Husband hates job but is stuck

[Indecisivelurcher]

Hi mumsnet, I'm after some advice for my husband. He is really hating his job right now. He is a consultant producing reports for developers who want planning permission. He has risen up the ranks and is just below being director level. Last year his boss who he originally took him on was sacked. It was a horrible process that husband was privy to. The new boss is very different. Husband feels nothing he is does is right. His work is constantly criticised. How he handles his staff is questioned. Even his expenses. The new boss is quite erratic in his moods. In addition, as part of the job customers regularly ring shouting, or walk out of meetings in anger because they don't get their planning.

This is really effecting my husbands mental health now. He is not hugely ambitious and really he would prefer a 9-5 job where he can go home and forget about it, or something more positive and working for nicer people, but we've ended up with him being the breadwinner by quite a margin. Obviously life is too short and it's fine for him to leave. The issue is he doesn't know what to do instead. He's trained for this job through uni and on the job and is mid 40's now. He feels stuck.

Any pearls of wisdom?

He should make an appointment with a recruitment agency maybe ?

There is a very similar thread with the OP’s husband being nitpicked and micromanaged out of his current role.

Like previous OP said. Recruitment agency but depends what his expectations are. What’s the minimum he would need to earn? Can you increase your earnings?

Life is too short I agree there will be a solution however hard it is.

Is he a planner? Does he just want a new job or completely retrain as something else? There’s lots of locum work out there atm in local authorities

I am a planner who ended up doing a qualification in project management (only took a week) and just trying to get a general project management job, got two interviews lined up. Definitely a lot of transferable skills between private sector planning and project management.

@ToastonEggs he's not a planner, he does Flood risk / watery things.

@Faketanisapain can you possibly give me some examples of what sorts of projects a project manager would manage?

I’m a little unclear. Is the main issue his current toxic workplace or the actual industry itself?
Would a move to a different company fix at least most of the issues?

Is his old boss still in the industry? A call to him might be a good idea.

I don't think he fully knows himself. Today, he's had enough of the whole industry. But if the situation with the boss wasn't like it is, he may not have come to this feeling.

So surely a sideways switch first would be in order. If that doesn’t make enough of a difference, then he can research other options in the meantime and make the more radical move if needed

Did you mean to ask @ToastonEggs this question. I didn't mention project management. However, the project managers I know work in procurement and commissioning charging £500 a day but that is after years of experience in the public service.

The two jobs I’ve got interviews for are both in the transformational team of government organisations. I won’t know what the projects are until I start but I’ve been told from office move, refurb, new IT system, whatever’s needed when the organisation wants to do any new project