Anyone else stuck in a job they hate now due to Coronavirus

[CloudsCanLookLikeSheep]

I know I'm lucky to have a job before anyone says... and I could still be made redundant further down the line although safe for now.
But the only thing that has been keeping me going in my dysfunctional job with an awful boss has been the thought of moving on to something else soon.

I had decided to really go for it this year and get a better job. I'd had a few interviews and got to final stage on a couple of roles, even had an offer for one but turned it down as it did not feel right.

Now it's looking like my career plans are on hold indefinitely and I have to stay in my rubbish job that I hate with my awful boss that I can't stand for a hell of a lot longer.

I can work from home and as I say, I know I'm very lucky to still have an income compared to others but still it is a blow to know a new job will be a long way off now. And I'm getting on a bit now, 43 years old and really hoped my career would be in a better place by now.

It was hard enough getting a good job before all this, now it just seems like all my ambitions and goals are on hold indefinitely......

I'm disabled too @PinkBuffalo so I totally relate to how much harder it is.

Every job I like the look of, is a lot less money and that's hard too, because I have to wrestle with saving my mental health vs taking a step back in my career.

Its not really the job that's the issue for me, its the people. HR have been zero help and transferring departments hasn't helped either. They do not practice what they preach re: diversity.

I feel physically sick at the thought of going back there.

well I just got told today that they expect me back at work early September. I burst into tears when I got the email. I really do not want to return and I had assumed I would be WFH until the new year at least (which would be the ideal situation). I am now very anxious.

Hi all. I can relate too. Hace been furloughed while shielding and although I like the job, the boss has made me feel awful while off and i am dreading going back. Have a permenant knot in my stomach and have heart palpitations and shake when I get a new message from him.
I am due back in after 1st August and am desperately looking for new job.

nuttymomma sorry you are so worried.
I have opposite problem to everyone else it seems. I need to be at work, wfh does not compute in my brain. I have been going to work the whole time through this. But my organisation is now selling the HQ site so many of us work at and stating remote/smarter working will be the normal. We will either be wfh, or dotted around various stations across the county. I have no idea what is happening or when.i have already had to move desks at work which is devastating for me I cannot cope. I cannot work somewhere else.
Actually i might be coping - I am still going to work. But I am very stressed.

I'm on the cusp of making the decision to quit, I've had enough, because of all the corona, being a lone parent, running two school curriculums (I should have given up on that), wfh and just no one to help out. I got bloody promoted, bloody fucking promoted and my boss demoted and the mess, oh my days, the mess and I've realised I can't do it. There are better more capable peo-men-ple, who want it. Not in the current environment, not with how fucked up the DCs are and no school until next school year. I just plainly can't do it, the amount of stress this has dumped on me is unbelievable

Me. Still got my old job, but took on a new part time job just before lockdown. Hate it her with a passion.
Am job searching again now.

I has decided end of last year this would be the year i seek new work opportunities
Dc starting school and more time for me to commute further away from home where more opportunities and more money available
Like a few pp here the narket was quite good feb march i had a few interviews lined up
Then all pulled.
Now im being more careful and have stopped looking however one organisation
Who have fared very well in covid and are financially very viable are recruiting
And i have had 3 interviews and should hopefully hear today
But if i dont get this job ill be riding out the storm a bit longer

Me too. It was my first day back today and it was awful. I’d been there 6 months before lockdown and off for almost 4. It’s very complicated and I was only just getting to grips with it. Now I’m not quite back to square one, but all the finer detail is escaping me. My anxiety is through the roof, a couple of things went badly and I feel rubbish.

To top it off I have a redundancy meeting mid-week as the company is restructuring. I don’t even want to stay (and I probably won’t get to anyway) but am terrified of being made redundant with no redundancy pay and in such an awful job market. This job pays significantly more than my last one and I’m really going to struggle.

Well I have been made redundant! So no more being stuck in a job that causes me massive stress and anxiety... I have very mixed emotions about it, but we are using the opportunity to sell up and move "home". No idea what I'll do about a career, but for now we're ok. Hope everyone else is doing ok. All these years of stress and now it's over.

Yep! I’m in the same boat here.

Close to the time of lockdown a team member was dismissed and the other then placed on furlough leaving me
to pick up the slack. I have been working from home until long after work hours end just to fit it all in. With a little one in tow.

I work in a department that is responsible for potentially drumming up business so at this point it seems like there is panic and huge demand on my time. People now being made redundant they are asking staff to be “flexible” but the flexibility should work both ways and expectations are not being managed with higher demands and less resources. Everything seems a tad chaotic and disorganized.

It’s a horrible situation to be in and I am sure there is scope for some kind of constructive dismissal here, but who wants to rock the boat when so many people are losing their jobs?!

They are holding focus groups on remote working.

So I have a little bit of hope that I will be able to WFH longer term after all, that would be the ideal solution (until I find something else)

Fingers crossed

I'm currently on part time furlough (2 weeks on 2 weeks off) which is great... kind of the best of both worlds as makes me feel a bit more like they need me or else they'd be doing full furlough. Also I don't have time to get fully back into the stress and politics before I'm off again.. just do as I'm told and collect my monthly pay thank you very much.

Job market is DIRE ! And this was supposed to be my year to make it in my career. Ha! What a joke that turned out to be.

