Inspired by @MagicEyes issues with their chaotic work environment problem, I thought I’d post an update on my ongoing series about my job (of a bit over three years now) and how it really does suck now.
Like a surprising amount of suck. Like it very quickly went from being a place where I was concerned about the future of the company (as evidenced from my prior threads) to becoming a dystopian future where I dread dialing into work every morning.
For three years, yes, we always had deadlines and stressful times when there was a lot of work to do (or not enough work to do). But I think this is the first time where I’ve hated the work and the people I’m doing it with.
So I guess it’s time to start looking for a new job. Doing what, I have no idea. More corporate bullshit at some other company I suppose.
Sounds like you already know what you need to do, and now it’s only a matter of doing it. So, what’s holding you back?
I have been at my company for 15 years, but the last year has sucked, more than any period of my working life has sucked before. I used to be involved and plugged in, but a major project has come into my department and I am not involved (tho, I have asked to be). Everyone’s working on it, and I am way out of the loop. I went from leading major projects to watching from the sideline, with no explanation. Also, work has dried-up, and I have not had much to do, for a while. I feel like I am being “quiet fired” (similar to “quiet quitting”). The only thing keeping me there is the pay and health benefits (for those that live in more civilized countries, in the US, health insurance is tied to your employment if you are under 65). My younger self has been screaming at me to find something better and leave, something more satisfying and engaging, but intertia has been hard to overcome. I’ll be interested to see the advice here.
Unfortunately, the “corporate bullshit” is just getting more shitty, pretty much everywhere. I casually follow this recruiter on YouTube, and even though his entire schtick is telling people how to network and get through the corporate recruiting process (and offers what I generally think is pretty honest guidance if you’re a job seeker) even he’s taken a pretty dire turn in the last several months about the job market and corporate recruiting/hiring practices.
I went through a candidate process with a company a couple of years ago that seemed to go pretty well initially (just a couple of phone/Teams interviews followed by a fly-in in-person interview), and then after a promising interview (where the job supported an ongoing project and actually seemed to be an even better fit than I expected, and no hard questions or roadblocks), the process just stalled for seven or eight months with little contact from the (multiple) recruiters and I watched them refresh the req multiple times. Finally, the original recruiter (in frustration, I think), admitted that the hiring manager was just keeping me in the on deck circle looking for other candidates, and basically offered that I could apply to reqs at other locations but she didn’t know when or whether they would make a decision. I’ve half-heartedly applied to a few other reqs but nothing that was really interested, and frankly would not be any better than what I’m doing now, and as crappy as our health insurance is at least I mostly know how to work the system.
The recruiter linked above advises having side gigs that you can turn into a replacement income stream (his tagline is “Be the CEO of your career!”) but frankly my skill set is highly technical and not really something that can be turned into a public facing business, and my previous assay and cautions moves into technical consulting and entrepreneurship were not encouraging that I could drum up enough clients to sustain a business or shine on investors to back a company. So, I don’t know what guidance to offer other than sympathy.
No. I retired four years ago at 56 I have Covered California (ObamaCare) and it’s very good albeit not as good as my former corporate insurance. I don’t pay premiums because my income is controlled to be considered low.
The very poor here get CenCal/Medical. I have several friends on it. Competely free and also surprisingly good coverage.
Sounds similar to my situation. Over the past year, work seems to have dried up as well and the quality of the new work sucks. Plus I’m seeing the company in a new light (not like I ever had rose-colored glasses) but that perception is being echoed back at me when I talk to my other long-time colleagues.
I’d look for a new job but I to be honest I’m not really certain what sort of job I’d look for or what I want to do. Every company I see looks like a giant soul-crushing mess.
I seem to recall some of your earlier job related posts. I was (somewhat) lucky to get out of this hamster wheel some 10 years ago (being now mid 50ies).
My best advice is to open your job search up to ORGANIZATIONS (as opposed to COMPANIES). I work in the line of trade/industry organization / NGO and my professional life is so much better. Pay is less, but quality of life makes more than up for that.
IIRC you are in NYC … there must be tons of those jobs that put you square between the private and public sector (UN related or not) - jobs like Chambers of Commerce, Chamber of Construction, Association of … Confederation of … Also those are entities, where age&experience do not play against you (at least, to a lesser degree)
start actively going into this direction instead of cycling from EY to Deloitte and KPMG and get the same $hit served with a slightly different smell.
