#JobQuitting #JobSeeker #CareerAdvice
Is there any real downside to quitting a job with nothing else lined up? 🤔
If you’re in a situation like the one described above, you’re probably feeling the urge to quit your job as soon as possible. But at the same time, you’re worried about the potential consequences of leaving without another job lined up. Let’s dive into the potential downsides of quitting a job without a backup plan, especially in the construction and facilities asset management industry.
Physical and Mental Health Consequences 🌡️
The stress and demands of a toxic work environment can take a serious toll on your physical and mental health. The situation described sounds like it’s impacting the individual’s well-being significantly. Here are some potential consequences of staying in a toxic job:
High stress levels
Lack of sleep
Weight loss
Hair loss
The list goes on. If your job is affecting your health, it’s time to consider your options.
Financial Stability 💰
One of the major downsides of quitting a job without another lined up is the impact it can have on your finances. Consider the following financial implications:
Loss of steady income
Potential for financial strain
Difficulty in meeting financial obligations
While financial stability is important, your health and well-being should also be taken into consideration.
Marketability in the Job Market 📈
Another concern is the impact of quitting without a backup plan on your future job prospects. Every job search comes with its own set of challenges, and leaving a job without another lined up can add to the complexity. Some potential challenges include:
Explaining the employment gap to future employers
Demonstrating your commitment and reliability
Finding a new job in a competitive market
Considering the specific industry, like construction and facilities asset management, it’s important to weigh the potential challenges against the current toxic work environment.
Personal and Professional Growth 📚
On the flip side, quitting a toxic job can also have positive implications for personal and professional growth. Leaving a toxic work environment can lead to:
Improved mental and physical health
Opportunities for self-reflection and personal growth
Exploration of new career paths
The decision to leave without another job lined up should be made after considering all potential consequences and benefits.
Evaluating Your Options 🤔
Before making a decision, consider the following steps:
Assess your financial situation and create a budget for potential unemployment.
Explore alternative options such as taking a leave of absence, seeking professional help, or addressing the issues with management.
Research the current job market in your industry for potential job opportunities.
Consider the potential impact on your personal and professional growth.
Ultimately, the decision to quit a job without another lined up is a personal one. If the current job is taking a toll on your health and well-being, it may be worth considering the potential downsides and benefits of leaving. Make sure to weigh all factors, including the specific challenges of finding a new job in the construction and facilities asset management industry. Remember to prioritize your health and well-being above all else. Good luck!
I’m in a similar situation where everyone tells me that it’s not a good idea unless you have something else lined up. I do believe that yes, if you don’t have something lined up, it can get very difficult… but not impossible.
If you have a savings to cover for things like rent, you should be okay. If you have parents or family members that can help you live at their place while you job hunt, you should be okay.
I know I’m being biased when I say this, because I want to be quit my job right now as well.
If you truly believe that you’ll be fine, then go ahead and quit. In my honest opinion my health, my mental health, all of it is more important. Make sure that if you quit, you atleast give them some sort of sob story as to why you need to leave so that you can still use them as references if need be.
My parents are all telling me not to leave my job unless I have something lined up, but I’m honestly at a breaking point as well and it feels like shit knowing your not being supported nor are they being understanding.
Life is too short to stay stressed man, anything can happen at any day of your life and I’m sitting here really making myself believe that it’s okay when clearly i don’t feel that way. If tomorrow you passed, would you want to spend today stressed/overwhelmed? fuck no.
I hate this career centric bullshit where you have to keep on holding on to what obviously hurts until you find something else for yourself to hold on too.
Do you, be happy, have faith in yourself that you’ll find something, start looking now, start applying now. be proactive and start taking initiative on your life to lead your life where you want to be at.
Are your bills going to pay themselves?
I think it’s mostly downsides, the only upside is that you get to chill for a bit.
Quitting without a lined up job can turn into an absolute nightmare, both mentally and financially. Unless you have a few years’ worth of expenses saved up, AND willing to completely blow through them all, I’d never advise anyone to quit without another job.
I think you have to decide what is worse for your mental health, continuing to work in a taxing environment, or being unemployed with no income for 9 months, meaning Winter, Spring and Fall. When I lost my first job eons ago, I distinctly recall my checking account balance decreasing month over month, and panic levels beginning to rise. Eventually, I had to move back in with my parents until I sorted things out. So be careful.
