I’m a 26F. I have an MBA and worked in HR.

I spent four years at my first company. Looking back, I feel like I wasted those four years. It was my first job. Even though it was a lower-paying job, it still took me a long time to build up the courage to leave. Even now, thinking about that place still traumatizes me. But last year, I finally quit.

Then I joined another company. The only reason I joined was because it offered work from home. I desperately needed some space and some peace. But my manager constantly picked on me and spoke to me disrespectfully. I don’t even have the words to explain what that experience felt like. I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I resigned.

The day I quit, I cried.

The last time I resigned, I completely panicked. I looked into moving to another country, starting a business, or starting to study something again, and changing my entire life because I felt like everything was falling apart.

But this time was different.

After those first few days of crying, my mind just went quiet. I feel blank.

At first, I applied everywhere and answered recruiters’ calls. Then I kept applying for jobs but stopped answering the calls. Now I don’t even apply anymore. It’s been two months now. I don’t feel any motivation to apply for jobs anymore.

I’ve also realized that I don’t want to stay in HR anymore. But I don’t have any other talent, so what am I going to do? IDK.

Being a woman myself, I’m saying this: almost all of the people who made my work life miserable were women. They were cunning, toxic, and mentally exhausting. They mentally exhausted me in every way possible. These experiences have left me carrying a lot of fear and anxiety.

I feel like my MBA was a waste. I keep thinking that if I had spent those years learning something else, maybe I would have had more choices instead of feeling like a complete loser.

I’ve stopped talking about all of this with my family because I don’t even know what to say anymore. Right now, I genuinely can’t picture myself going back to a 9-6 job. It doesn’t feel like me anymore.

But I can’t stay at home forever doing nothing. I need to earn money. This is the first time in two months that I’ve actually written down exactly how I’m feeling. Even talking or thinking about jobs feels like a burden now.

I feel completely lost.

I don’t know if this is burnout, trauma, depression, or something else.

I feel everyone has their own struggles within their careers. It would be interesting to know and understand some of these problems whether it’s past or present problems. If you managed to overcome the problems you’ve faced can you share how you managed to do it.

I am curious whether anyone can relate to this, dreams of doing this, or has actually done this.

Leaving employment

I left the world of employment because I realised the work itself was not the thing crushing me. The work was fine. It was the environment around the work that was destroying my soul.

The open-plan offices. The forced small talk. The business hierarchy. The performative busyness. The corporate language. The meetings about meetings. The false promises of promotions and pay rises used to squeeze more productivity out of people. The constant pressure to be visible, available, pleasant, aligned, responsive, and grateful for the privilege of slowly dissolving under fluorescent lighting.

At some point, I realised I was spending an enormous amount of energy just existing in the environment rather than doing better work. You are monitored constantly. You might as well wear a collar.

Working from home changed everything

Working from home during COVID made it obvious. My already strong productivity (which was typically 120-130% of my daily targets) actually got stronger. I was not disengaged. I was not lacking discipline. I simply worked better when I had autonomy.

When the collar was loosened, I could move dangerously fast. I could focus, think clearly, and structure my day around actual output instead of appearances. I could work without the background theatre of pretending that collaboration means sitting near people who are also trying not to be interrupted.

The autonomy problem

As an employee, so much of your life is quietly handed over. Your time, location, priorities, schedule, energy, tone, and even your personality are shaped by someone else’s organisation. You become a calendar slot, a Teams status, a deliverable, a “resource”, a policy and procedure follower.

You are technically free to leave, of course. But most people need income, housing, stability, and a future. That dependence creates a kind of soft coercion where you are free in theory, but boxed in practically.

So I left.

Becoming a one-person mercenary

I became a one-person mercenary, and my mental health improved drastically without the “feel-good Fridays” and pizza lunch Wednesdays.

Sure, self-employment started with its own stress, uncertainty, admin, and occasional panic-flavoured surprises. But I would still take that A MILLION TIMES over being absorbed back into the beige machinery where I slowly lose myself. The pressure feels more honest now. If I work hard, it is for my own business. If I take on too much, that is my own problem to solve. If I need silence to think, I can create my own.

Life after the beige machine

Leaving made me realise how much of my exhaustion was environmental.

