Quitting your Job - how and why did you do it?

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johnners
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27 Sep 2011, 10:12 pm

I've been in my current job for just under 2 years. It is with a tiny nonprofit. I have a boss who comes into the office about once every two weeks, and is on Skype and email the rest of the time; and a female co-worker who is in her mid-20s and has been with the company for about 4 years. For some reason, I just seem to do things incorrectly. Just recently, I have been putting off telling my co-worker in case she tells me off, and ending up making her even more upset when she discovers I've shoved stuff under the carpet, so to speak. For example, I packed up and mailed a load of CDs to members. She said, after I sent them, whether I had checked a spreadsheet because some people had ordered more than one. I went and said I had, when I hadn't - I knew she would have got in a stop if I did tell her.

I do something wrong, the boss tells me off, but apologies and promises to do better in future don't seem to be enough.

This has been going on for months, chipping away at my self-confidence. About 9 months ago I started taking antidepressants to try and help, but it's not making my workplace experience any easier.

So today, after a spat with the boss where I found myself having a stand-up row with her (which is totally out of character for me) and being sent to Coventry by my co-worker, I started thinking about doing something I've never done before - quitting my job with no job to go to. I just can't stand the constant battle going on in my head about wanting to do the right thing and ending up not doing anything; worrying about what's going to go wrong next, dreading going into work.

I have savings and my partner works, so I would be able to live for about a year while I looked for another job. But what would the consequences be? How would I tell prospective employers about quitting a job? What would I do for references?

How, if at all possible, could I resolve the situation and try and soldier on in this position until I found something better?

Am I just running away from a situation, or salvaging my mental health?

On a broader topic, if you have quit a job because of stress caused by your social skills at work, why did you quit, and how did you go about it?



MountainLaurel
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28 Sep 2011, 12:03 am

Quote:
I've shoved stuff under the carpet, so to speak. For example, I packed up and mailed a load of CDs to members. She said, after I sent them, whether I had checked a spreadsheet because some people had ordered more than one. I went and said I had, when I hadn't - I knew she would have got in a stop if I did tell her.


This, here, is not a social skills issue. It's a character issue.



MudandStars
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28 Sep 2011, 2:44 am

Most workplaces value honesty and integrity pretty highly. Covering up mistakes like that won't really help you in the long term in any job.


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?Two men looked through prison bars; one saw mud and the other stars.? Frederick Langbridge