Bad jobs worse for your wellbeing than jobless

[el1504]

A recent Australian study that was published in the professional journal, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that the unemployed have poorer mental health than the employed, but those with poor or unhappy work environments had worse health than the unemployed.

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201104/bad-job-may-be-worse-your-wellbeing-being-jobless

Interesting. I've always had the attitude that any job is better than none (hense I have worked some crummy jobs when I have needed to) and thats its easier to get a new job when you already have one... therefore go out and get any job you can. Maybe that attitude doesn't work for everyone?

[resolution]

I have worked at one toxic job where the manager's form of entertainment was to play mind games with her employees. It was just awful and I could see how it would affect everyone's mental state worse than unemployment. However it did help financially much better than unemployment would have.

I read through the article to see what they considered disengaged and couldn't find the definition they were using. I did find it interesting that they ranked getting into debt beyond the ability to pay as being more stressful than a period of homelessness or divorce.

[Apple]

My old babysitter said that her and her husband made an agreement when they got married, they would never make the other hold a really bad job that affected them negatively, and they didn't have to have the other one, um, "awake" (that topic is more EE I think )

He had a job as the maintenance guy at a school, but when they combined districts he lost it. He then went to work for a bottling company that paid really well, but the management was horrible and he was miserable. He got to quit and spend a few weeks looking for a better job. In the end, he went to work for a hardware store. The money wasn't near as good but he was happier.

In my case, I'm really hating my job and it has had a negative impact on my health in the past, but being a single mom with no one else to pay my bills, I'd be in a much worse situation if I was unemployed. I make good money for my area and there isn't just another job I could go to.

[cronewitch]

I had a job with my ex husband when we were married. The third day we both quit at lunch time. We were in the car for lunch talking and he said he wasn't going back and I agreed so we both quit.

The job was an egg packing plant and my job was to stand at a converor belt with open cartons of eggs coming at me. I had to close the lids and put them in cases with both hands, the work was non stop except when they shut it down for breaks and lunch. My back was killing me standing on one spot working all day, there wasn't even time to stretch, it paid minimum wage and was the only jobs in town so we left town. I would rather be unemployed and homeless than work there.

[midjd]

Jun 19, 2011 13:59:49 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

I had a job with my ex husband when we were married. The third day we both quit at lunch time. We were in the car for lunch talking and he said he wasn't going back and I agreed so we both quit.

The job was an egg packing plant and my job was to stand at a converor belt with open cartons of eggs coming at me. I had to close the lids and put them in cases with both hands, the work was non stop except when they shut it down for breaks and lunch. My back was killing me standing on one spot working all day, there wasn't even time to stretch, it paid minimum wage and was the only jobs in town so we left town. I would rather be unemployed and homeless than work there.

That's how I felt about my factory job. DH and I both worked at an auto parts plant before moving to NY. We walked out during a break, about a week before the date we'd given as our last day. The funny thing is, we were at the gas station later that evening and ran into our immediate supervisor - who apparently didn't notice we never finished out the last 2 hours of work.

[Cookies Galore]

I had left a decent job with a university to go work for a friend's company and it was the worst job I have ever held, much worse than the restaurant I quit because the owner went back to Italy because he owed his bookie a lot money. I was there when the bookie paid him a warning visit.
Anyway, this job affecting me severely. I vomited every morning before leaving for work and sometimes in the office. My stomach always hurt, I had a constant headache, I cried all the time, and was miserable. When I got laid off after four months it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I found it easier to find a job (my current job, which I love) when I didn't have a job, mainly because I didn't have to make up an excuse to leave the office.

[zibazinski]

The last 3 years of teaching I had a toxic dept head and a toxic principal. My co-workers were trying to stay under the radar as both were married and having affairs and one of them was dodging bill collectors. Not fun work environment. Add in parents like AA's and you have a recipe for sleeping pills and anti-depressants.

[Deleted]

"In my case, I'm really hating my job and it has had a negative impact on my health in the past, but being a single mom with no one else to pay my bills, I'd be in a much worse situation if I was unemployed. I make good money for my area and there isn't just another job I could go to. "

That's me too, except I only make 'decent' money, and I don't have a skill, like I believe apple does.

I finally figured out that if I wasn't going to leave the job, I'd better work on my attitude towards it. The job isn't my life, it's how I fund my life. I show up, do my job (which doesn't include taking responsibility for what other people do or don't do), ignore the bs as much as I can, and call it a day. I still don't like it, but I'm not as miserable about it as I have been before.

[Apple]

Pink--I'm working on that (the attitude). It's been worse than it is now, and I've learned to put up with a lot, but it's getting hard again. I'm trying to transfer to another location (there are two that I could work at without moving--they're actually closer to home than this one) but so far that's not happening. I love the work (most of the time, just starting to hate the job again) and several of my coworkers, but the bosses are a nightmare and there are one or two coworkers who just scare the crap out of me. They are dangerous and are going to kill someone, I'm determined to make sure that "someone" is not me. My current foreman is a nice guy, but a horrible foreman. He's only supposed to be in the job for a year (he doesn't hold the position permanently) and my hope was that I could possibly move into that position--I don't have any desire to be any kind of boss, but I know the job better than he does and I have excellent working relationships with the other crews (which is important, to me, as it helps everything run more smoothly). However, I found out that they may just extend him until he retires. He was supposed to retire this summer, but if he thinks he can keep the foreman job he may not retire for a couple years. *sigh* Nobody on the crew wants him as foreman, but he's buddies with the supervisor so I'm sure he won't be going anywhere.