The one time I should have quit.
Many moons ago I worked for a kitchen company in the customer services department. At first the job was ok. Open plan office, friendly staff and the money wasn't too bad. I had an area of the uk to cover to handle the kitchen fitters requests, customers enquiries and complaints etc. It was hard work and eventually it got even harder.

At 9am each day the phones would start ringing and would not stop until 5pm. You had to answer your calls, and do the paperwork in-between, but there was no in-between available so the paperwork piled up. Eventually I was moved to a new area with a female manager who handled our group. On the whole she was ok but if she became stressed then she took out her stress on her team. I became overwhelmed with the work and took to taking amphetamines which also enabled me to work through lunch as it stopped me being hungry. I would take speed all day to get through the work and get pissed in the evenings to help me sleep ready for the next day. The bullying got worse, the workload got heavier. Every 6 months the bosses would come in and tell us all that changes were in place to make things easier but it never happened. I would dread each morning of waking up, (if I was lucky enough to get any sleep), and start out for work. Two bus journeys through Manchester and the fear and dread would grow as I travelled.

Well, eventually it came to a head and one morning I got off the first bus and had a total panic attack. I thought I was going to die. I went into Macdonalds by the bus stop and asked the assistant to ring for a ambulance, this was after 10 minutes of standing in the toilets waiting to die. Once I realised I wasn't going to die I became embarrased and apologised to the ambulance staff who took me home.

I never went back to work. I just couldn't make myself do it. I couldn't speak to the company and had to ask my mother to contact them. Many months on sick pay and then many more on sickness benefits.

Today I still wonder why I never quit that job. I could have got another job fairly easily and all the hassle and problems with depression and panic attacks would never have happened.

I guess I'm just not a quitter.
( girlinthehole, Thu 22 May 2008, 15:18, 5 replies)

That's awful BGB
.
the thing with really horrible jobs is it never starts that way, it tends to just slide gradually from normal to hellish, and you end up going along with it.

One place I worked was heading that way and thank god I got out.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 22 May 2008, 15:24, closed)

*click*
Funny isn't it (and not in a haha way) the things work will drive you to.

It was my first 'proper' job that drove me in to taking large amounts of cocaine, every day - for much the same reasons as yourself.

Thankfully, I had good friends who rallied around - but since then, I've realised that you work to live, not live to work.

*hug*
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Thu 22 May 2008, 15:42, closed)

^ indeed
It saddens me when I see people at my place who travel a far distance to work in the morning (40 - 50 minutes), come in between 7 - 7.30, go home at 7pm, take another 40 - 50 minutes to drive, and all because they think they're indispensable and the place will fall apart without them.

Bollocks. You're contracted for 37 hours a week, if you can't get what you need to get done in that time, you're either (a) shite or (b) overworked.

It saddens me even more when these people have young families...
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Fri 23 May 2008, 10:12, closed)