Have You Ever Quit a Job You Loved Going to Everyday?

[Hoji]

For almost 10 years I worked as a Ranger in a federally protected endangered species preserve. Fully vested with the .gov, cross trained as a wildfire fighter, and got paid to play in the woods, chase folks out of those woods, hunt/trap pigs year round and shoot deer from October through February.( over 35,000 acres)

Oh, and occasionally set the woods on fire ( prescribed burns)

The pay was pretty good and I absolutely loved 95+% of my job.
Fast forward to 2012. I am recruited by an offshore drilling company to work in HSE. ( Health, Environment and Safety) never worked in the oilfield either on or offshore. Perfect! Says the folks interviewing me, we need new eyes.

I mention that I have a pretty sweet gig, decent pay, rocking benefits and retirement. They made an offer over 2x my pay and better benefits all the way around.
After my first hitch in the Gulf of Mexico, they asked if I would go to Saudi Arabia and take the international safety courses that would allow me to fill in over there if a HSE tech had issues with visas, sick, etc. was told I would not be working over there full time.

After first day was told I would be working over there full time upon completion of NEBOSH exams.

Pay doubled again. Plus 30% for working in the shittiest place on earth, lol.
Working domestically as a safety manager for an international construction company. I like the work a lot, but there are days I wish I could just go back to chasing people out of the woods, hunting year round, and setting the woods on fire occasionally all at the taxpayer’s expense.

 

[BRD@66]

answer to OP: no, I haven't.
-and after reading your story, I'm glad that I never did.

 

[FireInTheWire]

Whatever = less stress.

I'm pretty sure I'd go back to the woods.

 

[Lonesome Dove]

Yes I have. I had a nice career in the environmental field. Great pay, bennies, work outside, covered two states, No time cards or time clock just did my job and got paid. Shit happens and I realized there’s more to life and things more important than a big paycheck. I retired at 54.

 

[SQLGeek]

Yes, my job previous to the one I have now. I loved the company and my team. I was 100% remote and didn't have a commute. Pay was decent, benefits were amazing. I ran a team doing software implementations and had a lot of autonomy. I was always told I was doing an outstanding job.

I left because I didn't see much future in my position. I couldn't get a raise even in this economy. My boss kept trying to get them for me and HR kept blocking them. When I have him my notice, the first thing he asked me was "Was it money?" He knew.

I took a new job in Houston and have to commute about ~2 hours total a day. I get paid more with a better bonus structure and actually get raises.

I am mostly not sorry I moved on but I miss the work and the lack of commute.

 

[mroper]

Yes, I had a job where I worked for a private detective agency I did the computer searches looking for people, assets, corporations etc. Most of these folks were Hiding money to not pay child support. Unfortunately I had to leave the area
due to illness in my family. and I could not financially get it to work out to go back . the pay was lousy

 

[pronstar]

For quite some time, I loved every job I had in ad agency life. If I leave because a better opportunity presented itself, it wasn’t a knock on my current employer.

But I never burned a bridge...auto advertising at the factory level was quite incestuous, and paths crossed often.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[candcallen]

Yep, medical reasons. I was a shift commander, on tactical unit, team leader etc. I got to the point I put not just myself in danger but my officers. You cant run fight chase etc if body parts refuse to work cause of nerve issues. Pain in one thing but structure instability and losing control at the wrong time is another.

I still struggle every day with it.

Money isnt the only thing important in your job. I left and turned down higher paying jobs cause I loved what I was doing. It is cliche but it really never was work.

Now you got bme depressed.

So much so I cant spell apparently. Sorry.

 

[Texasjack]

The grass is always greener.

When I was a consultant, I met a customer who had been a fairly high ranking guy in EPA for a long time. When I met him, he was working for a company that was in deep trouble with the government, and in fact his company tried to throw him under the bus. He said, "When I worked for the government, the pay sucked, but I knew I had a great retirement. I saw consultants making a lot more money and I thought that would really help me put my kids through college and such, so I went into consulting. Yeah, the pay was better, but they expected me to be 100% billable and 100% recruiting new business. Pretty soon I had no time at all. I saw customers and I thought wouldn't it be great to have a corporate job where I could work 40 hours a week and know what I was working on every day. So I managed to get this job, and now every problem the company has is my personal problem. All I can think is, damn, if I had stayed with the government, I'd be eligible for retirement right now."

