So I'm leaving a position I've had for 2+ years. This job required me to work from midnight to 8am while my days off were Wednesday-Thursday. Originally the job seemed fun and right up alley, but it slowly ate at me and wore me down. I almost never saw my family and when I was able to see them, I was always too tired to really enjoy myself.
Last week, I was offered a position that had normal hours (8-4) with normal days off and some of my coworkers are dumbfounded that I'm leaving. Granted, I'm taking a $10k paycut, but my coworkers can't believe that I'm doing that. I've gotten snide remarks like “you're going to end up in poverty” or “you're throwing everything away for no reason”. My current job gave me almost nothing to begin with, unless you count making my life miserable, creating a rift between myself and my girlfriend, and not having a life outside of work.
The sad part is, I've seen what my current position has done to some people. One of my coworkers has spreadsheets for every single person in my department (so 40+ people). Each of these spreadsheets contains our salary, when we're due for a raise, how much vacation time, sick time, and comp time we have (plus how much we've used along with a count for how much time we've take off during a month and year), the amount of times we've made mistakes in our position, and audio logs of radio transmissions and phone calls where he thought we made mistakes. Keep in mind, this person isn't in management whatsoever. He's a supervisor one day a week, that's it. He keeps tabs of every single person in my department, regardless if they're on his shift or not. Granted, we have a ton of free time in my position, but it boggles my mind that that's how he chooses to pass the time.
At the end of the day, I can't wait to leave, and I'm so thankful that I won't end up creating useless spreadsheets involving my coworkers personal information. Do what you gotta do to make yourself happy.