Greater Evil: Unemployment, or Job from Hell?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Another try (please don’t crash, this time, computer!) . . . We have a number of newly (and oldly!) unemployed Dopers, as well as a few of us stuck in soul-sucking jobs we hate . . . Which is worse?

Unemployment. I am too familiar with that empty, panicked “omigod, I’ll never work again, I’ll wind up like Florence Lawrence, in a cheap boarding house eating ant paste!” feeling. Plus, being out of work at my age (well over 40) is dangerous, and I have no convenient spouse or SO on whose paycheck or benefits I can rely.

Job from Hell. On the other hand . . . I am so wrung-out and stressed and frustrated at my low-paying, dead-end job (which isn’t even a “rut,” as I might get fired any day by our new impossible-to-please editor). I can’t even do my freelance work or effectively search for a new job, as this one takes 100% of my energy. I’m not mad enough to quit, as I need the paycheck—such as it is—and the benefits. And “it’s easier to find a job when you have a job,” or so they say.

Opinions?

2

I would rather the job from hell. As long as the bills are being covered, the stress from the hellish job would be less than sitting at home unemployed worrying about the mortgage and bills. Mind you i would be looking for a better job at the same time as working the hellish one.

3

Have you considered getting into an entirely new line of work? Perhaps you have experience and skills that would be more highly valued in another field. Just a thought …

4

I am facing yet another corporate pissing match layoff (3rd one in 6 years) sometime this year. I need this job, so I’m going to ride it out and hope I get assigned to another account within the company. The money is OK coupled with my husband’s income. I don’t have the extensive overtime Eve faces regularly, so it’s not the total drain hers is, but shit…it’s hard to get up and come in knowing we’re on the chopping block.

In short, a bird in the hand…
Oh. And I do better job hunting when I’m unemployed. It’s kind of like a mini-job.

(I could picture Eve writing a weekly column…old movie reviews for an art house or something)

5

I’ve gone directly from unemployed to boss-from-hell, and there’s no question in my mind that for me, being unemployed was worse. Even though I disliked my last boss and the more I look at that job, the worse it was, if I had to, I’d take it again. I’d just look for a new job sooner. Among other things, unemployment is boring! I had visions of turning into Gomez Addams, watching TV and calling up Sally Jesse Rafael! Also, while the job didn’t pay well and I was yelled at when I asked for a raise, it provided me with enough of an income for me to buy my condo when I learned it was being sold. Yes, it’s easier to look for a new job when you’re unemployed, but job hunting didn’t fill nearly enough time for me and I didn’t want to do anything which cost money.

Eve, good luck to you and please do make the time to find a way to get out. I’m glad I did!

CJ

6

[Moderator Hat ON]

Opinions requested about a specific person situation will do better in IMHO, I think.

[Moderator Hat OFF]

7

I’ve been in both places. Unemployment is worse because of the financial crisis it causes. I don’t want to minimize what a job from hell does to you, though.
The worst job I ever had was working as a telephone solicitor. It made me want to eat the muzzle of a .45. Fortunately, in addition to destroying my self-respect and draining every particle of joy out of my life, it also paid squat. I couldn’t afford a box of .45 cartridges.

8

Being unemployed is better and worse than being in a job from hell. Both can lead to depression, physical illness, stress, monetary troubles etc.

That said, for me, being unemployed was always worse than being in a bad job. In the bad jobs, I’ll usually have impetus to find another job. I’ll keep looking in my off time, take unpaid sick leave for job interviews if I have to. When I was unemployed last time, I ended up not working for nearly five months because I was just too damned despondant to get out of the house and look for anything to do. It was hard even getting up in the mornings. At least when you’re working, even at a job from hell, you have /something/ to do.

9

Eve, I just got promoted. I went from making nothing to making exactly bupkis – but with benefits. My co-workers are less than half my age, I have a manager who calls me on my cell phone to ask me what the company mission is, I have to listen to Dean Martin sing “Goody Goody” on a 2 hour rotation and my feet hurt.

Still, after being unemployed for two years, being underemployed is mildy preferable.

