I’m in my 30s and making more money than I ever dreamed but I hate my job – which exit path should I take?

When I was in my 20s, I worked a demanding job with long hours and mean people. And I think the people bothered me more so than the hours.

Because my salary was great, I forced myself to plug away at that job beyond the point of burnout. And while doing that bettered my financial picture, in hindsight, I’m not convinced it was the best move.

Thanks to my experience, I can totally related to this Reddit post. Here, we have a person in their 30s bringing a home a really high salary, but they hate their job and are miserable.

They say they dread going to work every day. But because they’re so good at what they do, their employer keeps throwing more money at them to entice them to stick around.

I think it’s clear that this person needs an exit strategy. And there are two options I can think of for them to consider.

Option 1 — Push for a couple more years

As someone who was once miserable at work on a daily basis, I understand the toll it can take. But also, the younger you are, the easier it can be to cope with a stressful job and long hours. As we get older, we tend to get more tired and have less patience.

For this reason, one option for this poster to consider is stay at their job another couple of years, collect their paycheck, save as much as possible, and then move on to work that’s far less stressful. If they can bank their high salary a bit longer, it could give them the leeway to take a major pay cut without having it upend their finances.

That’s the route I took. I stayed at my job longer than I would’ve wanted to, but the money I saved during those last couple of years served as a financial cushion for me going forward. I was then able to take a creative job that came with a massive pay cut. And I’d like this poster to have that same option.

Option 2 – Give a month’s notice and regroup

I can’t judge the extent to which this poster is miserable based on their post alone. So it’s hard for me to know just how badly their job is impacting their mental health.

But this poster needs to be honest with themself. If things are really bad, they need to quit right away. It’s not worth harming their health to earn a higher salary a bit longer.

If that’s the case, I’d suggest that this poster give their employer a month’s notice. It’s true that two weeks’ notice is usually the standard. But they’ve been with the company for about 10 years as per their post, so it’s a long-term relationship. And in the absence of having another job lined up, I think the right thing to do is to give their employer that courtesy.

That one-month notice period also gives the poster time to come up with a plan. Maybe they’ll take a break from work for a few months and travel. Maybe they’ll dive into a new job right away, but one that comes with fewer demands.

That one-month notice period also gives this poster time to sit down with a financial advisor. If they expect their income to take a hit, an advisor can help them work around it, all the while maximizing the money they’ve hopefully saved from years at the lucrative job that’s making them miserable.

Either way, this is a tough situation, and I hope the poster finds a solution they can make peace with.