I read a study where each 20 minutes of commute makes people equally unhappy as a 19% pay cut! So maybe this isn’t a pay cut after all, but a happiness upgrade.
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My current role was a $30k pay cut. I am so so so much happier than where I was before.
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Thank you @Ferngully @diapasoun @Sunflower @plainjane @hollaynia for the reassurance! I might be going backwards in $ but forwards in happiness is the goal…
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in fact, I discovered when I had a better commute and a better work environment that we ended up spending less money, and so it decreased the amount we needed for FI, and didn’t impact our savings as much as we initially expected.
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HUH Imagine that. I’m sure the volume of pick-me-up M&Ms I buy from the cafeteria would be dramatically reduced…
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also takeout/restaurants, clothing. self soothing and convenience. our day to day spend dropped 25% the year I switched. (a lot of peanut m&ms - the most perfect food)
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Omg me and my M&M habit when stressed. I’m happysad I’m not alone in that.
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I feel you… I’m currently commuting three hours a day with no possibility of remote work so I’m really trying to change that!
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It used to be the amount of sour patch kids that melt your taste buds but I’m learning about self compassion
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gasps we should talk about sour skittles
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Omg, I’m so happy to jump in this thread.
I need to find a new job and have no idea how to figure out transferable skills or what to look for in a job. Will be searching through the links posted above and definitely open to other guidance.
I’ve been with my company for 18 years, started as a lab tech while in grad school, then was a dna analyst for several years, then supervisor, now lab manager for a few years. In theory, it’s my dream job; in reality, I have to get away from this place.
My company is not well run (and that’s a severe understatement). I rotate between thinking that as management I can help change the culture to being completely defeated and unable to function. While a private company, the spectre of our main job being a benefit to society leads to a lot of guilting people into doing extra work, similar to how friends describe non-profit companies often do. The slide they put up of people’s work anniversary literally says “thank you for your service” for the past several months. This has led to me occasionally feeling like a very competent person who thinks they’re an effective manager, but often feeling absolutely shit at anything useful.
Yes, I have a masters in forensic molecular biology, but given that I never did any biology research, and don’t have a phd, biology jobs are hard to find and would likely be a huge pay cut. I view it sort of as a trade school for twchnology that is largely obsolete and a job I wouldn’t want to return to.
There are few competitor companies in the US, and the ones I’ve looked at define my job very differently and often encompass skills that I legitimately don’t have (like plumbing). I can’t even begin to think of another job that I’d be interested in or even good at.
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Oh, I know this feeling so well. I jumped ship to a competitor as an individual contributor hoping to escape the toxicity. But new company is just as dysfunctional, albeit in different ways. I’m so burnt out, I just can’t deal with any of it.
Do you have data analysis skills? Project management, technical writing, QA, something along those lines?
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Could a shift into different type of lab work? I definitely do not know, just thinking that the people who worked at the soil & water assessment labs I sent samples to always seemed happy enough with their jobs and my siblings worked at one for a bit and found it fine. Soil = biology but except for the details of how the testing is run, the structure of it (things Hollaynia mentioned) should all be extremely applicable.
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Thank you.
I think that I have some skills that could transfer to project management, but I worry about it being too much working with people, since I have a small reservoir of other people energy. But also get super depressed if I’m working alone from home. I know, I just need to try stuff and it may take several moves to find a good fit, but it’s scary.
You might be on to something with QA. I’ve done an ISO training for audits (in my field) and love doing audits of the lab (been doing internal ones since 2009 and lately have done two external ones of other labs). That level of methodical thinking and searching for details is up my alley.
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Thanks.
This is where I’m going to sound like a total snot. As the current breadwinner in my relationship and not wanting to completely revamp my lifestyle to be much more frugal, I don’t want to take a pay cut in my job switch. And most lab jobs are at max $25/ hr or so.
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Even as a lab manager at a different lab? I would have thought “lab manager” would be a role that would have a similar pay across different types of labs?
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Oh, I misunderstood, thanks. I suppose it’s possible if I find another large lab or lab system. Any that I see posted are for much smaller labs and the position either includes a lot of direct lab work (and is paid accordingly) or includes a lot of facilities work (and that’s where the plumbing and electrical work comes in that I’m not interested in learning).
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A company I applied to just turned me down for the role I was looking at but invited me to interview for a different position, but I think I’m going to decline, because that job is in the DC suburbs (so wouldn’t reduce my commute) and doesn’t pay much more than my current job if you take benefits into account. It’s a positive sign that someone wants me to interview for something, though.
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Haven’t done anything since I submitted my app to Longshot Job. Haven’t heard back. Assuming it’s a no! Oh well. I hereby challenge myself, and anyone else looking, to put in one application this week.
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I will have a look for jobs! I haven’t heard back either.
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