10

Eve, how long have you been at this company? After 9 years at one place, I felt like I was never going to find another gig. But I have had some very interesting jobs, and I owe it all to getting laid off.

11

That was my experience exactly.

I would suggest that Eve start looking for a job while still employed. If it is too much of a bad job then give yourself some time and plan your future unemployment by lowering your cost of living, trying to get a new job and saving all the money you can.

12

I got laid off from a job that wasn’t totally awful, but my boss was nuts. I was strangely relieved to not have a job. Being unemployed was okay as long as I was getting unemployment checks. I was a teeny bit worried when the money was about to run out, but I found a job before that happened (after over a dozen interviews–I lost count).

I was more relaxed when I was jobless than when I was working–my doctor hadn’t seen me for a couple of months, and I went in while I was still jobless, and she commented on how relaxed I looked. And I thought, you know, she’s right, I’m stressed about being jobless, but I’m still more relaxed than I was when I was working.

Eve, I wish for you your dream job, with fantastic benefits (8 weeks of vacation!) and non-crazy co-workers! If I ran a magazine, I’d hire you so fast your head would spin!

13

When you’re unemployed, there is a feeling that your fate is out of your control to a large extent. You’re dependent on someone else’s decision to get out of unemployment. OTOH, when you have a horrible job, at least you have some options within your control to change your situation – look for another job elsewhere, take some classes to better yourself, seek out opportunities within your current company, take a vacation (can’t vacation when you don’t have a job to vacation from), and while all this happening, the paychecks are still coming in.

14

I think this is probably a dissenting opinion.

I prefer unemployed. The last time I was unemployed my tennis game improved greatly, to a point never before seen. And I listed the people I played with as contacts because, during the course of each match, I did mention that I was, er, looking for something.

Darned if one of them didn’t come through with a job. The best networking is done unconsciously?

(When I say “unemployed” I mean collecting the meagre paycheck that is known as “unemployment compensation,” which is about half enough to pay your bills–so inadequate, in fact, that you find yourself saying, “What the hell. I just won’t pay any of them. Until I get a job.” This is probably some kind of bad attitude but what the hell, works for me. Of course, I might also add that when I did find gainful employment it didn’t actually pay enough, either, so I ended up raiding my retirement account to pay all those back bills, with the result that I’m going to need to work until I’m 89 or dead, whichever comes first.)

15

Hmmmm…tough call. Being unemployed is great except for one thing - you have no money coming in (unemployment insurance is there so you don’t starve, not so you don’t have to work for 6 months) and no idea when you will eventually have money coming in. Also it sucks feeling like you need to take the first thing you find. On the other hand, if you have money saved up, it’s nice being able to take a little break because work really does suck.

16

Joe vs. The Volcano … pack your 'chute & ditch the souls sucking job. You are allotted a limited number of breaths in your lifetime, what is the point in spending them someplace that a) makes you miserable and b) won’t hesitate to sack you when the whim strikes?

Fire your boss & focus your energies toward free-lance work & supp the income at, oh I don’t know, Starbucks? Wall Street? Some large corporation that makes use of tech editors–lotsa those companies get a substantial number of work from agencies who seem to exist solely as a scrivener farm. The employees are technicaly temps that get nice pay but no bennies. Pretty much the only way to get hired on in that capacity at Boeing IIRC. Your job: find out which agencies are into this racket and who they feed.

Good luck to you (even if you did threaten to rip my hide off once) :stuck_out_tongue:

17

No bennies? But I need them—and dexxies and dolls—to get through the day! (Did I really threaten to rip your hide off? Did you make some crack about Lupe Velez drowning in a toilet?)

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone—but I really didn’t want this thread to be about me; but about you and your experiences with unemployment vs. hellish jobs. I’m gonna stick it out at this one till I get fired or find something better . . . No choice, really, too many responsibilities.

18

sigh I’m right there with you. 12 hour days, minimum (I’ve put in 80 hours already since Saturday), haven’t had a day off in over a month, management who won’t say no to any customer request and keeps piling more and more requirements onto this hopeless dead horse of a project. I don’t have time to look for another job, even if I had some amount of hope of finding a design engineering position that isn’t in one of the states where people often have more fingers than teeth. At this point, I barely have time to eat and get 3 hours of sleep, the laundry is in a scary pile on the bedroom floor, and oh, I get an e-mail from Bosso Nobraino that I’m to spend four hours this morning in a meeting with software salesmen who want to give us the hard-sell on some shit we don’t need, then get in a pissing match with him over why I don’t have time for this nonsense.

