The Middle-Aged Genius’s Guide to Almost Everything 12 – Cutting Losses With Work
April 22, 2018
[Beginning of recorded material]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What about cutting losses regarding a job?
Rick Rosner: As with relationships, it hurts less to cut loose a job if you have something else already lined up. So, that is a factor. You have to ask yourself or you can ask yourself “Is your current job getting in the way of anything else you want to do?” and “Do you your current job?” and “Is what you are getting paid or whatever other benefits you are getting which could include fulfillment, walking away with office supplies, meeting people?”
Also, “Is it worth your time?” If you are finding your job oppressive because you care about it too much or you care about performance too much, “Is your job something you can care less about?” Or, “Can you do a crappier job or can you be less invested?”
In college, I used to have multiple jobs at a time and that was nice because any one job was something I could walk away from if somebody was a dick to me which meant if somebody was a dick I did not have to be so concerned because I knew I could walk away, so I did it did not bother me as much.
You’ve gone through a lot of jobs.
Jacobsen: I have worked a lot. Now, in terms of the work, if you are working in a lot of blue-collar jobs as I have done over the years, you want to keep in mind that those jobs still remain in high demand but still have high turnover.
So, if you do not like the environment or the treatment at one place, you can almost always feel comfortable in the fact that you can find another similar position in a new environment which may be healthier given your predisposition.
Some places work for some people; others do not for other people.
Rosner: Some places do not work for anybody. Some jobs are essentially scams where the jobs aren’t good due to management or the pay structure or that nobody’s meant to hold the job for long.
You get the job. You find out you are being ripped off. The benefit of the compensation. Or if you are on some commission or other aspects of it, that no reasonable person would keep the job.
So, you only stay on that job long enough to find out that you are being scammed. This can be restaurant work where the bosses are jerks. They abuse everybody. There are some sales jobs where it is impossible to sell anything and if you do sell something, jobs and gyms for instance, or you are a sales associate.
It may be ridiculously tough to sell anybody memberships. If you do, your commission is low. So, they cycle people through to have somebody trying to sell and they are paying low enough they do not care whether they perform or not.
So, anyway, make sure your job isn’t a scam, the biggest, the hardest decision is if you enjoy your job, if you are making decent money, but you have to ask if it is interfering with your professional development.
Ideally, if with your job you can figure out ways to keep it while you set yourself up to move on to something, that might be better; or explore the possibility, that there is something better, which might involve cutting back your hours, seeing if you can go to school at the same time you have your job, seeing if it is possible if you are in a field.
Where you can look for other work without getting busted at your current job or whether your current bosses are sufficiently reasonable, that you can let them know you are looking for other stuff. But there is a certain joy in crap jobs where nothing’s at stake.
I bounced bars for over a decade into my career as a TV writer because it was after struggling all day to write stuff for TV. It was nice to come to a job where I could hang out and possibly catch a fake ID and eat french-fries. I am not sure if I have got any other major points for this deal.
[End of recorded material]
Authors[1]
Rick Rosner
American Television Writer
Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Editor-in-Chief, In-Sight Publishing
Footnotes
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Rick Rosner 