Start putting some feelers out but a note of caution that, depending on what industry you’re in (I remember something vaguely to do with tech?), the job market can be generationally terrible right now. The massive layoffs at the big tech companies (including 15K at Intel this week) has flooded the market with genuinely great talent and many HR managers are responding by only hiring people who have done exactly what they’re looking for.
18 months ago, I’d advise people to put yourself on the market and find your niche and be bold but there’s a certain wisdom now of if you have a job, unless it’s causing actual health effects, to just suck it up and ride it out for another 6 - 12 months until the job market improves.
Strictly speaking, I hate my client. But unfortunately no matter how much I might like the firm itself, your client is really your day to day job. So really it becomes a calculation of how much you dislike working for your client and how long you might be stuck there vs what will you’ll next actual job be if you leave.
But I think that’s the case with a lot of people’s careers. Unless you have something specific you are pursuing it just seems like eating a lot of shit until your can’t stomach any more so you go find someone who might feed you a slightly different flavor.
I work for a consulting firm, similar to Accenture or Capgemini. Basically as a project manager / business analyst with a bit of data skills and sales. 6 to 12 months is a long time in my business. I could be on a completely different client by then. Or out of a job.
Who are the people you are advising? Are they technical? Management? What market? What industry? Are they earning less than $100k? $200 - 400k? More? Are they early career? Late?
Also keep in mind as a professional consultant I’m in a constant state of “looking for my next job”, either as a potential sale for my firm, my next project, or my next job. And I’m very good at morphing into “exactly what HR is looking for”.
Not to discount your advice. Everyone has a POV based on their experiences. I’m pretty senior and my clients and professional peers are all mid to senior executives at Wall Street banks and tech firms and Fortune 1000 companies. And I staff / hire for a lot of these big initiatives. So yes, people who actually do the work, we tend to look for exact skill sets. Like I need someone who knows Python or MangoDB or AWS architecture or whatever much in the same way when I hire a plumber, I need someone who done a lot of plumbing. Management, I have no idea. I think companies just hire a certain profile and hope for the best.
My junior colleague, who I have been working with for about 4 months on three different teams at my current client, up and quit today. I wasn’t really surprised. I suspected she had been interviewing, but she doesn’t have anything finalized yet. That’s a pretty bold move.
My story? I’m trapped. I signed a contract and I’m stuck. Even though I’m bored and miserable. The funniest thing is that this is both the most lucrative AND the easiest gig I’ve ever had (I’m the Rent-A-President for the US operations (very small) of an overseas firm) and it’s the easy part that makes it terrible.
Yeah, having nothing to do can be pretty terrible too. I’ve had those jobs as well.
What’s frustrating is that I was doing stuff that I enjoyed doing at a reasonable pace with teams of people I enjoyed working with. But for the past couple months I’ve been on this dysfunctional chaotic client team basically by myself at this point. So somehow all this work got dumped on my shoulders with no support and a crazy client constantly complaining “Why isn’t it done yet? You have been at this for weeks!”
So now I’m trapped.
I can’t get any support to help me from my firm
I can’t get off my client without placing my job at risk
I see no way of actually completing the work I’m assigned.
If I just quit, then I’m just in a different hell of unemployment for however many months that lasts.
And it does impact my health. I don’t sleep well. I’m either dreading logging into work in the morning or thinking about it when I’m not at work, pacing around like a caged animal.
at what % of the project are you right now? … halfway through, 3/4? … any chance to countdown the days (seeing the light at the end of the tunnel getting brighter) - to help you tide it over
I think maybe my problem is I don’t have a clear vision of where that tunnel should lead. I’ll get off my current project one way or another. But I don’t want to just be jumping from one esoteric business/tech project to the next, none of them having much to do with each other.
Now one of the client’s full time employees on our team just rage-quit and my manager and I are being summoned by HR as “witnesses”. To what, I can only speculate.
“You’ll never make me talk! I’ve faced harder screws than you, Grand Inquisitor of Human Resources!”
[Sometimes the only way to cope with corporate bullshit is to hallucinate that it is a life and death fantastical struggle through the haunted catacombs below a ruined citadel of a failed empire. Beyond that, I have no guidance.)