How do you stay in a job you hate

I think weighting is an effective strategy for a job.

For me, pay is only about 30% of the equation. Another 30% is the benefits, vacation, insurance, etc. Probably 40% of the job is the work environment, flexibility, commute, etc.

My current job is around 75%. Pay is good (30%), benefits are so/so (20%), flexibility, commute, etc are so/so (25%). I'd trade income for more time off or a shorter commute.

I've worked places that had a great commute, great work environment that earned a full 40% on the work environment scale, but in pay and benefits it was pretty low, like 10% or worse (no benefits). I stayed because that work environment is more important to me than pay and benefits, as a good work environment, short commute, good hours, etc allow for you to go out and find another job.

When work environment sucks, pay and benefits can be excellent and it still makes a job "fail".

Thanks for all the good advice folks. I expected to hear more ‘suck it up and deal with it. It’s paying the bills right?’
I do have an iron in the fire. A previous employer has been trying to get me back and I might have an interview next week. He’s been trying to build a position specifically for me since the spring time and it looks like it’s going to happen soon. It’ll be less monies, maybe $3500 a year? That doesn’t sound like much, but there are 5 in my family and only one income, so we’ll feel that. But, I’ll go from 84 miles a day commuting to 4. That’ll be nice.
I was tracking his prick-ness for a while, but it just got to be tedious and it’s obvious that he’s very well protected. He’s been taken to HR 4 times in the past, two of those went as far as having attorneys involved. He also brags about how vindictive and spiteful he is. I think it’s his passive-aggressive way of hinting that we should just roll over and take his crap. I make good money now, so I’m trying to deal with this until something considerably better comes up. And by considerably better, I’m not talking money. I’m talking about the stuff PHeller is talking about.

Dr., I talked to my son this morning; he was contacted by a rival company about jumping ship. Sounded good, pay increase of ~$40,000 per year, expense account and more. Research and talking to others in the business, he decided to pass.

One of the research tools he used is Glass Door. http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm I don't think it would help with personality issues within cubicles, but it does have a Yelp feel when reading the experiences of others at a job you may be interested in.

This may or may not help, but it's another tool.

Good luck,

Dan

BTW, 80 mile shorter commute X 5 days divided by a car that gets 22 mpg (?) = your $3500 loss of pay back easily.

My car gets 54 mpg, but that still makes back some of the difference.

In reply to PHeller: That's a good way to look at it. I have to suck it up for now. Even though I don't like the direction we are headed the benefits and overtime have been great for taking care of my wife. Until they screw up those two I will keep biting my tongue and hope things start to turn around.

DrBoost wrote: My car gets 54 mpg, but that still makes back some of the difference.

You'll get back enough fuel savings to notice it, and more than enough time savings to appreciate it.

That is the one thing that I don't like about my current job vs my old job. It's basically the same job, except with better pay and nicer people, but my territory is now measured in counties, not zip codes. I'm not complaining, just saying that it would be nice to get home before 5 pm often instead just once in a while or on a slow day.

I took a $10,000 pay cut to get out of a job I hated.

The money difference was noticeable and my wife grumbled a little bit about it.

Know what? I didn't care. Not being stressed out constantly (and affecting my health) was worth every penny. The more you make, the more you spend. I'd make the same decision again.

Must be pretty stressful if a Lotus owner doesn't have the patience to deal with it.

Like Ddavidv, I took a huge cut to get my dream job with Benet Labs. My financial advisor was not happy.

"But honey, you can't BUY happiness. When you hate to get up in the morning, it's a long life."

do your job good enough to not be fired or demoted, but be a total smartass to the douche in question. take every opportunity to point out to him what an idiot you think he is. have fun with it..

and remember: it's only a job. there are others out there..

HappyAndy wrote:

DrBoost wrote: My car gets 54 mpg, but that still makes back some of the difference.

You'll get back enough fuel savings to notice it, and more than enough time savings to appreciate it. That is the one thing that I don't like about my current job vs my old job. It's basically the same job, except with better pay and nicer people, but my territory is now measured in counties, not zip codes. I'm not complaining, just saying that it would be nice to get home before 5 pm often instead just once in a while or on a slow day.

Doesn't DR. Boost get his fuel for free?

Strangely enough, the places I made difference were the worst places to work. shiny happy person mgrs, deceitful co-workers, mgmt with no direction . . . They wanted me gone since I was rocking everyone's boat. When you are being blamed for staff using the copier too much, you know it's time to go. Once I left that place, my health IMMEDIATELY got better. Some said I shouldn't've resigned and just let them fire me . . . My health told me otherwise.

My current position, I really don't like either. Pay is lower than some of the berk-ups that I cleanup after, mgmt treats all of us as numbers that can be culled at anytime, and promotions are unobtainable. It does allow me one great thing . . . The flexibility to take care of Mrs. ZERO. Since I can work anywhere, I can take her to appointments and dr without having to do the HR dance or kill vacation days.

So while this current one sucks, it does have some pluses.

Strike_Zero wrote: Strangely enough, the places I made difference were the worst places to work. shiny happy person mgrs, deceitful co-workers, mgmt with no direction . . . They wanted me gone since I was rocking everyone's boat.