It was the performance. The corporate nonsense. The interruptions. The forced visibility. The strange expectation that adulthood means being managed, monitored, overstimulated, and slowly sanded down into something more convenient for an organisation. You are enslaved into a corporate adult day-care centre where you generate money for other people, while taking a tiny agreed-upon cut.

I found that I do not need that.

My life is richer because I took the risk and left.

Anyone else feel this?

EDIT: Thanks for the amazing responses, people. It is oddly nice to know this feeling is shared by so many.

For those calling this “AI slop”, I actually enjoy writing. Believe it or not, some humans still use paragraphs. This post is a general overview of my experience, and I still work in an industry where I need to be careful not to get too specific about what I do for confidentiality reasons.

Unlike your day job, you aren't obligated to engage if you do not see value in what is written here.

The small talk is unbearable !!!!!!!

That’s how little time I feel like I spend at home. Literally just a pit stop to piss then you blink and you’re back in work, feels like I see the brain dead NPC colleagues more than I see my family.

This is a bit of a rant, but I'm probably not the only one who feels this way.

I started this job about three years ago. Initially, I liked the work. My boss was intense, but I felt appreciated, which was fair, and I started as a paid intern for about half a year, as legally required. However, I wasn't promoted according to my education level—and since this is a government job, education is everything when it comes to promotions. Instead, the unfulfilled promises just kept piling up.

Later, I got an opportunity in second-level business IT support, but I hated it there. There wasn't much to do other than listen to internal users, and there was very little room for development in the IT department, despite what had been promised. Fast forward: I eventually moved back to my original role while also taking on the responsibilities of a project manager, because the management and workload in the business IT area were completely draining.

After all of that, I lost all my motivation. Being based in the EU, this would technically be the ideal time for me to start a family, go on maternity leave, and step away for a bit and I am actively working on that. But my lack of motivation right now is just overwhelming. I want to feel that spark again—the way I did when I first started here. I want the motivation to learn, to build an app, and to achieve something. Instead, I feel like I am just coasting through this part of my life, and I can't even enjoy the other parts because the job, the lack of appreciation, and the low pay are constantly weighing on me. How did any of you got the motivation to move forward back? Thank you for all the support and comments.

And the same time, yes I could be worse off, jobless, without the house I am paying for (which also just moving to the lower paying position is not an option now), without a boyfriend, the job is very secure, but it is all I can think of.

so for not so recently.. i lost my job due to the toxicity of the people on that job. it was the career i worked so hard for. a career i think i was really good at, considering i’ve never applied to any company because i always get recruited. but when i got into this company, my boss bullied me and made me believe i wasn’t good enough and that i suck at this job. spreading it all around the office, so i quit. I didn’t wanna stay in an environment that was slowly taking my confidence out.

now it’s almost a year since then. I never really got myself into this kind of unemployment before. I was always the kind to juggle 3 jobs and still be good at every single one of it. but i guess for this company, it was different.

I’m not doing okay now because I’m definitely lost.
it’s like I’m starting to think that despite my 13 page CV, by being recruited anywhere and my achievements I’m starting to think that maybe some things she made me believe was right.

I’m just so lost now. I used to be the one who always knew where she’s headed, but now, i’m just lost.
I’m grieving the old me. :(

Need an advice (F18) starting a New life here in the U.S I came from the Philippines few months ago and then now I’m employed by a warehouse company and one thing I realized I don’t want to work as an employee whole life. That work is hell tiring and draining. Also you have this co workers who is secretly jealous of you. I’m not used to this kind of environment since back in the Philippines I handle my business, money and everything. I’m not working for anyone. Please I need help and a Reality slaps also a advice what to do in life. Any advice will do I don’t mind getting a Reality check.

Ive been disrespected too many times while ive worked here.

My question is what would yall recommend to prepare myself?

Im working on saving and paying down debt I also put in for my pto and vacation days to make sure I get the payout. Im also planning on trying to stock up on necessary items to last the next 6 months. But am I missing anything? I will be doordashing to help with bills and other needs until I find another job I also just maintenanced my car to make sure its solid for the next few months. I am an overplanner so I understand this seems like a lot but I have a lot of anxiety around it also.

