I quit the job, but I can’t quit the cycle. Before I jump on the job seeker train, let me take a moment to explain how this happened. Also, if you have experienced being forced back to office after working from home, feel free to share your experience with me. I’m interested in knowing how much this is happening.
My job was originally an office job – project based and was already a huge shit show of ineffectual management before the pandemic. Then 2020 comes and we are working from home. I loved it. I didn’t have to look at or hear everyone. I made $18 an hour and did a ton of work. Some people made $25 an hour and got to take 3 hour breaks. Unfair structure of work and pay.
When I was working in office, I leased a car and lived with my boyfriend’s mom. Last year, I wanted to move out. Keep in mind, I am 35 and have no children. I gave up my car lease to rent an apartment for $1300 a month. My boyfriend has a similar paying job as myself but he has a car and works onsite. We share the vehicle and split the rent. We stared doing surveys and online remote tasking to have an extra $50 here and there. We were doing ok.
My company decided to give us 1 month notice to return to office. I explained my situation and let them know I could not produce a vehicle or transportation with a month’s notice. I asked if I could work from home a little longer to figure out what I could do. I didn’t even ask for a raise. HR told me that financial ability is not a disability so there’s nothing they could do to help, and that I should have known work from home could end at any time.
Right. I should have been prepared. Yes, it’s my fault that I’m too poor to have a job because my company doesn’t think I’m worth paying a livable wage. So I quit. And here I am having an existential crisis about my self worth.
I plan to sleep it off and start looking again on Monday. I already have an interview lined up on Monday for a remote job. I guess if you can relate, or just wanna call me a loser that’s ok too. But I’m tired. I’m the poorest person in my family and I’m exhausted. Everyone just tells me to “keep up the hard work”. But it absolutely sucks. I am about to finish my 2nd bachelors degree and I’m dragging it out so maybe I can be in a better financial situation for when the loans hit. I don’t want to live the rest of my life like this. For anyone else living a similar story, what the heck do we do?