The plant where he worked had been run by the government for 40 years, and they did things that were bad beyond most people's imagination. Toxic stuff everywhere. Then the government decided all that should be fixed, and tried to blame the people running the plant for the problems. They almost threw this guy in prison. Fortunately, the court recognized what really happened and he was OK. I ran into him a few years later and he was doing some consulting work and semi-retired.

 

[oldag]

Money ain't everything.

 

[Texasjack]

I've only quit jobs I hated or I knew were going nowhere. But I have taken a job or two where I knew going in that there were bad signs, but I totally believed I could handle it. They proved me wrong. There are a lot of things a person can put up with, but dishonesty and abuse are toxic and will eventually destroy your health. I was new to a job when one of the guys there quit and he told me that the job had taken years off his life. I couldn't understand that at the time, but 3 years later I had the exact same reaction. I totally believe that job took 10 years off of my life. I would have been better off broke and living under a bridge.

 

[candcallen]

Money ain't everything.

AMEN brother, AMEN!

If people learn this at 25 they will be happier at 55.

 

[baboon]

Never had a job I loved!

 

[candcallen]

Never had a job I loved!

I feel sorry for you.

 

[Hoji]

Don’t get me wrong, I really like what I do now. I am glad I took the opportunity to learn a new skill in my mid 40’s. There is just not a lot of job openings for guys that can shoot the balls off a gnat at 100 yards, track game and know how to fight wildfire for a guy that age so the move was the right one.
I can afford a lot of stuff I wouldn’t be able to do on a .gov salary and I no longer have to work a second job.

But liking something you do is different than loving it, lol.

 

[baboon]

I feel sorry for you.

The good thing is I am now done with that stage of my life. Hell its called work not super happy fun time!

 

[Mowingmaniac 24/7]

Funny how jobs and bosses are often at odds.

I once had a position that I grew to hate, but had a boss I really liked and respected.

Time passed and I enjoyed an even higher position that I absolutely loved, but hated my boss........

 

[TxStetson]

No, I have never left a job I loved, but in your situation, if the job you loved didn't fully pay the bills and allow you to live a comfortable lifestyle, I can see why you left. I could never be HSE at a large corporation, but if you enjoy it, more power to you.

 

[TheDan]

I wish I could just go back to chasing people out of the woods, hunting year round, and setting the woods on fire occasionally all at the taxpayer’s expense.

Why can't you?


At my previous job I was the manager for my department. I had started at the bottom and worked my way up over 6 or so years. I really liked everyone on my team. Had two exceptional leads under me to lean on as well. The entire time I had worked there I had been refining our processes, so by the time I was manager it was an easy gig.

The company started restructuring things and ended up promoting this total fcktard over me. The restructuring wasn't illogical, but the fact they did it without my input or allowing me to compete for that position pissed me off. I had another job lined up in about 3 days and put my notice in.

Since fcktard was my supervisor now, I only delivered my resignation to him and he didn't run it up the chain. When it was my last day and I was going around saying bye, my former supervisor (one of the VPs) was shocked I had quit. I really got a kick out of that

Fcktard was fired 7 or 8 months later. In retrospect I should have stuck it out. I would have lasted longer than him. Job I have now isn't bad, tho. It's just not the same as the team I left.

 

[benenglish]

A good friend of mine was a fellow officer at our federal three letter agency. In his 30s he finished law school and became a partner at a small firm where he really made it rain.

It was like pulling teeth to ever see the guy but he finally had a couple of free hours on a Saturday. This was about 10 years after he had become a lawyer and he was a huge success. We met at the HGCA gun show and walked around. We were standing in front of a Vulcan (I think) with a 6-figure price tag when he said one of the saddest things I've ever heard.

I had asked him to join me at the range and he turned me down. By way of explanation, he said "Y'know, back when I was an officer, I couldn't afford much of anything but I had time to enjoy what little I had. Nowadays, there's nothing in this room I couldn't write a check for but I just don't have time to go shooting with you."