When a job is toxic, I send off a job application for someplace else every evening. It makes the job I have bearable cause I feel like I’m already gone but the toxic boss still thinks they have power over me. Gives me a chuckle.

Every time I left a job to find something better, I doubled my salary as well.

The requirement for a steady paycheque is what keeps everyone working in terrible conditions. I’m lucky enough that I’ve always had a lot in savings and it has come in handy a few times. Twice I’ve walked off a job and never went back after failing to negotiate proper working conditions with the boss. Both times I burned through about $10,000 in savings while searching for a new job. Almost nobody has that much saved up. If they did, terrible bosses would lose employees on the regular.

Always be looking for a new job, you never know when a new boss arrives and makes it horrible.

Nope. Because I practice healthy financial habits.

I call it “the fear”. Being unemployed or underemployed or having the risk of no income fills me with it.

Everyone else is right. Try to line something new up first. But I was once in the position of quitting without something lined up, and the decider for me was that if I didn’t quit, I was likely to actually take my own life. It’s a matter of perspective at that point, and clearly, surviving was the better option.

Don’t quit, slowdown, make them fire you, collect unemployment and get a better job

If you need the money then start looking for jobs now, and quit when you’ve got something.

I was not scared at all, because it was the very normal thing for me to find a new and better paying job first.

But I was lucky because that asshole boss did rarely actually show up and make my life miserable. He was too busy with making so many others miserable, too.

I’ve left two jobs because they were toxic. I always had something else lined up beforehand though.

I tried to have something else lined up each time, but tbh the financial hit from quitting a job where I was overworked was not nearly as bad as how I felt after my job each day. If you have some skills, offer to do oddjobs. Offer to detail friend’s cars, mow lawns, and pump up the quantity of applications.

I quit jobs on the spot in the past back when I was working minimum wage jobs but the only job that I have ever quit without a backup plan was my first big boy job post college.

I worked there for 3 years and I kept getting overlooked for promotions even though I was the number one or number two for Farmer every single month.

It was a contract job and nobody could tell me why I was not getting pay raises or promotions.

One day it just snapped and I was like all right I’m going to quit and I put in my two weeks notice. I told my wife at the time about it and she asked me what am I going to do for money and I said I don’t know, I guess I will work multiple jobs until I land on my feet and so I had this plan to work two or three full-time minimum wage jobs if need be to keep money coming in while my job search was going on.

Then, a friend of mine told me he had turned down a job offer for a local college and asked me if I wanted to put my hat in the ring and I said yes and I got the job.

It paid what I should have been making at the job I was at with additional responsibilities commensure it to my skill on top of that I ended up working there for the next 3 years.

Toxic jobs drain your life, even when you leave work you’re worried about work, worried about getting fired from the toxic job…unless you can scrape together a small amount of money saved. If you’re sitting at home spending what little extra you have trying to distract yourself from thinking about work recognize that that cycle will NEVER END. Make it your mission to save every damn penny you can until you have a small amount of savings.

When you have that money, you’ll notice that you’re not quite as worried about being fired because you know you’ll be able to pay your rent/mortgage next money, you’ll have food on the table, and you’ll be able to cover the bare minimum of costs to live. The situation has now changed dramatically because you could quit tomorrow if you needed to, and you’ll be okay next month.

Working the toxic job has now stopped being a necessity, and now its a choice you make. You choose to be there. You have the power now. You can choose to quit and be gone if you absolutely need to and you’re not going to be homeless. Now you work the toxic job not for them, but for yourself. You use that job, as toxic as it is, to get what you need out of it to raise yourself to the next level of what you need to go elsewhere. You’re also not trying to avoid thinking about work because you’re not scared of it. You have some mental capacity back and can start asking yourself what you want to do next, what you need to do that, and how to get those things accomplished. Is it more school? A certification of some kind? A tool needed for your trade? Experience? Maybe you can get that experience at your toxic employer. Volunteer for what the work is that would give you the experience. You’re going to make mistakes in this new work. Make your mistakes there at the toxic employer. Gain the knowledge you need, then start looking elsewhere all.

Find your new/better employer, and make your escape.

Toxic jobs really take a toll on your health, especially if you feel trapped in them. Looking for a new job is really a full time job on itself, it can be hard to do so while already working a full time job. If you feel your job is toxic you should start looking for something new right away - whether you’ve given notice or not. I’ve ended up in the hospital twice from the toll toxic jobs that I felt trapped in took on me. Another thing you can consider is diversifying your income. Ie, a “side hustle”. If you have more than one income stream you won’t be quite as trapped. You also will have something to help buffer the transition between your real jobs.

Definitely recommend looking while you still have a job like others have said. I will say, I’ve left one extremely toxic workplace in my life and I actually ended up making more money at a place that is better for my mental health. So it can definitely work out that way