[Misc] The Great Resignation and career changes

[jakarta]

You and me were never going to be Bill Gates. You have some seriously good skills built up over a lot of years, If you can teach that to young kids coming through, that should be your role and target. I do the same but try to avoid teaching wankers and luckily, 95% of the kids are brilliant

Only real reason I put up with the Muppets running my courses at the University I work (part-time) for is feeding back 35 years of experience to my students.

Consultancy work is being run down shockingly 'no I don't actually want to be in a Concrete Block Plant in Loughborough all next week working Night Shifts thanks all the same...' and I'm looking at knocking it on the head in 2 years time.

Will miss some aspects of the work but certainly not the travelling and daft hours I have worked over the years.

Just a shame County Cricket has imploded just when I was ready to sit at Hove all day for 3-4 days with a Newspaper and Pint or two of Harveys...

 

[bluenitsuj]

In my experience, once you have actually submitted your resignation, any stress will fall away and those three months will be quite enjoyable. I once had to work 6 months notice and the only hassle was wanting to get on with the new job. I found that once you know you are going, the job actually improves immensely

The last 'contracted' position I ever had was a 2 year rolling contract, but luckily when I decided to go, they were like minded and just paid up the contract

I agree. I know the minute I submit my resignation, all the stress will disappear. I have a week off next week and, knowing the stress and anxiety will return the moment I am back, my plan is to give my notice on 31st Oct which means I would leave 31st Jan.
I do not currently have another job to go to but will be fine for a few months

 

[giveusfalmerplease]

I am 48 and although worked non stop since 19, I have only had 2 employers. The first moved away making everyone redundant. I had been there 19 years and loved the job but used the situation as a chance to do something different.
10 years in now with my current job and the stress and anxiety is through the roof. Hate the job and it makes me so unhappy. It should be the perfect job - good salary, work from home and a boss that leaves me to get on with it but I am just so unhappy. My wife has told me to give my notice and that we will be ok and I have actually written it but not submitted. Have to give 3 months notice as well.

You might be surprised. I also had to work 3 months notice but told my line boss I would only work my contracted hours, no more late night calls etc.after about a month they took me off the current project and basically left me to it. I spent a few weeks doing knowledge transfer, writing Doc's etc but as long as I was signed in and they could contact me I didn't do much. In fact I spent most of the last 2 months learning node.js!

 

[FatSuperman]

I think you and I should have a natter over a beer one day Bozza we have a lot in common. I am just about to embark on my new journey.

I even think we live near each other in Worthing by some of your posts.

No need to arrange anything special tbh, just get to the restaurant early and sit next to Bozza at the NSC curry night.

 

[vegster]

I should have tried to re-train or just try something different many many years ago. I made the mistake of thinking that if I worked hard and kept my nose clean and was a team player I would be fine. Sadly it seems the opposite is true, too late I found out I should have jumped ship or retrained... after much badgering I finally got a pay rise about 3 months back and have reached the dizzying heights of £11.39 and hour pay !!!!!! then I find out the Labour party are calling for a minimum wage of £15 and hour and I realise that once again I have been mugged.

So, don't trust, don't hope and don't bust your ass because your boss does not give a stuff about you, find something you like, that can't be replaced by a robot and do it while you have time on your side.

 

[GT49er]

I refuse to believe that the majority of people on this board were ever young .

Then you've got it very wrong. This seeing the light and moving to nirvana is all very well if you're financially secure ............. maybe you've been in a well-paid but hated job and have paid off the mortgage, maybe the bank of mum-and-dad is particularly well stocked, or maybe they've conveniently died and left you a decent inheritance (a house to sell, perhaps). Or perhaps you've just got a partner with a good job who can pay the mortgage and keep the kids fed and clothed for a year or two whilst you're searching for that wonderful lifestyle change.

I can remember being young, and none of those things applied. I, like many others - and certainly like many youngsters today who may never own a house - simply had to keep going, nose to the grindstone, in a job that I hated. There wasn't a choice (apart, of course, from stopping paying the mortgage or rent and see where that led to!) ....... and for thousands more, there still isn't a choice.

