• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The College Investor

Student Loans, Investing, Building Wealth

  • About
  • Podcast
  • Research
  • Contact
  • Save For College
      • How To Start

      • How To Save For College
      • How To Pay For College
      • What Is the Average Cost of College?
      • What Is A 529 Plan and Where to Open One in Your State
      • How Much Should You Have In A 529 Plan By Age
      • How To Use A 529 Plan For Private Elementary And High School
      • What Are Qualified Expenses For A 529 Plan (And What Doesn’t Count)?
      • The Best Brokers To Open A 529 Plan
      • Tools + Accounts

      • 529 Plans: The Ultimate College Savings Plan
      • 529 Plan Contribution Limits
      • Prepaid Tuition Plans | What To Know
      • Understanding And Using 529A ABLE Accounts
      • Using A Roth IRA To Save And Pay For College
      • FAFSA Deadlines for Financial Aid
      • CollegeBacker Review
      • Upromise Review
      • UNest Review
      • Other Options

      • Student Loan And Financial Aid Programs By State
      • The Guide To Military And VA Education Benefits
      • How To Fill Out The FAFSA
      • How To Find College Scholarships
      • The Best College Scholarship Search Websites
      • How To Find Grants To Pay For College
      • Pell Grants: What They Are And How To Qualify
      • Understanding Federal Work-Study
      • How To Use A 529 Plan If Your Child Doesn’t Go To College
  • Student Loans
      • Borrowing

        • How Student Loans Work
        • How To Apply For A Student Loan
        • Best Student Loans And Rates In January 2023
        • 10 Best Private Student Loans Of January 2023
        • Best Student Loans To Pay For Graduate School
        • Best Student Loans To Pay For Medical School
        • Parent Loans To Pay For College
        • No-Cosigner Student Loan Options
        • Guide To Income Sharing Agreements (ISAs)
        • Best International Student Loans
      • Get Out Of Debt

        • Best Student Loan Refinance Companies In January 2023
        • Best Student Loan Repayment Plans
        • Best Student Loan Refinancing Bonuses And Promotional Offers Of January 2023
        • Student Loan Forgiveness Programs (The Complete List)
        • The Full List Of Student Loan Forgiveness Programs By State
        • Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
        • Top Student Loan Scams
        • Average Student Loan Monthly Payment
        • Average Student Loan Debt By Year
      • Reviews

        • Credible Review
        • Splash Review
        • Ascent Review
        • Citizens Bank Review
        • Commonbond Review
        • Earnest Review
        • ELFI Review
        • Laurel Road Review
        • LendKey Review
        • SoFi Review
  • Investing
      • How To Start

        • How To Start Investing in High School
        • How To Start Investing In College
        • How To Start Investing In Your Twenties For 22 – 29 Year Olds
        • How To Start Investing In Your 30s For 30 – 39 Year Olds
        • How To Start Investing With $100 Or Less
        • How To Give Kids The Gift Of Stock
        • What Is Dividend Growth Investing
        • IRA Rollover Chart
      • Tools + Accounts

        • Best Online Stock Brokers
        • The Best Traditional And Roth IRA Accounts
        • The Best Robo-Advisors
        • The Best Investing Apps
        • The Best Places to Trade Options
        • The Best Places To Open A Health Savings Account
        • The Best Solo 401k Providers
        • The Best Self-Directed IRA Providers Of 2023
        • Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges
      • Reviews

        • Vanguard Review
        • Fidelity Review 2023
        • M1 Finance Review
        • TD Ameritrade Review 2023
        • Charles Schwab Review
        • Robinhood Review
        • Webull Review
        • Betterment Review 2023
        • Wealthfront Review
  • Earn More Money
      • Extra Income

