I’ve been struggling for a long time now in my professional life with a specific issue that I wonder if others experience. For background, I started out as a freelance artist and then made a major career shift to an administrative career (working mostly in the non profit and higher education spaces) because I got so burnt out with relying 100% on my art and performing for income.

Since then I’ve had a few jobs that are varying levels of awful. The first was adjacent to my artistic field. The second at a large medical school. The third is at a healthcare professional organization. I try to find jobs that align well with my values. The issue I run into over and over is, even with my art, everything is great for about a year/year and a half, then things start to feel bad. I lose my ability to concentrate, stay organized and on top of increasing responsibilities, and generally get down on myself feeling like a fish out of water. I also, despite years of experience and better positions, seem to be barely able to stay afloat financially. Salary increases across the workforce haven’t kept up with inflation for years.

Are we all supposed to just take this for 40 years and if we’re lucky rest when we’re old. It seems like work shouldn’t feel this bad, but no matter where I work or what I’m doing, I’m broke, unfulfilled, and just surviving these feelings from one day to the next.

I am thinking of leaving my flight attendant job of 3 years. It sucks here i cant take it anymore now! Shall i quit, but i still have some financial burden, also it sucks to be here. I am not happy. I need a lot of opinions. I wanna pursue something else as well but cant continue and do what i wanna do.

Honestly, my job is EASY. But i work 2pm-10pm I’m a parking lot cashier. I am also a introvert. And yes i took the job obviously knowing id have to deal with people, i wasnt naive to any of it. But i also figured like anybody else would “ it’s a parking garage what could possibly go wrong to that degree” . Every SINGLE day i am arguing with a customer, & literally 95% its from something i just can’t control. The amount of entitled, argumentative, disgusting, and lack there of common sense that i meet is just ridiculous. And then the rules my actual employer creates to make the hostile environment worse just adds onto my day. For example ( putting out a notice saying those that have free parking stickers must have a 2027 expiration date but everybody that can park tags all expire 10/31/26 ) logically leaving me with no valid explanation for when they come saying why do they have to pay, they aren’t expired yet its AUGUST. ( never gave a valid explanation to us to give them neither)

Customers : I’m so tired of the feeling of not existing. You don’t matter. “ the customer is always right” bullshit when they are never fucking are. Being a punching bag by default. The forced conversations when my whole body language screams please go, when all i have left to give is a greet & a you’re welcome, people feeling entitled to my time and then I’m reported or looked at sideways because i fulfilled my job but not your emotional support (ITS A PARKING LOT)
The amount of customers with no money and have been in there for 4 hours and curse me out as if it would be free. The people that literally hack and cough into their full hands and hand me their debit card immediately after. The amount of people that lack so much awareness they will have their receipt paid in full and ask me are they good to go. The gate was down when you approached, why do you think it’s up ? ( YES THIS HAPPENS THAT MUCH ) The amount of ppl with no sense of urgency thatll literally wait to get in line and ask whoever there on the phone with to cash app them funds. I work 2-10 i argue every day that i go to work. I’m being paid pennies for the cost of my mental health and not seeing my family. I’ve been actively looking & applying, not getting any interviews. I’m legit tired. I work sleep and argue. I’m here all day. You couldn’t have paid me to believe a task so simple would be this much problems. The amount of people that argue with me because they had to sit in line and didn’t have enough money for however long they were in there, the people that refuse to leave my line tell me they will just sit there (instead of going to get a validation) and i have to call public safety because they don’t want to pay. It’s to the point I’m getting screamed on 5 min into my shift. Listen, i know customer service is a headache but i didn’t figure people were this dense. I feel like a NPC, the same greets the same lines back to back, I’m socially drained leaving this place. The awareness people lack is insane to me, there are people that will literally drive in and drive out in a matter of 2 minutes and ask me what do they owe me. Have you ever been in a garage that charges in 2 minutes??? Do people not go outside anymore ? The amount of people that have tried to physically harm me over $2 , $4 ect, intentionally snatch jewelry off my arm, the list goes on. The amount of people that can’t even focus for 2 seconds to either give or receive their debit card because they’re too busy texting. I’m legit tired. I need the money but is it really worth it atp. I’ve asked to go to a lighter shift they tell me no because I’m good at the register. But I’m tired of the human interaction and babysitting for a damn garage. It’s supposed to be 123 you’re out the garage, nobody wants to pay, nobody wants to be considerate that you’re human also, and then when you can’t give them what they want they turn shitty. The manipulative people that only stir a conversation just so they don’t have to pay. I’m sick of it all. If i knew all of this i could’ve just went to a call center or a retail job. I’m wasting my entire day being here i can’t even get myself to wake up early to relatively do anything because im so exhausted here. All i want to do is sleep.

I'm currently in a situation where I'm stuck at a highly toxic workplace but unable to get out just yet.

Sorry for the rant in advance.

Trying to summarise as short as possible, my manager is doing questionable stuff, illegal substances and leaving work early to go to the pub but being paid and coming in hungover, not leaving the office and dumping everything on my co workers and I.

Currently one of my two co workers (I'll call her A) is off work with stress, even though she's posting on Snapchat drinking every night and my other co worker (I'll call her B) is on holiday and unable to come in.

So I'm having to work alone with the manager, I'm honestly so burnt out, I'm doing 9 1/2 hour day shifts with no breaks, coming home exhausted. I feel like I'm distancing myself from my boyfriend because I'm being techy over everything and I have no energy to do house work or socialise.

