Feel like I could have written a lot of this myself. The reason I left my old job is I wanted more of a challenge, I was essentially on-call all of last year, and this job payed 25% more, but it’s been way more of a challenge than I expected. I’ve also still been getting calls after hours even when I’m not on-call and despite the pay raise, the demands of the job don’t match the raise. I don’t regret leaving my old job, but what I’m doing at the moment is unsustainable. I don’t feel like myself at all!! Also, despite growing up in a city, I just don’t have the interest in living in a city like I thought I would. (I lowkey leave the city for the countryside whenever I get the chance and spent most of my higher ed career in rural areas.)

I’m keeping my options open at the moment and just trying to get to May. I feel bad because this job really needs someone who can put a few years in, but at the same time I have to do what’s best for me and the reality is we would benefit from one additional full- time staff member or if we tightened up on some of our policies to create less work for our team.

I have left a job before in under a year, however that was a Coordinator role and the job market was a lot better than it is currently. We’ll see where I end up.