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Ask HN: How long do you wait it out in a job you hate

by a_lifters_life on 10/9/24, 4:58 PM with 12 comments

• by codingdave on 10/9/24, 6:44 PM

  It all depends on everything else in your life - can you afford to live without work for a while? If you are in the USA, do you need health coverage through your work, or do you have other options? Do you have any discussion going on with people to make a move or are you starting from scratch seeking work and having to send in resumes?

  In general, I stay only as long as my circumstances force me to stay. At the same time, there are ways to make a soul sucking job suck less - mostly by figuring out how to do the job without caring about the job. Be that burned out cynical co-worker who just scrapes by and doesn't truly care. It is a bad attitude for building a career with a company, but a life-saving attitude if your current employer will never take care of your needs anyway.

• by metaloha on 10/9/24, 5:03 PM

  You wait until you line up something better. Or until you save enough to support your lifestyle for a year. Or until you decide to say "screw it" and live in a shack on a mountain near a stream until society smartens up.

• by dave4420 on 10/9/24, 5:08 PM

  I started a new job in February. Was due to pass probation in May. Handed in my notice the week before, because passing probation would increase my notice period from two weeks to twelve weeks.

  Why hadn’t I left before? Because I lived in hope that the developer experience there would click with me, and I wasn’t keen on going through the job hunt wringer again.

  I started my current job in August. It’s way better. I will keep this one.

• by thorin on 10/10/24, 2:20 PM

  Until retirement, based on personal experience.

  Depends on the job, how bad is it really? All jobs are bad in some way in my experience, but I need to earn and I don't have the motivation to do my own thing in a way that would make a comparable lifestyle.

• by joshstrange on 10/11/24, 7:01 AM

  You wait until you have another job lined up. The only exception to this is if your mental health is suffering, and I don’t just mean you just don’t enjoy the job. Even once you get to that point I would recommend “quiet quitting” (I hate that phrase) while you look for something else if that can help ease your discomfort. As good as quitting may feel, it’s going to feel like a stupid decision if you don’t have something lined up (there are exceptions of course).

  I’ve had multiple friends talk to me about quitting and while everyone wants to just yell “I quit” to their boss and storm away it’s never the right move. Don’t burn your bridges if you don’t have to. Even if you think “I’d never work for them again” it’s always best to leave on good terms.

  You might never go back to that previous job but you don’t work in a vacuum. You old manager, their manager, their manager’s manager, etc might be someone you run into again in the industry or they might be friends with a manager at a company you are interviewing at. You can scream about how that’s unfair or illegal in some cases but it will get you nowhere. Yes, this is a bit of “chilling effect” but it’s also reality.

  Remember that no one is going to have perfect information. Even if it’s known that your manager was a grade-a asshole if you quit in a huff or spew vitriol on your way out that is all anyone is going to remember. It doesn’t even have to be other managers, it could be your coworkers. You have no idea the social webs woven throughout the industry. You don’t want a “I didn’t know them at all but I know they pissed off management when they left” being told to someone who is thinking about hiring you.

  At least, that’s the way I see it.