When did you recognise the point at which you HAD to leave your job?

[StillMedusa]

I think I'm there, but in the current climate am worried I'll never find another.
I've been a Special Needs TA for 15 years. From life limted children with young adults with profoundly challenging behaviour. I've always done a pretty decent job at it too, and unfortuately this has meant I have ended up with the 'difficult' classes most years.
This no different, but now at nearly 53 I can't shrug off the bites, the kicks the bruises so easily.. physically or mentally. Today after being smeared with poo I realised I just wanted to walk away and cry. Maybe if I asked to change class it would be a little better, but maybe not.
But after all these years my old degree is worthless, I have no skills except in Special Needs/care and I just don't want to do that any more.
Do I just go? Hope that I can find something else? WHAT else can I do? I've always been reasonably pragmatic and upbeat but now I dread every day at work.

When on Day 3 - I was like "this is a pointless job, a shabby organisation, and the smug clique between the 3 most senior people is toxic"

Later I was in physical AGONY with a broken bone sustained on annual leave but emotionally I was fucking thrilled because my sick note took me past the end of my contract.

Around here a lot of supermarkets are looking but wether these are long term i don't know
Maybe just have a look in jobs in your area and see if anything interests you , then look at transferable skills
I mean you would have good people skills, used to working on your own or part of a team etc and many many more
Do you have computer experience ?

I knew time to leave when i dreaded going in and when i was there found it hard to concentrate and get on with things as i just had no enthusiasm and nothing was changing despite lots of promises

Hi- i was in exactly the same position as you two years ago- working in special needs school, very challenging behaviour. Coming home drained and exhausted every day. The turning point for me was driving to school one morning, thinking i would love to crash my car so i could be off work 😳. My mental health suffered badly, i was anxious about the day ahead every evening before i slept, and every morning on the way in. In the end i had to go off sick, and i never went back!!! I am now a supprt worker for adults with learning disability supporting them in their home- i absolutley liove my job and dont consider it to be a job because it is so rewarding - no one swears, punches me, pulls my hair, throws furniture at me, phlemgs in my face!!!!!!! Go for it

I am utterly broken by my job just now. I can’t live under this level of stress any more. I worked so hard to get here and I feel like an utter failure but I’m tired of walking around feeling jealous of people who don’t have the weight of my job on their shoulders.

So I am job hunting but my confidence is in the gutter. It’s like I’m too scared to take a leap and just leave. It’s like Stockholm syndrome.

I knew I needed to leave a job when I found a lump under my arm and felt excited that it might be serious and I would have to take time off from work. (Lump turned out to be nothing and I left job later that year)

I'm kind of in the same boat as you in the sense that I only feel qualified/able to do this particular job. But as others have said, there are many transferable skills you have which may be applicable in other roles. Maybe try to find a policy based role in an organisation that supports SN needs children?

In the split second between careering off the road and crashing into a ditch, when I thought, “l'm going to die... at lest I won't have to go to work.”

So sorry for the way some of you have felt. I am actually gasping out loud at some of the stories. I left a job of only a few weeks many years ago. I knew it was a mistake from the start when the supervisor and another member of staff wouldn't speak to me when I asked them questions. They would look the other way. The other staff were so embarrassed and did their best to help me. I just rang up one morning and said I wasn't coming back. I lived on my own and had no other income. I went to the job centre that day and saw an ad for a job. Rang up and got an interview that afternoon. And right from the start they were fantastic. They were the friendliest bunch of people. I stayed there 9 years, met my DH through his sister who I worked with and only left to have my DC.