Job issue

[jewel123]

Hello. I highly dislike my job, to the point of hating it. I work in conservation (leadership position) and I am absolutely exhausted. On one hand, I understand that I directly work for the benefit of animals and human communities, but I don’t feel comfortable and happy with this work and the responsibility is just too much for me. Should I accept it as me repaying my karmic debts or pursue something less demanding where I can be a bit more content? I am thinking of quitting. Any input will be valuable for me. Thank you very much.

[Hazel]

Karma is going to come to fruition no matter what you do. What you have control over is what new karma you create.

If your job is burning you out and is causing you to act negatively (e.g. being short tempered, or other poor decisions) or affecting your meditation practice, then it's maybe time to look for a new job.

This is ultimately a secular question though.

[SilenceMonkey]

Maybe meditation practices could help dissolve some of your stress and help you reconnect with your heart and what you find truly meaningful.

[Malcolm]

Hello. I highly dislike my job, to the point of hating it. I work in conservation (leadership position) and I am absolutely exhausted. On one hand, I understand that I directly work for the benefit of animals and human communities, but I don’t feel comfortable and happy with this work and the responsibility is just too much for me. Should I accept it as me repaying my karmic debts or pursue something less demanding where I can be a bit more content? I am thinking of quitting. Any input will be valuable for me. Thank you very much.

You have to work with circumstances. If you cannot handle the burden imposed by your position, you should think of finding another line of work.

[jewel123]

Thank you very much to all. To be honest, my vision of a happy life is being a married laywoman practitioner. I am afraid that if I turn my back on this current job it will offend a lot of people, yet I simply can't do it anymore.

[Johnny Dangerous]

Hello. I highly dislike my job, to the point of hating it. I work in conservation (leadership position) and I am absolutely exhausted. On one hand, I understand that I directly work for the benefit of animals and human communities, but I don’t feel comfortable and happy with this work and the responsibility is just too much for me. Should I accept it as me repaying my karmic debts or pursue something less demanding where I can be a bit more content? I am thinking of quitting. Any input will be valuable for me. Thank you very much.

When you work at a job with specific types of trauma or stress, you need an actual plan for taking care of yourself. it's just as if you worked doing hard manual labor, if you come home after a hard day, you never stretch nor pay attention to your aches and pains, eventually it gets to be too much for anyone, because it is trying work.

Examples of things included in such a plan would be what you do when you get home to decompress and create a boundary between work and home, whatever you do to work with any obsessive thinking about your job, learning ways to manage interpersonal conflict around work, etc.

I would say if you have never actually created such a plan, do so and see if it helps. if it doesn't, and it is not bearable to be there, then you kind of have your answer.

[Hazel]

Thank you very much to all. To be honest, my vision of a happy life is being a married laywoman practitioner. I am afraid that if I turn my back on this current job it will offend a lot of people, yet I simply can't do it anymore.

What's wrong with offending people? If you can't do it anymore, then you can't do it anymore. The decisions been made, congratulations :-p.

The age old advice is that the best time to look for a new job is while you still have one. There's no harm in seeing what your options are and shopping around.

Also, prolonged stress has a similar effect as trauma does on a person's physical health and overall wellbeing.

[Hazel]

Hello. I highly dislike my job, to the point of hating it. I work in conservation (leadership position) and I am absolutely exhausted. On one hand, I understand that I directly work for the benefit of animals and human communities, but I don’t feel comfortable and happy with this work and the responsibility is just too much for me. Should I accept it as me repaying my karmic debts or pursue something less demanding where I can be a bit more content? I am thinking of quitting. Any input will be valuable for me. Thank you very much.

When you work at a job with specific types of trauma or stress, you need an actual plan for taking care of yourself. it's just as if you worked doing hard manual labor, if you come home after a hard day, you never stretch nor pay attention to your aches and pains, eventually it gets to be too much for anyone, because it is trying work.

Examples of things included in such a plan would be what you do when you get home to decompress and create a boundary between work and home, whatever you do to work with any obsessive thinking about your job, learning ways to manage interpersonal conflict around work, etc.

I would say if you have never actually created such a plan, do so and see if it helps. if it doesn't, and it is not bearable to be there, then you kind of have your answer.

I never think of the "try to make it work" option, so I'm glad you're here :-p. That said, while trying to make it work, it doesn't hurt seeing what your job options are.

[Johnny Dangerous]

Another thing here, I don't know your age or prior work experience OP but in my opinion:

Most jobs suck, in one way or another.

It's almost always a risk vs. reward thing leaving one. One thing I learned is that if possible it pays to do your homework in terms of new jobs to look for. Actually contemplate how the new job will be different to what you have now, the ways that it might be similar, and how it will effect you on a day to day basis vs. how this job affects you. I found that sometimes what I thought was the job was partially my own stuff, and of course it followed me to any job I had, until I learned to deal with it a bit. YMMV.

I will say though, IME both as an individual who has worked a bunch of places and as someone who has done some counseling, my experience has been that by and large most people are not happy at their jobs. The people who seem the happiest are those who can let work go as much as possible once they are done.

[KristenM]

I recently changed jobs from a highly stressful job that I stuck with for all sorts of excuses, including guilt (think of the children, the community etc), pride (don’t be a quitter!) despite often being miserable. I did a planned exit. I realized what I really was actually interested in as a job and then did it, tbh should have done that years ago.

There was a really bad translation of the Dhammapada that inspired me, despite being wrong. It said, “Don’t take on another man’s work, however great his need. Your job is to discover your own work and pursue it with all your heart.”

[Dorje Shedrub]

What makes the job unbearable?