I'm in my 50's. I have no college degree and unless I seriously qualify for enough grants and magically have 8 extra hours added to my day to study, I probably won't ever obtain said degree.
I've been working clerical type jobs since my 20's and have had mostly really bad experiences. I've had CFOs demean me in front of the entire office, underlings stab me in the back resulting in job loss (after 5 years with that company with stellar reviews), demotions for no reason other than change of management. The list goes on.
Fast forward to now. I am working from home for a local company for a job that has gotten pretty unbearable and is making me feel that I want to scream pretty much every day. My spouse has been encouraging me to look elsewhere, maybe a job in an actual office again. Maybe drive an hour one way to work, an hour home every.fucking.day just in the hopes I might be happier elsewhere. Risk dealing with the office politics scene, in which I obviously do not thrive. I don't buy any of it. I've recently encountered ageism when I have tried to look elsewhere and in my current job, I'm the oldest one.
I'm tired. I'm tired of dealing with the BS that comes with these kind of jobs. And for what? If I can manage to eke out another 15 years I might get a little more from Social Security in order to maybe feed myself. It's hard not to feel envious of friends who did make the choice to get a good professional job decades ago and are now looking at retirement. Then there are those like my BFF who has a similar work background as me and found a good job 10 years ago with the state that will allow her to retire at 62 with a pretty good retirement fund. She at least has a light at the end of the tunnel.
Are there any others here in kind of the same boat? If you do quit, how do you live? Where do you get money to pay your bills? I really, really want to just stop working, but I don't know how.