Has anyone ever taken a job that just wasn't right?

[Planogirl]

I'm in a job where I deal with the public both on the phone and through paperwork. I've done customer service in the past and I became quite customer oriented. This job is not customer oriented and the purpose is to do what needs to be done legally to actually serve unseen clients that are corporations and to get the individual customers to basically go away. Speed and accuracy are of the utmost importance in this job, not customer service.

It's a weird change for me and I'm not sure if I can adapt. Right now I feel very uncomfortable and my performance isn't quite where it should be. It's close but a bit off and I know how important that is to this company.

Have you ever been in a similar situation where things felt wrong and did you just stick with it and get used to it? Or did you throw in the towel and find something else? I'm trying to decide what to do next.

 

[SandraVB79]

My first (real) job: I started on September 1 and quit on Setember 2. Of the same year.

If you don't feel comfortable at all in your job, look out for another one. Life is too short... :

 

[zalansky]

Get out asap! I took a job once and even in the interview I knew it felt all wrong. When they offered me the job I took it because I needed a job at the time....but wasn't happy or excited about it. Well, that was 10 of the longest and most dreadful months in my life. I tend to be too reliable and stayed in the job because they needed me, but the boss was so wierd and the job was so boring I copuld never get used to it. I hated getting up mornings and Sundays were spent dreading Monday mornings - UGH just thinking about it makes me sick.

Life is too short, find another job.

 

[Planogirl]

"life is too short" I need to keep reminding myself of that. Thanks.

I guess that I'm job hunting this weekend.

 

[musclecar_72]

Yep, I'm sitting at it right now! Trying to find something else but no luck so far!

 

[barkley]

back in the day before voice mail and pagers and cell phones....i got a job at an answering service that mostly served doctors. i found out on the first night that for the most part i would take calls from REALY sick patients and pass them on to the doctor's who would call in periodically to say that they were going to be at 'such and such restarurant' or 'so and so's cocktail party' and to not call for any reason whatsoever BUT to tell the patients that we would relay the message immediatly and if the doctor did not call back it meant that it was'nt something to worry about and could wait until the next bsns. day the fact that alot of the doctors were pediatricians, for me made it much worse-i quit after one night!

 

[Chicago526]

I've been lucky and have loved most of my jobs, but I've had a couple of stinkers too. I agree, keep the job to pay the bills while you're looking for a better one. If you truely don't fit in, you'll be doing both your and your employer a favor in the long run. Good luck!

 

[NMAmy]

When I first moved back to Michigan, I was hired for a secretarial position. When I took the job, it was NOTHING like what they explained in the interview. When I talked to my supervisor, she told me that they were still setting up this relatively new department and it would eventually turn into what we'd discussed.

It was awful--I was basically sitting in a cube farm stuffing envelopes with an office manager (who was in no way connect to me at all) who couldn't stand to have anyone chatting in the office area. I was isolated and bored out of my mind and took to bringing in books on tape to keep myself entertained. I stayed for 3 months while actively searching for a new job. When I gave my notice, the head of the division called me to his office and basically begged me to stay. I had no idea that he even knew who I was. When I pointed out that I was being terribly underutilized by just being given tasks like opening mail and stuffing envelopes, he promised that everything would change.

By that time, I'd been offered my current position which is almost exactly the same thing as I'd been doing in New Mexico. I'd adored my old position and I really like this job. There's no way I could have stayed there for any length of time. I was so unhappy there.

So my advice is stay as long as you have to while actively searching for a position that you'd enjoy. Life is too short to be doing something you detest. You'll get burnt out and bitter--I've seen it happen and I didn't want to become that person.

 

[AprilShowers]

My second real job was at a dentist office. This was a "group" with several receptionists, and several dentists. It was a corporate owned thing.
Biggest mistake of my life. My job (which they lied about) was to go through each and every chart and call those folks who were due for an appointment.

