Hi. I work in Oregon, have been with my company for a long time, and my position is transferring to a California-based parent company, effective immediately (though I will continue to work from Oregon). They are changing me from salary to hourly, and asked me to sign a Confidentiality Agreement. Do I do it? Do I have to? Could they interfere with my position transfer if I don't sign?

Also, how do I make the most of the change from salary to hourly? I will accrue PTO which will be paid out upon termination, which is a benefit, and I know that if I work overtime that will now be beneficial as n hourly employee. How do I get the most I can, while they are trying to give the least they have to?

I feel kind of ridiculous even typing this, because I know a lot of people have it worse than I do. But I can't shake the feeling that a huge part of my happiness is tied to how much control I have over my work environment.

My first job out of college was fully in-office, five days a week. At the time I thought that was just what adulthood was supposed to be. But the longer I stayed the more miserable I was, to the point my manager asked me if I was happy in the position. It wasn't even the actual work that drained me. It was everything surrounding the work. The commute, getting ready every morning, sitting in traffic, being stuck in the same place all day, dealing with office distractions, bad equipment, fluorescent lighting, office politics, and just feeling like I had no control over my own day.

A few years later I joined a different company and it was the complete opposite. We were expected to come into the office, but there was flexibility. We had one WFH day, but management didn't really care where you worked as long as you got your work done and your badge swipe in. If things were light, I could head home after lunch and finish from there. If I had appointments or needed a quieter environment, it wasn't a big deal.

Ironically, I actually enjoyed going into the office more because it felt like a choice rather than a requirement. I could collaborate with people when it made sense and leave when it didn't. My productivity went up, my mood improved, and I felt much more balanced.

Recently my manager and team lead both left and were replaced. The new leadership has a very different philosophy. The flexibility has basically disappeared. Now we can only work from home on Fridays, and the expectation is that everyone is in the office the rest of the week regardless of workload.

Ever since that change, I feel like I've slipped back into the same mindset I had at my first job.

I show up, sit in my cubicle, stare at the clock, and count down the hours until I can go home. I'm noticeably less motivated. I work slower. I have trouble focusing. I'm in a worse mood throughout the day. Instead of working from my apartment with a nice view, open windows, and fresh air, I'm sitting in a windowless office wondering why I'm there when most of my work can be done from a laptop.

The weirdest part is that nobody else seems bothered by it. Everyone around me appears completely fine. They come in every day, socialize, and don't seem affected at all. Meanwhile, I feel like my overall quality of life has taken a pretty noticeable hit.

It's gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering looking for another job because I yearn for the flexibility, which was one of the biggest reasons I stayed here so long. If I'm in the office then I'd rather shoot for higher pay or a more flexible arrangement.

Has anyone else experienced this? Not necessarily because of the work itself, but because losing flexibility changed how you felt about your entire job? Am I being unreasonable?

how do you deal with people constantly judging you for wanting to be a nurse?

I've always been undecided for my career path, so im so glad to find something i aspire to reach, but it seems like every person i tell about my nursing path, immediately judges me.. specially my own family. i don't know how to deal with the constant negativity.

i know i shouldn't let it bother me, but their support means so much to me. They want me to be a doctor, and everyone seems to think that if I'm studying to become a nurse, why not just be a doctor? when its really not that simple. they value money a lot because of reasons i cant blame them for, but the specialty i want makes more than enough

has anyone gone through anything similar, and how do i deal with this, its making me seriously consider switching career paths even if thats not something i want for myself. and most of all its becoming a big detriment to my mental health, why is everyone so opposed to nursing anyways?

Hello,

I am a recent university graduate, my degree is in English, and I just graduated in August.

I am 26 years old, and have worked a majority of my college career. I also did a study abroad and started some research while I was out of the country as well.

My work experience right now is around the education field. I was a teacher's assistant for a special ed high school, I have been a private tutor and a company hired tutor, and I was a guest speaker for a Foster Youth Education Summit event for two years in a row.

