I’m fearful my present job is burning me out and am having hassle considering of the place to go subsequent. Hoping the commentariat might help me brainstorm! Some background:
I’m presently a social employee licensed on the masters degree – thought of getting my scientific license however I’ve realized that complete course of could be depressing for me, which might be unfair to the purchasers. I work at a small medical clinic whose mission I LOVE, however my explicit job is simply horrible for a way my mind works. I’ve ADHD and don’t do nicely with interruptions, however the tradition on the clinic could be very a lot “pop in and ask questions.” Makes an attempt to carve out time to maintain my door closed/cellphone on DND had been met with complaints. Even when there’s a affected person visibly in my workplace, I see coworkers standing outdoors my door trying irritated that I received’t interrupt the appointment to speak with them.
I even have plenty of hassle prioritizing the numerous points of my job, since actually each a part of what I do is vitally essential to the weak individuals I work with – assume advantages functions, serving to to erase medical debt, referring to space sources for housing/meals insecurity. I spend plenty of time in activity paralysis, as a result of doing one factor for one individual implies that another person has to attend.
I’m additionally the one social employee at my office, so apart from the occasional short-term volunteer or intern I nearly by no means have anybody to share the load with or delegate to. I’m fairly positive my workload is just too excessive, however since my ADHD makes it so exhausting to get something completed I can’t inform if it’s really cheap and I’m simply significantly inefficient – and once more, I’ve nobody to check notes with. My predecessor was a “rockstar,” however an enormous a part of that stemmed from her versatile boundaries.
I’ve been fairly inflexible with my work hours and bounds: I keep away from bringing work dwelling each time attainable, I don’t have my work e-mail on my cellphone, and the few coworkers who’ve my cell quantity perceive that I don’t use it for work. I experimented with doing a little smaller duties at dwelling however fairly shortly realized that it made my psychological well being worse.
I do know for positive that I couldn’t deal with being reachable at dwelling for this explicit job, particularly as a result of my supervisor is understood for demanding fixed availability as soon as somebody makes themselves reachable of their off-hours. She really tried to stress one among my coworkers into “suggesting” that I be extra open to accepting calls/emails from dwelling, however has by no means stated something to me instantly – probably as a result of my place is fairly exhausting to rent for (candidates should be bilingual) and he or she doesn’t need me to go away.
If my job could possibly be completed 100% at dwelling I feel it could be completely different. I kinda have the worst of each worlds proper now: utilizing up my govt operate on waking up early/commuting/performing productiveness, with the extra stress to *additionally* be accessible remotely. Within the 3 months I might WFH at my final job, my psychological well being was a lot better (however the pay and higher administration had been terrible).
I actually assume it may be higher to transition out of social work totally, because the low pay can also be an enormous a part of my dissatisfaction. I simply don’t know how my abilities might help me get a job that’s really higher than this one. It seems like there are tons of jobs that provide decrease pay, longer hours, and/or worse work-life steadiness; nothing I qualify for looks as if it could be that a lot of an enchancment.
Right here’s my “want record” for my subsequent job, although I do know just about no job can have all of those:
-relatively low-stakes – the worst that occurs is that I get fired; my errors don’t value weak individuals their housing, meals, entry to medicines, and so forth
-Just a few tasks with distinct timelines, reasonably than a bunch of latest duties coming in each hour
-the capability to only do my job and go dwelling – no expectation of fixed availability
-full WFH could be good so long as I might nonetheless disconnect on the finish of the day/work week
-for in-office work, the flexibility to proceed carrying a masks (non-negotiable – the one benefit of being in a medical setting)
-this is tremendous subjective, however morally impartial or net-positive impression to peculiar individuals (no serving to insurance coverage corporations deny claims, weapons manufacturing, and so forth)
-at least 60k/yr
I’d love to listen to any concepts the commentariat could have! Thanks for studying this far when you did.