| Topic Name: |
Should I resign without another job? |
| Message Name: |
All you need do is ask yourself two questions |
| Date Posted: |
07/21/2004 |
| In Reply To: |
I also was in a situation that I hated the job but couldn't find the way out. My health suffered big time - starting with migraines and general irritablility. I kept at it (work that is) because I'm tenacious, but finally had to take some real down time and not by choice - like 1.5 years to tend to myself. I had 2 surgeries, rehab, etc... just about a doctor a day for a good 6 months, and less afterward. I did create a consulting company and did some work, learned a lot, but I am having a hard time getting back to true employment. I was with pedigree companies with tenure and have a great degree ... but the not currently employed is a hamper in the job search. The flip side is - look at the situation and learn. Don't repeat it - figure out what it is that is making you feel so bad about what you're doing or learn new ways to deal with stressors that you have no control over (i.e. good-ole-boys-network). I now have full attention to a job search without the irritant of a bad job - which is allowing me to interview much better. You gotta take care of you! If you just keep up the stress, it will get you. I'd say take it as long as you can, but be judicial about how bad it really is. Find a new path if that is the must. Sometimes you just have to dive in (or out of a bad place) and navigate from there. I am healthy now, know what I need to eliminate and what I need to minimize, how to deal better with certain stressors, and getting back in the game. What a journey, and kinda scary dealing with such big parts of life in such unknown waters! And I am WAY better for it all. But - isn't that life? |
| Message: |
Healthcare Techy,
You are right on the money. As soon as you realize that your job is making you physically ill, it is imperative that you quit immediately, regardless of whether you have another job lined up.
But, as you have discovered, it is always best to quit a toxic job before it has a serious, negative impact on your health. So I have come up with a very simple way to determine when you need to leave a toxic job, with or without a financial safety net.
All you have to do is ask yourself two questions:
1. If I'm still in this job 6 months from now, how am I likely to have changed as a person and as a professional?
2. Because of these changes, if I'm still in this job 6 months from now, will I still like and respect myself as a person and as a professional?
If you do not like or respect yourself, you will be unable to get potential employers to like or respect you either. So you need to leave your job before it turns you into someone you wouldn't want to hire/work with - even if you must face financial hardships after quitting.
How do I know that the above reasoning is sound? I've lived through it.
Seven years ago, I had to decide whether to leave a toxic job before I had another job lined up. At first, although I was miserable in my job, I was reluctant to leave without a guaranteed replacement income. I was single and broke, and I was in debt to both college and Chrysler. As a result, I knew how quickly "having no income" would mean "buying no food" until I found another job.
Then I asked myself the above two questions and came up with the following answers:
1. After 6 more months in this job, I will probably be either (a) perpetually submissive and beaten-down or (b) perpetually angry, bitter, and resentful.
2. Either way, I will have become a negative, energy-sucking person, and I will hate myself with whatever passion I am still able to feel at that point.
So I quit before my job could turn me into an unmarketable jerk.
I spent two months unemployed, with no savings, no credit, no financial support from family, and yes, very little food.
BUT: I was actually happier living well below the poverty level for two months than I was living under the iron thumb of the Evil Bosses from Hell for two months.
AND: After only two months of searching FT, I found a new job that nearly doubled my old salary and that gave me a wonderful boss and team with whom I worked happily for 5.5 years.
So, the moral of my story is:
Listen to Healthcare Techy. Life's too short for you to spend a third of your time in a toxic environment.
It's way more fun to be around a happy person making $0 a year than it is to be around a miserable person making $100000 a year. And you have to be around you for 24/7.
Just my long-winded 2 cents.
choosebutchoosewisely
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