Should I stay or should I go? (work issues)

Warning; this is going to be another long boring post in which I pollute this car forum with whining about my personal problems.

I am becoming increasingly frustrated in my work situation. I'll get to the details about my current frustrations but first a little background. I started in this line of work (foundation repair and waterproofing) in 1998 about a year out of high school. I started with a small company that had three employees. I helped the company grow until the housing crash. (Boss had just invested heavily in gearing the company towards the new construction market, then the new construction market disappeared and we weren't big enough to ride it out.) I learned a hell of a lot in those years and worked myself up into running the waterproofing side of the company. I really wish that job didn't go away.

After a brief period of factory work I found another company doing mostly the same work. I brought a lot of experience to the table and quickly became a crew supervisor. For three years my crew alone installed over $20,000 per week. However the pace was grueling. 30+ days straight without a day off, 16-18hr days, being out of town for weeks. I got burnt out, my wife was tired of being a single mother and I never got to see my son. Sure the money was good but it wasn't worth what I was giving up. I had many conversations with my boss and the VP and just kept getting empty promises. I got an offer from a competitor and even though I took a big pay cut I jumped with the promise of very few weekends and very little out of town work.

So to my current employer. I've been here about two and a half years and for the most part they have held true to their words. There have been way too many late nights but few weekends and as I write this I'm sitting in a hotel six hours from home, left last Tuesday and hoping I'll be home Sunday. I must have made an impression with the higher ups however because six months ago my boss called me and said his boss called and wanted him to promote me to production manager, he asked if I was interested...uh hell yes! I was promoted to PM got a small increase in pay, a company vehicle and my first ever smart phone. The only issue was according to the business model we needed to have three crews running in order to have a PM. We only had two. We had a new salesman who was knocking it out of the park and we were on pace to have three crews working in a month. We were going to bring someone in for me to train who would replace me out in the field so I could start learning the ins and outs of my new position. Work fell off and here I am, six months later and the only thing that has changed is we've went from 2 five man crews to 2 two man crews. I worked every Saturday last month and now I'm out of town for two weeks. I got myself psyched up about the promotion and the opportunity to grow. I was even more excited to hopefully have a normal schedule. Hell, I decided I wanted to get a library card a while ago, it was five weeks before I had the time off to get one, and that was only because I went and got it the day we left for my sister in laws wedding. My wife is feeling like I'm back at my old place again and she is getting very upset.

Last week I had a conversation with my boss about my frustrations. He wants me to be patient and said that they want him to take over another market and want me to replace him as GM here. But work has slowed down and he can't afford to pull me out of the field now. I've heard this all before at my previous job. He made no promises of when I might get out of the field he only said he hopes next year is better. I'm getting to the point that I've been thinking of looking for another job for several weeks now. I'm over doing this, I'm tired of the schedule, I'm tired of digging trenches, I'm tired of crawling around under houses, I'm tired of being covered from head to toe with mud, soaked to the bone and freezing. Basically, I'm just tired.

Honestly, I'm ready to just walk away. I'm feeling wore down and my self confidence is gone. The only problem is that this basically is all I've ever done. I have absolutely no idea what else I could do. I'm too tired to start over with another company. I just don't have it in me any more. I know I can't do factory work, I'm a problem solver, a decision maker and to get those types of jobs in another industry you need a degree. It's not even about the money, it's not much but it pays the bills.

The upside to staying is that I have a good amount of job security. I do have a company vehicle and gas card. That would be hard to give up. And I am very good at what I do, even though I feel lately I'm just going through the motions.

I don't know maybe I just needed to vent.

keep at it - i traveled the USA for sales for 14 years and also got tired of it and last summer a position opened at my previous job that requires me to travel Chicago to Milwaukee to Muncie - no overnights!

just keep pushing forward and the doors will open - my wife understood after time and she knew I was only filling a position. keep your chin up and encourage the younger guys on your crew how good a company this one is!

Ask the wife if she likes food, shelter, etc. Yeah, its kind of snarky, but it's the truth.

My wife doesn't travel, but being self-employed she works nearly every Saturday and a lot of late nights. Do I like it? Not particularly. Do I like the lifestyle it affords us? Most definitely.

I don't think I'll see her anytime before about 9:30 pm this week (I'm usually in bed by 10-10:30), and not until 5-6 on Saturday. Been this way for years and likely will be for a long time.

That's a tough one. Let me start by saying that you should have great self-confidence. You have good job security because you are doing a great job by all accounts. They promoted you to a job that didn't really exist yet because they wanted to keep you. You should be proud.
So, you don't like your current position and it does sound grueling. I guess I'd try not to leave if at all possible and keep communicating with them so they know that, if they want to keep you, they would do well to work with you. If they value you as much as it sound like, they'll work with you. Of course, what they can do to accommodate you is probably limited.
Years ago I left a job because I was working 70+ hours a week for 10 months with no end in sight. The job I took paid little more than half, but I LOVED it. I was missing all the "firsts" that come with a new-born baby.

In reply to DrBoost:

Yeah, I missed all the firsts too. I really don't have a choice but to stay. I guess I just got in a funk.

I'm in manufacturing, machining and injection molding. We have a condition at work that happens to most newer guys, we call it the terrible twos. People seem to get in a funk after a couple years of being with the company. I suspect it's like that in a lot of places. Be it for shift preference, job position, pay, or not moving fast enough in the company, people find something that really bugs them about their job. I can't explain it, but I've seen it over and over in the 10 years I've been with the company, we usually bring on five to ten FNG's/yr, about half make it past the terrible twos.

My advice would be stick with it. Remember you have two primary responsibilities beyond the work you are tasked with; find and train your replacement, and make your boss's job as easy as possible. If you can do both those and you perform well at your job, it's only a matter of time before you get promoted.

Sounds like you've got the experience to go into business on your own. If you've been doing the same basic line of work for nearly 10 years, you've supervised other people doing it, all it takes is a business name, a license, and some marketing.

Given your situation, I'd try sticking it out a little longer. Your management seems to appreciate your efforts (as evidenced by your promotion), they've been up-front with you, and they're refraining from making empty promises. They're probably just as frustrated with the situation as you are.

If you want to get out of the business of actually doing the work, opening up your own business will likely not help you accomplish that goal. As a small business owner, my experiences would suggest that you'll end up doing the dirty part of the job, as well as have all the admin overhead. While this may be a preferable option in the long run, the first few years are generally not easy.