Short version:
I've been in a job for 6 years. I leveraged a healthy raise, but there's no more growth here. I want to take some time off while I search for my next job since I haven't had a real vacation — or more than 4 days off in a row — in ages. Even though I have a healthy side hustle and plenty of money in the bank, I'm struggling to walk away.
Long version:
I work in Healthcare IT in California. I have been at my current company at a medium sized practice for almost 6 years. I also have an out of state side hustle that I started at the tail end of the pandemic running a short term rental that has been doing pretty damn good. An old IT boss quit and there was a falling out I had with administration since I was being under compensated for doing two people's worth of work. I was doing IT and Facilities. Although it was a good experience, I wasn't getting the financial benefits after performing in the double role for 2 years. I was fed up when my IT boss quit since it meant that more responsibility was once again going to be shoveled between fewer people. The way he broke the news to me confirmed my hunch that he was full of shit and made a “career” out of stringing his department along when it came to new opportunity.
Anyway, I called them out and demanded a $15k raise to keep doing everything I was doing. They basically met my demands. I got a $10k raise, and have less responsibility than before. So I get paid $10k more to do the work of one person instead of two. Not bad.
This is now essentially a dead end job. My new boss doesn't like to communicate or collaborate. This is fine, since I'm not really invested here any more anyway. Also, I'm planning on moving out of state where my side hustle is and pursue advancing my IT career there. I've started to apply places, and found healthy number of remote positions. Lastly, even though I fought for my worth and have pretty stress free days, this place leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I also feel like my motivation to look for work is tamped down by the amount of time and energy I have to myself at the end of the day. I'm someone that would do better with several hours a day of focusing on my resume and doing a deep dive in to careers. I'd also like the flexibility to travel out of state for interviews if needed. I can get away with doing some job searching on the clock, but I'm not as focused as I'd like to be.
Thanks to the side hustle, and money set aside, I've got enough saved up to take a year off and could probably break even if I was careful. However, I'm feeling a lot of resistance. There are no bad options here, just a lot of ambivalence with my next move.
What say the antiwork community?
tl;dr (Shortest version)
I'm afraid to quit my job before I have another one lined up even though I've got plenty of money in the bank, and would focus better on the job search with more time every day to myself. Looking for insight.