Would quitting my job be a bad idea?

[Cellmold]

First and foremost I accept the notion that my own happiness might be more important than finance, but since I am born into a system that traps one into working for finance, I've noticed that I will need that finance.

Secondly I have two jobs. The initial one is fine, I've done it for a while now, it isn't great or satisfying but I can tolerate it.

The second is a job working as....well basically an office assistant at the house of a family friend helping with their business because the wife who is also the accountant and one of the directors with her husband, has had a baby and was backed up on invoicing.

Well it pays better than my other job but because I am on the BR tax code here in the UK for having two jobs, the extra income doesn't amount to much. Further more the work itself.....kills me, it's not physically draining like my other job, but it is mind-numbingly poor.

It's essentially invoicing, data entry and just general administration. But even after being there for nearly 8 months I just cannot get my mind around the repetitive nature of the work.

It's all memory and repeated systems, except for those few times when it isn't. In any case I have a really hard time explaining that the way my mind works is that I could peform the same task a thousand times and do it completely different each time.

So obviously my consistency is down in the pits and when invoicing and paying bills, not to mention wages, you really don't want to miss a detail or even a single decimal point. But that's....agonising to me, it's like a complete death of my self.

I really can't hold my attention for that long on one subject like that. I only took the job because my mum basically suggested it to them and I sympathised with their situation so now I feel guilty since the lady I am working for has spend so much time trying to train me up, and failing or rather I've been failing her.

No amount of organisation has helped, I've bought a ledger to write information in to remind me how I should construct separate invoices for different clients, but it doesn't help if I forget to look in it in the first place. I would need a ledger for the ledger for the ledger and down that path madness lies.

Unfortunately I don't know how to shake off the obligation from all the time spent on me at this place, it seems selfish to just up and leave on a whim as I have done before, mainly because this is a much more personal arrangement than previous jobs, although I would be happy to help them find someone else more qualified, especially as mathematics is hardly a strong point despite my efforts to rectify this.

Besides their patience with my constant mistakes is starting to wear thin after so long, they aren't being cruel or shouting at me, which in a way makes it worse since I think they have a right to, but they have to keep reminding me about this or that and I just can't keep on top of it. I think it's possible they haven't fired me yet because I am the son of their friends and that in itself is frustrating.

Thoughts?

 

[cafe]

If it's not much of a net financial benefit and you don't enjoy it, there isn't much of a reason to keep doing it, IMO.

 

[SensEye]

How many hours per week do you spend at each job? Are they equal?

I want to know if hated job provides the same (or more) income as tolerable job but for a lot less hours. If so, quitting tolerable job can not be ruled out. The theory being that if you have to work less hours for equivalent income, the extra leisure time may compensate for the lower desirablity of hated job.

 

[Cellmold]

If it's not much of a net financial benefit and you don't enjoy it, there isn't much of a reason to keep doing it, IMO.

Well yeah that was the original motive for doing so, but as I said there are other obligations at work here, of course others could point out the immaterial or rather non-existent nature of them, but I cannot clear it from my mind.

How many hours per week do you spend at each job? Are they equal?

I want to know if hated job provides the same (or more) income as tolerable job but for a lot less hours. If so, quitting tolerable job can not be ruled out. The theory being that if you have to work less hours for equivalent income, the extra leisure time may compensate for the lower desirablity of hated job.

Well the hours are essentially worked around the tolerable job. I am contracted for 12 hours a week there, although I nearly always do a lot more...round about 28 hours. Of course the days and hours I am not there I go to the other job to fill in the gaps. Now the hours at this second job do vary a lot because some weeks we have caught up and the flow of invoices is low or...something has happened at the business and I can't really be left to do the job by myself because of my ineptness at it.

The main job is £6.35 per hour, (it was £6.19 until this week but the minimum wage just went up). This second job is £7 an hour, but because I am being taxed on 25% of it along with the sometimes flux hours, means that it usually amounts to a lot less. However a pro in the second jobs favour is that it pays weekly rather than monthly like the other one, so at the moment I use the second job to look after priorities like food and whatnot and the main job I try to save as much as I can each week.

I do still live with my parents and for some bizarre reason, (possibly they take pity on me), they don't charge me rent. Which always makes me feel guilty for whining on here, which I tend to do a lot of. But that's a digression.

I'm not very clear on the maths but I think looking at my wage slips, it averages around £80 a week which isn't bad, although this week I am getting £106 but last week was only £67.