Do you feel the damage it is doing to your health is reversible?
I am coming from a somewhat similar place. I just left my miserable job but I think I may have been too hasty and now find myself just as hopeless as before because I don’t have any great prospects. I’m wishing I had made different choices.
I agree with you that your health is most important and I used that reasoning for myself when I quit. I wish, though, that I had considered my ability to recover once I eventually got over the hump and was in a different place. It felt unbearable in the moment but I wish I had stuck with it just a little bit longer.
Maybe give yourself a timeline. Decide exactly how much longer you are going to continue with this job. Maybe 30 or 60 days. Then do everything you can in that time to get something else lined up. If you can’t find anything, keep your promise and quit anyways, and just keep searching. This leaves you with as much time as possible to weigh your options and choose the best offer and reduces the odds that you’ll grow desperate and have to take the first one you get. Knowing exactly when the suffering will end might be the anchor you need to pull yourself through it.
Ultimately though, if you do end up leaving abruptly and start having doubts or panicking, I hope you give yourself some grace and don’t downplay how difficult this job has been for you. We are all just trying our best to survive and that’s all we can do. No one can know for sure what choice is best at all times. Hearing myself say that is helping me too, so thank you for sharing.
Did that once and didn’t find another job until over a year later. Not the best idea. Lesson learnt.
Unless you are self-sustaining during your voluntary unemployment, it’s really not a good idea and terribly unfair and entitled to expect family to keep working so you can stop. Unless you can pay your own way for a potentially extended job search, you need another job first.
I’ve applied to several thousand jobs without success so I’d be extremely hesitant about quitting any job, no matter how bad it is…
Only you can decide that. I can tell you flat out that if I were in your shoes, I would suck it up, start poring as much energy as possible into finding something else, and at least stay until you found something else or stayed with the company for a year.
1) if you have any benefits like health insurance or life, insurance, etc. it goes away
2) You don’t get paid
3) Some companies don’t like when you have gaps in employment
When you quit, they stop paying you straight away. If you only stop working, it’ll take at least a week ..
Don’t quit, the market is bad. Even if you have funds saved up, they might dry up before you land a new job. When i quit due to similar reasons you stated, i wanted a break of 2 months before exploring for job opportunities. Now I’m in month 5, there are hardly any opportunities, no callbacks, even interviewers judge you as a quitter. I had enough savings to last me 4 months, now I am dependent on my parents. I have no idea when I’ll get a job, yet still have debt obligations.
Yeah you don’t have money coming in
Also, Amazon hires anyone with a heartbeat so if u hate your job so much you can do that till u get something. They also have flex a side hustle that I do if you like delivery. Your prob much more established tho
If you’re generally confident in your professional abilities and could survive a few months without income, then no not really.
I was in the same position as you – in a new job of 9 months and just not enjoying it at all. Luckily I have a side hustle that generates some income for me. Between this and my general faith in myself to get a job, I decided to quite. No regrets at all. It’s a little scary but it also feels overwhelming ‘right’. It’s so simple but… if you can afford to leave.. you should. Life isn’t about staying places that are soil destroying if you don’t absolutely have to be there. Leaving gets you a step closer to feeling happy again
Every day you don’t work when you’re young is a day you’re robbing yourself of a future early retirement. Just something to think about. I would try talking to your manager and see if you could take a leave of absence or something before you just up and quit without a backup plan.
My ex did this. Two years later and he still can’t find a job. He has to basically start over in his field from the bottom. He also cashed out his 401k to survive. He’s kicking himself now.
But I feel you- I want out of my job so badly but I know it’s way more stressful to be unemployed and struggling to pay bills.
This all depends. I quit a toxic job in September of 2021 without anything else lined up and was recruited into the next job within 3 months. Here are some reasons why I had no issues with quitting without another job lined up:
I have niche, in-demand skills and worked at very reputable companies with great references.
I have a spouse who is also a high-earner; I’m also on his health insurance.
I had/have tons of savings that could last me a few years if I decided I didn’t want to work for a few years.