Update: Am currently looking for another job not just quiting on a whim. But however if I do not find another job by August 20th I still need to be prepared.

Today was my last day at my corporate job after 3 years there. It was my second longest job at one company (hopping every few years is common in my industry). I am 37F and have been working in my field for 12+ years, in all office jobs (from small 15 people companies to major publicly traded corporations).

It feels AMAZING. Saved for manyyy years to have one full year of living expenses in cash, on top of my regular savings, so I don't HAVE to work. Though I plan to freelance and consult in my field. And then also want to pursue writing.

For those of you thinking about making the leap, I highly suggest saving up and thinking about ways to monetize your skills. Freelancing in my field and then having this cash runway will hopefully ensure I never have to return to corporate everrr again.

I'm at the point where it feels like I'm running as fast as I can just to stay in the same place.

I work full-time, regularly put in 60+ hour weeks, and do everything we're told we're supposed to do: work hard, be responsible, avoid unnecessary spending, and try to get ahead. Yet somehow it still feels impossible to build any real financial security.

Every time I make progress, something else comes up. Rent, mortgages, insurance, taxes, food, unexpected expenses... it feels like the goalposts just keep moving. The harder I work, the more exhausted I become, but my quality of life barely changes.

I'm not expecting to become rich overnight. I just want to reach a point where I can breathe without constantly worrying about money or feeling like missing one paycheck would set everything on fire.

Does anyone else feel like the traditional "work hard and you'll get ahead" advice just doesn't match reality anymore? Or am I missing something?

I’m 29 and currently work in corporate marketing making about $72k.

On paper, I feel like I should keep climbing. I’ve been promoted, my resume is progressing well, and I know that walking away from a corporate role is generally considered risky.

The problem is that I’m becoming increasingly unhappy with the job.

Since accepting my promotion, the company has gone through layoffs, workloads have increased, priorities change constantly, and the environment has become much more reactive than strategic. I don’t hate marketing itself I actually enjoy the work but I’m questioning whether I want to continue in this environment. Red flags everywhere, i didn’t even have a backfill when i was promoted and did both jobs for my first 90 days.

I also have to relocate for the company, but moving would nearly double my monthly living expenses. If I stay where I am, my cost of living is extremely low (around $900/month), and my partner has a stable, well-paying job. Financially, I could afford to take a step back without putting us in a bad position. $50k would allow me to save the same amount after relocating on $72k. Have about $25k liquid which would easily be 24mo expenses if i didn’t work at all.

Lately I’ve been wondering if I should leave around November and spend 6–12 months working hospitality or other flexible jobs while I figure out what I actually want to do long term. There’s another career path I’m exploring, and I should know by the end of the year whether that’s a realistic option (Navy OCS)

My biggest fear isn’t the money it’s the resume.
I’m worried recruiters will see a one year gap where I was serving tables or working odd jobs and immediately assume something went wrong or ai will just toss my resume every time i apply in the future.

At the same time, I’m also worried that I’m falling into the trap of staying in a corporate job simply because I’m afraid of how a gap will look.

So I guess my questions are:

How damaging is a one-year break from corporate at age 29?

Have any of you intentionally stepped away from your career and successfully come back?

If you were financially stable enough to take a year to reset, would you do it?

Is it smarter to keep building momentum on a resume even if you’re increasingly unhappy, or take the risk while you’re still relatively young?

I realize there isn’t a “right” answer, but I’d love to hear from people who’ve actually been in this situation. Right now I’m trying to decide whether I’m protecting my future career or just making decisions out of fear of having a resume gap.

Some other odds and ends, i have been proposition by a parent to assist in the buildout of a downstairs apartment that myself and my partner could live in while renting out the main house. Parent is retiring and traveling/downsizing and said depending on how that goes they’d help me grown a real estate portfolio. I don’t love the idea of being a landlord but also understand the financial upside it can afford.

Idk i just feel like i need a year to evaluate and branch out on my own. can’t take the corporate environment any more.

Earlier this year I had what I thought was a mental breakdown.

It turned out to be a pinched nerve in my neck.

I lost feeling in my fingers, my arm became almost useless, and my doctor told me I shouldn't spend long periods in the same position. My job involved a 5-hour daily commute plus overtime, so I asked if I could temporarily work from home while waiting for an MRI.