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

Then you've got it very wrong. This seeing the light and moving to nirvana is all very well if you're financially secure ............. maybe you've been in a well-paid but hated job and have paid off the mortgage, maybe the bank of mum-and-dad is particularly well stocked, or maybe they've conveniently died and left you a decent inheritance (a house to sell, perhaps). Or perhaps you've just got a partner with a good job who can pay the mortgage and keep the kids fed and clothed for a year or two whilst you're searching for that wonderful lifestyle change.

I can remember being young, and none of those things applied. I, like many others - and certainly like many youngsters today who may never own a house - simply had to keep going, nose to the grindstone, in a job that I hated. There wasn't a choice (apart, of course, from stopping paying the mortgage or rent and see where that led to!) ....... and for thousands more, there still isn't a choice.

I think you might have taken that post more seriously than it was intended.

I'm not sure. My memory isn't what it used to be.

 

[GT49er]

I think you might have taken that post more seriously than it was intended.

I'm not sure. My memory isn't what it used to be.

Maybe - but my point about there not always being a viable choice still stands.

P.S. My memory isn't what it used to be either - but I can still remember being young much better than I can remember last week!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Only real reason I put up with the Muppets running my courses at the University I work (part-time) for is feeding back 35 years of experience to my students.

Consultancy work is being run down shockingly 'no I don't actually want to be in a Concrete Block Plant in Loughborough all next week working Night Shifts thanks all the same...' and I'm looking at knocking it on the head in 2 years time.

Will miss some aspects of the work but certainly not the travelling and daft hours I have worked over the years.

Just a shame County Cricket has imploded just when I was ready to sit at Hove all day for 3-4 days with a Newspaper and Pint or two of Harveys...

I have promised to go back into work to do face to face teaching with hundreds of unvaccinated yoof in tiny unventilated rooms after I get my 3rd jab (end of the month). It will be interesting. However I can't see myself ploughing on with it for much longer as the commute is a nightmare now. How can a train journey from Faversham to London and back have become more uncomfortable, slower, more stressful and insanely more expensive now compared with 32 years ago? A word beginning with P.....what was it now?

 

[Tokyohands]

Personally I could always hack the work.

It's the commute I always found vile and damagingly stressful

Yeah same. I found myself stressed out and just wanting to nut people when making my way to and from the station each day and I put that down to my job trading financial markets, which can be very stressful but also really enjoyable for me. At that point the anger was outweighing the joy and I was seriously considering a complete change but just randomly decided to start cycling the 26km round trip to the office each day and that totally did the trick. It was just being crammed into a metro train pushing and shoving for 30 mins that was compounding the stress but it's been onwards and upwards at work and I've lost a bunch of weight since making the change.

What I'm trying to say is, if you are able to, making some simpler lifestyle changes to your daily routine can have a positive effect on what you might mistakenly think the problem is.

 

[Gwylan]

Oh well, six months after getting a job, I've been laid off as my department is wound up and everything shifted to the States. As I'm 65 next month, I think the chance of retraining is gone

It's a tough old world out there (at least I get a cheaper season ticket)

 

[raymondo]

My job is decent enough. I could definitely earn more elsewhere, but I've been with the same company for a long, long time, and they are fair - and my work/life balance is pretty good. My office is less than five minutes from home - if I want to I can have lunch in my garden, and be home in the evening at 5.15pm. I can work from home if I want to, but would rather be in the (empty) office, where everything is easier, and I have plenty of space.

I rather yearn for the days though, of less responsibility. Having the ability / freedom to mange yourself is great, but it is a double-edged sword. The engineers I manage would probably not see it this way at all, but there is also freedom in their roles - freedom to not only work a set 35 hour week - but to be properly 'free' of work outside of those hours. That is not a luxury afforded to many of us.

I know for sure that these guys would consider that they work a lot harder than me - after all they are out 4 days a week, driving up and down the motorways, working on noisy sites, etc - while I'm sat at my desk most of the time, drinking tea, typing emails - with time to piss about on the internet if I'm bored. But, there's more to it than that.