        • 20 Best Side Hustles You Can Start Earning With In 2023
        • 53 Side Hustle Ideas To Make Money Fast
        • 100 Ways To Make Money In College
        • 80 Ways To Make Money From Home In 2023
        • 5 Quick Money Making Ideas (That Take Less Than 1 Hour)
        • 10 Interesting Ways You Can Make Money Driving
        • High-Paying Side Gigs That Earn $1,000 or More Per Month
        • The 10 Best Money-Making Apps
        • Paid Surveys: Earn Money For Giving Your Opinion Online
        • 10 Crazy Ways To Make $10,000 You’ve Never Heard Of
      • Build Wealth

        • 40 Passive Income Ideas You Can Use To Build Wealth In 2023
        • 3 Ways To Make $50,000 Per Year Without Working With Passive Income
        • How To Become A Real Estate Investor With Just $500
        • 15 Best Online Business Ideas
        • Residual Income: 7 Super Smart Ways to Build It
        • The Most Common Multiple Income Streams
        • How To Become A Real Estate Mogul With Only $10,000
      • Reviews

        • Fundrise Review
        • RealtyMogul Review
        • FarmTogether Review
        • AcreTrader Review
        • Swagbucks Review
        • Survey Junkie Review
        • TopCashback Review
        • DoorDash Review
  • Personal Finance
      • Banking

        • 10 Best High Yield Savings Accounts Of January 2023
        • 10 Best Money Market Accounts Of January 2023
        • 10 Best Free Checking Accounts In January 2023
        • Best Bank CD Rates Of January 2023
        • 10 Best Business Checking Accounts In February 2023
        • Best Online Banks Of January 2023
        • Best Credit Unions Nationwide Of January 2023
        • Best College Student Checking Accounts Of January 2023
      • Insurance

        • Best Life Insurance Companies
        • Renters Insurance
        • Car Insurance
        • Pet Insurance
        • Umbrella Insurance
        • Disability Insurance
        • Tuition Insurance
        • Travel Insurance
      • Credit Tools

        • Best Budgeting Apps
        • Cash Advance Apps
        • How To Get A Free Credit Score Report
        • Best Credit Monitoring Services For 2023
        • Debt Settlement: Inside The Secret World
        • Credit Repair Explained: Should You Pay For Help?
        • Best Personal Loan Companies And Lenders
        • Online Loan Companies To Borrow From Home
      • Tax

        • Best Tax Software
        • Free Tax Software
        • IRS Tax Refund Calendar
        • Common IRS Questions and Errors
        • Federal Tax Brackets
        • Capital Gains Tax Brackets
        • 401k Contribution Limits
        • IRA Contribution Limits
        • HSA Contribution Limits
  • Forum
  • Search
Home » Earn » Employment and Education » Why You Really Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Quit a Job You Hate

Why You Really Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Quit a Job You Hate

Updated: October 8, 2022 By Robert Farrington

Tweet
Share29
Share
Pin50
Email
Print

At The College Investor, we want to help you navigate your finances. To do this, many or all of the products featured here may be from our partners. This doesn’t influence our evaluations or reviews. Our opinions are our own. Any investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. The College Investor does not offer investment advisor or brokerage services, nor does it recommend buying or selling particular stocks, securities, or other investments. Learn more here.Advertiser Disclosure

There are thousands of financial products and services out there, and we believe in helping you understand which is best for you, how it works, and will it actually help you achieve your financial goals. We're proud of our content and guidance, and the information we provide is objective, independent, and free.

But we do have to make money to pay our team and keep this website running! Our partners compensate us. TheCollegeInvestor.com has an advertising relationship with some or all of the offers included on this page, which may impact how, where, and in what order products and services may appear. The College Investor does not include all companies or offers available in the marketplace. And our partners can never pay us to guarantee favorable reviews (or even pay for a review of their product to begin with).

For more information and a complete list of our advertising partners, please check out our full Advertising Disclosure. TheCollegeInvestor.com strives to keep its information accurate and up to date. The information in our reviews could be different from what you find when visiting a financial institution, service provider or a specific product's website. All products and services are presented without warranty.

quit a job you hate

You worked your head off to get great grades in college. You graduated with honors. You invested thousands of dollars in your education because everyone said it would be worth it in the end. And finally, you landed your dream job.

