Job Burnout?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I feel completely burned out at my current job, my first job out of college. I’ve been here for 1.5 years, and believe it or not, that’s the longest tenure out of everyone at my office. (We have very high employee turnover.) I already have plans in place to attend graduate school next fall. At what point can I just quit? I currently dread coming in to work almost every morning. I have essentially no vacation days left, so taking a break is out of the question.</p>

<p>What do you think I should do? I’ve been applying to other jobs for months. I was very close to getting offers from a few of them. I also have no real financial obligations, so leaving my job won’t have any immediate dire consquences on my life. Still, I know finding another job will take months in this economy, if I’m even lucky enough to find another one at all.</p>

2

<p>Do you have another job lined up? What do you mean you have no real financial obligations? How do you pay your bills?</p>

3

<p>How unbearable is it? If you already have plans for grad school, can you just stick it out until next August? Can staying at the job benefit you in any other way–resume building, learning experience, skills, references, etc.?
Why get another job now, or spend several months trying to find one, only to quit the new job for grad school after only a couple months? Will anyone hire you if you are honest about leaving for school soon? Do you have enough savings to live on if you just quit and don’t find another job?</p>

4

<p>

Anytime you want. For most people a pre-req of having the financial means enters the picture but if you have that covered then just do what you want. It’s a little unusual that you have no financial obligations (rent, food, clothing, entertainment, car payment/gas/insurance, etc.) unless your parents are paying everything for you and you’re not contributing anything financially to support yourself despite being out of school and employed.</p>

<p>If after a year and a half you’ve become the long term employee, i.e. ridiculously high turnover, and total burnout for you in such a short timeframe, then there must be something wrong with the place you’re employed.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the comments. Grad school was originally intended as a back-up plan for me. If I find a good, full-time job, I’m willing to delay grad school or abandon the plan completely. I live at home, which is why I have very few bills. I didn’t want to be trapped into a 1-year lease at a time when I’m desperately trying to leave my job (which was pretty much the past year). I gave my parents a lot of money (a lot for me, at least) for the downpayment on their house, so they’d be fine with me free-loading for a bit longer. I also have money saved up because I’ve been paying no rent/utilities/groceries (other than my portion of the downpayment). Of course, I would have to then take out loans for grad school if I do quit with nothing else lined up.</p>

<p>I think I know why most employees are so unhappy here, but I have nothing to compare my experiences with. We’ve had a few senior people leave after only several months of working here. And thus, we have very little direction and virtually no training because everyone is new.</p>

<p>It’s gotten to the point where I fantasize about quitting on a weekly basis. But once again, I know how difficult the job market is, and interviewers hate any gaps in employment. I would quit right away if I had any other job offer.</p>

6

<p>If you’re not serious about going to grad school right away and want to continue being employed then just start looking for other jobs now. Don’t worry about the general ‘job market’. People are still getting employed and chances are good that a lot of the people who left were you are now got other jobs. </p>

<p>It’s usually a good idea to find the other job and have a firm offer in hand before you quit where you are. Just knowing that you’re out looking might provide some comfort to you and make your remaining days at this job more palatable.</p>

7

<p>Keep looking.
Companies are in flux on hiring and budgets. It is December.
Find a industry association and find a mentor.
Always, Always network. Network with the ex-employees.
If no one has training either in the field or management-find some training ASAP.
Grad school can take you only so far.
You are gaining valuable experience in how not to be a manager/company, Make it a positive experience.
Your primary responsibility is to you, and second to company. You to the company is perhaps #4, at best.</p>

8

<p>It is significantly easier to get a job when you have a job. Many employers now state baldly in their ads or with their recruiters that the unemployed need not apply. (Yes, it’s legal.) </p>

<p>Grad school is an expensive “back up” plan. Keep trying to find another job.</p>

9

<p>Stay, have your employer pay for your Grad. school and look for another job while working. That is what I did many times, I am on my best job - #9, no loans, various employers paid for both my BS and MBA</p>

