u/OverallNature2385

I just started a 9-6 job, and honestly I don't know how to describe it other than that I hate it way more than I expected. I miss having a random day off in the middle of the week, even if I didn't do anything special with it, because it made me feel like my entire existence wasn't built around work.
Now I wake up every morning with a really awful feeling in my stomach, and I keep trying to convince myself not to say I'm sick and go home. You literally can't get anything done!!! Errands, appointments, or even sitting in a quiet supermarket at 12 noon, it's all gone.
Does this feeling get better with time? I know a lot of people probably feel this way, but do you get used to it after a while, or is it just that you learn to live while being upset lol.
I left a job recently that had completely drained me, and this job is technically less stressful, but I still can't shake the feeling that my free time got swallowed up all at once.

For context - I'm a recruiter and I run a staff augmentation company.

A lot of people use LinkedIn when they're looking for a job - they treat it like a job board, or as a place to do prospecting for sales/business development, and that makes sense, but honestly that's maybe only 18% of LinkedIn's real value.

Anyway - one of the things that scares people is the applicant number that appears on LinkedIn jobs.

So what's happening when you see 120+ applicants?

Here's the deal.

It doesn't mean that 120+ people completed an application for that role - even though that's what most people assume.

What usually happens is that 120+ people clicked the "apply" button - and that difference is very important.

That click usually takes the person to the job description, the company site, a Workday page, a Greenhouse form, or whatever place the application is hosted.

A lot of candidates click, see the whole login/create account/upload resume/retype resume and all that exhausting stuff, and then leave.

And out of the people who do apply, a large portion are completely unsuitable - wrong location, wrong background, missing core skills, not enough experience, or they're sending applications in bulk using AI/automation tools.

Some job descriptions also ask candidates to add a specific word or answer a simple question to prove they read the JD. A lot of people miss that and get screened out immediately.

So if a role shows 120+ applicants, the picture could very realistically look like this:

55% clicked apply and left as soon as they saw the process.

35% submitted something, but it's clear they're not a fit for the role - experience, timezone, education, visa/location, automated applications, etc.

10% might be worth reviewing if you're lucky.

That's why when I post a job and LinkedIn shows me 240 applicants, I'm happy if I find 24 profiles that look good on paper. Realistically, I might end up with only 4-6 people who are genuinely strong fits.

Anyway - I hope this helps a bit and makes those big applicant numbers less discouraging when you're looking at LinkedIn jobs.

Maybe the question sounds stupid, but I've been using LinkedIn more lately to see if there's any value I'm missing.

Most of my feed is random motivational essays with about 18 hashtags at the end.

People hyping themselves up with this kind of energy: "ex-Amazon, ex-Meta, ex-McKinsey, and that's why you should care about my opinion."

"Just passed 12,500 followers, humbled and grateful!"

"Three years ago I was stocking shelves at a gas station, today I'm a senior engineer at Apple."

Has this really become part of advancing professionally now? Or am I just not built for this stuff?

I worked fully remote for three years. My reviews? Strong. The team's productivity? Higher than ever by far. Morale? Honestly, much better.
And then leadership signed a lease for a new office, and suddenly we started hearing the usual talk:
"We're missing face-to-face teamwork." "The office has a certain vibe that can't be recreated." "Working from home weakens the culture."
Come on, guys. Just tell the truth. The problem was never teamwork - the problem is that there's a half-empty space bleeding money every month.
Now I'm wasting chunks of my week commuting just to sit in Teams meetings I could have joined from my kitchen. Same laptop, same internet, and more depressing lunch options.
Anyone else find it weird how "culture" suddenly becomes urgent the moment there's a landlord in the picture?

In short, I paid for a specialized master's program so I could do my job at a higher level (the company I work for didn't pay any of the costs). In the end, I became very skilled and efficient at my job, to the point that they now want to move me into my manager's position because she's retiring, while at the same time they want me to keep handling my current responsibilities too.

The problem is that they offered me a raise of only a few thousand dollars, even though in practice I'll be doing the work of two positions as a salaried employee. I calculated how much the company would pay if they hired someone else to take over my old job, and it came out to about $135,000 after salary, taxes, and benefits are factored in.

I'm planning to ask for a $45,000 raise, which is about a third of what I'd be saving them if I stayed and did both jobs. So even if they paid me an extra $45,000, they'd still save about $90,000 by not hiring another person.

On top of all that, doing both roles will likely add at least 6-12 hours a week to my workload.

Am I thinking about this the right way, or does this seem completely unrealistic? Thanks in advance!