Me too. I'd been looking for a year before lockdown started and I was in a bad enough place that DH was getting a bit worried about me as my confidence has taken a quite significant knock in not having any luck for so long. Same as you, I can imagine being made redundant in the near future and in someways I think it would be a relief. I want to relocate closer to my family before starting to have children but also I was starting to feel stagnant and unnecessary, which didn't help my confidence either. Not being able to leave is piling on to the stagnant feeling, especially as the longer it takes me to find a job, the longer I have to wait to start a family as we won't be able to manage on statutory leave only.
Just all a bit rubbish and I'm getting into bad habits from not being able to motivate myself at work. I feel guilty as well when, as you say others don't have an income at the moment or are being laid off. I should be grateful that I have stability but I just feel stuck, both in terms of career and my family life...
I have had 2 interviews in lockdown though over Skype. Didn't get one but the other was today and I think it went well (though I am concerned that I'd be leaving a permanent job for a fixed term contract if I was successful). So if there's consolation in the fact that some places at least are recruiting still, then I hope it helps that you don't necessarily need to stop looking completely (though obviously your situation may mean that you do for now at least).
I keep thinking of the Avenue Q song: "It sucks to be me" - at least I know the puppets are suffering with me :P

yes there's a lot more 'fixed term' and contract jobs advertised now and far less 'permanent' jobs and I just can't take that risk.

At least I got told today that my return (in September) will be WFH for the forseeable.

Yes, I wouldn't have thought it possible to be 'stuck' in a freelance position but this seems to have happened.

I work for a large online training company. Recent changes in management, prior to the pandemic, meant freelance tutor/assessors were becoming increasingly micromanaged and a series of harsh e-mails made it clear to remaining people that a large number of freelancers were 'let go' because they were not working to expectations.

I had just started offering my services elsewhere when the pandemic hit. Now, it is difficult to find anything else due to steep competition or company closure.

Meanwhile the micromanaging, control, ever changing goalposts and very harsh communication is increasing. I feel the company know the remaining freelancers have few options (many (like me) are carers and have to work primarily from home) and is using them in a way they could not use staff who could follow company grievance procedures or take sick leave with stress.

I am sure my situation is not unique.

Yup I have a shite boss and have accepted I just have to do her bidding for now, put up and shut up.

Before when things got bad I'd mentally cope by applying for other jobs and planning my exit . All on hold now, it's time to suck it up buttercup

Found this thread as I'm exactly in the same boat. This was meant to be the year I moved jobs now that my youngest will start school.

While I'm genuinely grateful to have a job, it's really doing my head in stuck in a rubbish job/company that adds nothing to my CV and having the constant threat of redundancy lurking in the background. My industry suffered before covid and while relatively unscathed, is one of those that will see second/third order effects in the next years.

A good friend/colleague is on long term sick leave so I feel rather lonely at work. The other two have checked out mentally, one is secretly doing a masters on the side and another is preparing to go back to his home country.

Thinking about positioning for a career change but equally no idea what to do being so jaded with corporate life at the ripe old age of 40.

I’m only staying in my job as I’m going on maternity leave. Counting down the weeks and I’m not going back afterwards!

@Fi1982 Sounds like my boss. she kept threatening me with the 'hr route' before lockdown when i made mistakes , and now shejust talks about making it work as she's enjoying palming things off me at home while she does nothing...funny that !

I really need to find a job that offers flexible working but i just don't know where to start. There are so few jobs out there never mind ones that are open to flexibility.

Where do i start? I'm in marketing and have managed teams but i can't take on a full time role with needing childcare. Somebody suggested a Job Share?
Has anyone ever done one?

Was on furlough June and July from my dream job, it was a contract so it wasn't renewed, but got another job on 3rd August. Before I even started it, it didn't feel right. Thought it would be ok as I was home based I was so wrong. The laptop I use is theirs and any problems I have with it and other software is ignored. The job is call centre although homebased. Even though the job isn't retail we are pushed into selling customers health tests they dont need. The hours are long and the pay is less than I was getting before. We have outrageous targets that keep changing. I have lung problems and so at risk of serious complications from covid so glad I am working alone but my team leader is insisting I go into the office for 121s and training, sort of hinting it's part of the job. The job is boring and they use league tables to shame us if we dont hit sale targets. The job pushes me to tears most days before I start and when I finish. And this week I was pushed to giving notice. In some respects I am happy to be leaving but I am terrified in case I can't find a new job the usual household bills never stop and if I am not earning how can I pay my bills.

At 62 I'm pretty much on the scrapheap in the jobs market at the best of times, so with covid19 I have no hope of getting a new job. I was made redundant 18 months ago from a job that had become toxic and took a temporary job in a call centre. I was offered a permanent position at the end of the contract and took it thinking I could move to a different role after a while. Now I'm here though I can see that those opportunities are only offered to younger members of staff. Us oldies are just cannon fodder for the phones. I can't say what we do but a lot of our customer base are just dreadful people who think being abusive, swearing, shouting and name calling will get them a better service. It's so bad that if anyone gets to the end of the day without many abusive calls they remark on it in the team chat. WFH means that my home is no longer my safe place and now I have lost all confidence to apply for something else.

im so glad im not the only one (happy cry)
I loathe my job and my team leader - the job is boring and my team leader is condescending and i just don’t like her at all. Job was made out to be amazing and im basically a PA in a junior managerial role that gets told I do things wrong when iv never been told how to do them properly.
I want to quit really badly but that means that I would lose the little savings I have. Got job interviews coming up and not being hired elsewhere isn’t an option!!
I don’t know if its any help to anyone but the CS has some decent jobs going at the moment – please have a look !

I'm the OP and I've just come back to update that I'm being made redundant!

They basically said that they had seen on furlough they could do without me... they'll put me through a sham selection process but the fact that they put me at risk first on an individual basis and then asked if I wanted to be pooled with colleagues tells me all I need to know.

They'll select the inexperienced lapdog over me as she's the one who says yes blindly to all my managers instructions whereas I have too much experience to do that and will, politely but confidently, question.

Any job is better than no job at the moment and I'm not looking forward to job hunting in this market, but the silver lining is I won't have to work for the silly cow anymore.