Going around in circles

I have just accepted a new job. This will be my 7th new job in 5 years. I start out all energetic and raring to go, but in a few months I get bogged down, frustrated, tired, distraught. Then I think the only way to solve it is to start again. How to I break this circle? How do you stay in the same job over a long time? I realise that I'm making my own problems really because the act of starting a new job is so stressful in itself but I really want to make this new job work. I don't think I can cope if it all goes wrong again. 

Parents
  • I work full time and find that it can be quite exhausting. I need to make sure that I have time on my own at work sometimes, plus plenty of rest time in the evenings and weekends. My advice would be to pace yourself a bit and try not to achieve everything on day one - take it one step at a time and try not to get too overwhelmed. Good luck. 

  • I've just gone back up to full-time.  Although I enjoy the work, it's exhausting in the sense that I can't get time alone during the day at all - unless I go to the loo.  It just isn't possible with the service users.  So evenings and weekends are my time alone.  I've been so tired this week that last night I went to bed at 8.30.  I read for a while, though.

  • I would love to work 4 days a week rather than 5. By Thursday my brain isn't working :p I also really don't like full day meetings, which I have a lot of at the moment. And then my colleagues always want to get lunch together, but I need to take lunch as a break away from them. I need time to think!

Reply
  • I would love to work 4 days a week rather than 5. By Thursday my brain isn't working :p I also really don't like full day meetings, which I have a lot of at the moment. And then my colleagues always want to get lunch together, but I need to take lunch as a break away from them. I need time to think!

Children
  • Self care is so necessary you are doing the right thing, work isn't the be all and end all. Commuting is hard going I did it for 2 years an hour there and an hour home, after a night shift, it was a killer....

  • I do need to but my mental health is more important, I'm taking quite a big cut but if I didn't cut my hours I'd be unable to work at all due to burnout.

  • Especially clever - we all are it’s just because you’re cleverness is not framed in an ornate piece of social convention doesn’t mean you’re not clever. 

  • Only hard workers work full time Smart workers don’t need to. :)

    Does that mean that I'm not smart? Maybe I'm not.  I think I fall into that large category, perhaps, of 'middling' autistic people who are neither inhibited by learning disabilities, nor are especially clever in a field that enables them to make a decent income from a special interest (which may involve working independently of others).  I had no choice with this job.  The contract was for 35 hours a week.  And I wanted to go back there to work because it was one of the few places in my working life where I felt happy and settled.  I no longer have to commute, too, which is a big bonus.  Also, I feel respected there, which makes a huge difference.

    Once I've been there a little while, and they can see that I'm good at my job (which is why they took me back, anyway), then maybe I'll negotiate with them over hours.  The problem is I have to balance my income with my expenditure, naturally, and fewer hours may make things a bit tighter financially.

    I've already refused point-blank to work any extra hours unless absolutely necessary - and certainly not extra shifts.  I was asked in the week if I would mind doing a few hours over the weekend.  I said 'no'.  Full stop.  I need the time off to recharge.  I work to live, I don't live to work.

  • Only hard workers work full time Smart workers don’t need to. :)

  • Not sure I could go back to working 5 days, no wonder your exhausted

  • I worked four days in my last job, and it was nice to have a 3-day weekend every week.  But although I'm working five days now, the working days are each half-an-hour shorter, so I'm only working five more hours.  Plus, I save about an hour a day because I no longer have to commute, which I found stressful as the traffic could be so variable.  So... they're shorter days.  But I still find it hard adjusting back up to five.