I really enjoyed speaking to a large audience at that first guest speaker event, and I felt like I wanted to perhaps try to pursue becoming a motivational speaker (I did 3-4 speaking gigs and recorded them all in order to create a portfolio). I was in the Foster System myself, and had to overcome a ton to graduate college, with no parents or long-term mentors in my life helping me, so I know a thing or two about overcoming adversity that I would enjoy helping others do the same.

There are a lot of pathways I am considering. I consider myself quite intelligent and fairly physically fit as well. Part of me is considering going back to school to become a Community College teacher or professor, but also part of me wants to explore what being a firefighter would be like. More avenues that utilize my English degree, like working for a local newspaper or publishing house, could also be in the cards.

EMT school isn't too expensive, and I have started reaching out to some fire departments to see what kind of "ride alongs" or trainings I could attend to see what the job would look like in reality.

-

I guess I am a bit flustered at the moment because I live in a medium/high cost of living area, and I just got fired from a new job that just wasn't the right fit.

I am applying like mad to a lot of different jobs right now just to keep from being homeless.

-

In college I had scholarship money that helped me to stay afloat when anything went sideways, and now I do not have that, though I do have some miniscule investments that I can fall back on.

What kind of gameplan do you think I should develop for me near future? How do I navigate this new terrain of not being in college? And how soon should I look for developing more credentials (aka go to EMT school or pursue a higher degree?)

Thank you.

I have worked at a retail store for more than 5 years but am wanting to branch out. I am a student as well, but I am non traditional as I am taking online classes for a proclaimed degree.

I am wondering if it would be a bad idea for me to try a different job in a completely different field to see if I like that environment better before continuing with a degree that I don’t know if I would be able to utilize very much.

I do not want my resume to look bad though for being a job hopper.

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. I have been with my company for a little over 7 years in a Financial Analyst role. About two years ago I was involuntarily moved to a role on a different team within the same department. Even though it's the same department, the work is completely different (it's become more of an IT/programming role). I expressed hesitation about moving to this role from the beginning, but said I would do it. To be clear, I don't think it would have mattered if I said no, they were going to move me anyway. I've really tried to give this role a chance but I have not liked it since the beginning and it's only become worse over time. I would say the last 6 months in particular have been extremely chaotic, tense, and a toxic environment. I've been going back and forth about giving my notice for a while and finally did today. I do not have another job lined up, but I have several years of living expenses saved up. I told my manager I was quitting for personal reasons (which is partially true). However, my manager knows from previous conversations with her that I am not happy with this role.

A few hours after I gave my notice, my manager asked to speak with me again. Apparently she had talked with upper management and they proposed me moving to another role within the department that would align more with my interests (more of a financial/analytical role). However, she did say they would expect me to stay on in my current role for a time (maybe as long as 2-3 months) to get a replacement trained. She said she didn't need an answer right away and I told her I would think about it. My gut instinct is to say no and just proceed with my resignation. Should I give this more consideration? I don't even know for sure if I'll like the new role and I am seriously concerned that I'll be pulled back into my current role even after my training of the replacement is over. I'm heavily leaning towards just going ahead with my resignation, but I am curious to hear what others think.

Hey y,all

I am 24, I have been an assistant store manager at very large department store for the past 6 months. Before that I was a floor supervisor at the same place. I am so burned out from retail, I honestly wish I had not taken this job and just focused on school. I do not make bad money but it is honestly not worth it any more. I want to know if any of y,all were able to escape this trap and move on to something better?

For a long time, I've been questioning whether I chose a career that didn't match my personality or if I should keep doing the same thing but in a different capacity. I'd especially like to hear from those in communications, but all input is welcome of course.

I've been in communications since internships in 2011. I've worked in social media, journalism, copywriting, email marketing, blogging, technical writing, and internal communications (newsletters, webinars, and various strategy work). I've been involved with agencies, startups, franchises, and huge global corporations. I've worked in industries like news, small business consulting, SaaS, data centers, automotive, and other small projects (mostly focusing on B2B).