That toxic job also impacted my mental and physical health in many ways. Every day was a struggle and I became depressed and wasn’t the best version of myself. I knew that if I continued with the job it would have impacted me even greater. So, I had to prioritize myself and my sanity. No job is worth it if it makes you a miserable person.
I hope it works out for you, OP!
Probably should start looking for a new job ASAP then. If you have money saved aside it shouldn’t be a problem. And it does sound like you could use some time off to take care of yourself but a little warning if you quit before you have something lined up, too much downtime can make you go crazy
Flip side: I started interviewing way better after I quit my job. It’s kind of hard to properly sell yourself if you’re getting (fabricated or legit) negative (structured or unstructured) feedback daily. I was unemployed for 2 months. It would likely have taken much longer to get a new position if I hadn’t quit. Especially with places trending towards more and more interviews these days.
It’s always easier to get a job when you have a job.
Knowing it could take 6-9 months to find a job, If you have substantial savings to carry you, then your risk is minimized. Otherwise, the risk of just quitting is to great.
I debate this every day hahah. I feel so caged in my job. I have no autonomy and I’m not used to that. I just keep saving money because it’s the ONLY joy and security and control I have in my life atm. The money I’m saving is the only thing keeping me going (and it’s not even a lot tbh). I’m too exhausted to apply to other jobs and go through those stupid 6-7 rounds of interviews.
Yes.
Gaps in employment.
Trust me you don’t want that. Make sure you have something going for you before you leave. Even if it be another job.
I am in the same situation right now, well worse I got fired and my biggest concern wasn’t being fired in and of itself because there are plenty of jobs out there. But it was not finding a job within next month.
Thankfully I did and I’m starting tomorrow so I have no gaps in my employment.
The downside is that you stop earning money which you need to live? Think this through dude.
If you want to leave, you should probably start by thinking of a financial goal you’d like to save for in order to feel like you have enough of a buffer to walk away without panicking over money.
Not sure what kind of job you’re in but I suggest making sure your resume, website, and LinkedIn are all updated. If there are other people who work in your field that you can speak with, send out cold emails if need be and ask for 15 minutes of their time. Ask about them and their career journey and try to tell them about you and your interests and goals after. Networking, no matter your field, is essential to helping you secure work fast or at the very least stay top of mind for new roles that might be better.
That said, if your company is sending you into a spiral physically and mentally and you can no longer tough it out, it’s okay to walk away. Being burnt out has its consequences.
Honestly, and I don’t say this to be rude, but the fact that it didn’t even occur to you that there would be a downside tells me you should not quit, or at the very least, you are not ready.
Yes because getting a job after a couple months of no work is exponentially harder. A lot of companies will pass over your resume because of this and even if you get an interview they will ask about the gap so you’ll need a good reason to convince them.
….money?
If you have no savings acct you’re screwed.
Always line up a new job before quitting the old one. Jobs may come within less than a month and the more advanced ones any where from 3-6 months or even 15 months. Peon level jobs with 500k corporations can generally be gotten pretty simple. When you just up and ghost a company; other companies can tend to pick up on stuff like this.
If you can mooch off another person’s income you’re good. Depending upon your income level can dictate how much you’ve saved. (If you’re good with savings.) (A person who always lives outside their income level will always be poor unless they can figure it out. or so I’ve noticed.)
What is the bare minimum you can do without getting fired? With that bare minimum, can you allocate your extra time to finding a new job?
It goes without saying that this will likely impact your performance at work, but if you’re already planning on leaving, what does it matter as long as you don’t get fired outright? Sure, that may burn some bridges at your current place of work, but it sounds like you likely wouldn’t want to come back or work with those people elsewhere.
As far as finances go, how many months of expenses do you have saved up? Do you have a partner who can help you stay afloat while you find a job, if you do quit?
My advice is to take a breather, stop giving as much of a shit about your current job (to the extent that not giving a shit won’t get you fired), and start applying to new jobs aggressively. Leverage your network, reach out to recruiters. This will pass and you will find something new eventually, try to take solace in that.
As a bit of data, it took me about three months to find a new job. I was/am employed. I think I sent in less than 100 applications, but my education, YOE, and field probably helped a bit. YMMV.
My husband got a new job recently after reaching out to his network. Lucky guy only had to send in two applications.
Well, I’d consider lack of income a real downside.