Would It Be Ridiculous to Quit My Finance Job Today Without a Backup Plan?

Sometimes you can’t take it anymore! Your boss’s yelling, lying, and constant threats are stressful. You want to leave, but the job market is challenging. Companies are laying people off left and right. People go for months and sometimes years and need help finding a job in their chosen fields. What can you do when working a highly-paid job in the finance industry that makes you feel horrible? Is it a mistake to quit a job where your boss is abusive and demanding without having some backup?

That is the question asked by a forum member on a well-known Internet forum, and they got some insightful answers.

You Do You

One particular answer stated that the stress and the damage to an employee’s mental and physical health aren’t worth it when it reaches a critical point. Another person said their depression and chronic acne cleared up immediately after the company fired them. Many of the people who responded didn’t think this was a bad idea, and they empathized with the questioner and the dire situation in the company where he works.

Keep Applying For Other Jobs

The way to avoid being without a job is to continue to apply for jobs while you are still working. It is more work, but almost every other person in the forum recommended that this person continually look for another job and apply for any position at any company looking for employees to give them options other than staying at their current job.

Quiet Quitting

Quiet quitting is the idea that workers should give a job no more energy than the minimum required. It’s a new concept that emerged from the job market during the pandemic, but quiet quitting is becoming increasingly popular. The common belief for workers is that they should always perform their tasks with abundant energy and 100 percent commitment; however, quiet quitting challenges that faith, especially when workers are laboring in a toxic work environment.

Save Your Money

The user who asked the question did mention that they live beneath their means and have saved up about $25,000 in their bank account. Other people counseled the user to save up as much as possible and make plans for the possibility that they might need to be unemployed for a while and continue to live frugally.

Related Reading: 34 of the Best Frugal Living Tips to Save More Money

Gauge The Risk

One piece of advice that stood out was being willing to gauge what the risk would be if you were to quit and to act accordingly. It makes no sense to leave a job that makes you feel bad to be unemployed and equally unhappy without a position to keep you occupied mentally and with additional financial challenges.

Work A Less Taxing Job

Suppose you feel like you must leave your job to stay mentally healthy immediately. In that case, one stopgap solution is to secure a lower-paying job with fewer responsibilities to keep money coming in. Plenty of these jobs are easier to get since they don’t require much training and have a transient base of workers who come and go depending on their situation. The thought process is that having even a tiny amount of money coming in is better than nothing.

Wait For Them To Fire You

As an extension of the idea of quiet quitting, some people reason that waiting for your boss to lay you off is better than leaving the job of your own volition. You can only collect unemployment insurance under certain circumstances, such as if you are let go by the company for reasons unrelated to your job performance or by no fault of your own.

Take A Vacation

One of the most excellent ideas is to take a vacation or use your paid time off to relieve your stress. That is the purpose of paid time off. It is there to give you time away from your job and allow you to reset your body and mind to return refreshed or, in this case, ready to find a different position. You can also use your paid time off to schedule job interviews and talk to other employers.

More Paid Leave Options

A commenter counseled the questioner to ask for the paperwork from the company’s HR department and have their doctor sign it. Another related suggestion was to apply for the Family And Medical Leave Act if their mental and physical condition has deteriorated that badly. FMLA will allow you to take time off and receive a portion of your pay while you recover. The bonus is that you can take time off to look for other work since you can use that time off for any purpose that will help you. It’s Federal law, and you can always tell your boss you will not return from leave if you find other employment.

A Cautionary Note

While most of the responses agree that it wasn’t a bad idea, one pointed out that companies in the finance sector were laying people off regularly at present, which might be something to consider when contemplating quitting. It might make it harder to find a new job in a short time realistically, and the person should factor this into their decision. 

This thread inspired this post.  

This post originally appeared on The Cents of Money.