Their role is generally "Go to this site on this day. Install / test this product. Go home". As soon as they step foot off that site, they are done. Go and play golf. Go to the pub. Whatever. And don't give work a second's thought, until someone else (me) gives them their next job.

I price the work. Fight for the contracts. Fight to keep those contracts as people incessantly look to cut costs. Plan schedules. Re-plan schedules when sites tell you last minute they are not ready. Re-plan them yet again when a sub-contractor lets us down. Re-plan again when somebody calls in sick or gets pinged. Chase suppliers for late orders. Struggle to juggle the manpower resources - if the engineers' diaries are too full, how do you slot in an emergency visit somewhere when equipment fails? If they are not full enough, my boss wants to know why they are sat idle. I deal with the complaints when they get something wrong. Always aware that my department needs to hit a budget, and that failing to do so means that one of those engineers jobs would go.

The upshot of it is that you NEVER really switch off from it. Not properly. At the weekend, I'll be thinking how to fit everything together the following week. What if that repair isn't successful? Could that engineer go there instead? Will that part arrive on time, to schedule that in instead? etc, etc. Then there's the phone - if something is up in the air, I can't help but sporadically check my emails - sometimes a definitive answer to something helps put something to bed - sometimes I just see three other mails from different customers about new problems to fix - and whilst I don't have to DO anything about it until I'm back at work on Monday, the effect is a constant impinging of proper downtime.

Before I fell into this career, many years ago, my first full time job after Uni was working for the council, cutting grass. Arrive at a park / school / sports field, unload a big ride on mower, and spend 3 hours driving up and down turning long grass into tidy short grass. No pressures. No problem solving. No need to speak to anyone unless you wanted to. I don't suppose it would be hugely fulfilling (or financially great) long-term, but I've never since been as happy in my work!

Great post.

 

[giveusfalmerplease]

Oh well, six months after getting a job, I've been laid off as my department is wound up and everything shifted to the States. As I'm 65 next month, I think the chance of retraining is gone

It's a tough old world out there (at least I get a cheaper season ticket)

Sorry i don't know what your background is but I'm pretty certain if that if you are skilful enough to write on here (and based on your age) you might want to look into proof reading as a job. usually work at home at your own leisure and pays £12-15 ph . Employees will usually send you some samples to proof read with deliberate spelling mistakes, grammatical errors etc and you have to correct them. Based on your accuracy in finding the mistakes will determine if you are offered a job and at what rate.

Alternatively if you have a few hours a week and are getting bored try a bit of volunteering. i care for an adult so have to work at home but have helped local businesses with organising their invoices ready for their tax returns etc and currently planning on training myself on building some basic websites which i will look to do for free but get affiliated with several of the hosting services so a i get a small commission if i can get the businesses to setup a hosting plan for their site.

just a few ideas..

 

[Weststander]

Some fantastic stories here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59132672

Also an insight on the effect of rat-race screen based jobs on peoples mental health, versus an outdoor vocation. It makes sense.

 

[Lower West Stander]

Yeah same. I found myself stressed out and just wanting to nut people when making my way to and from the station each day and I put that down to my job trading financial markets, which can be very stressful but also really enjoyable for me. At that point the anger was outweighing the joy and I was seriously considering a complete change but just randomly decided to start cycling the 26km round trip to the office each day and that totally did the trick. It was just being crammed into a metro train pushing and shoving for 30 mins that was compounding the stress but it's been onwards and upwards at work and I've lost a bunch of weight since making the change.

What I'm trying to say is, if you are able to, making some simpler lifestyle changes to your daily routine can have a positive effect on what you might mistakenly think the problem is.

I work in the front office in the markets too.

The wfh thing has helped me massively and I now only go in twice a week. Much better work life balance. Like you, I always enjoyed my job and this has been the one benefit of COVID for me personally.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Gwylan]

Sorry i don't know what your background is but I'm pretty certain if that if you are skilful enough to write on here (and based on your age) you might want to look into proof reading as a job. usually work at home at your own leisure and pays £12-15 ph . Employees will usually send you some samples to proof read with deliberate spelling mistakes, grammatical errors etc and you have to correct them. Based on your accuracy in finding the mistakes will determine if you are offered a job and at what rate.