The problem was that most of their patients were welfare people who had no extra money for dentists and only came when there were problems. They did NOT want to talk to me on the phone. I dreaded every morning.
The office manager was under so much pressure to keep this office busy that she forbid us to talk to each other. We should be working. No chit chat, NOTHING. She would use the page feature on my phone to listen and see if I was talking to my officemate, and then come STORMING over if we were talking.

Then they asked me to be a receptionist for the pediatric dentist. This man was a complete lunatic. He was so terrible that nobody wanted to come to him. Well......it was MY job to fill his schedule. If it wasn't filled each day, I had to stay till 7:00 p.m. the night before CALLING people to try to get them to come in!
I was never so miserable in my life. When I finally quit, I gave NO notice. The office mgr. said to me "you will never be allowed to work here again since you gave no notice." I simply replied: "that won't be a problem."

 

[Pigeon]

My first job out of college was as a radiation controls instructor for Nuclear Navy personnel. It was a horrible job. I essentially had to mislead 19 year olds into thinking that radiation exposure was no big deal. I felt horrible about myself and quit within a year.

 

[hiwaygal]

the job I had before this one...it was awful!

I managed to stay there about 6 months.

As Confucius says: "Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life."

Good luck on the job hunt!

 

[momm2four]

When I first moved to TN, there was a hiring freeze for teachers at the time, so I was forced to look for work in other fields.

All the leads I got turned up nothing. Basically, noone wanted to hire me when they saw that I had just received an education degree b/c they thought I'd leave as soon as I found a teaching position. (True, but still, I needed money to live)

I then went to the umemployment office and they told me about an opening for a receptionist at an attorney's office. I went and was hired on the spot. I hated it!!! One of the lawyers would sit in his office, with his feet propped up on the desk, reading the paper while clients sat in the waiting room for over an hour. It would get so backed up, that I'd have to deal with his angry clients.

Same thing with phone calls. I was told to NEVER put anyone through to him unless it was another attorney or his wife (who he met while representing her in a divorce, he then left his first wife for her).

He once berated me b/c I wasn't getting enough divorce appointments on his calendar. Evidently that was his bread and butter. I can't count the number of people calling to inquire about divorce after having these major fights. The recept. before me would tell them, "Honey, you need to leave that man. You get in here and we'll get you free of that man", so she made LOTS of appointments. Me, on the other hand, would hear the sadness in these people's voices and encourage them not to make rash decisions based on one fight. I couldn't help it. To him, it was a way to make a quick buck, but to me, it was these people's lives and families that we were dealing with.

Anytime, he was accused of not calling someone back, it was because the receptionist or his sec. never gave him the message. ARRGGHHH!

The other attorney was an older, ex-judge who was convinced he was second in importance only to God. He told me after a few weeks that he liked the way I dealt with disgruntled clients and wanted to make me his secretary. He was then going to make his current secretary the receptionist. Can you imagine the hard feelings she would have had towards me???

I worked there for 1 month and hated it. I had to work loads of overtime and through my lunch hour to make any kind of money at all. I called the education dept. and pleaded for something. They had a position as director for a before/after school care at one of the larger schools. Part-time, no insurance, no benefits....NO PROBLEM, I'll take it! (I acutally ended up making as much money there as I did with the lawyer's office)

It worked out great, I was able to sub there and the next year taught two interims, which led to my first official teaching position.

Sorry it's so long, hadn't thought about that job in a while.

Lori P.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

I worked at Kelly Services, hiring and placing temporary workers. When I knew I needed out of there, I went to work as a temp, knowing what I could demand and get. DH was job hunting as well and we didn't know if we would be moving or not. One of the placements was at a local company that treated me well, and wanted to hire me fulltime, but I wasn't extremely happy there. something just didn't feel right. I was struggling with the beginnings of a difficult pregnancy (they didn't know) and couldn't put in the hours they wanted, so the next time they asked to extend my contract I said no. On to a different placement, with flexible part time hours that could accomodate my medical needs at the time. Doing the same kind of work, but wow - what a different work environment! I was made to feel like a vital part of the team, even as a temporary part time admin asst working with company directors. Had they offered me a permanent position, I would have jumped all over it! But sadly, there was a hiring freeze and then I left to have my DD, and that's how I became a SAHM.

long story to say that your instincts are telling you something, listen well and move on!

