Thinking about quitting my evening job

Started by fcgamer, January 05, 2018, 08:42:26 am

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fcgamer

I've been working an evening job for about five years now, part time.  Initially I had worked once a week, then it progressed to two nights a week, and at its peak I was working three nights a week.  Then I moved up to the city and instead of being situated ten minutes away, am about 50 minutes away, via driving.  I'm back down to one day a week, and have a pay raise as well, due to the commuting time.

I've been thinking about putting in about a two-month's notice (finish out the teaching semester) for the class, and leaving.  This has been on my mind for quite some time, as I've gotten lazier about driving so far just for a 1.5 hour class, feel the extra time could be dedicated towards my writing, etc. However, my boss has a lot of contacts, so I've always felt that he's the type of guy it's useful to know, should you need something in the future.

I just returned to Taiwan from a holiday trip home to the USA, and a sub teacher had been teaching my evening class.  Apparently the boss really liked his style of doing things, and has asked me to teach the same way.  I really don't enjoy the idea of this, for several reasons, as it will create more hassels for me, as well as more work.  Previously, I could justify the travel time since the work was not very much.

It seems that this makes for the perfect reason to leave?  Or should I just keep working their indefinitely anyway? 
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fcgamer

Quote from: crazyjesse on January 05, 2018, 06:39:21 pm
I suppose it comes down to your alternatives. You say this is your evening job, so I suppose that means you have a day job as well.

If your job is a major contributor to your income, I wouldn't suggest suddenly quitting with no backbone just to make you feel better.

Now that the financial point is gone, do you enjoy the work? Forget about the commuting or your boss' new ideas, do you like the work itself? If you don't, then why are you still there?

If you do like the work, and the commute/boss have got you down, try and address why. Is it simply because the trip is long? Do you feel that your boss is unfairly asking this new work of you?

For the former, try various things to improve the drive itself, play a podcast, they can be quite stimulating and enjoyable, or listen to some music.

If the latter, then I don't know, perhaps talk to him about it, note that you will have to spend a bunch of time preparing new materials.

If you're working one night a week, is that really going to hurt your book's progress?

I ask all of these not to convince you to stay but to ask why it is you want to leave. If you can address this then hopefully the decision will be more clear.


Good points, Jesse!  That's what I was hoping to address, when I had made the post last night, just to get some other thoughts into the mix, to help me think about it in the best way possible, before making a final decision.

Yes, my main job is a day job, this job only accounts for about 7% of my income.  As some backstory, I used to live in a rural area, and the opportunity to take this job (near where I used to live) just landed itself on my lap, and I thought that by taking the job, I could earn some extra money to treat myself and my at-the-time girlfriend, i.e. play money.  Then the work expanded to two evenings a week, and had been between one and three evenings a week, depending on the demand (I teach students, more demand and my boss opens more classes, less demand and he closes classes).  Then I moved up to the city, but since the job was easy and I liked it, I decided to stay, partially as a favor to my boss (it's hard for him to fill this position), and extra money is always nice.

About the commute, although it is long, I don't mind half of it (the trip going home).  In the States a lot of folks love driving around as recreation, and since I am driving a scooter, it's relaxing and fun to drive about here.  On the way though, it's always during rush hour, and since so many of the folks here don't have eyes while driving, it just gets annoying on the trip to work.  Going home is better though, since there is little traffic.

About the rest, I guess part of my issue is that I went home for three weeks on holiday, so that would be three classes in total, which I missed.  Then a new guy came, brought with him a new style, and suddenly I am expected to do more work and mimic the new guy's way of teaching.  While I agree that everyone needs to upgrade here and there, and that everyone can learn from others, it is almost insulting in a way that I am now expected to copy the style of the guy that had covered for me, three times.  I need to do more work, and it also feels as if the boss thinks the way I had been doing things previously is utter shit.  Throw in a two hour commute on top of that, and it just makes me feel I have better things I could do with my time.

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Bry89

I'd say go with your gut, and take it from there. If it's too much for you to handle then maybe you should quit just to save yourself the hassle and such but know this, you've had the job for a good number of years so at least be proud of that :) If you do decide to quit it straight away, I wish you luck on finding another job. You're gonna need it D:

Although I would like to ask... what do you teach anyway? Just curious :)
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smeghead

Let's create something like Famicom Show, and it can be like reviews of retro games and then we play and give points if its game good or bad 0 - 100 %
and we could upload it on youtube. maybe people will be interested in watching that 'show'  :mario:

M-Tee

Were I in your position, I would agree (at face value) that teacher B has an interesting method of teaching, but that at the moment you don't have time to incorporate said method into your class. Then I would inform them that I had planned to quit come the end of the semester due to the commute only, but if teacher B would like the job then I would be glad to let them take over immediately.

It sounds like a win-win: teacher B gets a longer teaching gig, boss gets the teaching method he/she wants, and you get a clean and easy way to end a job you want to end anyway without burning a bridge.