They said no.

Within weeks I was on illness benefit, moved back home, questioning whether I'd ever get back to work, and wondering if I'd have to cancel the trip to Japan I'd spent months saving for.

Recovery wasn't linear. Neither was job hunting.

While recovering I started doing small freelance jobs, customer support work, and realised something I'd been ignoring for years: I don't actually want a career where travelling is something I squeeze into annual leave. I want work that fits around life, not the other way around.

I'm curious if anyone else has had a health scare completely change how they think about work.

Did it make you change careers, go remote, reduce your hours, or do something completely different?

Man wtf. I feel like I set myself for failure. I hate my job because they went downhill in the 3 years I worked there. They started as a very easy factory machine operator job for lazy people. They were just bought by a private organization and the company is currently a neglected place. The machines in every department hardly work anymore yet upper management still expect us to push orders like the machines are brand new. People quit and get fired and we’re being expected to do 2 people job. It’s tiring. But, the pay is so good. I get paid $25/hr after night shift differential doing 2-2-3 rotating 12 hours shift. I bring home $3.8k/month. I get cost of living raise every year. I refuse to downsize my lifestyle to get a different job that pays less. My resume is only the factory job and high school diploma. I have Autism. I went to college twice in my life. I majored in business management and majored in supply chain management. I failed twice. I tried learning to be a mortgage broker and real estate agent and failed those too. I’m interested in running some kind of business but don’t know how to get started. I don’t know. Also, I’m 28. Also, I’m in debt living paycheck to paycheck. I don’t know. I’m just venting and I feel like venting in this subreddit makes sense.

Most people give polite answers during exit interviews.But if you're being completely honest, what was the biggest factor that made you decide to leave?Pay? Management? Burnout? Lack of growth?

I’ve been job hunting for about a year and a half and I’m approaching my third year in my current role.

In that time, more than 20 people have left my team. Almost everyone I started with is gone, including many of my friends. Every time someone leaves, I find myself thinking, “When is it going to be my turn?”

I’ve done everything I can think of. I earned my MBA while working full-time, optimized my resume, networked, cold messaged people, practiced interviewing, and made it to final rounds. Yet most of the time I either get silence, rejections, or opportunities that feel underleveled.

The hardest part is that I feel completely stuck. Three years ago, I was excited about my career. Today, I drag myself to work. The politics, constant workload, and lack of progress have left me exhausted. I feel overwhelmed all the time and like I’m never fully on top of my work.

What’s frustrating is that I’ve always been ambitious. Earlier in my career, I was able to move every couple of years and keep growing. Now it feels like I’ve hit a wall. I watch other people get promoted, leave, or move on to better opportunities while I’m standing in the exact same place.

I’m not really looking for resume advice. I’m more curious whether anyone else has gone through a period like this where they desperately wanted out, did all the “right” things, and still felt completely trapped.

How did you stay sane while waiting for something to finally move?

To be honest im not exactly going insane. But...

Lets start this rant with a bit of background first.

I never liked the whole story from 9 to 17 40 years continuously.

During last year of colleage I started freelancing online and made decent money for my needs. A year after I graduated my life got a bit more complicated and i needed to find a regular job.

Back then I started working as a full time journalist. I rose terribly quickly through the ranks of the biggest online media in my country, funny enough because of the connections in digital economy ecosystem I made small time hustling online.

I became executive editor of business section of the media at only 25. I spent 2 years more in that position and oh boy was it a shit show. One good thing was the people I worked with the most, the team i ran, and my dorect superiors. The accumulated stress from the tension of online journalistic work, state and busibess run censorship, internal conflicts with other sections, general non ethical business practice etc. started to affect my mental and physical health and i decided to move to corporate.

Some time before my 28th birthday I entered one of the biggest and most reputable companies and joined theirs corporate communications teams. For a brief moment it felt better, the business itself was highly regulated, the team is big and diverse, the job we do is well managed and is divided fairly,, the stress factor is brought to minimum. But that is one side of the coin.