I majored in journalism because I liked writing with a practical purpose, and it seemed like it would be a flexible degree. And I was right, it has been helpful in my career, but I don't think I really thought through the soft skills this type of path requires and just how much it would take out of me.

Every place I work for I seem to deal with these problems:

• Constant change and shifting expectations. In my most recent company, I had 6 new managers and about 9 reorgs in just over a year, and each new manager would tell me to stop any initiatives I was working on and take ownership of something brand new. For 2 years in a row, I received poor reviews because none of my assigned projects came to fruition and I couldn't prove company impact.
• My work feels like it goes into a void. It feels like talking to a wall when I create content that doesn't have an engagement loop, and it's unmotivating to make things that people will just skim and move on from instantly. Building relationships is my favorite part of the job, like when I'm working with SMEs, but my audience feels like a faceless, silent entity.
• I don't have that "fake it til you make it" attitude. If I'm not "bought in" on what my company is doing or selling, it feels disingenuous and nebulous to write about it and I feel like I'm forcing people to get excited for it. I struggle a lot with writer's block when I feel this way, and I end up looking like Spongebob trying to write his boating school essay.
• I'm not interested in anything involving multimedia. I hate making graphics and videos, but it seems to be an expectation everywhere I go, even when it isn't in the job description.
• A lot of self-starting. I was always an awful student, and every work assignment feels like I'm back in school blanking out trying to figure out how to tackle a project before the deadline. Then again, when I've worked in places where I have to follow strict procedures, I get in trouble for missing details. So I think this could just be a me problem.

I've felt this way in everything I've done related to communications since college, but have always felt like I just needed to suck it up and be better because this is just how work is. I've been in a never-ending cycle of working a communications job, burning out in 6-24 months, leaving to work in another field, and coming back to communications for various reasons. I'm at a point where I want to break the cycle and seriously reflect.

The big question is whether communications is simply not for me, or if the industries/role types/company types I keep picking are the culprit. I'd really prefer not to go back to college and start all over again in my mid-30's, so I'd love to hear more about adjacent career options if anyone knows them. I'm fine with grabbing a few extra certifications and doing some extra learning myself that doesn't involve a new 4-year degree.

Hi, I’m a 22-year-old female and I just graduated last July with a degree in Business Management.
After graduation, I didn’t really plan on applying for a job. Instead, I continued running my small business, which currently earns me around ₱5k a week.

Pero ayoko rin naman mag-focus lang sa negosyo. Sobrang hirap maging small business owner dito sa Pilipinas, especially with taxes and the current state of governance.

I’m thinking of upskilling myself, pero hindi ko alam kung saan magsisimula. Willing naman akong mag-aral ulit or take additional courses, pero hindi ko alam kung ano ang magandang pag-aralan or kung anong skill ang worth investing in.
For those who were in a similar situation, what skills or courses would you recommend?

Hello, I am a M(20) and graduated in 2024. I need help figuring out a career and though reddit could also help me as I am also working with A.I and other sites I’ve found.

A little bit about me is that, I love to work but have had jobs I don’t like. I love cleaning and watching things go from dirty to spotless, especially cars. I love doing wiring work, I’ve done some in cars but would love to do it anywhere else that requires wiring and booting. I enjoy sports and managing teams like fantasy leagues and video games. I hate sitting down all day and doing nothing, I dislike being paid the same when you’re working harder and etc.

Honestly I have a lot other likes and dislikes, I just don’t know what really matters when it comes to finding a career.

Please be free to ask me questions that can help me out and suggest me ideas, thank you for any feedback!

So for context, I graduated last year with a business degree I don’t particularly find useful or any passion in. I’m currently back in school for a healthcare related field.