Just one problem. You hate said dream job and you want to get out.

But you feel like you can’t because you have invested time, money, and sweat to get to this point and quitting feels like you are throwing everything in the trash.

You still have financial responsibilities (enter student loans).

As a person (we value consistency in ourselves and others), you might be afraid that people will call you “lazy” if you up and quit your job.

And to top it off, you know that at next Thanksgiving dinner, a family member is going to say: “You’re lucky to have a job. There are a lot of jobless folks who would happily trade places with you.”

Quitting a job you hate is difficult no matter how you slice it.

Table of Contents
Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid to Quit a Job You Hate
1. Your Mental Health Is Important
2. Your Physical Health Is Important
3. If You Truly Hate Your Job, It Will Affect Your Productivity
4. Your Relationships Can Suffer If You Don't Quit
5. The Longer You Stay at a Job You Hate, the More You Are Robbing Yourself of Time
So What Should You Do?
Admit That You Are Not the Same Person You Were When You Started on This Path
Take a Personality Test
Self-Assess
Do Informational Interviews
Come Up with an Exit Strategy (that Includes a Financial Strategy)
Closing Thoughts

Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid to Quit a Job You Hate

1. Your Mental Health Is Important

Believe it or not, your mental health is more important than your paycheck.

In preparing this post, a young lady shared her experience of driving to work, parking in the parking lot, and then crying her eyes out for an hour. She had spent years on her undergrad and grad school education and had a job many would envy. But she had never loved it and now she was having a nervous breakdown in the parking lot.

If you hate your job to the point where you literally cannot stand being there for even one second of the day, it is time to quit.

2. Your Physical Health Is Important

Your physical health is very much connected to your mental health.

When your mental health begins to affect your physical health, you can develop what is known as a psychosomatic disorder.

Psoriasis, eczema, high blood pressure, and stomach ulcers are all thought to be conditions that are made worse when there is stress in a person’s life.

I would argue that staying physically healthy is better than running yourself into the health issues just because you are choosing to remain at a job you hate.

3. If You Truly Hate Your Job, It Will Affect Your Productivity

A lot of us try to hide the fact that we hate our jobs by trying harder. Perhaps you’re even putting in extra hours just to prove to yourself that you don’t hate the job.

The charade may work for a while but none of us can act forever. Eventually, your disdain for the job will show up in projects that are not completed properly or that are turned in late . . . or poorly delivered presentations.

A decrease in your productivity does not serve you nor your employer.

4. Your Relationships Can Suffer If You Don't Quit

Stress will affect your relationships with spouses, children, family, and friends. You cannot buy good relationships with money.

A job should not cost you all of that.

5. The Longer You Stay at a Job You Hate, the More You Are Robbing Yourself of Time

Time is a limited commodity.

Each of us gets 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 365 days in a year.

The longer you stay at a job you hate, the more time you are wasting when you could have been discovering what it is you really want to do in life.

So What Should You Do?

Admit That You Are Not the Same Person You Were When You Started on This Path

Change is difficult for everyone. So, I reckon that admitting to yourself that your job no longer excites you is difficult. However, this is always the first step on the journey to becoming free and pursuing the life you want to go after.

Take a Personality Test

If it has been years since you took a personality test, it might be time to take one.

A test like the Myers-Briggs or StrengthsFinder 2.0 is based on psychological research and can be useful in helping you predict what your innate strengths and tendencies are.

Our personalities generally dictate our strengths and weaknesses and can suggest careers that are not a great fit and others that will be.

Self-Assess

You might not want to answer a bunch of questions to figure out what your strengths are. In that case, you can self-assess.

Take an inventory of skills you have and activities you do that excite you. Are you happy when you’re talking people through a problem? Do you enjoy working with children? Does writing come to you easily? What are the things you would do if nobody ever paid you?

Self-assessment and taking personality tests put you on the path to discovering or rediscovering your passions so you can begin to pursue those.

Do Informational Interviews

Now that you have self-assessed, what careers have come up for you? This is the point where you begin to look at your network and find people who are already in those professions.

