My name is Whistlepig and for the first time in years, I’m thinking of quitting my job,leaving my career and doing something else. Be fore-warned that the following is somewhat rambling and typed by a person who’s slightly tipsy, tired and . . . tired.
I’m going to be circumspect about what my job actually is. Partially because it doesn’t matter and mostly because I’m one of three SDMB members from Helena, Montana.
I’ve been in my current job for 8 years. I like parts of my job (doing consultation with clients) and I really have great cow-orkers. We work well together and do good things.
But my managers suck. (details)
I’m considering quitting. I have no new job lined up. I didn’t even think about quitting until today. But there is a situation coming up that makes me not want to work here anymore (ask me and I’ll write pages).
I’ve got 14 years in the pension plan. 11 more and I’m out.
I have enough money to quit and not starve. I’m single, I have low house payment and enough money in the bank to get by for a year. If I quit on a Monday, I’d be working somewhere part-time by Tuesday (not necessary in my current field).
Heck, I’m having a hard time phrasing this in the form of a question. I’m trying to decide to decide how much feces to eat at work, and whether to quit a job that will give me a good pension in 10 years.
My job makes me happy when I’m not around my (controlling) bosses. I have the respect of my cow-orkers and secretaries and people in the field. But some recent stuff made me realize that . . . I don’t like working for my bosses.
I was in a situation recently in which I was working at a job that I hated going to and gave me nothing but misery. It was a job in which I was making more money than I had ever made before at any other job. And it was a nothing job. It was basically a job set up for me as a favor, yet I had no real duties and my co-worker who was in a similar position did nothing but play online games all day. But I was miserable.
I have a wife and two young children. But I was having panic attacks before going to work. I hated it and I hated the feeling I had about it. So, I talked it over with my wife and I quit. I didn’t have a job lined up yet or much of a plan, but I had to get out of there. My wife understood because of my evident misery.
We are going through some rough times right now and are depending on the kindness of strangers, friends and family, BUT I am so much happier. My demeanor has changed. And I am now training for a new career. It will take time, but I have finally found something that I enjoy doing, even though it pays less.
My advice/thoughts are that life is too short to spend time doing something that makes you miserable. You sound like you are in a much better situation than I was when I quit, so go for it. Leave. Get out. Don’t look back. Find something that you enjoy doing.
I have 13 years in - 12 to go. They dissolved the unit I had worked in for 11 years - I had to find something else to do in the building. So I went from I job I loved and was great at, to a job that sucks. 12 years… If it wasnt’ for health insurance I would be gone - but since I’ll never get covered again if I leave… 12 more years.
The bosses are the bosses and will remain the bosses. Five years ago we started a pool on when the assistant boss would quit.
That account got $2.12 in compound interest last year. :smack:
I will probably get my butt chewed tomorrow for “questioning procedure” but plan to go Zen on it and agree. I did it wrong. But it’s bullshit.
I had a road trip over the weekend and spent too much time thinking about being in trouble at work/work.
It made me realize that:
My management, in the paraphrased words of Peggy Noonan, “confuses talking about things with action and good intentions with accomplishments.” It’s probably telling that I have the actual qoute on my wall at work.
My job is going to change, beginning next year, from going out in the field and spending time with clients and client trainers to sitting in the office and talking with corporate committees about how to raise productivity in sectors four and twelve by 4%.
I worked my way up to this job because I was good with clients and then good at teaching client trainers. In the last few years, I’ve been spending no time with clients and less and less time with client trainers. Now, it looks like my time with client trainers will be cut hugely and I’ll have no reason to go out to the field.
If I leave, I’ll never find a job this good again for pay, time off and schedule flexibility. If I stay, I’m going to have to eat crap on a regular basis and spend a couple of days a month stressing out because I spoke the truth. And I’m not going to get to do the thing I like doing.
And there is no comparable job in Montana any more.
( :wally, phrase it in the form of a question!)
I haven’t quit a job without a better job offer since . . . I quit the graveyard shift in a truckstop to go stack railroad ties. And I’m not willing to jump towns, so . . . what do I need to think about?
I’m trying to decide to decide how much feces to eat at work, and whether to quit a job that will give me a good pension in 10 years.