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I do not like my job, I wanna quit!
June 19th, 2008
So you hate your job, and want to quit
There are often good reasons for hating a job. Some are people, some are lousy working conditions, in one form or another, or combinations of both. Workplaces can go sour, and that’s often the signal to move on.
You’re right, basically, because all that stress, irritation and overwork isn’t good for you.
There are the added facts that if you’re not getting anywhere but into a rut, or it’s become a Dead End Job, you’re probably not doing yourself many favors by just sitting there.
As a matter of fact, Dead End Jobs are comparatively simple. The job you actually hate is much worse, far more personal. There are similarities, but the likely story is that misery has become part of your job description, you’re either sick or furious most of the time, and you’ve had enough, or more probably, more than enough.
But you can walk out into something worse, if you’re not careful.
There’s a recession howling out there in the world’s economies, for one thing. Oil prices are doing some horrible things to inflation, and that means people are laying off workers, not hiring.
Prices are going up, and competition for jobs is intense.
That means make sure you know where you’re going, when you walk out the door.
You might get lucky, take a redundancy and have a job lined up. That’s the preferred move, and it can be a good one.
Far more likely is that you’ll have to do some careful planning about your move, and how, when, and where you go.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING:
You have to:
- Check out your finances, and be sure you can cover yourself.
- Check out your bills, in particular. Can’t emphasize this too often, they’re dangerous.
- Be sure you are actually moving into a new income, if at all possible.
- Cut costs, on principle, until you’re comfortable knowing you can afford them.
- Be realistic about your prospects for a new job. Don’t just leap out the window. You need to be practically 100% sure you’ll land on your feet, not your head. It takes patience, and time, but you wind up in one piece.
This is pretty much standard advice for changing jobs, but in this case you’re trying to get out of trouble, not create more for yourself.
WAYS OF LEAVING A JOB
There are right ways and wrong ways, and they can also create problems for you, in some cases big ones.
Quitting a job can cost you, in some countries. You may not be eligible for social security, and it might not look too good on your CV. Some employers are very skeptical about work records where the word resigned shows up a lot.
Getting fired isn’t a great option, by any standards, even if it can be a great relief to leave some jobs. The former employer is hostile, and the new employer will be dubious. Even if it’s not your fault, you have some explaining to add to your interviews, and that can get monotonous, if you’re talking to people who don’t see your point of view.
Redundancy
We have a whole separate piece on redundancy, and it can work well, but again, you have a lot to do when you take a redundancy. It’s much the same story as the points outlined above, with a few potentially really good upsides.
This isn’t actually leaving, but it cuts down the exposure, and gives you an income and time to look for a new job. It’s not always available as a method, but if it works, it’s a first step.
Just get another job
This is the safest, conventional, method, and it looks the best on your work record. It’s also the best understood by other employers. There are no complex issues to work out about why and how you left.
If you have to go to every interview saying you had problems with your former employer, for whatever reason, you’re the one having to explain yourself, and the new job can hinge on that. It’s not a good position to be in.
THE NEW JOB
Don’t go from one hellhole to another. You wanted out, not a different version of the same problems. This is about your health, really, and trying to reduce stress and get your career back on track.
Check out the new employer, (you need to do that for the interview, anyway), the work involved in the job, and ask someone who knows if it’s a nice place to work. Have a look around, find out if it’s a better area, etc, but make sure it’s an improvement.
Be prepared to make some changes if required. Relocating makes sense if it definitely gets you out of the danger zone. Even a slight drop in pay is more or less acceptable, if you see opportunities down the track for promotion or overtime.
Sometimes the road just ends. Your dislike of a job may be more to do with your dislike of your current situation, in some cases, than anything in particular about the job itself.
But either way, it’s time to move on.
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