Unhappy at job (1 Viewer)

[Danny Tse]

Here goes....I was laid off from my previous job in July and I was lucky enough to land a government job within 2 weeks. With a 30% pay increase to boot. But here's the problem, after two months I am really unhappy at this job and I am considering quitting. I feel guilty because I know that there are hundreds of thousands people out there looking for work, and here I am complaining. Any advice?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

To thine own self be true.
- Steve

 

[brentl]

I'd say stay unil after Christmas then decide.
2 months does not a chance make!!
Brent L
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[Steven K]

Not to sound harsh, however, I must say this: just stay where you are and be happy that you have job security. On top of that, you are making more money?!? I would give my right eye for job security at this point, regardless of whether or not there was a pay increase

 

[Ted Lee]

imo, if you're not happy...then you should leave.
is it really worth it - to be unhappy for 8 hours a day?

i guess only you can decide this one...
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You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

By the way, never quit without having another job lined up. But be true to yourself and don't work at a job that you don't like...life's too short to have it any other way.
- Steve

 

[Holadem]

is it really worth it - to be unhappy for 8 hours a day?

Yes, in this economy, for a few months until something better comes along. Quitting just like that with mothing lined up would be criminal.
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Holadem - I wish *I* had a job...

 

[Deane Johnson]

Why are you unhappy? What is it that you don't like?
Deane

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

While I say you are lucky to have work (trust me, it bites having no money), having a job that sucks isn't great either. You have two choices, either get to like what you are doing, or try to find something else. Depending on your finances, you may need another job lined up first.
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[Scott-C]

I've been in jobs that I haven't liked (including my current one) and to me, there is nothing worse than going to your place of work and dreading it. IMO, if you're going to spend that much time at the same place, it's important to be happy/content.
That being said, it's always easier to find a job while you have another job, so I'd start looking and keep looking until you find what you want, all the while hanging on to your current job.
Everyone's in a different situation, and while I also feel bad for those who are unemployed (I'll be one of them in two weeks now that I found out I'm being laid off in two weeks), it's important to look out for yourself with regard to employment.
Good luck in your search for a job that makes you happy.
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Scott

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I would say give it at least a year, unless it's REALLY bad. Think about whether it stands any chance at all of getting better or not. Definitely get another job lined up before leaving though, you don't want to wish you hadn't quit just because you need money! It took me over a month to find a new job when I got fed up with my old one; if I'd quit when I felt like it I would've been in bad shape.

 

[Tim Markley]

Don't quit your job! Take some advice from someone who lives in your area and is currently looking for a job. The job market is absolutely terrible! Go ahead and start looking for a new job but don't quit without having something else lined up.

 

[Danny Tse]

Thanks everyone for the advice!
Currently I am trying to line up another job first before leaving. Since I won't be able to get unemployment insurance, I will have to stick around 'til something comes my way.
Why I am unhappy at this job? I currently work as a Regulatory Analyst for the government. Before this position, I was pretty much doing the same thing "in the private sector". When I accepted the offer, I was expecting the same line of work since that's what they were offering me. Instead, they switched me to another department on my first day at work and I am now doing accounting, which I tried to avoid at all cost in college. Nothing against accounting, just not my cup of tea. Worst of all, my supervisor told me that the new hires are hired "to fill the cubicles" so that the department can ask for "a bigger piece of the pie" next year. On top of that, I see no opportunities for job advancement or skill enhancement. All this only after two months. I am really disappointed. One of my coworkers who started at the same time as me said she's giving this job one year at the most.
So....anyone ever has the same type of experience?

 

[Neil Joseph]

Find a better job, then quit.
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My Favourite Movie
[Edited last by Neil Joseph on October 15, 2001 at 11:00 PM]

 

[Tom Meyer]

