I’m salaried in low 20k a year range, live in the UK. I’m paid for 40 hours a week and work in the office and have a very long commute on public transport. I get the legal minimum holiday allowance and little to no employee ‘benefits.’ Multiple people at my job have told me I’m expected to do 2-3 people’s worth of work, and that’s only my main role. In addition to that I’ve been given extra projects and extra responsibilities while still being expected to do all of my other work too. The job is mind numbing and draining, my workplace is hostile as I’m regularly used as a scape goat for other people’s mistakes. I feel like I’m going nowhere.
In the meantime, my friends who work office jobs are on 25k, 27k and 33k. They are either working from home or they’re working hybrid. They tell me they do about 3 hours work a day even though they’re paid for 7 or 8. They get a generous amount of paid holiday a year. I am so happy they get to live like that, but I can’t even afford a car. Not even considering the big down payment of a car, I can’t afford the monthly running costs of a car on top of rent and bills. This job is killing me. I legitimately don’t know what to do. My friends have better degrees than me, I have a social sciences degree that isn’t valued as highly as their degrees so I can’t find a job as good as theirs.
I’m looking for other jobs but I can’t find any that are much different to this. I’ve applied to a couple but just get rejected. I don’t know how to escape this, but I don’t think I can live like this for much longer. I’m seeking therapy as I genuinely cannot cope with knowing that this might be my life for the foreseeable future. I can’t see a way out of this. Is there anything I can do? How do I find a better job? Or how do I escape the horrific office ‘9-5,’ which is actually more like 6am-7pm with unpaid lunch and the commute? I can’t live like this. I can’t.