After working here for almost 2 years I just feel more draibed and stressed. The hidden rules, power relations and dynamics, formalisms, people fightong over stupid shit, getting terrible feedback from colleagues for minor mistakes that are usually solved on the fly, higher ups stopping initiatives without clear communications, ego dictating over skill and expertise, workibg on projects with 0 to null direction and budgets. I can write a whole post listing bizzare, stupid and downright degrading situations for an inteligent human being to go through (both me and others going through). Not to mention professionally.

When I started working there the idea was for me to do external events, writing of diferent content etc. Except it wasnt communicated with the team and for the first year i almost completely battlrd for a chance to do work I was intended to work. And then came the "good intentioned feedback" with 0 support (on the contrary). To cite a senior colleague: "Good work is not something we talk about, here it is expected. We only talk about mistakes" continuing to bash me over small errors thst didnt even make the final cut.

Fuck. This. Shit. I have worked in big succsesful systems for the past 5 and a half years, and fuck this shit. Most of my energy is spent on navigating the labyrints of corporate and my own teams intrigue (we all love each other, but we all hate each others guts). With what is left of it (\~10%) after all the demotivators I hardly manage to do the work prompting another negative feedback loop and further complication of relationships on which this line of work resides.

The stress of it all accumulates and is impacting my personal life big time. And that is another loop trigerring the aforementioned one etc.

In a few months im turning 30, and I am starting to seriously plan ditching all this and moving to country side and organically grow vegetables or prequalifying for some trade. If i continue spending a third of my work day submerged in corporate backstabbery and toxic almost cult like culture I might lose my shit from years of accumulated stress.

How can people live, not to say enjoy this shit?

TLDR:

Corporate culture and intercompany relations (their toxicity) are driving me insane and making me far too stressed seriously impacting my private life to the point im questioning the human nature, civilization, modern life...

Hi everyone, I’m a computer science graduate (£60k in debt, yes) and I have ~ 3YOE as a SDE (a little more if you include freelancing).

Jumped between a few jobs now and I’ve been at this new place for a few months. Pay is below average but that’s not the issue. The issue is I have trouble waking up every morning and getting myself to do work. It’s painful, physically and mentally exhausting doing this every week. I’ve realised I dislike coding, hate stand ups, don’t enjoy corporate bs… I’m absolutely devastated, because I feel like I’m finally coming to terms - I’ve never enjoyed this career. I don’t have the energy or motivation to learn everyday, I don’t want to keep up with trends, I f**king hate AI and at the same time rely on AI to do a lot of my work for me as I feel so burnt out.

I know some of you will slander me and ask me to git gud or just quit… I think I know that I have to quit. In the last few years (career wise) I’ve never been happy and I feel like work weighs on me so much that it blends in my 5-9 and weekends too! I’m grumpy all the time and don’t have the energy to do anything. Oh and I forgot to mention the amount of “free overtime” I do in my spare time to keep up with deadlines and pressure from above…

Sorry this is starting to sound like a vent more than anything else… but I really need to put it out there as a way of fulling coming to terms with this choice…. The choice of not wanting to continue with this career as a software engineer.

I don’t know what else I’d do with my life and it’s tough to navigate this with absolutely no savings and a mortgage to pay. All I know is that I’m tired and so done with this.

Open to all and any advice. Thank you :’)

I know this is yet another post about wanting to quit the corporate grind, but I need to get this off my chest.

Every single day feels like a rat race. And not even a fun one, just exhausting. I wake up dreading work, and I hate that I feel that way because I know how privileged I sound.

I'm an immigrant in a foreign country. No emotional support here.

Back home? My mom is getting older. I see photos of family gatherings, birthdays, random Tuesday dinners and I'm missing all of it. The guilt is eating me alive.

I keep thinking: just go back. Just quit. Just book a flight.

But I don't have "fuck you" money. Not even close. And going back to being jobless in my home country? That's its own kind of nightmare…

So I'm stuck in this limbo:

· Stay here, keep the paycheck, lose my sanity and my family time. I can work in tech but I am not built for all the pressure
· Go back, gain my life back, but risk financial instability and career setback.

I don't know what I'm asking for exactly. Maybe just: has anyone here done it? Quit the corporate overseas life and moved back without a job lined up? How did you survive the transition? Did you regret it?

Or if you stayed: how did you make peace with the trade-off?

I just need to hear from people who've been here. Because right now I feel like I'm failing no matter what I choose.