Would you leave a job for your mental health?

[fugginhell]

I'm tired of being put in to positions I don't want to be in I feel pressured to say yes I can't cope with it all. I work for the NHS so majority of the problems are due to understaffing and our terrible manager.

I feel like telling her I'm not coming back tomorrow but then I don't want a bad reference I just can't put myself through another day off it.

Yes I left the nhs after 19 years last year and went self employed. Was the best decision I ever made and wished I had done it sooner. My mental health was shot to pieces after years of working in a toxic organisation. I went through all the guilt feelings of leaving my lovely colleagues and it took me a good 6 months to feel my anxiety lessening. I felt Institutionalised. Good luck for your Interview. I think if you are questioning whether you should leave you probably should. Your mental health should be your top priority which I think is sometimes hard to see when you work in a caring profession and are so used to giving to others all the time.

Also left an NHS job. Self employed and so much happier, everyone comments on it. Used to spend my life crying and working online until late at night.

Just to add - you can request references from HR rather than a bad manager.

Also, don't know if it was just my dodgy Trust but maybe check your notice period. Mine was two months and I had no idea.

Yes I would. Life is too short. But yes, like a previous poster has said, check your notice period. I have been in my job for so long I now have a 3 month notice period! You could always go off sick though and get a sick note to cover your notice period.

I am a Primary teacher and have been off with stress and depression since the end of May. I have been teaching for over 30 years (20 in my current school) but the new Head made my life unbearable. I'm fortunate in that I can take my teacher's pension next year. I resigned at half term as I just couldn't take any more and had begun having dark thoughts.

Yes. I did. I was signed off at my doctors insistence and looked for another job once I was feeling strong enough
That was 7 years ago and I still have nightmares and periods of anxiety due to that job (manager) God knows what state I'd be in if I'd stayed.

Thanks everyone I've not been there long but I feel strung out already and have seen a nasty side to my manager most recently. A lot of the ladies have mentioned how they groomed her when they first started then she turned nasty on them.

I just don't want to be a part of it she's not even letting me have my day of Friday and already Rotated me in without asking me.

She "groomed" them sorry

100% yes.

I did. I earn a lot less because I changed industries and went down the ladder so I could be happy. I'm not flying round the world and managing 100 people anymore - I'm not even a manager. But I'm like a different person. I'm so happy and relaxed. Totally worth it.

I left work last year in a top position after 13 years as my ocd was being to spiral
And it was effecting the time
In was spending at home
With my son as I just felt
Anxious all the time. Been stay at
Home mum and don’t regret it. Finally putting self first and that’s making such a difference and I think I will be able to get back to another job soon. No point making self even sicker over a job that they would advertise out the moment you hand in notice

I did it. I got signed off for 7 weeks and in that time realised it wasn’t worth the detriment to my mental health. I handed my notice in on my first day back. I’d been there nearly 10 years

It was so scary but also a huge weight off my shoulders and 10 years on I’m a different person health wise

@fugginhell

God I'm so tempted but then I'm thinking about how I will leave them even more under staffed and the rest of the team under more pressure. It's making me ill OH thinks it's all my fault because I always agree to everything. But it's hard you feel like you can't say no.

I have an interview tomorrow so I am leaving but I just want to go back at all.

That isn’t your problem; your colleagues have to make their own decisions, and it’s not your responsibility to stay just to keep staffing levels higher. I was eventually medically retired from the NHS because of my mental health. Don’t let that happen to you, you need to protect yourself and act in your own best interests.

I didn’t, I stuck it out for several years with a couple of stress absences and a lot of crying in the office.

Eventually got the long-foreshadowed redundancy and have been happily retired for some time now. Long enough to say yes, it was worth all the struggle.

I did. Best thing I ever did. It was making me ill. Still remember the sudden feeling of lightness when I handed in my notice and it was almost ten years ago!

I knew this would be NHS. I've worked in a covid facing role right through lockdown and held the hands of dying people. Just recently I started to have panic attacks/palpitations and being unable to sleep.
Rang the GP and was given a telephone appt in 2 weeks time. My DS rang re an ingrowing toenail and was seen face to face the same day.
That's how much the NHS values its staff.
We have a glossy little card with helplines on, I rang them first and was advised to ring my GP.
They will have no staff left soon.

I did recently Not NHS but public sector. I had a moths wage saved up. It has been utterly blissful feeling like a human again.

Month's! I don't know how much moths earn probably more than I did in that awful job though

I left my first job after graduating from college due to incessant bullying and best decision I could've made.

I left a previous job for my mental health. I was bullied out, and took a few months off sick first.
I managed to take them to tribunal (and they settled out of ‘court’ before the actual hearing). It did mean that I completely lost my confidence though, and ended up taking a year out, and a sideways move, when I got another job.
However, I don’t regret it. I reckon I’d have ended up dead if I’d stayed.

I left the NHS before my mental health imploded. I came so close, as did many of my colleagues, to a nervous breakdown. I'll never ever go back into nursing.

I could rant all day about problems with the NHS, but in essence: heavy middle management with no fucking clue on how to manage wards and medical teams, and corporate management who think sending generic 'thank you' post cards and smiley face stickers is a good substitution for meaningful mental health support.

I did. I'm the only me I've got, and I don't want to ruin her.

I have done.. twice. Both NHS.

@kowari

If you can not cope then get signed off for a couple of weeks and use the time to look for something else.

This. You sound really stressed.

Oh yes, I was bullied for the five years I was at my workplace and got pissed one night and sent the bullies an email telling them exactly what I thought of them. Talk about the fear the next day nothing like that before or since BUT it was the best decision I ever made five years on.

It depends. Your health is very important, and bot worth destroying for the sake of work. But how would you cope financially if you quit without another job lined up. Would it impact on others around you? First example a partner who would have to support you while you took time out or looked for other work?
Could you find a way to reduce your hours or responsibilities instead?