 

[Bob Slydell]

Yep, my second job out of college. I sort of jumped at the opportunity for two reasons -- the fact that my current company was in the process of being bought out and the job title sounded impressive (assistant controller).

As it turns out, it only took me a couple weeks to figure out that I was basically a glorified bookkeeper and after coming from a company that really valued constant change and continuous improvement, it frustrated me to no end to be told everyday just to do it "the way we've always done it", even if there were much better ways to do something.

I lasted a year, mostly because I didn't want a very short term job on my resume so early in my career.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I used to work in retail management. I loved retail, but I wasn't making much money so I decided to really get out there and find a terrific job with a bigger company. I put out dozens of resumes, but I wasn't getting calls for interviews like I had hoped. I am pretty conservative as far as appearance, dress, etc. but I went for an interview at Contempo because I was getting impatient. I had actually applied at their sister store, Pastille, which was much more conservative, quiet, career clothing but they didn't have any openings. This was back in the early '90s - I don't know if these stores still exist.

I hated that job at Contempo unlike I have ever hated any job before or since. The store was FILTHY. They played the music BLASTING loud. The shoplifters were able to cut the sensors off of the merchadise with wire cutters because the music was SO loud you couldn't hear anything! I pointed out to the store manager that they were losing TONS of clothes from the racks directly under the stereo speakers, but she didn't see the connection. They didn't like to put new items out during business hours, so we had to work until midnight or 1 AM on Sunday night. That involved pulling all of the clothes off of the racks, throwing them on the floor, and trying to rebuild everything from the front of the store to the back. We were never able to actually FINISH putting things back, so we would have to come in early on Monday and race to throw things back on the racks before we opened. Most of the associates were part time employees who were still in high school, so they weren't terribly interested in working. They were there for the discount. I was REALLY unhappy there. It was a terrible fit for me, and I dreaded going to work. Luckily a manager from The Limited recruited me to go work for them. I only spent another year or so in retail after that.

 

[ducklite]

I spent over five years at a job that I HATED because they paid me an obscene amount of money and I used that to build my dream home. Soon after it was complete I seriously began to think about leaving. I stuck it out for a few more months while looking for another job 1000 miles away where the new house was. Finally I could take it no longer and quit without having another job, and moved.

It was the best thing I have ever done for my sanity.

Anne

 

[liamsaunt]

I once had a terrible job for an (unnamed) temporary staffing company placing people in short-term assignments. The reason this job was so terrible is that the people I was placing were food-service workers, basically dishwashers, sometimes prep cooks or waiters, that kind of thing, and they just were not treated fairly.

There were some problems with people showing up looking for work while drunk, or with body odor, etc., which was bad, but honestly, the biggest problem for me was that these people were just scraping by and our firm was using them without offering them a chance to get ahead. Most staffing companies offer different types of placements--short term, long term, and temp-to-hire. Our company did this too, but only for the office-type positions. The food service workers were only offered short term placements with no opportunity for a permanent position--even though those types of jobs existed. The owner wanted to keep recycling the same people through part time positions, so we were not to offer the long-term or temp-to-hire positions to our workers.

The final straw came when a mentally challenged man I was able to place as a dishwasher at a local University was offered a full time position with benefits at that location. The owner of my company theatened to sue the University for breach of contract and the man lost his position. It was ridiculous. This man had limited opportunities to find a a full time job, and she was only making about $2/hour profit on his placement. Needless to say, I quit.

I guess I am not cut out for business.