Leaving a job without having a new one to go to?

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I know this is a risk, especially if you're Autistic like me, and struggle with the interviews that will be necessary to get through in order to land my next job role.

The thing is though, I am really not happy in my current role. The workload is just far too much. (I also suspect that I have ADHD, which obviously only makes things even harder if it turns out that I do have it. I am on a waiting list for assessment)

I literally have twice as much work to do (in terms of ticket numbers completed) as my colleague in the same role. I'm probably just going to have to tell my line manager that I'm finding the workload too much, and am getting fed up of having to work several unpaid extra hours every weekend just to not fall impossibly and unbearably behind with my workload.

I'm not sure if they will see it from my perspective. They may just say that I'm not capable of doing the job (despite the evidence of the unfair split of the workload) and make my decision for me, and just fire me any way.

This has been going on for months so it's not a snap decision. Although it seems that they may re-jigging the workload to benefit certain people, but may not be doing the same for me, and this will be the final straw for me if this turns out to be what happens.

At my previous job they put widget count over the value I brought. Their mistake. They refused to pay me according to my real value (not widget count) and I walked. See if you give the "too much" a more confident positive spin. Try to help them see it your way --- what you need to sustain your reliability, attention to detail, quality... (your strengths)...

Everybody told me not to leave without having a new job, but I had to. I didn't have the energy to look for a job while dealing with the stressful situation. I'm a highly experienced professional so expected a year or two of unemployment. After a month, I started a few gig (part-time, contract) jobs. They kept me afloat along with government aid. After 10 months I got a job offer that was rescinded (long story). After 18 months I started at a fantastic job! (good enough for a few years)

Everybody told me to network and apply to lots of jobs and interview, but that's not my style either, so in those 18 months I applied for four jobs, interviewed for three, got two, of which one stuck.

Wishing you and your manager can find a mutually beneficial way for this job to work and if not, that the next one is out there for you sooner than later... all in good time.

I'm very bad at this myself, but can you approach your manager with the attitude that you want to do the best job possible and you are asking for his help in making the situation better for you so you can get the job done well, rather than appearing to be grumbling and complaining. Again, this is not my strong suit at all, but you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

But if the job is really unbearable, then you have to decide how hard it will be for you to find another job and how long you can manage financially until you do. Can you get unemployment? You usually have to be laid off in order to qualify. Quitting doesn't usually qualify you for unemployment, but in some cases it can. I don't have a lot of knowledge about that, but maybe you can find out.

Is the pain of being in the job worse than the pain of worrying about needing to get a job soon, applying for jobs without necessarily a good reference, having to answer the question of why you left your current role in the most diplomatic way possible, worrying about money, and the stress involved?

Get a new job first. If the job is really killing you and you are crying yourself to sleep every night then maybe you need to quit now, because the stress of not having a job will not be as bad as what you are currently experiencing. Applying for jobs sucks, and if you aren't doing it now because you hate it, it is going to be ten times worse than whatever it feels like now if you have to do it while not being employed.

This is usually a very tough decision to make. I've been in the same situation myself. If you stay in a job you hate you know it will just destroy your mental health, but if you leave you feel irresponsible and then you have to face the consequences of having no money, and the dole office isn't always sensitive when people leave their jobs if they're unhappy there, they seem to treat it like you left because you're lazy or something. It's simply unfair.

I stuck it out for as long as I could until another job came up (the job I'm in now).

THIS! I'd also like to add that even if you do get a new job, it might turn out to be even worse than the previous one.

Personally, I'd also like to quit my current job as I'm just so done with it, but due to financial reasons, I can't until I get something else.

Unless you really need the money i would say quit. I am in the same situation and will quit in a few weeks.

I remember the stress and desperation of being out of work, but as long as I keep the faith and optimism that I have always found new work sooner or later, then quitting my current job to look for a new one should be better than my current situation. I will have to keep alive the hope of finding something better.

This current job is making me bad tempered, miserable, and irritable, and is draining all my energy. I have to work several hours unpaid overtime every weekend to catch up. I fear I'm going to run into serious burn out soon if I don't leave. Although financial situations can make leaving a job very difficult, none of us are actual slaves and so do have the freedom to leave. Even if it is a large financial gamble and could drain or totally wipe out all hard earned savings.

If the situation at work doesn't improve within a few weeks, I'll take a couple of weeks off at the start of July, and see what the state of play is in the job search field at the moment. I'll also try to enquire as to whether I'll be eligible for any benefits in this situation. The job centre need you to have a "good reason" for leaving your job if you wish to claim benefits, and there seems to be a very small list of what they consider to be a good reason, I don't know if there is any discretion about this and so I will have to prepare myself for not qualifying for benefits for some time.

I will have given myself 6 months to try to adapt to this new role. Unless the workload is distributed more fairly and my burden is lessened then it's looking increasingly likely that I'm going to have to leave. Come what may.

I have left a teaching job without another job lined up before. It was half university funded and half state funded. Unfortunately the state government threatened to pull the funding for higher education that year, meaning I would get my paycheck cut in half. I would be required to do the same amount of work. It was not a great job from the start as I was non-tenure track.

After that threat, I turned in my teaching contract for the next year unsigned and walked away. The administration tried their best to get me to sign back up, but they would not give me a guarantee that my pay would not be cut in half. I left the state and started looking for jobs. It was not that long before I found a much better paying one. I will not say it was completely better, as I dealt with extensive bullying for many years after. I have moved a bit up the ladder due to specialized trainings, so that job did pay off that way.