In my experience managers lie to applicants massively in job interviews: about job conditions, training conditions, available free days, how taxing the job is, how supportive your coworkers are…
Younger me believed managers and coworkers when they said they would support me to be more knowledgeable, wouldn’t mind I use my downtime to learn. In reality they ignored me during training and criticized me savagely for reading manuals while my coworkers were talking about football fields, which to me is a waste of time. I always did my job when clients came, learning exclusively during downtime but manager chose to ignore that. Being accused of not doing your job like this while wanting to be better sends a clear message that your development is not important. I stopped trusting people after that.
I’ve reached a point where I don’t give much fucks about it anymore: In the past I used to be more engaged than now, I genuinely enjoyed learning but now… my new motto is I go to work for a paycheck and I go home asap to enjoy my life as much as I can. It’s a complete disconnect from my job.
Do I stay with the crap I know or do I keep looking for something better? I’m in a union and hurdles to fire me according to several people are high, I take it easy at work, I go to the toilet as much as I possibly can (and learn or read), I don’t have to deal with people I dislike for long, I don’t do any overtime and have no qualms about calling in sick. It took me a health scare to understand this job is not more important than me.
But I also don’t want to do this for the rest of my life, because it’s physically demanding and I won’t be young forever, I could earn more if I keep learning and update my certifications, I could get a desk job before I break my back doing my current job…
But is it worth it to try to find a better job? Because people are gonna people and wherever I go I’ll have to deal with people that sabotage me like I described before.
Or maybe I’m wrong?
The people you work with and the management of the site/company/team/etc. are oft the most important factor in your experience while working there. I have worked for a company/management that literally was known for firing people without cause just to put a sense of fear into employees and a company/management that sent employees for paid educational courses without being legally obligated to do so. Same industry. Same city. Just different people. The attitudes of management tend to impart a flavor to the workspace that is nigh impossible to ignore. So, if you have the ability to get away from the workplace that mistreats you, do it. It’s really not all people. It’s those people, in that workplace, with that management. Chances are, if you chat with a few people in other places, you can find an in somewhere the people are not so awful, and the best time to look for a new job is always while you have one.