When do you know its time to quit your job?

[Hudu Gurusingha]

My father was 60 years-old when he realised it was time for him to retire. He had been working for the Post-Master General's Department for 47 years. As he did every day, he walked to the train station nearest his home, in Moorabbin. He arrived at the bottom of the ramp leading up to Patterson station, and without any prior notice or forethought, found he was no longer physically or emotionally capable of walking up that ramp and heading to work. He just couldn't do it. He turned around and walked home. He never worked again. He had accumulated 15 months long-service leave and twelve months of unused sick pay.

In my working life, from which I am now retired, also after forty-seven years, I had upwards of sixty different employers. I was due long-service leave, but certainly not any sick leave. A Jungian would see synchronicity in our length of service. Because I hate Jung, and every one of his equally-deluded acolytes, I see a serendipitous co-incidence, or nothing at all.

If there is a moral, it might be that a job is not the real world, merely a misunderstood means to a nebulous end. Not that this alters the fact that most of us have to work, but it can alter the complexion we might choose to put on inherent value of the whole project.

Heavy.

60 different employers? What did you do for a job?

 

[Simple Jack]

It is risky. I have a friend who has always had this attitude (due to similar circumstances) and it has generally worked out for him - up until the last time he tried it. Quit his job in January and is still out of work.

It only takes a slight change in economic conditions and everyone stops hiring for six months or a year. Plus once you enter that zone of long-term unemployed it becomes exponentially harder to get a job.

Not saying it won't work out for you, but these days there's no guaranteed employment for anyone.

I think it comes down to how much you need to survive. I can get by on min wage (no loans, no credit card, no locked in contracts of any sort), and there are tons of jobs out there people feel are 'below them' and won't do. If worst came to worst I would just suck it up and do one of those till I could find something better.

However the reason I left the last place I worked at was because they are reasonably rubbish at running a business they are constantly understaffed, terribly disorganised resulting in 5-6 12 hour shifts rotating around the 24 hour clock with sometimes only a few hours notice and just treating the staff with general disdain. Pay was ok simply due to overtime/penalties and the job was about as physically and mentally easy as it gets. They are always losing more people then they put on and are in constant need of people for around the next 20 yeas so I always have the option of going back there. I made sure not to burn any bridges when I left even though I really wanted to.

 

[BEEG]

When you spend more time on Bigfooty then doing your job

 

[Milang_Panthers]

If you're stuck in a job you don't like, just have a look around. It's not hard to do with Linkedin, Seek etc, you'd be surprised what's out there. Once you get in the habit of looking it's easy to keep doing. I was in my comfort zone at my old job but not achieving anything, it took nearly a year but have a job now that I'm underqualified for but somehow got and loving it. More cash, no overtime and way better prospects and my boss is actually a good bloke.

Cannot imagine ever being able to say this

One question I've got for others is how long did it take to realise what sort of career you wanted?

 

[Hudu Gurusingha]

Cannot imagine ever being able to say this

One question I've got for others is how long did it take to realise what sort of career you wanted?

Im 31 and still don't know.

 

[the_interloper]

Cannot imagine ever being able to say this

One question I've got for others is how long did it take to realise what sort of career you wanted?

Basically when I was about 30 I guess. But this was after I'd picked my VCE subjects, picked my uni course, graduated, and was 3 years into my third job out of uni. So to expect you know where you want to end up even after graduating uni is fairly unrealistic I'd reckon.

 

[skilts]

Heavy.

60 different employers? What did you do for a job?

Mostly in sales.

 

[The_Reaper]

When you spend more time on Bigfooty then doing your job

Time to quit uni

 

[Caesar]

Mostly in sales.

Would never have picked that.

Enjoy it?

 

[Damon_3388]

Alternatively when you find yourself drinking 5 cups of International Roast a day, not because you like coffee but because there might be someone in the lunchroom to talk to.

You certainly wouldn't be drinking that much International Roast if you like coffee

 

[skilts]

Would never have picked that.

Enjoy it?

I worked mostly on the periphery of the building industry, selling crushed rock, concrete, bricks, earth-moving equipment hire and aluminium windows. I also worked in various retail outlets. As it turned out, the product is largely irrelevant, given that all of them required about three months of familiarisation, coupled with the implementation of the same method to discover and engage the market for each product.