Alternatively if you have a few hours a week and are getting bored try a bit of volunteering. i care for an adult so have to work at home but have helped local businesses with organising their invoices ready for their tax returns etc and currently planning on training myself on building some basic websites which i will look to do for free but get affiliated with several of the hosting services so a i get a small commission if i can get the businesses to setup a hosting plan for their site.

just a few ideas..

Thanks for this. I work as a journalist, so I'm pretty good at spotting poor spelling and grammatical errors. It's certainly something to think about. I've picked up a bit of work seeing being laid off - I've just translated a very poorly written French article and turned it into something readable - so I do have something to keep me going.

I already volunteer as I coach rugby in my spare time - I don't really want to do any more as I search for work.

I'm not too badly off. My mortgage has just a few months left, so things could be a lot worse, but I do appreciate the suggestions.

 

[Rambo]

I am 48 and although worked non stop since 19, I have only had 2 employers. The first moved away making everyone redundant. I had been there 19 years and loved the job but used the situation as a chance to do something different.
10 years in now with my current job and the stress and anxiety is through the roof. Hate the job and it makes me so unhappy. It should be the perfect job - good salary, work from home and a boss that leaves me to get on with it but I am just so unhappy. My wife has told me to give my notice and that we will be ok and I have actually written it but not submitted. Have to give 3 months notice as well.

We are of similar age and sounds like exact same circumstances.

I quit my job with the wife’s support and worked out my 3 months notice. In that time the job actually got better as it usually does! I left last week and now setting up my own business.

Don’t look back, do it. Life is too short to be unhappy.

 

[BadFish]

I have 5 weeks of teaching left. After 15 years of loving it I have finally been worn down by endless hours of unpaid and unappreciated hours each week. My thinking is that I can use these hours for something more beneficial.

Next year I am going to be a CRT (substitute teacher) for a few days a week, do a masters in Autism studies and set up my own business as a autism advocate, dyslexia tutor and maybe some other things I find along the way.

This had all been driven by toxic management at my school and a huge disagreement with the way education is going over here.

Can't wait to get into it.

Sent from my M2010J19CG using Tapatalk

 

[Machiavelli]

I have 5 weeks of teaching left. After 15 years of loving it I have finally been worn down by endless hours of unpaid and unappreciated hours each week. My thinking is that I can use these hours for something more beneficial.

Next year I am going to be a CRT (substitute teacher) for a few days a week, do a masters in Autism studies and set up my own business as a autism advocate, dyslexia tutor and maybe some other things I find along the way.

This had all been driven by toxic management at my school and a huge disagreement with the way education is going over here.

Can't wait to get into it.

Sent from my M2010J19CG using Tapatalk

Excellent. That's a great move. I doubt you'll regret it. Teaching is such an important role but you don't need me to tell you, it's been undermined by targets, over-stressed by parents and league tables, undervalued by successive Chancellors and, unfortunately society more generally. You are moving in to a similarly challenging yet rewarding role, but you'll have more control over things.

 

[Kosh]

I’m 5 weeks into my new role, and I love it.

I’ve met so many experts in their fields, I can feel my general levels of intelligence rising by the day... I’ve developed a new strategy to work in terms of just doing my best and bugger the rest. I’d say it’s working a treat, as i’m drinking far less caffeine and hardly any alcohol, that and I’m down to five ***** a day, with only two falling into the danger category. My therapist says I’m well on the road to achieving my target of being **** neutral by 2030.

It’s a glorious and brave new world.

Ahem

Way back I posted on herein that I was moving on, and yes my lightness of mood betrays my happiness... best decision I’ve ever made (career) wise as it’s eradicated my fear of moving and opened up so many other doors... I’m a new man. I have to pinch myself when I go to work, as I can’t quite believe where I’m working and who for/with. It’s awesome.

Yes, the elixir has imbued my soul and it is good.