Toxic jobs drain your life, even when you leave work you’re worried about work, worried about getting fired from the toxic job…unless you can scrape together a small amount of money saved. If you’re sitting at home spending what little extra you have trying to distract yourself from thinking about work recognize that that cycle will NEVER END. Make it your mission to save every damn penny you can until you have a small amount of savings.

When you have that money, you’ll notice that you’re not quite as worried about being fired because you know you’ll be able to pay your rent/mortgage next money, you’ll have food on the table, and you’ll be able to cover the bare minimum of costs to live. The situation has now changed dramatically because you could quit tomorrow if you needed to, and you’ll be okay next month.

Working the toxic job has now stopped being a necessity, and now its a choice you make. You choose to be there. You have the power now. You can choose to quit and be gone if you absolutely need to and you’re not going to be homeless. Now you work the toxic job not for them, but for yourself. You use that job, as toxic as it is, to get what you need out of it to raise yourself to the next level of what you need to go elsewhere. You’re also not trying to avoid thinking about work because you’re not scared of it. You have some mental capacity back and can start asking yourself what you want to do next, what you need to do that, and how to get those things accomplished. Is it more school? A certification of some kind? A tool needed for your trade? Experience? Maybe you can get that experience at your toxic employer. Volunteer for what the work is that would give you the experience. You’re going to make mistakes in this new work. Make your mistakes there at the toxic employer. Gain the knowledge you need, then start looking elsewhere all.

Find your new/better employer, and make your escape.

I quit jobs on the spot in the past back when I was working minimum wage jobs but the only job that I have ever quit without a backup plan was my first big boy job post college.

I worked there for 3 years and I kept getting overlooked for promotions even though I was the number one or number two for Farmer every single month.

It was a contract job and nobody could tell me why I was not getting pay raises or promotions.

One day it just snapped and I was like all right I’m going to quit and I put in my two weeks notice. I told my wife at the time about it and she asked me what am I going to do for money and I said I don’t know, I guess I will work multiple jobs until I land on my feet and so I had this plan to work two or three full-time minimum wage jobs if need be to keep money coming in while my job search was going on.

Then, a friend of mine told me he had turned down a job offer for a local college and asked me if I wanted to put my hat in the ring and I said yes and I got the job.

It paid what I should have been making at the job I was at with additional responsibilities commensure it to my skill on top of that I ended up working there for the next 3 years.

It seems that everyone already answered, but I will give my perspective as well.

It’s definitely very different for each person. Some people need the money more or less. Some people suffer more in their job or less. Some people have more options or less.

I like to imagine a scale where on one side you have the reasons to leave and on another side you have the reasons to stay. And reasons to leave are multiplied by how many options you have outside.

So if your job is terrible and you’re pretty financially stable and you have a lot of options for finding other jobs then the scale would lean towards leaving. Or if your job is pretty terrible, but you’re not financially stable and you don’t have a lot of options, then the scale would be pretty equal and you’ll have to take a risk.

Always line something else up first. If possible, also have enough money to last 3-6 months without a job - makes things a hell of a lot less stressful. We would essentially just bank any bonuses throughout the year, and it would afford us a nice nest egg in case something ever happened. However it needs to remain untouched.

I call it “the fear”. Being unemployed or underemployed or having the risk of no income fills me with it.

I am a homeless man in San Francisco because I quit a public sector job that I was not allowed to fix with my good-ass coding skills. I have no regrets.

I was not scared at all, because it was the very normal thing for me to find a new and better paying job first.

But I was lucky because that asshole boss did rarely actually show up and make my life miserable. He was too busy with making so many others miserable, too.

Don’t quit, slowdown, make them fire you, collect unemployment and get a better job

I’m more afraid of needing the money than not having the money.

I’ve been fired before. It honestly isn’t that bad unless you have absolutely shit financial practices.

Toxic jobs really take a toll on your health, especially if you feel trapped in them. Looking for a new job is really a full time job on itself, it can be hard to do so while already working a full time job. If you feel your job is toxic you should start looking for something new right away - whether you’ve given notice or not. I’ve ended up in the hospital twice from the toll toxic jobs that I felt trapped in took on me. Another thing you can consider is diversifying your income. Ie, a “side hustle”. If you have more than one income stream you won’t be quite as trapped. You also will have something to help buffer the transition between your real jobs.

I think this really depends on how you quit. If you do it on an impulse, that’s gonna really roll the dice, but if you already have another job lined up and you know the financial hit can be dampened by savings or another way, you might feel a bit safer.

I just heard that my contract can’t be renewed and it runs out in March, so I’ll have too look for something. I have enough time and I already took care of everything else so I don’t have to panic anymore, but the anxiety will be there until I secured another job I’m happy with, and I just gotta deal with that.

My current job is not toxic but it does keep me on my toes and one of my bosses I can’t get along with; he is always suspicious of me and I can’t really deal with that. I just wanna do my job and not appeal to people lol.

Yes but you can get money in many different ways so that’s nice.

It scared the shit out of me, but was one of the best decisions I took, on my next job I learned to impose limits from the start.

I managed to find something very soon, but if I were in a similar position nowadays I would first find something new.

He works hard for the money.

So hard for the money.

He works hard for the money, so you better fire the subordinate employee