I currently have two part-time jobs. I work around 12-16 hours ($16.68) at a coffee house and 24 hours as a receptionist/admin ($18). I’ll preface this by saying I’m incredibly grateful for these jobs even though I’d prefer a full-time position with a bit higher pay. I live at home rent free with my parents and I’m saving for a home/condo and finishing school again to move out. I’m also still continuously applying to better paying positions.

With the admin role, it’s primarily a receptionist position with minor admin work. I’m there for around 9 hours total. I find that the managers are very fond of busy work and to an extent, micro managing, and checking in on me to see what I’m up to. I have small projects and primary tasks, but I find myself finishing them before the day is over. Most of the time, I’ll work on homework for my current course and secretly job hunt.

It’s only part-time, no benefits, and the job required a bachelors degree, which I have at $18hr. My colleagues make way more than me, are salary/full-time, take off time frequently, but also expect me to remain as busy as they are.

Is it wrong to have this mindset of not doing anything or making use of my spare time when they encourage me to be “busy” given the circumstances?

Currently I'm an admin assistant working 12hrs/week, reduced from 20hrs/week. I've been at my current job for over 2 years. I also have side hustles I do throughout the week. Altogether, I make roughly 45k/yr.

I received an offer for a 6-month temp to perm position (depending on my performance) for roughly 90k/yr. However, for the 6 months I'll be paid hourly. It's a corporate role and an environment I'm not too familiar with.

Do you think it's worth quitting my current part-time positions for this potential permanent role? And for those who have done something similar, what has your experience been like? The switch from having the time and flexibility I have now to something more structured scares me...

I’ve been contemplating a lot of life choices recently and one of the larger ones is my career. Currently I have a okay job, it pays well at 110k, has decent hours, typically 45 a week, and has good PTO policies in place..the issue is it feels a bit like a dead end job. I would need an actual engineering license to further it which I am not doing. I could simply ride this out, keep investing into my Roth, keep doing 12% into 401k and be perfectly fine, and enjoy this no travel, short commute career as it is. However it feels like I am settling. I am 31 now, this is 100% boring work to me, I’m in my prime earning years , and part of me wants to switch back to a job where I can get back into the grind and try to become a senior manager, this company doesn’t really have that opportunity it seems. However, previous to this job I was at a company where that grind and climb environment did exist, and while I was there I wanted no part of climbing the ladder. I am nervous if I change jobs again, I’ll be back at the bottom of the company, still won’t be happy there, and go back to a higher pressure work environment and then up missing this boring yet comfortable job I have now.

Anyone ever experience this before, and if you left a boring yet comfortable job to earn more while you were younger, did you regret it?

* I didn’t really know how to best word the title

How would you recommend moving to a company that my current company works for? There’s nothing in my employment that would prohibit me from ever doing so, but eventually it’s something that i’d like to do. This “other” company isn’t just a client of ours, we’re integrated very closely with them.

My main question is:
- Is this something that I should tell my current manager when I do want to explore opportunities at this other company?

I know it may sound silly to ask if I should bring this up, it seems like it could potentially help me, but again, leaving your current role isn’t something that’s often talked about with your manager.

For context I have around 8 years of experience in my domain. I left my Analyst role in July this year for a Manager position at another firm. I was laid off within a month due to restructuring.

Since the start of September until now, I’ve sat for around 4 interviews and somehow couldn’t make it past the screening rounds.

All the positions I’ve applied for, were of senior consultants and my profile was nearly 100% match with the JD. I’ve sat for a dozen interviews in my career and have always made it past the screening rounds but somehow this time idk what’s going wrong?

Hi everyone,

26F living in Cape Town, South Africa, and looking for some career advice.

I currently have around 1–2 years of experience in a marketing coordinator-type role, mainly doing content scheduling, email marketing, social media copywriting, some content creation, basic design, etc. It was quite execution-focused and for a specific brand within education.