I’m this close to quitting; already one of my coworkers in in the hospital from physical exhaution (and he’s not pouting) and two others are on medication for hypertension. Once the bank balance rolls over five digits I’m seriously thinking about packing it off to someplace quiet and far, far way from the weapons of mass destruction industry.

As for the OP’s question, I kind of enjoyed my last six-month non-career of unemployment, and would have enjoyed it considerably more if I’d not been suffering from severe depression due to being thrown over by The Girl and the rapidly dwindling bank account. The money thing is worrying, of course, and I’m particularly bad about thinking that I can’t do anything that anyone is going to hire me to do (other than the cad-jockey bullshit I’m doing now and so much want to escape from), but there are other jobs. I’m starting to think bartender or book slave doesn’t seem quite so bad right now.

Anyway, good luck to you on whatever you choose/are forced to do.

Stranger

19

Eve and Stranger–

I’d rather be unemployed than working in a job that made me miserable. I wouldn’t stay unemployed for long, I think. I might not get hired on at another company, but I would definitely find a way to make money for myself. If I got canned right now, I’d scramble like crazy to work for myself. I’d find some way to get translation jobs or a tutoring gig, getting paid directly by the people I was teaching.

I worked as an independent organic chem tutor for a while. The hours were great (whenever people made appointments with me), the wages were lovely, I loved the subject I was teaching and the challenge of making it accessible to the people I worked for and with…I’m really sorry I gave it up. I’d love to go back to doing it, but my o-chem is probably a little out of date at this point. Not to mention that, since I’m a TA now, I can’t charge the local undergrads for my expertise.

But if I found myself unemployed, I’d get myself an organic chem text and brush up. Then I’d go right back to marketing myself pretty aggressively.

Look. Life is short to let yourself be unhappy. You just can’t be spending all your time hanging around, hating what you do. It sucks away all your energy and makes you mean and miserable. (Or, at least, when I hate a huge portion of my day-to-day life, I’m not too nice to be around.)

You guys are smart and talented. I’d make a big, fat bet that you have all kinds of options you’d never even thought of. Forget about what it is you feel you’ve been trained for, or how it is you’ve come to define who you are, job-wise. What do you love to do? That’s probably something you’re naturally good at.

I spent one year working in The Cubicle of Death, a soul-sucking journey into the banal evil that was my particular corner of state bureaucracy. I’ll never, ever, ever go back to that. Now I’m a grad student with lots of stress, living on less than US$15,000 per year. But, you know–even for all the days I curse my advisor, or resent my program requirements, or get pissed off at being worked like a slave–it beats being in The Cubicle of Death.

Could either of you do something where you work for yourself? (Or, rather, where you work for individual clients, and not for a single boss?)

Eve–I know you love films. Isn’t there something in the movie industry you could do? PR, writing ad copy, anything?

Stranger–In re: your remark about living in “one of the states where people often have more fingers than teeth”–there’s no need to be limited by preconcieved notions about non-coastal areas of the US. There are some pretty cool, progressive places to be that aren’t on the coasts. You might have to search them out, but they’re there. And your money would most probably stretch a lot farther than it does now. If you’d be willing to broaden your search a little, you might find yourself with a much-improved job and, therefore, a happier life–even if that life happens in a place where you didn’t expect it to be.

20

Eve, Do you want us to look around for you? Seems like you’re in one of those “damned-if-I-do/damned-if-I-don’t” situations. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just another cubicle-dweller where I work (not a mgr, & not in HR), but a quick perusal of our corporate intranet shows >40 openings in Publications/Graphic-Arts. Decent pay/bennies too.

I usually try to MYOB in this stuff, but it sound like things are getting pretty rough (didn’t you author a thread asking who got to go home at quitting time?)

Apologies if this isn’t helping. I really wish you good luck in all this.