I’m anxious my present job is burning me out and am having hassle pondering of the place to go subsequent. Hoping the commentariat can assist me brainstorm! Some background:

I’m at present a social employee licensed on the masters stage – thought of getting my medical license however I’ve realized that complete course of could be depressing for me, which might be unfair to the purchasers. I work at a small medical clinic whose mission I LOVE, however my explicit job is simply horrible for a way my mind works. I’ve ADHD and don’t do effectively with interruptions, however the tradition on the clinic could be very a lot “pop in and ask questions.” Makes an attempt to carve out time to maintain my door closed/telephone on DND have been met with complaints. Even when there’s a affected person visibly in my workplace, I see coworkers standing exterior my door trying aggravated that I received’t interrupt the appointment to speak with them.

I even have a whole lot of hassle prioritizing the numerous elements of my job, since actually each a part of what I do is vitally vital to the weak folks I work with – suppose advantages purposes, serving to to erase medical debt, referring to space sources for housing/meals insecurity. I spend a whole lot of time in process paralysis, as a result of doing one factor for one individual signifies that another person has to attend.

I’m additionally the one social employee at my office, so except for the occasional short-term volunteer or intern I virtually by no means have anybody to share the load with or delegate to. I’m fairly certain my workload is simply too excessive, however since my ADHD makes it so laborious to get something executed I can’t inform if it’s really affordable and I’m simply significantly inefficient – and once more, I’ve nobody to match notes with. My predecessor was a “rockstar,” however an enormous a part of that stemmed from her versatile boundaries.

I’ve been fairly inflexible with my work hours and limits: I keep away from bringing work residence every time potential, I don’t have my work electronic mail on my telephone, and the few coworkers who’ve my cell quantity perceive that I don’t use it for work. I experimented with performing some smaller duties at residence however fairly shortly realized that it made my psychological well being worse.

I do know for certain that I couldn’t deal with being reachable at residence for this explicit job, particularly as a result of my supervisor is thought for demanding fixed availability as soon as somebody makes themselves reachable of their off-hours. She really tried to strain one in every of my coworkers into “suggesting” that I be extra open to accepting calls/emails from residence, however has by no means mentioned something to me straight – presumably as a result of my place is fairly laborious to rent for (candidates have to be bilingual) and she or he doesn’t need me to go away.

If my job may very well be executed 100% at residence I feel it might be totally different. I kinda have the worst of each worlds proper now: utilizing up my government operate on waking up early/commuting/performing productiveness, with the extra strain to *additionally* be accessible remotely. Within the 3 months I may WFH at my final job, my psychological well being was significantly better (however the pay and higher administration have been terrible).

I actually suppose it is perhaps higher to transition out of social work totally, because the low pay can be an enormous a part of my dissatisfaction. I simply don’t know how my abilities can assist me get a job that’s really higher than this one. It appears like there are tons of jobs that provide decrease pay, longer hours, and/or worse work-life stability; nothing I qualify for looks like it might be that a lot of an enchancment.

Right here’s my “want listing” for my subsequent job, although I do know just about no job could have all of those:

-relatively low-stakes – the worst that occurs is that I get fired; my errors don’t value weak folks their housing, meals, entry to medicines, and many others
-A couple of tasks with distinct timelines, quite than a bunch of latest duties coming in each hour
-the potential to simply do my job and go residence – no expectation of fixed availability
-full WFH could be good so long as I may nonetheless disconnect on the finish of the day/work week
-for in-office work, the power to proceed carrying a masks (non-negotiable – the one benefit of being in a medical setting)
-this is tremendous subjective, however morally impartial or net-positive affect to bizarre folks (no serving to insurance coverage corporations deny claims, weapons manufacturing, and many others)
-at least 60k/yr

I’d love to listen to any concepts the commentariat could have! Thanks for studying this far in the event you did.