt a whole lot more than it really does when we actually lose it. Happens all the time when you contemplate throwing away Grandma's trinket so instead you tuck it back in a box where it's never looked at. Though, your job has real implications as to whether you can continue supporting yourself financially.

Something else I always took into the equation was how it was impacting my home life. Most people can't feel crappy all day at work and not have it bleed over into home life.

At the end of the day it is a question only you can answer.

[Retire-Canada]

1. reduce your spending
2. pay off any debt
3. save and invest as much money as possible
4. look for other work you like better
5. do what you can to make the current job better
6. as your savings grow you can work less or work at a job that makes you happier for less pay because you need the money less and less

There are a number of ways to solve you problem, but the more financial freedom you have the more options are open to you.

I'm theoretically reach peak earning years and I am working less than ever and plan to downshift more as time passes. Time is more valuable than money to me and I have saved enough money that I can taper my work hours. I'm not financially independent, but I am close enough that I can get there at less than full throttle. I'm in my late 40's and I appreciate these are also the prime years of my life for health and free time. So working through these years like a madman and coming out to FI in my 50's with lots of time/money, but health issues because I didn't take care of myself is a bad trade off.

[LeRainDrop]

The only thing I know to say is try to spend some time thinking about how hard it might be to make a move, versus how much the money really matters to you. Is the big money now actually doing something for you or are you just thinking about losing something that has taken you so long to achieve? We humans tend to be terrible with loss aversion. We think losing something will hurt a whole lot more than it really does when we actually lose it. Happens all the time when you contemplate throwing away Grandma's trinket so instead you tuck it back in a box where it's never looked at. Though, your job has real implications as to whether you can continue supporting yourself financially.

Something else I always took into the equation was how it was impacting my home life. Most people can't feel crappy all day at work and not have it bleed over into home life.

At the end of the day it is a question only you can answer.

Word.  I hadn't really thought of that loss aversion principle in the career context before.  That's really helpful advice for me to reflect on.  Thanks!

[Tris Prior]

It has taken me all these years to earn this type of money...and now that I have it...all I can do is daydream about spending more time outside, far away from any cubicle.

I can relate to this. A few months ago I got a good-paying job after years of underemployment, struggle, losing a condo, a failed attempt at self-employment, etc. I have a lot of savings catch-up to do, as I was just covering necessities for years. So I don't really feel like I can quit. My job is sort of a unicorn and I'm shocked that I even found this opening as they are very, very rare these days due to outsourcing overseas. To be honest, those lean years were really brutal on my mental health and my relationship with my partner (who is also underemployed), and I don't want to go through that again. Plus, the company is OK, as big companies go, and I really like my boss and co-workers. I'm just chafing at the ass-in-seat time.

I should be grateful, but all I can think about is how I'm watching life pass me by. Especially at this time of year when I'd rather be out in the garden and not stuck in a cubicle with AC blasting me to death. I've had losses in my life recently that have really made me think hard about how I'm spending my time. But, I am nowhere near close to FI, and am 44, so.... feeling kind of stuck. Really hard to avoid self-medicating by shopping, too, but so far I'm doing decently at that.

I have this problem too, which after spending my life in jobs that worked me to death, I'm finding a little bit disconcerting:

I was basically doing nothing for 40 hours a week. The boredom was absolutely soul crushing but I was making all this money and I was afraid another job hop might make me unattractive to potential employers. I mean it's not like you can tell someone in an interview that you do nothing all day because you ask for work and no one will give you any.

They keep telling me that it's going to get busy again (and maybe in a few months I'll be worked to death and exhausted) but in the meantime it is rough. I literally feel like I am serving time in exchange for money. I'm trying to focus on how I'm not worried about paying the bills any more, how I can save, how I can occasionally pay for a night out in cash. And on how awful it felt to have a minor emergency come up that I couldn't cash-flow.

This does make me more motivated to strive for FI, but I've got a grand total of $112k in my stash and FI just seems so far away. (RE is not even on the table due to my age. :( )

[Bello_Marinaio]

For me I'd say about average corporate BS for the USA and I am telling the boss to fck off and giving them 5 minutes notice.  I took no $h!t at work and gave no F@ck$.  Actually I gave what I got.  Employers that treated me well received a lot of sweat in return.  Employers that did not acted shocked when I gave them back the same inconsiderate BS they gave me.  Sadly the decent places were few and far between, but I recently started at what seems to be one of the best places I have worked.  I always had too much pride to bend over for any corporate buggery.  I made a lot of sacrifices to to maintain my respect.  I do not come from wealth.  I wonder if the work climate would be better here if workers would grow a backbone.

The down side is I returned to college later in life.  Now I am now trying to establish a career due to the skyrocketing cost of living.  I am fairly mustachian.  I have cheap cell, paid off auto, no cable etc and things have been a struggle for too many years.  Weigh your options and choose what works for you.  Good luck.

[MrsPete]

You're only asking half the question -- yes, how bad the job is matters, but the question of how badly you need the job must also be asked. 

Some of the worst jobs I had in my whole life were low-level retail jobs I had during college.  I specifically remember one job in which my boss belittled me; I knew exactly why:  He was going to be stuck in that crappy type of job for the rest of his life, and I was a college student who was going to go further -- that knowledge allowed me to give him a smirk and walk away.  Why didn't I stop these go-nowhere jobs?  I was a poor college student with no resources beyond my own work ethic, and quitting would've meant going hungry. 

[Goldielocks]

You're only asking half the question -- yes, how bad the job is matters, but the question of how badly you need the job must also be asked. 

Some of the worst jobs I had in my whole life were low-level retail jobs I had during college.  I specifically remember one job in which my boss belittled me; I knew exactly why:  He was going to be stuck in that crappy type of job for the rest of his life, and I was a college student who was going to go further -- that knowledge allowed me to give him a smirk and walk away.  Why didn't I stop these go-nowhere jobs?  I was a poor college student with no resources beyond my own work ethic, and quitting would've meant going hungry.

I was thinking along the same lines..

To me, how bad does a job need to be?  My safety is at risk, or the shifts / pay is so crappy it costs me more to work the job (get there, dress suitably for a 2 hour shift 30 minutes from home? ) than the paycheck.

The actual question is how much do you need the job?  How much do you need the money?
Get rid of your fixed expenses, and build a FU fund or FIRE money.   Make the NEED go away...   

Now your question is " How bad does a job have to be to not WANT (the income from) it?"