RE: horror stories
I've been in a job I hated, one that a pretty much knew I'd hate soon after I started. In 1997 I went to work at as a consultant for a local firm. I wasn't really ready to go it alone at that point so I figured it would be good experience. They were all smiles and encouragement during the interview process (and bascially offered me a job after 1 interview) saying how they had so much work for database types like me and how I'd be doing cool stuff for years to come. I also got about a 15% raise on top of it. So I start work there and promptly sit on "the bench" (ie not doing jack shit) for about 6 weeks. I'd get up every day, go to the office, take a seat at a hallway desk, go through some of those "Learn to jerk off in 21 days" books (one was C++) and basically sat on my ass for the rest of the day waiting to go home.
So 6 weeks go by and they ship me off to the company that publishes airline guides to help write some unix scripts to do installation of some web-based app they were writing. This gig lasted about 8 weeks and totally sucked. Not my area of expertise, horrible commute every day, lame office environment. I have no idea if they ever used what I wrote. They could have probably bought a software package like InstallShield to do the exact same thing.
After this they put me at a very small advertising/media firm w/ one other consultant to allegedly write a system for them to track their media buys in different markets. I did get some decent experience here w/ JavaScript and html, but what I basically found out was that the company (called Technium, btw) had basically ZERO senior project leadership and really had no idea how to initiate projects from scratch. We were never asked to give updates (tho I tried to) on the project and never even saw anyone else from the firm unless they were there to gladhand the owner. I think they got the business because one of the guys was married to a girl in our office. They would have gotten better use out of the money they paid for that piece of shit system if they wiped there ass with it. After about 3 months, I told them I really wanted to get back to doing hardcore database admin work as that was what I enjoyed and that was what I was best at (not to mention what I thought they hired me for).
So, they try to accomodate me, which I thought was nice. They set up a gig at CNA insurance, so I went in for a little interview. I talk with the manager about their database environment, the problems they had, etc.. Seems OK. It's in the Loop, easy commute. Everything's cool, right ? Wrong. Pretty much as soon as I start, they plop me down in a cubicle on some moribund floor where no one talks to each other the whole day and tell me "Ok, we have all this data sitting in our mainframe system stored in these files and we need to put it into Sybase. That's what we want you to do." Uh, ok, for how long ? Forever !! Ha !! Well, it wasn't exactly like that, but I soon learned that they didn't care what I thought about their database architecture (no matter how screwed up it was) and that all they wanted me for was to write friggin' awk & perl scripts to slice and dice flat files and cram them into a Sybase database. Not exactly what I was told I'd be doing. Either the client lied or by boss lied, it didn't matte which. So after about 3 weeks of sometimes literally sitting there staring at my computer & listening to NPR for 8 hours straight (we had no internet access), I said enough was enough and got back in touch with the recruiters I'd dealt with.
After about 3 weeks of looking, around Thanksgiving of '97, I got a gig as a DBA/engineer at the company that installed the rapid transit farecard system here in Chicago. It was OK, and I stayed there about 2.5 years until our office was closed. I was then at a really lame startup for 6 months (it went bankrupt) until I got my current job back in the financial trading industry.
I guess the bottom line is, as others have said, don't quit your job until you have someting else lined up AND make sure you do your due diligence BEFORE you take a job. I've had two rather lame jobs and hated them both and would have loved to bolt after 2 months but the reality was, it was partly my fault as well. At the first I should have seen that the consulting co was nothing more than a 'body shop' and in the startup, I should have realized something was up when I saw the president of the company sitting in his office in the middle of the day playing Tetris. So, what should you learn from my convoluted job history ? Don't quit, ask questions, do your best to learn as much about the firm you go to work for. Not much else you can do, really.
Good luck !
[Edited last by Tom Meyer on October 15, 2001 at 11:03 PM]

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Danny, just pop in the movie Office Space! It makes me feel better everytime i'm feeling down about my job.
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God bless the USA and the men and woman of our military and their families!

 

[Eric Scott]

To thine own self be true.

Steve, qualified his meaning. Of course, if you don’t need money, then quit today! If you do need money and quit without having another job, it is the same as "firing yourself." Most people don’t like the person who fires them. From that moment forward that person is commonly referred to as the "asshole" who fired me!
So take care not to end up calling yourself names!

I am very unhappy with my job also and I’m keeping my eyes open for another opportunity. I work for an unethical lying scum, but I try to look at upside. I have almost total autonomy, I only have to see him about once every 2 months and speak to him about 5 minutes a day. When I feel like quitting, I try to think of what I’ve told others in the past:
.
If a job were suppose to be a whole lot of fun, it would be called a vacation, and you would have to pay them!
If the "boss" was such a great person to be with, we would call them "friend."

 

[Deane Johnson]

The best advice you're getting in this thread is stay at your job and do it as well as you can until you have something else lined up.
Right now you have the luxery of time. That gives you the benifit of waiting for something good to become available. If you quit, you'll have to take what ever you can get. Sort of "out of the frying pan into the fire".
The economic circumstances of the day dictate that you find a way to be happy for the time being.
Deane

 

[Craig Chatterton]

Danny, don't quit! Working for the government has some great benefits going for it, primarily that it's more immune from economic downswings then the private sector is. And there are ways to advance within a government job. Ask around for "Details" - that's where you basically do another job for six months or so and the Detail can be anything. I know they offer Detail work at the government office I work for so I hope they do the same at yours. Usually these Details will turn into full time employment if you like the work and your new boss likes you. So that's a good way to change careers.
Also once you've *been* a government worker for a few years, you can basically get any government job anywhere else. A government employer will look at pre-gov experience as a plus.
So my advice is give it a year and look around for internal advancement. I've been a government employee (contractor) for four years now and I love it!
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Virgo: All Virgo's are extremely friendly and intelligent, except for you. Expect a big surprise today, when you wind up with your head impaled upon a stick.

 

[Edwin-S]

What I have gathered from this thread is that just about everyone hates their job. It is a matter of "no matter where you go, there you are". I have been at the same company and doing the same job for 21 years and for 19 of them I have hated it. The thing is is that I don't hate the money since it has allowed me to do a lot of different things to keep my mind off just how much I cannot stand the work I do. The one thing I have learned from reading and talking to other people concerning their jobs is that having to work for a living is SHITTY. People who find work they like doing are the exception, not the rule.
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