A few months ago I had an interview with someone who made me feel really bad about changing jobs within a year of being there, I have always left places once my mental and physical health start feeling off and that interviewer almost convinced me that I shouldn't and I should stay at companies and push through. I probably would be following that advice if I hadn't found out that an ex coworker died of a stroke less than 2 weeks after finally quitting a soul sucking job.
He and I weren't friends but he was the kind of person who is always nice, optimistic, helpful and staying extra hours to get stuff done. He was pushing through and had been for at least a year and a half.
He had been doing leadership tasks for a year without officially being promoted and when he finally asked for the official promotion, they told him no because “he wasn't ready yet” so he quit. I literally saw his open to work post on LinkedIn less than two weeks ago and now he's gone, he wasn't even 30 years old.
I wonder if things had been different if he'd left sooner, I knew he had been looking for other options but he was always talked into staying and people convinced him that a raise and a promotion were just around the corner, I wonder if he was scared of starting over but now I think starting over is not as scary as the real damage living under constant stress can do to our body long term.