I was previously working a very rigorous warehouse job that was destroying my health. I made over $57,000 a year plus generous benefits. I felt rich some weeks. I could buy nicer food at the grocery store, I could more easily indulge in my hobbies monetarily (though not physically or emotionally…), if something was wrong with the car I could go get it fixed without worrying about it, I could invest in nice new clothes and home goods instead of buying everything from thrift stores, and I started going to school again and work was paying all my tuition.
But my repetitive stress injuries were killing me. Despite a year of occupational therapy and another year of physical therapy, I couldn't keep up. I was in physical pain every day, and even simple tasks like brushing my teeth or driving were painful. I saw a neurologist who said I couldn't do the work anymore because I will have to deal with these issues the rest of my life.
Instead of giving me an office job they laid me off. I don't want to discuss the legal aspects of it because I'm pretty sure they had their asses covered. I am sure they could have argued that keeping would be an undue burden. I signed the papers and took my three months severance and got out of a toxic horrible place.
Fast forward almost 3 months, my time off work has been incredible. I've been working on my hobbies, resting, healing, repaying my sleep debt. But the job market is awful. I'm sick of warehouse work and all the positions that pay anywhere near what I was getting had worse hours (like overnights) or were management positions that I was NOT interested in.
I found a job that's much more related to the degree I am getting. I haven't started yet but I'm excited because my coworkers and supervisors seem great and it's a job where I'll actually be helping people. But this is a non-profit social service type job and the pay cut is great. I'm going from $57+k to $39k
Idk what the point of this is, I guess to vent, cos it's so frustrating that meaningful work in my field (or any helping profession) pays so little. I think this job change will be good for my mental, emotional, and physical health. I genuinely wanted this job really badly, in fact. But I signed the lease on this apartment when I made 56k. Now I'm going to have to pay the rent and bills making only 39k. There's just no winning this game.