To leave a well paid job

[YellowSea]

I've name changed as the following is very identifying.

When DC was born I started a business. I made £100k/year. It's pretty flexible. It has paid for loads of good things for us: bigger house deposit, a master's qualification for me, nice holidays, nice activities for kids. I was working from home but I was working evenings, weekends etc.

I applied for a job advertised in an industry I wanted to get into. It's £70k but no evening or weekend work. I also have to go into the office a few times a week. The job is interesting but not at the top of my skills. I also got some money from the sale of my business.

I am hating the 9 to 5! It's a real culture shock.

I have 2 options: stick it for 1 year for the experience, or leave straight away.

Can anyone help me make the right decision?

What would you be leaving to do, get another job or go back to self employment?

If I leave the job, I am not going to another job. I cannot cope with 9 to 5. I will go back to self employment.

Nice problem to have right enough

Can you find a compromise with self employment? Perhaps not earn as much as you did before but get a better work life balance so you're not working into the evenings? A bit of everything then? (Not sure how feasible that is!)

What are you planning to do if you quit? Depending on the industry you are in, finding a non-9-5 might be difficult. Are you planning on working for yourself again? Would the 1 year experience help you in any way towards that? If not, you'll just be spending one year just to be better prepared for another 9-5 job.

I had a lot of pressure to earn previously as we were putting together the house deposit. If I do self employment, I will work less hours.

Is it really bad to leave a job I just started though?

OK. Are you sure you hate it - or is it just the change?

How long have you been in the job? I always get the heeby jeebies about 1-2 months in.

Can you stick it out another 1-2 months just so you're sure you hate it?

I don't know why this is a dilemma. You hate the job and don't need a reference for another one, so why would you stay? How valuable is a year of experience going to be?

It takes time to settle into any new job. It's also a different mindset working for yourself vs working for a company, and I imagine if you've been self employed for a while, then it would feel very strange to not have that autonomy anymore. But then like you said, nice to have the work life balance of no evenings and weekends.

Make a pros and cons list. Sleep on it.

What do you actually hate about the job?

I would love to know what you were doing self employed

Life is short do whichever will make you happiest.

Give it six months
Plan nice things in evening and weekends

Leave now. It’s only bad in terms of references and you don’t need those if you’re self employed. If you ever apply for something else just don’t mention it. The longer you stay in the job the harder it will be to leave and the more miserable you will feel- life is too short!

Why did you want to get into this industry rather than do the same sort of thing you did when you were self-employed? It sounds like you wanted the regularity of paid income for your mortgage, but you didn't have to change the industry. What prompted that? Are those reasons still true?

Can you put together a pros and cons list? You don't necessarily need to share it with us, but can you put down some cold hard truths and stare at them?

With anything big and scary (like a massive con), can you consider if you would still feel that way in 6 months' time or if you think you would be open to changing that view?

How long have you been working in this new job?

Leave now and save your business. Chalk it up to experience. Limit how many hours you work, be disciplined.

There's no business now though, the OP sold it.

Well start a new one!

I'm one month in. Thank you for all the replies, lots of good ideas.

I'm very good at my job so they are all full of praise.

I'm finding it very hard to not have the autonomy! And only 5 weeks of holiday. I can't just take the DCs abroad for the whole summer.

I don't want to let anyone down. But I'm really not enjoying it.

I'd say leave now and start a new business with a better balance of hours, if that's possible. I have been so miserable in some jobs that I've literally cried myself to sleep, however I wasn't earning the sort of money you're clearly capable of, and needed to keep going until I had another job to go to. If you have the choice, why put up with being miserable, as another poster said 'life is too short!'

Why did you get a job rather than starting a new business and cutting down hours? Is the issue autonomy within your role or autonomy in terms of holiday? I think if it's just the holiday issue you could talk to them about going part time or taking unpaid leave etc.