Why I quit my job without a new one lined up
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(MoneyWatch) "Oops, I quit my job." Katherine Stevensen's Facebook status casually proclaimed that she had made a potentially life-changing decision. For one thing, she had no new job lined up. I wanted to know why (Note: Katherine's name has been changed at her request.)
She's not a a flighty person prone to rash decision-making. In fact, Katherine has a degree in linguistics and international relations from a state university, graduating in 2009. After graduating she accepted a job teaching English as a second language to adults. However, that job was temporary and nightmarish. Why? Bad management. She says:
I couldn't get any support for things like getting a log in to take attendance on the computer. There were no curriculum guidelines. They wanted me to spend hours every day of my own time recruiting new students.... The vice principal was very temperamental. He would come into the classroom and yell about something obscure on a daily basis.
I wasn't even able to get information on what the students would be tested on.
Still, it was a job in her chosen field and definitely on her list of dream jobs. On the downside, it was a temporary position without benefits. So when a more stable job with benefits came available, she jumped at it, despite the position paying only $10.61 an hour.
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Her new job was working in a laboratory -- not typical work for someone who studied linguistics. But it came with benefits, didn't have crazy hours, and was free of the management headaches she had experienced in her teaching job. What it did have was 10-hour days under fluorescent lighting processing samples. She began to develop pain in her wrists, she said:
I have de Quervain's tenosynovitis. It is a repeated motion injury in my wrists. I couldn't get the physical therapy and braces that I need because the Workers' Compensation Program is broken. I was worried about being able to play piano in the future and of sustaining a permanent injury.
I got two work-related injuries, and workers' compensation is such that they only "compensate" -- you have to initially pay out of pocket, and then maybe still get denied regardless of what the doctor said.
Without the lab work offering no guarantee of reimbursement for her injuries, low pay, day after day of pure boredom, Katherine figured she couldn't do worse in a restaurant. In fact, she had previously worked in the food industry, and she enjoys the satisfaction of a job well done.
I asked her if she had to do it over again, would she study something different in college? "Yes," she said. "Something that makes money."
Her dream job is to be a translator, but she isn't sufficiently fluent in her best foreign language, Japanese. She considers using her professional teaching certificate get a job back in the classroom, but is wary because of her last experience.
Apart from her wrists, she's also relatively healthy, so going without insurance is a risk she's willing to take in the short term. And so Katherine is out on the job market, looking for full-time work. In the interim, she has picked up a part-time food delivery job.
Was this a bad decision or a good one? Would you do the same if you were in Katherine's position? Have you quit a job without a backup plan?
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Fortunately, I had saved sufficient funds to coast on for a while, but soon, picked up a job at a temp agency (for more money, but for no benefits, and horrible hours. I did this for ten months, then returned to the same psychiatric hospital as I KNEW I could always find employment there. Besides, I knew, and was very friendly with the Director Of Personnel.
By then, all the, troublemakers had burned themselves out of jobs, and I was ask how soon could I start.
Funny, but I gave myself a two-week vacation first, and returned to work with a substantial raise !
I learned three, very valuable lessons:
1) Its often easier to rehire an experienced person with the proper education, than it is to continue to employ higher-paid, but toxic department heads who--in time--dig their own graves by alienating EVERYONE.
2) Pulling a, 'fast dash', is easier if one has emergency funds in place.
3) Sometimes, 'time' can be a real ally; waiting and timing have a lot to do with success!
Thanks,
Zahc
- The mental and verbal abuse of your boss and other management means you come home and cry every day.
= You excel and beat a long known target - only beaten once before in 5 years - that would get you a reward. Be told you aren't allowed the reward as "why should we reward (employee) for doing their job".
- The bosses are promising to a client that there are ~X staff to handle their work. In fact there are a quarter of that and the rest of them know how to do the work but will always be working elsewhere and not available. Those staff already doing regular unpaid overtime to keep up with the existing workloads. They have no initial intention of increasing the employees in the department if they win the work.
- Due to all of the above you are spending a significant portion of your wages after tax on comfort food and emergency meals due to late travel.
I may have taken time to get a new job however it was the best decision I ever made. I would have been seriously ill within months if I'd stayed there any longer.
I worked my previous job for 8 years and management was awful, we had a lot of unpaid forced overtime, and I feel alot of rights violated we only got 1/2 an hour lunch although we worked 12 hours. Also when we were at our desk mice would run by our feet, then the mice attracted snakes the snakes would die under the computers and there was constant odors in the place.
Also the building we were in would constantly lose water so had to find a bathroom somewhere else and elevator didn't work. And god forbid you be handicap cause the ramp to get in was about 1/4 mile from the side we worked on. Job paid $22 hr and gave full benefits. (government job)
At the end of the day I had to weigh the worth. My sanity and safety was worth more. I went on my off day turned in some lose end work and said "I'm not coming back tomorrow or ever"
I would recommend the OP look into teaching English in Japan, or some other foreign country - you'll get to work in your field and you'll be submerged in the culture so you can become fluent enough in the language to be a translator. I know a lot of linguists who do this after college and they all love the experience.
Just make sure you double and triple check the agency you go through. Some are scams, but if you can find some alumni from the program and talk to them, you should be able to find one that will allow you to work in a job that's run well AND get the experience to come home and do your dream job.
Also, look into becoming a tour guide. The hours aren't the best but if you speak a reasonable amount of a foreign language you have a chance of finding a company that will hire you and the pay is great (my friend makes $50 an hour, but only worked 2-3 hours a day, 2-3 times a week when she first started...now she works closer to 20 hours a week).