10

<p>I should start with a disclaimer that I’ve worked for one company for 27 years, same boss for 13+. I absolutely love what I am doing. But… For every me there’s LOTS of people who end up working in bozo companies for bozo managers, or in bozo careers. </p>

<p>So, try to figure out why is it that the job is ‘bad’. Is it bad because it’s the only game in town, because of low pay, long hours, bad boss, or is it in a field that no matter how you sugar-coat it, it’s bad? </p>

<p>Every once in a while I have this discussion with Mrs. Turbo who has changed more employers in her 25 years than I can even remember. Invariably, her field (IT consulting) seems to attract a lot of good people but an awful lot of clueless wonders, egomaniacs, micromanager types, and all that. So I’ve seen it both ways. </p>

<p>First find out what specifically is bad. Then what would it take to change it. Then what are the options. If the field is bad, no matter how many job changes or grad schools you go to, at the end of the day it’s still the same.</p>

11

<p>I loved every single one of my 9 jobs. But I am in IT in the worst economic region of the country and I could not relocate. I mean, it is much worse than Detroit as many of us are driving to jobs in Michigan and Detroit and other places on a daily basis, as I was doing it for one of my jobs (company is bankrupt). Any way, sometime it was not me, department was gone…to another city (several instances), company was downsizing or yes, I found another job that was significantly better. All of my places have very recognizable names in many industries. This way I have gained very broad experience, huge pool of references and any place that I have started or interviewed had somebody who knew me from our previous employment. Very cozy feeling.</p>

12

<p>

Good advice about 15 years ago. Now, very few companies pay for grad school. Don’t stay unless you know they’ll pay.</p>

13

<p>It is not easy being in a bad job market and having a lousy job. Without knowing much about the specifics of why the job sucks, it is hard to give specific advice. Jobs with high turnover usually indicates bad management, where work flows are poorly set up, training is lacking, etc, and employees feel hopeless. Sometimes in those kind of places there is a silver lining (no, not trying to blow smoke that all is great and such…:), sometimes it can allow a person to expand into the vacuum and do some serious learning. There could be the opportunity to learn a lot of different things if people aren’t doing them and to gain serious skills you can use elsewhere. </p>

<p>To be honest, I would recommend not using grad school as a lifeboat or alternative to a bad job situation. I realize you are young and it is a bit different when starting a career then mid career, but you also might find that going to grad school full time like that hurts you (obviously, I don’t know what you are planning to study), because it will leave you with an inconsistent work record, especially if you quit now. At the very least, I would try to find ways to stay with this job before going to grad school, gaps in the job record don’t look good. If training is an issue, have you tried suggesting to the powers that be that maybe getting training would help stem the turnover? There are moron managers who think turnover brings in ‘fresh blood’, but I suspect at least some people know that the turnover is not a good thing. </p>

<p>An even better alternative might be to keep looking for another job that seems to be better and when you find it, work for several years, gaining job skills and the like, and if then you feel like you want to go to grad school, you have alternatives. If you are really lucky and your employer pays for it, that is an option, but even if they don’t pay you could still work and go part time, a lot of grad programs are designed around working adults. I was working when I got my grad tech management degree and working like that and learning was an eye opener, it gave a very different perspective to be seeing how dynamics in the workplace work viewed through what I was learning in school…and keeping a continuous employment record will be a big plus down the line, and speaking as a hiring manager, seeing someone who worked and went to grad school while working can be a lot more impressive then someone who went full time to grad school…take it from me, having a grad degree in of itself is not such a big plus these days, but combine that with continuous work experience it can be a big plus (yeah, there are exceptions to this, getting an MBA from Wharton when you want to go on to be an nvestment banker and going full time isn’t going to hurt you)…</p>

<p>I have had jobs that grew onerous, where things changed, and what usually what allowed me to keep going was having some sort of goal to be able to get out of there:)</p>