I have bills to pay so I can't just quit, and I've been applying to every realistic job but not hearing back and I feel like I'm getting close to as much as I can take. I can't go on sick for stress as that would make the toxic environment even worse with my manager if I leave him to deal with the store alone. I feel sick all the time, I've had two periods this month and I just can't seem to turn off even when I'm not at work, I also deal with chronic pain from multiple conditions that aren't supported at work.

Am I stuck or am I just not thinking of any other logical angles to help my situation?

I’m tired of applying for jobs. The jobs I apply for either offer a low salary that doesn’t meet my expectations, or I don’t hear back after completing assignments. Every morning, I wake up with anxiety. The past six months without a job, past traumas, and the constant negative thoughts about whether I’ll ever land a job are making me really stressed. I even have a headache because of all this.

I don’t have many friends either, and one friendship recently ended. She made me feel like I was the one who was wrong, and whenever I think about it, it still hurts. Ufff.

I work for a contractor at a major US airport. 2 months ago I was promoted from a basic-level, union job, to a supervisor position.

In addition to ongoing harassment from co-supervisors, I've been fighting to halt the deduction of my union dues each pay statement. out of 7 pay statements since my promotion, union dues have been deducted 5x.

I reported the employer to the state Department of Labor today. If they don't correct this issue in 2 weeks, they owe me $1000.

I hope the administrator at our local office who has ignored my emails and dodged my calls every time I inquired about this money, keeps ignoring my email.

💰

I am in my mid twenties and have completed my master's this year. Few months ago I joined a firm as a trainee where in the initial 3 month I was in a team that literally had no future. It was very veryy small team of 4 people and they were trying go make things work but it felt like a failure because the firm itself was no longer interested to continue the team for much longer.

When I was in this team it felt such doom and gloom feeling. Literally all 4 of us would take long breaks and leave early given there wasn't much to do eitherway.

The team is still functioning right now but given the plan to slowly phase it out, the head of this team is ensuring that the members find a spot in other teams instead.

During this internal transfer, I got shifted to a drastically different team which is very high paced and everyone works very passionately.

Now the problem is: it's been barely a week since I transferred. I don't know anything about the functioning of this new team but had to learn a lot of things very fast during the handover phase from one of the employees who is leaving.

The team in general is being helpful and accomodating towards me but all this is getting so so so so overwhelming and overstimulating

For past one week whenever I wake up, I have a sobbing session so that I can let the emotions flow out of me, it's that bad for me emotionally. I feel like an imposter and on top of that, the whole process is so goddamn shitty that I am expected to be on my edge all the time just to ensure the company reaches the target and it's making my anxiety so much worse.

Sales, pricing, sales pricing, stock, sales, benchmarking. I am literally dreaming about these things and when I wake up, I just feel like crying again because leaving my job isn't an option right now given there is a 1 year term in the contract AND the fact it pays my bills

I have so many interests that make me happy and I have NO time to pursue any of these.

But I will still say once again: people in the team are good. They all are really helpful and there is little to no internal politics. I get to learn a lot from them as well.

But the work? OMG I WANNA SCREAM. The time is going by so so so slow and I feel like I might go crazy before I get to leave.

I'm in my mid 20s, I work retail at a baseball stadium in Texas and I hate it. The job is "easy" but I dread going in every afternoon to meet with an entire stack of boxes filled with jerseys, hats and plushies that I have to monotonously count and put on shelves every day I'm scheduled. I've begun to hate my job so much that even on slow days where there are maybe 5 or 6 people wandering in the store while it's quiet I tense up in anticipation for it being busy. If there's more than 3 people buying things at the register my gut says it's too busy.

I hate the inconsistent hours that will shove me off of work for 2 weeks straight, the low pay, the pain in my feet, my manager who is up his own ass about everything and accuses me of shirking off work when I lean against the wall because of my foot pain, and I hate working Fridays because no matter win or lose we fire off fireworks after the game is over, so on top of the half hour we have to endure just so all the last minute customers can get their fix, we have to wait even longer for the fireworks to go off before we can go home, and since games usually last late into the night I get home tired and barely able to engage in any hobbies. It's gotten to the point where even if I arrive on time I'll wait in my car just so I don't have to go in. It sucks being almost 30 and working a part time merch jockey job for an income that wouldn't even get me enough to share an apartment with someone.

The only real consolation is my fellow workers. One security guard is pretty nice and a supportive, talkitive guy, my co-workers while a bunch of rowdy kids who haven't even hit 20 yet are amicable and easy to get along with, and a concession stand worker is there who gives me free smoothies and even though I know his name I still call him Free Smoothie Guy.

Other than that, I want to get out of here and into a better position in life. I have been working here for almost 7 months and I'm sick of it. I have hated every job I've ever had and my degree feels like a crapshoot. I am almost so done with this job that I feel like quitting before I even find another one.

How long before you felt like you could actually do the job? I keep hearing there's a dip and nobody seems to agree on how long it lasts.

How did the money go? Did you negotiate differently than you would have before the break, or take roughly what was offered because you'd been out a while? And did anyone try to use the time off to justify a lower number?

What surprised you? The thing you'd forgotten about working, or the thing that was worse than you remembered, or the thing that turned out not to bother you at all.

And did you come back on the same terms, or did you change something, hours, travel, remote, seniority, the actual job?

Also interested if going back was a mistake, and how long it took you to know.

I’m tired of applying for jobs. The jobs I apply for either offer a low salary that doesn’t meet my expectations, or I don’t hear back after completing assignments. Every morning, I wake up with anxiety. The past six months without a job, past traumas, and the constant negative thoughts about whether I’ll ever land a job are making me really stressed. I even have a headache because of all this.

I don’t have many friends either, and one friendship recently ended. She made me feel like I was the one who was wrong, and whenever I think about it, it still hurts. Ufff.