If necessary, find ways to cut your expenses. To break free of your golden handcuffs or break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, put together a budget with Tiller to figure out how much money you really need to earn. If you live paycheck to paycheck and the work you do allows you to make ends meet, sticking around seems like your only choice. You might not have enough in savings to provide a cushion or to make up for a drop in income. Your job doesn’t even have to pay a particularly large salary for you to be hesitant to leave it. The job pays so well, gives you great health insurance, or offers you so much financial security that leaving it seems impossible. There’s a term for the financial benefits that come with certain jobs: Golden handcuffs. For example, not everyone wants to be a corporate consultant who conducts company layoffs like George Clooney’s character in the movie “ Up in the Air,” so that kind of job needs to pay well. You could argue that some crappy jobs pay well because there’s an understanding that they aren’t the best. The Money Is GoodĮven the worst jobs can pay an excellent salary. What’s keeping you from giving your two weeks’ notice or handing your boss a resignation letter? Even when you hate the work you do or don’t get along with your colleagues, multiple factors can tie you to a position that isn’t a good fit for you. If you’re getting ready to jump ship but aren’t sure what will happen next or how to proceed, examine your reasons for staying in your current work situation, then start to put together an exit strategy. People have lots of reasons for sticking around at their current job, even when they recognize that a new job would be more fulfilling. Although quitting a job you aren’t happy with can seem like an easy solution to your problem, reality is usually a lot more complicated. And, ask yourself, how much is my sanity, serenity, fulfillment, happiness worth to me? (You can read how much mine is worth to me here.“Why don’t you just quit?” might be the question your friends and family ask you every time you say “I hate my job” or describe the latest work horror to them. I’m not suggesting that anyone dig into 401(k) money or go into credit card debt, but people are often surprised on what they can make work for only 3 months. Is it really impossible, or do you just think it is because you are afraid (with good reason, it is scary!)? Can you give yourself 90 days unpaid to transition? Do you have an emergency fund you can use? This is a good time to ask someone you trust to look at your finances with you and see if they can see a workable way to give yourself 3 months. First, I always ask you to take a really good clear-eyed look at your finances and see if you can give yourself just 90 days/3 months runway. This is enough time (especially if you are working with a coach) to see some real and significant transformation and progress. So, while my vote is squarely in the “leave immediately” column, this is not generally considered to be the most practical advice, and finances are a very real and important consideration, but we also often use them as an excuse for fear and why we “can’t” do something that feels scary. Nothing will change if you don’t make a change, so it’s time to try a different approach. It’s very, very hard to find the right next job when you are miserable and depressed, and people can sense it, whether or not they can identify that as an issue. And I don’t believe it is because you are unhireable, or that there are no jobs out there. You’ve been dutifully looking for new jobs, and it hasn’t been working. Staying there is also not getting you any closer to where you want to go, and the longer you stay, the further away you get from yourself, and the harder it is to get back.Īnd, you’ve tried that. When this is the case, leave immediately, don’t pass go, no rationalizing, no questions asked. The first thing I’d say, which most people don’t want to hear, is that anytime anything is making you into a “shell of a person” and is making you that miserable, it is just not the right thing for you. You’ve taken the first and most important step, which is to realize that for you this is a major HAYWALT, and that it is not going to change. I have been there, full force, for years, and it is so painful. My dear, I am so so sorry you are in this position. Do I quit? Do I just keep sucking it up? What should I do? -A, 31 Every day, I debate whether I should just quit, but I really can’t afford to not have any income (even though I am way underpaid in this job), and it’s been so hard to find a new job, I don’t have a lot of faith that I will find a new one if I quit. I’m not sure how much longer I can hang in there. I’m so frustrated, and I don’t know where to turn. I’ve been looking for a new job for a really long time, and get close many times, but it just hasn’t happened yet.
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