In many many many ways, it's just not worth it. While the take home pay is decent about $200 or bi weekly or $400-$450/mo, the actual job is greuling and the work enviroment is quite toxic. The point of taking on extra work is so that I can pretty much go in, do my work and not have to deal w/additional office drama and politics and not to overtax myself physically and mentally that it hurts my 9-5.

Job #3 hurts in both fronts, but I could've tolertated it a bit longer, say till summer or so if they were willing to give me more money, I am SEVERELY underpaid and not just saying that b/c everyone feels they are worth more than paid, for what the job described itself to be and what the actual work is, plus the additional skills I bring and the ever increasing added responsibility which really means, do the managers job, I feel is worth more than $4.90 and hour. Oh and did I mention no breaks and you stand for the duration of the shift which starting today is 8 hours on a Sunday, 5 hours during the week. All in all, it's safe to say the work/life balance is too out of whack adn I just don't fit in.

So early last week I sent the HR manager an email requesting more money, for over a month now I've been trying to get a sit down face to face and it's been hard. In the mail I listed all I've brought in terms of skill and ideas that not only saved them cold hard money, but were time savers that also increased productivity. I expressed my eagerness to continue contributing and noted that similar jobs pay upwards of $10/hour and I felt that'd be a fairer compensation. To clarify, the actual pay is $7/hour but I go by after tax money for accuracy and @ $10/hour it'd be closer to $7/hour and based on what they've seen me do in the last 2 months, am I worth and extra $15/a day.

Her answer?

Thanks for your hardwork, your concerns will be addressed in your 90 day performance review.

Mind you this is a small company, HR is one person, there are 2 owners, so I don't buy the BS standard form letter. If they intended to pay me more after stating my intention to stay & willingness to do more, what difference does 6 weeks make? Or why not have a face to face w/me now? What the HR manager did was the day after I sent the email, stopped by the job, it was her day off. She said she got my email but wanted to enjoy her day off so she'll see me the next day. Just her phrasing of it sounded off, but I dismissed it and said fine.

The next day, the second I walked thru the front door, I heard the back door slam and when I got on to check my email saw her reply. She ran from me. All of that just strikes me as shady. So i wrote her to see whne she'd be in again, she hems and haws and when I finally pin her down to saying she'll be in when I am, she asks me why what's up? so I didn't even reply.

And this is the too much drama I mean. I just want to go in to a job 20 hours a week, be able to turn off the part of my brain that does my 9-5 and just get my work done and go home. This is just a tip of the drama @ the job and it almost feels like the better I work, the harder I work the fact that I don't complain, makes them even madder.

It's crazy, I can't explain it properly and to be honest, I'm so over it.

Reading Suze's new book gave me the courage to quit. And going online and finding comporable jobs that pay $10-12 and hour gave me the motivation to type up my letter of resignation the same day I requested more money. I realized then I had options and it'll only be a matter of time before the ideal job situation manifests itself to me. In th meantime, I'll use the next 2 weeks to finish up working there and banking all the extra money I can.

In 2 weeks, I am also going to cut Job #2 back to a Sat/Sun gig b/c most p/t evening jobs are M-F. During the final 2 weeks I'll keep hunting for another job, I actually applied for one on Friday and am waiting to hear back from them.

So that's pretty much it. A tiny part of me wonders if I'm crazy "giving up" a job when I'm so racked w/debt and people are looking for work and why not just suck it up and do what I have to do.

I guess, the bigger part of me feels, I know who I am. I know how I work, what I contribute, what I bring and what I am worth. I may not always get 100% of what I want but in 9-5 and Job #2, I'm pretty close and am happy. It's not worth it for me to invest so much time and energy when I can make more elsewhere and while I may not make progress taking off time to find another job, I believe the time I take will pay for itself before long. Besides, me working somewhere that is clearly not a good fit, is only keeping back a job from someone else who may want to work there and work out better for them in the long run.