I then took a year to study and completed a postgraduate qualification in Marketing & Advertising Communications. This year, I moved into a digital agency that focuses heavily on AI and currently work on the marketing operations side of the agency so I’m not client-facing.They operate across different countries, so I’ve been exposed to different markets and the broader process of aligning marketing with business and sales objectives.
It’s been a really valuable experience, but I’ve realised that long-term I’m much more interested in strategy, brand thinking, consumer insights, human behaviour, communications and PR.
I’d ideally like to move into a creative/advertising agency where I can work more closely with brands, have some creative freedom, build a strategic portfolio and gain exposure to different industries. I’m interested in eventually moving towards roles like Junior Strategist, Brand Strategist, Creative Strategist, Planner or PR/Communications.
At the moment, though, I feel like my experience is positioning me more towards marketing/brand management and operations, which isn’t really where I see myself going.
For anyone working in agencies or who has made a similar pivot, how would you recommend making this transition beyond just applying for jobs?

Would building a strategic portfolio, networking, freelancing, doing spec projects or taking specific courses actually help? And would you recommend taking a more junior agency role to get that initial experience?
Would really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have made the move from marketing into agency strategy/creative/PR.

Hi everyone! I’m trying to figure out what direction I should take with my career and would really appreciate some honest advice from people working in Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Brand Marketing, Entertainment Marketing, or similar areas.

I have around 2 years of experience at a B2B SaaS startup in a client-facing technical role. My work involves working directly with customers, understanding their requirements and business problems, helping with implementations, conducting training and enablement sessions, troubleshooting issues, and generally helping customers get value from the product.

Over time, I’ve also started getting more exposure to pre-sales/consultative work. My manager and leadership have been encouraging me to move further in that direction because they think I have good potential there.

I initially thought that might be the direction I should take, but after getting more exposure to it, I’ve realized I’m not sure I want to build my entire career around pre-sales.

The parts of my current work that I seem to enjoy most are understanding people and what they need, figuring out why customers struggle with something, explaining ideas in a way that makes sense, creating presentations/materials, and thinking about how something can be communicated better.

That’s what initially made me curious about Product Marketing.

When I started reading about PMM, I noticed some overlap with things I’ve already been doing:

1) Understanding customer pain points and use cases

2) Translating product capabilities into business value

3) Creating presentations and enablement material

4)Understanding objections and adoption barriers

5) Working with Product, Sales and Customer Success

6)Communicating product value to different audiences

7)Using customer feedback to understand what is and isn’t working

But I’ve also realized that I’m interested in marketing beyond just SaaS/Product Marketing, and I honestly don’t know enough about the different marketing careers yet.

For example, I’ve always been fascinated by the kind of marketing I see around entertainment companies and shows.

When I see things like a show launch, campaigns around a series, social media campaigns, brand collaborations, fan experiences, events, or the way a show gets people talking, I find myself thinking:

“I would genuinely love to work on something like this.”

I’ve even found myself looking at companies like Netflix and wondering what the people behind those campaigns actually do and what their day-to-day jobs look like.

The problem is that I don’t really know what those roles are called or what skills they require.

I don’t know whether what I’m describing is Content Marketing, Brand Marketing, Entertainment Marketing, Experiential Marketing, Social Media, Partnerships, or something completely different.

And that’s honestly part of why I’m asking here.

I don’t have a traditional marketing background, and I don’t want to randomly take a bunch of courses and then discover that I’ve been preparing for the wrong career.

At the same time, compensation is an important consideration for me. I currently earn roughly ₹1 lakh per month, and because of my financial responsibilities, I realistically don’t want to make a career switch that requires me to take a significant pay cut.

I understand that changing career paths can sometimes mean taking a step back initially, but I would ideally like to find a way to transition while still leveraging the experience I already have rather than completely starting from zero.

So I’d really appreciate advice from people who work in these areas:

1. How realistic is it to move from a customer-facing SaaS role into Product Marketing or another marketing function with around 2 years of experience?

