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Job has me hospitalised

  • 09-02-2013 6:47pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭


    My job of fifteen years has finally become untenable. It has always been a stressful and difficult job, but it has been getting gradually worse as time goes on. The hours are atrociously long (anything up to a sixteen hour day on rare occasions, sixty to seventy hours a week no strange thing). The money is rotten, only made up by the sheer number of hours worked. It is an unskilled job. Conditions of employment are non-existent. There are no promotion prospects. There is not even a pension. The day I leave this job, after however many years, I have absolutely nothing.

    My great mistake was that I should have bitten the bullet years ago and not slid into this rut. But I am here now. I did leave before, but came back again, because I was untrained for anything else, and there was no other work.

    The job has finally resulted in my hospitalisation, due to physical issues combined with stress. I now must leave this job, urgently, that is slowly killing me. It dominates my whole life, to the point where relationships are impossible, I feel ill regularly, and any quality of life at all outside of the job is an impossibility. And now, it appears, actual physical health damage has been done.

    For years, I laboured under the apprehension that I was unskilled, had no degree in anything, no training in anything, no second language, and no experience in any job worthwhile. The result of this is a fear of the jobs market. Surely there are no jobs for someone untrained like me? Everything requires a degree, a language, or experience, none of which I have. There are thousands out of work. I have a job. A job that is hospitalising me.

    What I do have, the one thing that I thought made it all worthwhile, is a mortgage. Now, I realise that I would be far better off had I never taken out the mortgage, as I am in negative equity, committed to it for another twenty years yet, and right on the line of default every month. I have not even one month of grace, should anything happen. I did default a few years ago. The bank tore into me like ravenous animals, deducting hundreds, and even thousands, for all the missed bill payments that happened over the course of two very fretful years. I learned a very expensive lesson. Through sheer hard work and long hours, I clawed the debt back, and now am paying my bills, but just barely.

    And now, as I say, the thanks for it all is to be hospitalised. I cannot train for anything else, return to education, or even study at home, because the sheer weight of hours I work, the completely haphazard shift arrangements, and the stress I am under, make it an impossibility. I cannot simply walk away from the job that is killing me, as the lesson I learned the last time forbids it. And the bank is waiting. But I have nowhere to go. No out from the stress.

    Is this what life is all about?


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Kidchameleon


    OP you pretty much spelled out the story of my life. The one thing that gets me through the long days is doing an Open University course. It gives me some light at the end of the tunnel. I recommend you look into something like that.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 155 ✭✭ladysarah


    it is easier to get a job when you are in a job. Have you holidays you coulda take? If you have take them and start doing up CV. You are unskilled but they are many jobs out there for unskilled people eg call centres, shop jobs, an post delivering mail (I appreciate it may be hard to get a job there), My point is there are lots of unskilled jobs. Next step cut back your hours to 40 a week as you are burned out and cannot see yhe wood from the trees. Then go to the bank and offer them what you can afford to pay. The banks have changed on the last 2 years, They will not throw you out once you are making payments that you can afford. Are you single? Could you rent out a room? Watch your health and go easy on yourself.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,484 ✭✭✭username123


    Op, dont be so hard on yourself. Only approximately 30% of the population have degrees, and some of that 30% do not work (retired or stay at home parents) and a hell of a lot of young people gaining degrees are flying straight off to canada, australia etc...

    You do not have nothing when you leave your job, you have the fact that you stayed in a job for 15 years. There are lots of unskilled positions out there, sure, times are tough right now in a recession, but my husband who is educated to masters level has been made redundant twice in the past 3 years and only had just over a years work in that time - there is no guarantee of work no matter your education level these days.

    Straight off the top of my head - can you drive? Thats a skill, there are driving jobs, taxi-ing, couriering, etc..

    You cannot stay in a job that is risking your health, and these days half the country is in mortgage trouble so I wouldnt be worrying about that either. You need to make a plan, look for new work and try to upskill through FAS or private channels asap.