That is me exactly in my current situation!!

The one thing the last few years have taught me working for a variety of d-bags is that I was a pretty darned good employer for 25 years or so of running my own business.

I honestly told a friend over the holidays that I would take a 50% pay cut to come work for him.

There are things that matter a LOT more than money.

mtn wrote:

HappyAndy wrote:

DrBoost wrote: My car gets 54 mpg, but that still makes back some of the difference.

You'll get back enough fuel savings to notice it, and more than enough time savings to appreciate it. That is the one thing that I don't like about my current job vs my old job. It's basically the same job, except with better pay and nicer people, but my territory is now measured in counties, not zip codes. I'm not complaining, just saying that it would be nice to get home before 5 pm often instead just once in a while or on a slow day.

Doesn't DR. Boost get his fuel for free?

Not anymore. I sold the Benz. I drive a TDI now, but, oddly enough, after taking this job I didn't expect I'd be here long enough to bother setting up the TDI. I was only there about 3 weeks before I realized this guy is off his rocker and all the things they told me in the interview were never going to come to fruition. My plan is to get a job close to home, sell the TDI and get another Wrangler

DrBoost wrote: ........and it looks like it’s going to happen soon. It’ll be less monies, maybe $3500 a year? ....But, I’ll go from 84 miles a day commuting to 4. That’ll be nice.

Take that $3500 and divide by 12. Then multiply by 0.70. So around $200/month. Factor in a shorter commute (time), the money saved on gas ($$$), and the overall improvement in your mental attitude, which will trickle down to the missus and the younguns............

I'd say that $200/month is money well spent!

BTW, BTDT and the money for me WAS well spent.

Hope this helps. Make that new opp with your old boss happen!

I have been in your shoes three or four times. The first time was when I was hired and then placed under this new manager. She was promoted to that position because the co. needed to hit a # of women managers to satisfy the settlement of a discrimination lawsuit. She was painfully incompetent. For this situation I networked and found a new gig within 3 months. I survived and this was the only job where I totally burned the bridge behind me. Since I was only there a few months I knew it would never end up on a resume and sent a pretty nasty letter to the VP of HR. I think it did some good as the d-bag that hired me was demoted a few months after my departure. Karmic debt FTW.

The other times I just manned-up and did the job the best that I could. I know that the co. didn't deserve that level of performance but I felt it was the level that I liked to perform. I just did what I normally do, work and get it done.

The worst situation for me was when I took a new position in the co. I was working for. On my first day I was sitting at my desk and realized I had made a major mistake. I got a lump in my throat when I realized that I had made this huge decision and made the assumption that this other department would be somewhat like what I left. Hell no. The way the people treated me was completely different and the work ended up being way too monotonous. The culture was more of a sweat shop than a team of professionals. Within a few weeks I was checked out, at least on the inside. As much as I hated what I was doing and (some) of who I was working for, I somehow had to find a way to get back to my old deal. I needed to survive 12 months before I could consider moving so that I didn't have to pay back the relocation $$. So, about 9 months into this I was full-on job hunting. This was incredibly hard as the day-job was on a huge project and I had to be very discrete. Any word of me searching and I could have been shown the door.

Although I started looking at the 9 month mark I ended up being there for exactly 24 months. I tried to do the best job I could even when dealing with the real PITA guys I worked with. I would not let my performance suffer because of these people. I will say that Sunday nights before the work week were one of the lowest points for me. I would get an upset stomach and even diarrhea with the stress of knowing that I had another week of BS ahead of me.

After the two years (15 months of searching) I finally landed back in my previous position and was a better person for all of it. The experience I gained was good but more importantly I learned how to be a more satisfied employee and that my satisfaction was my job.

I know that I didn't have the tyrant you have to deal with for all of that time but there was a period where I did. That was the lowest point for me.

As I reflect on that whole mess I come back to two things. I always did my best and to be honest I have always been one of the better performers in whatever group I have been with. Second, I knew that I had a "second" job for as long as needed to find a new position. Nights, evenings, and most any free moment I was looking for a job and networking to get an interview. Hell, I even scored an interview with Ferrari NA. They ended up wanting to offer me a job just after I got out. I'm glad that their timing was what it was. I really didn't want to go to NJ but flattering none the less.

Good Luck,

Scott

"if you don't like your job you don't strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way." - Homer Simpson

But seriously, I feel your pain. My bosses aren't horrible or mean, but they're semi-incompetent, so half the time I feel like I'm running the company but not reaping any of the benefits of running the company. To top it off, one of them is retiring sometime in the next six months, and he's the most competent one. So I basically need to figure something out before then. My job will become hell after he's gone, because the other owner really has no clue what's going on. I've gotten other offers from competing companies, but I don't really want to take them. I've heard they both kind of suck to work for, and in the words of Angry P, I'm kind of tired of being the ho. I'd like to start my own shop, but I'm terrified of the initial cash outlay, and terrified of debt.

Sorry for the thread hijack, but my advise would be to quit giving a E36 M3. Do your job the best you know how, but also know when to slack off and/or ignore your surroundings/coworkers, for your own mental well-being. So yeah, keep looking for something better, but tune everyone out in the time being.