In any case the extra money is useful and on busier weeks comes in very handy but I'm not sure if it is worth my happiness in the long run. And when I first started I thought it might be the case where I could be working for slightly less than 40 hour a week jobs but earning a tad more and still having more leisure time, unfortunately the way it's been is the opposite and instead I work over 40 hours and 6 days a week, but that is probably quite common and there are worse positions to be in.

 

[Falcarius]

How long have you been doing the two jobs?

 

[Cellmold]

How long have you been doing the two jobs?

The first I did twice as a christmas temp before they kept me on last october, so tallied up around...a year and a half. The other I've only been doing for around 7-8 months.

I'm not very organised or put together, so it's been hard to even find a job let alone keep it.

 

[Falcarius]

The first I did twice as a christmas temp before they kept me on last october, so tallied up around...a year and a half. The other I've only been doing for around 7-8 months.

I'm not very organised or put together, so it's been hard to even find a job let alone keep it.

The problem if you left would be, given what the economy is currently like, it would make finding a new job even more difficult as your employment history sounds patchy.

 

[Cellmold]

The problem if you left would be, given what the economy is currently like, it would make finding a new job even more difficult as your employment history sounds patchy.

Yeah, that's another problem. I suppose I should stick it out, at least until they do actually fire me, although I don't intend to be poor at this job.

 

[Falcarius]

I am not in such a dissimilar situation myself. I have a few part-time jobs, my moral has gone as far as my main job concerned. The only reason I don't leave is it is one of the biggest employers locally and I would ideally like to transfer to another department. I could pretty much forget about that if I walked out of the job so soon. Either way there is no getting away from the fact I feel totally taken for granted.

 

[Cellmold]

I am not in such a dissimilar situation myself. I have a few part-time jobs, my moral has gone as far as my main job concerned. The only reason I don't leave is it is one of the biggest employers locally and I would ideally like to transfer to another department. I could pretty much forget about that if I walked out of the job so soon. Either way there is no getting away from the fact I feel totally taken for granted.

Yeah. Although to be fair both my jobs have decent people who genuinely seem to have a degree of caring about them, for example at my main job no one minds if I take an extra break if I have been working very hard.

And at my other job, as mentioned before, they are unnecessarily tolerant of me. I think what bothers me is that I feel as if I am creating more work rather than less for them. Today it was mentioned that my boss had to re-do an entire days work overnight because I had messed it up that badly.....she wasn't saying it to be passive aggressive or mean, it was just matter of fact and then she kindly drew me a list of my mistakes to help me next time.

Which felt awful because the idea of this person doing that days work AGAIN and looking after her child, while still trying to run the admin of a company. The last thing someone like that needs is someone like me.

Like I said, ridiculous amount of patience.

 

[SensEye]

Well the wage difference between tolerable job vs hated job is not signficant, so it just boils down to a question of if the extra income (after taxes) to put up with the hated job is worth it. It doesn't seem that way from what you are saying.

My perspective, and I am not a big believer in the whole "I love my job" mantra many people subscribe to, is that you should search out tolerable jobs. So I would quit the job you find less than tolerable. If you really miss the income, you can always start searching for a second 'tolerable' job.

 

[WALMART]

I had a job where they tried to make me file. I was out within two weeks.

 

[kyuuei]

I'd say I would stick around until they found a suitable replacement, then quit it accordingly. You'd both probably be better off.

 

[Cellmold]

I'd say I would stick around until they found a suitable replacement, then quit it accordingly. You'd both probably be better off.

This is a good idea. I might discuss it with her and stay until someone better can be sourced.

 

[skylights]

You could even help them find a replacement. That's what I did at my job recently. I just found someone else to take on one of my roles that wasn't worth it anymore and slipped her in. They're happy, I'm happy.

But overall yes it sounds like you should definitely quit.

 

[highlander]

I would get one full time job that I liked.

 

[lowtech redneck]

I would get one full time job that I liked.

No professional baseball team would hire me, and MST3000 is no longer broadcasting.

 

[highlander]

No professional baseball team would hire me, and MST3000 is no longer broadcasting.

Use your creativity

 

[figsfiggyfigs]

What do you want to do in 5 years? Which one will be more beneficial in practical experience for that?

 

[Society]

i am not sure i understand the problem in quitting... is it because they are your friends? if so kyuuei's advice might be helpful - either find a replacement or tell them that they should and you will stay until they do (within a reasonable amount of time).

i will say that if you can keep it up for 4 more months and round up the year, it would look better in your resume.