    Believe me though, there are plenty out there who are in a similar position as you, there is no such thing as a 100% educated and skilled workforce.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,387 ✭✭✭✭jimmycrackcorm


    Op, you why do you have to work such long hours? What would happen if you decided to work 9 - 5 like most?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,563 ✭✭✭stateofflux


    there is always a choice OP.

    renegotiate working hours
    walk away from job
    walk away from house
    etc
    etc

    degrees can be important but ultimately cop on and initiative / outside the box thinking is where its at.


    at the end of the day you ain't lazy, you are prepared to work your ass off, so starting from rock bottom might not be a bad idea if life is a living hell for you.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,461 ✭✭✭Queen-Mise


    there is always a choice OP.

    renegotiate working hours
    walk away from job
    walk away from house
    etc
    etc

    degrees can be important but ultimately cop on and initiative / outside the box thinking is where its at.


    at the end of the day you ain't lazy, you are prepared to work your ass off, so starting from rock bottom might not be a bad idea if life is a living hell for you.

    Look you are alive once - and then you are in a box in the ground for eternity.

    I really don't think this job is the best use of your time on this earth. You have absolutely no prospects in this job and it is killing you.

    My suggestion - sign out sick for at least a month... Sleep, sleep and sleep some more. Get exercise, see some friends, sleep some more, do a skills check in one of the local education centres - see what types of career suits your personality, decide and find out how much training you would need and/or willing to do, and sleep some more. Go to the cinema during the day when it is cheap. Go for a coffee in the morning and read the paper. Spend time with family. Watch a rugby/soccer match in the pub on a Sat/Sun afternoon. I really think you need to remember what a normal life is like. You have lost all perspective of what is important because of the crazy hours that you work.

    Send your mortgage company a letter from your doctor informing them that you have been signed off work for X length of time.

    Sod the mortgage while you are off - hopefully your disability/dole etc - will be enough to give you living money and pay utility bills. the days are getting brighter which will help.

    I am not being flippant in the above. You need a break and to talk to people and to remember what a normal life is like. With not a lot of training - you can change your whole life and career. And for god's sake you are not unskilled - a little bit of training would make a huge difference and your work ethic is amazing. Use that ethic to get yourself an easier life, to make more money for less hours working.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 390 ✭✭kat.mac


    Queen-Mise wrote: »
    My suggestion - sign out sick for at least a month... Sleep, sleep and sleep some more. Get exercise, see some friends, sleep some more, do a skills check in one of the local education centres - see what types of career suits your personality, decide and find out how much training you would need and/or willing to do, and sleep some more. Go to the cinema during the day when it is cheap. Go for a coffee in the morning and read the paper. Spend time with family. Watch a rugby/soccer match in the pub on a Sat/Sun afternoon. I really think you need to remember what a normal life is like. You have lost all perspective of what is important because of the crazy hours that you work.

    I think this sums everything up. Take the advice - you know yourself that you simply cannot continue the way you are. You will be shocked at how different life looks when you get the sleep you need.

    The best of luck OP.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,885 ✭✭✭JuliusCaesar


    Talk with your GP and local mental health services. They can sign you off sick, the Psychiatric Social Worker can help you sort out money, they can provide counselling at day centres and day hospitals as well as refer you to psychology. Lots of resources and help, if you are willing to ask.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,461 ✭✭✭Queen-Mise


    The other point to make - is that a dead end job is not in itself a problem. If that kind of a job suits you. Go in, do your job, get a wage check, come home and live your life.

    Not everyone wants to be a CEO or a heart surgeon ;) The problem with this job is that it is taking so much from you.

    A friend of mine works in a local shopping centre - cleaning, emptying bins, minor repairs. Is this classed as a dead end job - maybe, as it has no prospects for advancement, but then he doesn't want to advance. It suits him perfectly though - in at 7.30am and finished between 13.00 and 15.00. He would quite happily stay here till his retirement.

    Education/training may not appeal to you - but this job is not good for you either. They are better options out there.


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