There was a tremendous satisfaction to be had from, what is usually, measurable success in selling. However, the tedium of incessant repetition of the current mantra can become wearing. Part of the reason for the number of jobs I had was the boom and bust nature of the building industry. Retrenchment never came as a surprise to me though. Having done my market research, it was usually I who told companies they could no longer afford to employ me.

At the risk of appearing to be self-congratulatory, over the period of 40 years during which I've sold products in the building industry, I never burned a bridge with a customer, to the extent that I was unwelcome at their offices. I attribute this to the simple ploy of providing or doing what I promised, and if this proved impossible for some reason, to tell the client, before they called me. In my later years in the industry, such an approach did not always meet with approval from employers. In a small country town like Melbourne, if your word turns out not to be your bond, your potential customer base diminishes rapidly.

I am somewhat surprised that you are surprised that this was my line. Obviously, I have other, more intellectual pursuits as well. These only really came to fruition after I started Uni at the age of 37. They certainly make 'retirement' much more interesting. Basically, I'm a schizo, which will be news to few on these boards.

 

[Caesar]

I am somewhat surprised that you are surprised that this was my line.

You just strike me as a little curmudgeonly to enjoy dealing with clients. But I guess BigFooty is hardly the same thing as real life.

 

[skilts]

You just strike me as a little curmudgeonly to enjoy dealing with clients. But I guess BigFooty is hardly the same thing as real life.

I make no claims these days to seeking intercourse with the public. Forty years of forced encounters with them has seen to that. I've gone off people a bit.

I have always seen selling as a performance which requires no particular love of the audience. A sense of ones own integrity is the only reason to take it in any way seriously.

 

[checkraiseulite]

Lulz.

 

[checkraiseulite]

silent alarm + 40 years and 60 employment experiences imo

 

[The Passenger]

Do you have another job lined up? If not, this is a terrible idea.

would like to hear why it's a terrible idea? i've never heard anyone say heading overseas is a terrible idea.

why do we need another job lined up? you should be confident enough to be able to secure employment easy enough.

if one manages their finances properly, doesn't mortgage themselves to the teeth, then quitting work to take time off won't be an issue.

 

[Nate7]

Some years ago I decided to work in a completely different field for a year, as a kind of refresher.
In that job, my happiest times were anytime I spent between 10-15 minutes in the toilet cubicle to get peace and quiet and away from the majority of the a-holes in that place. Needless to say, when you look forward to time in the toilet, it's time to leave and I did just that albeit in some vague form like Michael Douglas's character in Falling Down.

Since then, I've been back in my original field and loving every minute of it.

 

[Rod Stroker]

 

[Run n Spread]

If you're stuck in a job you don't like, just have a look around. It's not hard to do with Linkedin, Seek etc, you'd be surprised what's out there. Once you get in the habit of looking it's easy to keep doing. I was in my comfort zone at my old job but not achieving anything, it took nearly a year but have a job now that I'm underqualified for but somehow got and loving it. More cash, no overtime and way better prospects and my boss is actually a good bloke.

Jack sh*& out there at the minute which is half the problem.

 

[King Elvis]

Pretty simple, isn't it?

You hear some people constantly bitching about how much they hate their jobs.

Either change your job, or change your attitude.

 

[Tulip]

Racking my brains to remember where that joke is from.

OT: I think you need to have a healthy appreciation of the fact that it is called work. You aren't meant to love it, but then you aren't meant to hate it either. I don't enjoy the work I do, but it's only 20something hours a week to get through Uni. What I do enjoy and what makes me stick around is the excellent group of co-workers I have.

 

[Run n Spread]

Racking my brains to remember where that joke is from.

OT: I think you need to have a healthy appreciation of the fact that it is called work. You aren't meant to love it, but then you aren't meant to hate it either. I don't enjoy the work I do, but it's only 20something hours a week to get through Uni. What I do enjoy and what makes me stick around is the excellent group of co-workers I have.

True. Sometimes in reference to the post above it is better to change your attitude as a short term measure while playing a longer game I suppose.

 

[Dan Moody]

When you start coming in late and nobody gives two shits.

 

[PP34]

This thread has done nothing but depress me. My main love in life is sport, and I've got no hope of making a living from that.

I cannot imagine myself working 5 days a week in a job and actually enjoying this. The ways of the world, hey?

 

[HirdyLannister]

Money makes me happy, work provides me money = happy at work.