You can set up informational interviews with these people to find out more about what a day looks like in their job. You could even shadow them a few hours per week to see if that is something you would like to do for the next few years.

Come Up with an Exit Strategy (that Includes a Financial Strategy)

It is time to leave.

It would not be prudent to jump ship without any financial security. The bills still need to be paid.

So perhaps you can start a side hustle and intern for a lower salary at a job you want to try out? Or perhaps you can downgrade to part-time at your current job while you build up a new source of income as an entrepreneur? Will you need to go from living in an apartment by yourself to having a roommate in the interim?

There is no right or wrong answer here. This part of the process is entirely up to you.

My only advice is that you have a plan to survive financially once you leave the job you hate.

Closing Thoughts

You shouldn’t be afraid to quit a job you hate. It is not good for your physical and mental health. And honestly, life is too short to live it stuck in a job you care nothing for.

Your thoughts are welcome in the comments.

Robert Farrington
Robert Farrington

Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him on the About Page, or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.

He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared towards anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.

He has been quoted in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.

Why You Really Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Quit a Job You Hate

Editor: John Frainee

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, or other advertiser and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Comment Policy: We invite readers to respond with questions or comments. Comments may be held for moderation and are subject to approval. Comments are solely the opinions of their authors'. The responses in the comments below are not provided or commissioned by any advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any company. It is not anyone's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Subscribe
Connect with
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of

I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree

6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Primary Sidebar

Robert Farrington will teach you how to get out of student loan debt and how to start investing.

Hi! My Name is

America's Millennial Money Expert

Welcome to The College Investor. We're here to help you escape student loan debt so you can start investing and building wealth for the future

Our expert guides, reviews, and more are designed to help you achieve your financial goals.

Want to learn more? See what's in my wallet.

As Featured In

Social Media

Popular Posts

Side Hustling

53 Side Hustle Ideas To Make Money Fast

Best Side Hustles

20 Best Side Hustles You Can Start Earning With In 2023

Crazy Ways To Make $10,000

10 Crazy Ways To Make $10,000 You’ve Never Heard Of

Make $50,000 Per Year

3 Ways To Make $50,000 Per Year Without Working With Passive Income

Student Loan Scams

Top Student Loan Scams

Net Worth of Millennials

Average Net Worth Of Millennials By Age

Ways To Get Student Loan Forgiveness

Student Loan Forgiveness Programs (The Complete List)

529 Plan By Age

How Much Should You Have In A 529 Plan By Age

Passive Income Ideas

40 Passive Income Ideas You Can Use To Build Wealth In 2023

Make Money From Home

80 Ways To Make Money From Home In 2023

Ultimate Guides

529 Plan Guide

529 Plans: The Ultimate Guide To College Savings Plans

Student Loans and Financial Aid By State

Student Loan And Financial Aid Programs By State

Student Loan Advice

The Definitive Guide To Student Loan Debt

Student Loan Forgiveness By State

The Full List Of Student Loan Forgiveness Programs By State

newretirement

How to Start Saving Now: The College Graduate’s Guide to Saving for Retirement

Latest Research

How much to file taxes

Tax Survey: How Much People Paid To File And The No.1 Tax Software They Used

Inflation survey

Side-Hustles To The Rescue: Survey Shows 86% Stressed About Money & Inflation

students choose to work survey

75% Of Students Would Still Choose To Work Even If They Didn’t Have To

Institutional Merit Grants

Who Gets Institutional Merit Grants At Private Colleges?

Resume Student Loan Payments

Survey: Even With Higher Expenses, Most Student Loan Borrowers Are Ready To Resume Payments

Footer

Who We Are

The College Investor is an independent, advertising-supported financial media publisher, focusing on news, product reviews, and comparisons.

Connect

  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Press & Media

About

  • About
  • Our Team
  • Podcast
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • How We Make Money
  • Archives

Social

Copyright © 2023 · The College Investor · Privacy Policy ·Terms of Service · DO NOT Sell My Personal Information

wpDiscuz