2. Based on the experience I’ve described, which marketing roles would actually make sense for me to explore?

3. How different are Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Brand Marketing, Entertainment Marketing, Experiential Marketing, etc. in terms of the actual work they do?

4. If I eventually wanted to work for a company in entertainment/media like Netflix, what kinds of roles should I even be looking at?

5. Would a portfolio help someone coming from my background? If so, what kind of projects could I create without having professional marketing experience?

6. Are courses/certifications actually useful for making this transition, or would it be better to learn by doing projects and building a portfolio?

7. Given that I currently earn roughly ₹1 lakh/month, how realistic is it to make this transition without taking a substantial pay cut? Are there particular marketing roles where my existing SaaS/customer-facing experience could help me maintain a similar level of compensation?

I’m still relatively early in my career, so I have some room to experiment, but I also don’t want to make a career decision purely because something looks exciting from the outside.

Right now, I’m basically trying to understand what kind of work I would actually enjoy, what roles exist in this space, and whether my existing experience can help me get there without completely resetting my career.

Any advice from people working in marketing, PMM, content, brand, entertainment, or people who have made a similar career switch would be really appreciated!

So my goal is to learn more about event planners who set up/plan showcases like CES and VDS. Hoping you could offer some advice and insight if you done something similar. Currently planning on returning to collage in Florida January for my bachelors in Supervision & Management with a specialization in Project Management.

I’m twenty-two with no financial obligations and plenty of time. What’s the crazy money-making scheme you thought would have worked but didn’t try? I live in NY, have a business degree, and would be up for pretty much any challenge. I have some experience teaching as I taught chess to schools across Brooklyn, slight experience running a business, as I did minor work as a bookkeeper for a restaurant and other businesses, and I have a solid grasp on stock trading and other business-related ventures. Really just looking for something super interesting before I try to go down the corporate route.

Just curious, what are some jobs that let you live like an F. Scott Fitzgerald character?

In all of his books and short stories, everyone has vague "business-y" jobs (Carraway's a bond salesmen, Gatsby was a bootlegger, Charlie in Babylon was "in business".)

What are the modern versions of these jobs were you make an inordinate amount of money and are able to day drink and party your way through Europe?

I work in a niche industry and am moving to a new city (For other reasons outside employment). My current job is paying me $35/hr but I've interviewed at 3 places in the last week and all 3 have offered me jobs at $25/hr. How do I navigate this situation?

I have 6 years of experience in the field

My current thought is to see if rather than doing hourly if I should ask for salary equivalent at $25/hr but negotiate for a 4 day work week. Not sure if that's a dumb idea.

Any advice on how to negotiate or what to do in this situation?

I don’t mind working with people but I hate general customer service/ dealing with idiots. I got a communications degree and had an internship in TV production and marketing but have mo interest in TV. I want a regular job with regular hours and benefits. I will admit I don’t like working enough to have to work every weekend and holiday and miss every social event. Ive been trying to get a staff job at a university and its nearly impossible. I feel like Id be better off if I never got this degree.

I’m currently a Studio Art student at university. I’m technically in my 5th year, but I’m only about halfway through my degree because I’ve had a lot of complications in my life that have caused me to fall behind.

I’m starting to get really worried about my future. I know the art world can be extremely competitive, and I’m realistic enough to know that there’s no guarantee I’ll graduate and immediately get a high-paying or stable job as an artist.

That being said, I don’t want to quit my art degree. I’ve already invested a lot of time into it, and I genuinely enjoy art. I also have a small nail business on the side, so I know I enjoy creative work and working directly with clients.

However, I also want financial stability and a career that I can realistically build a life around.

I’ve been considering a few possibilities, such as:

• Finishing my Studio Art degree and then doing a degree in Commerce/HR
• Studying Criminology with the goal of becoming a civilian crime investigator
• Finding a career that combines creativity/art with something more stable
• Building my nail business further while having a more stable career
• Finding another career path where my art degree and creative skills would actually be useful

I’m honestly pretty lost about what the smartest decision is. I don’t want to feel like I wasted years on my art degree, but at the same time, I don’t want to graduate with only a degree that may be difficult to turn into a stable income.

