Hey all,
I’ve posted here a few times, but after lurking for a good while I wanted to ask if anyone else is feeling the way I do.
I am an English teacher living in Japan. My company is less explicit teaching and more daycare for younger kids, but the work is nevertheless rather brutal and I feel generally taken advantage of. With the yen getting significantly weaker over the past few months, things have continued to be tight for me financially too, which weighs on me a lot.
Looking at things objectively though, I cannot say it’s all bad. I’m living where I want to, I can afford to support myself even if it’s month-to-month. The company feels systematically exploitative but my immediate coworkers are very kind and everyone feels generally motivated to do things above-board (which, from what I understand isn’t common for this sort of work in Japan).
Seeing the posts on this sub makes me extremely mad on behalf of those who are taken advantage of in their jobs. Earlier this year I had to deal with being bullied by a colleague who has since left, and there were days where I’d have panic attacks in the bathroom because I didn’t want to deal with my work. That was only after 3 months, so I cannot imagine how hard it is to have to deal with superiors who are more than unpleasant to deal with.
That said, I also have recently been feeling angry at myself for disliking my job as much as I do, considering that it isn’t nearly as horrible as the situations I read about here.
Does anyone else ever feel this way? How do you deal with these sorts of feelings? Any advice is appreciated. Cheers!