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I’m sure we could swap stories about working particularly hard at some point in our life. Feeling exhausted, worn out, temperamental and not performing at our best. In an ideal world we would avoid such stresses and strains, but in reality going “above and beyond” seems to be part of securing some financial stability, raising a family, buying a house, funding retirement, or whatever your financial goals might be.
But a recent local news article got me thinking about where each of us draws the line and says “enough”.
ABC News (Australia) reports that Miwah Van, a senior executive, is suing Woolworths for discrimination and adverse action. Woolworths is one of our two large supermarket chains. Ms Van has reported suffering from a suspected stroke, temporary blindness and being hospitalised 5 times. A diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent treatment from her employer also raised claims of bullying.
After reading the article, I remain unsure of where any fault might lay. Senior executive roles obviously require a very strong personal commitment, including long hours, high stress levels and a need to shoulder a lot of responsibility. But maybe Woolworths’ demands were excessive, putting way too much on Ms Van’s plate. Honestly, I don’t know.
What I do know is that if I was in Ms Van’s position, once my health was noticeably suffering, I would have been out of there. I’m sure that Ms Van was compensated handsomely in a senior role with one of our largest companies. But what value is a large salary if the situation sends you to hospital with a stroke?
After persisting at Woolworths whilst her health deteriorated, she is now bringing legal action that will no doubt take many months, if not years. That legal action will be stressful. The whole ordeal will be turned over again and again. I can’t imagine that any of that will help Ms Van’s health. If her action is successful, she will walk away with a sum of money. But at what cost?
I’m sure there is an argument for Ms Van to remain in her role to the bitter end, to bring legal action against her employer and hold them to account. Part of me admires her tenacity to grit her teeth and persist.
But for me personally, my “enough” is a long way from Ms Van’s. I’ll take my health over a job.
For four years in a row, my failing management would come to me in early spring and tell me that I had to lay off another percentage of my staff by the end of the fiscal year in June. It would be months of stress and sorrow, teeth-grinding and weight loss.
When they came to me the fifth year, I said, “Take me this time,” and handed them a plan. It took months of convincing them, but when I finally got out of there in September 2008 to take up a new career as an editorial freelancer, it was one of the happier days of my life. And that’s even though the 2008 financial crisis erupted the day before my last workday there and now my 401k was circling the drain. But sleeping through the nights and being master of my own fate proved a much more valuable compensation to me at that point.
If you can leave a job that makes you sick and tired, get creative and save yourself.
Have to share this wonderful NYTimes profile of a Seattle man who changed his working life. It begins: “Eleven years ago, Paul Lundy was dying a slow, workingman’s death under fluorescent light.” Gift share: How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life
Laura, many thanks for gifting this article. Beautifully written and wonderful to read.
Work can be a terrible burden or a fantastic source of meaning and satisfaction. Hopefully we can find the latter.
Thanks Laura. Your situation is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote this piece. A job that is affecting your well-being and has no sign of getting better. To my mind, that’s not a life well lived.
Some times you just can’t afford to quit, you need that terrible job to keep a roof over your head and food on the table.
But if there is any sort of viable alternative, even if it means lowering your income for a while, that has to be a better path.
I agree. After earning W2s for the first 36 years of my working life, becoming self-employed was the 3rd best decision of my life. Having kids and asking Chrissy out are the first two😊
I totally agree. On that occasion, I was in my late 20s and I talked about the situation around the Christmas dinner table. I was in the very fortunate position to have the wise counsel and wisdom of both my parents and both my in-laws. Travel in party bus for comfort and relax
I felt good when I walked away from my position into retirement. It was a decision I prepared my employer for at least a year and there was someone wonderful to take over.
Worked as a pharmacist for roughly 45 years, 35 of which were in retail pharmacy. A typical day was 12 hours (standing up), eating on the move (standing up), and maybe getting to go to the bathroom once or twice (standing up:). It was rewarding work, but left me with an aching back, arthritis in my neck (resting a phone on my shoulder while continuing to work with my hands), and arthritis at the base of my thumbs (from keyboard entry). I’d probably do it all over again, but at age 65 I knew it was time to leave.
After my job was cut at age 60, it took a few months of reading and thinking to decide I “don’t wanna be a richer man”. I had a long enough career filled with stressful but rewarding days. I knew I wanted to focus the rest of my life doing other things, including spending more time on good health and savoring the relationships that matter to me.
I walked away from a stable job to buy into a junior partnership—25% stake, with plans to eventually go halves and run the business as equals with the founder. Turns out we were a terrible match as partners. By six months in, the atmosphere had turned toxic, and over the Christmas break I decided to pull the plug on the whole thing. Left the business to figure out its own future. And begin to figure out mine.
It worked out fine though. Three months later I set up my own company, and the rest was history
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It’s so important to be able to recognize, and walk away from, toxic relationships as well as toxic work situations.
Toxins shorten lives. Even if they come on two feet.
I totally agree. On that occasion, I was in my late 20s and I talked about the situation around the Christmas dinner table. I was in the very fortunate position to have the wise counsel and wisdom of both my parents and both my in-laws. That combination of over 200 years of life experience helped me make the difficult decision to walk away.
My employer of 30 years made changes to my job that I didn’t care for. The physical strain of the work resulted in arthritis and problems with my feet. My workload increased in a way that led me to believe that I was being discriminated against. The union’s attorney thought that I could make a case of it. However, litigation would have been stressful as well as a distraction as I worked to build a new business. I choose to leave it all behind. I don’t know the details of Ms.Van’s story, but for me, I did the right thing. I made a clean break, and began a new chapter in my life.