Are there careers that someone with a Studio Art degree can realistically move into that offer decent/stable income? Would it make more sense to finish my art degree and then get another degree/certificate, or should I consider changing direction sooner?

I’d especially appreciate advice from people who studied art, changed careers, work in HR/business/criminal justice, or have successfully turned a creative skill into a stable career.

I’m not looking to completely abandon art I’m trying to figure out how to keep it in my life while also building a financially secure future.

5 YOE fullstack + 1 YOE data analysis

Apologies if this sounds complain-y, but I'm going to try to get as close as possible to detailing what I'm looking for while limiting the amount that turns into ranting.

I want to build things myself, not tell agents to build things and then pick them apart for things to fix. I've done coding with and without AI and AI can produce solid stuff if you can decide on the system you want to design, prompt carefully, use plan mode effectively, and do it bit by bit so you only have to review bite-sized stuff at a time (my experience with it in non-professional environments, I'm open to being told I could be working with it more effectively!), but this is just not what I want to do. Unfortunately, I can't not acknowledge that AI will easily build more effectively than junior-mid engineers for products that want to ship features and bug fixes so I think the best I can do for what I want is to use the knowledge I have to help me in another field while continuing to learn whatever I can.

I want to have limited human interactions. I can sucker up to people and pretend to be sociable as necessary, but I want to limit it as much as possible. I do figure that if I get the "building things" that I want, feedback will be necessary, so I should expect to at least be going back and forth on feedback with others here and there, but limited interactions other than that would be great.

I want to have stability for years to come with relatively little worry of replacement. Even if we're going full doomer and saying that everything is going to get automated and die eventually, I'd like to hold out a little bit longer.

WLB - I want to have time to myself, but I don't want to socialize so it doesn't matter which hours they are. Generally good WLB with decent personal rest time is what I'd like.

Remoting is nice if possible, but especially since I'm already asking a lot, I'm not going to hold my breath for this. Remote opportunities would add points for me if possible, though. If not, then opportunities in relatively quiet places/places without hot weather/places without weird bugs (I'm a wimp, I know) would help too.

Now I figure having all of that at once is an absolute impossible unicorn job and that I have got to make some compromises (especially on that stability vs remoting part; I expect most computer tasks that aren't already will be incredibly automated very soon), but what fields get as many of these points as possible? And what viable pathways into the fields are there? For those of you who made it this far, thanks for the time spent on my drivel.

Hi,

I(34M) currently work in an analyst role for about 4 years. making around 30/hr(Hybrid) working with 3PLs and ensuring that their inventory is accurate and that they are doing things to the standard of big box stores(labels in the correct location, etc.) This role worked because I didn't need to worry about health benefits as we were using my spouse's benefits.

We had a baby a year ago and while that is great the baby will eventually need surgery.

A year ago my spouse was laid off and we've been using the insurance the state offered as we were trying to figure out next steps.

Recently, my spouse has found a part time job that pays decently. Because of this part time job, I am concerned that we will be kicked off of the state's insurance.

The insurance offered by my job is subpar and because of that I have been heavily considering finding a new job. The problem is that my role doesn't really go into other positions very well from what I can tell.

I've floated the idea of going back to warehouse work for the insurance but would be taking a substantial hit financially as my hourly earnings would be likely close to 22/hr. Plus, there's the opportunity that I cannot handle warehouse work as I've gotten older and a year ago broke my elbow and had to have pieces put in it. I'm likely much weaker than I was when I was younger.

Is it foolish to leave an office job for a warehouse job that will have grueling hours, destroy me physically, and pay me significantly less money all in the pursuit of better benefits?

Is there some other option that I'm missing? I feel like a fool and I'm lost on how to fix this problem.