On Leaving Work Behind | Is Having Any Job Better than Having No Job?

I read something a friend shared on Facebook today about how having a bad job is harder on your mental health than unemployment.

It struck a massive chord with me.

The article, written by Stephen Bevan in 2014 looks at research that was undertaken by Peter Butterworth and and colleagues at the Australian National University to develop an understanding of what being "better off" in work really means, beyond the traditionally narrow economic definitions.

The received wisdom is that being out of work is a bad thing. It certainly is bad, as we know, for income. It is also bad for self-esteem, dignity, social inclusion, relationships and health. So, all other things being equal, a policy position that promotes getting people back into work is both rational and evidence-based.

But, building on this position, and especially during a period of high unemployment, the received wisdom also tells us that any job is a good job. This informed UK policy (that has since been ruled illegal in many ways) towards compulsory work experience and the "workfare" or "work-for-benefits" thinking which many politicians now favour.

The argument is that being in poor-quality work which, perhaps, is boring, routine or represents underemployment or a poor match for the employee's skills is widely regarded as a good way for the unemployed to remain connected to the labour market — and to keep the work habit. But Butterworth's data contradicts this. The data shows without question that the psychosocial quality of bad jobs is worse than that of unemployment.

Butterworth looked at those moving from unemployment into employment and found that:

“Those who moved into optimal jobs showed significant improvement in mental health compared to those who remained unemployed. Those respondents who moved into poor-quality jobs showed a significant worsening in their mental health compared to those who remained unemployed.”

So now there is a slightly different answer to the question about the unemployed being better off in work. Yes they are. Of course they are, as long as they are in good-quality jobs. If they are in bad jobs, or jobs that are bad for them, there is a perversely strong chance that they will be worse off — especially in terms of their mental health.

Again, for those who think that there should be punitive undertones to policies to get unemployed people back to work would do well to question whether the "any job is a good job" mantra is as accurate as they like to think. Moreover, should we not question whether the revolving-door characteristics of some policies in which many people fall back out of work soon after being found a job might — in part — owe their poor performance to the damaging psychosocial quality of the work itself?

I'm not saying that we should stop helping and encouraging unemployed people to get a job but I do think that it should make us think a lot more about how the quality of jobs can affect our health and productivity. Even in a recession, the uncomfortable truth may be that "any job" may not be a good job at all.

In retrospect of this, I though that I would share my experience of this.

A lot of people know that working is something that I love to do. I love to keep busy, to do things, and in general to make a potentially long lasting and positive impact on the society around me. I always have and always will do. One day I know that I will find the job of my dreams but until then, I will make do with what I can get.

I've never been one to give up on things, always doing my best to persevere and keep going – after all, change is something that happens continuously and when you are least expecting it. It often only takes one small thing to make all the difference and completely change the outlook you have on something.

That being said – I recently left the first full time job I have ever had since graduating from my Masters in November. I'd only been there for about three months.

Three months.

It doesn't sound long really, does it?

It definitely doesn't to me, and I feel absolutely awful that I left so soon.

I feel as though I gave up.

Like I quit.

Well – I did quit.

I chose to leave.

The thing is – the job I had wasn't the job I thought it would be. That is something that is, at least in some ways, as much my fault as that of my past employers.

I did enjoy what I was doing – some of it. I loved working with the young people I worked with, and I loved working with the large majority of my colleagues but let's face it who gets on with everyone and enjoys their company? Not everyone in the slightest.

It was a challenging role.

It was definitely challenging – something I normally relish.

It was rewarding to see the young people I was working with develop – even in the short time I worked there and it wasn't how I was expecting.

I have definitely made a few friends I know I will keep and I am grateful for that if nothing else.

Now I can hear you asking: “If you enjoyed it and it has helped you with those things then why did you leave?”

Well – the short answer is this.

I left because it was making me ill.

I left because I just wasn't enjoying what I was doing.

Don't get me wrong, like I said above I do really enjoy a challenge but the challenges that I faced in this job were just not ones that made me comfortable – in fact I was about as far from comfortable as I have been in a very long time and coming from me that is saying something.

I tried to stay positive about it but in the end I think that made it worse.

I found myself getting home in the evening and crying for hours.

Hiding from my parents and the questions I'd get about work.

I began to feel myself slipping back into a place that I have been fighting so hard to keep myself from for the last 6 months.

Not a good place.

At all.

I was stressed with the project I was working on, and fighting everything else as well.

In the end I broke.

Something had to give and it was me.

In the middle of where I worked.

On a colleague and good friends shoulder.

I totally broke down.

I spent the rest of that day with my manager, the two of us breaking.

It hurt.

But I'd be wrong if I said it also didn't help.

I handed my notice in the day after and left the job 2 weeks later.

I saw my project to completion and it was (at least in my opinion), a success.

I left with my head held high, proud of what I'd achieved. And for that I will be forever grateful to everyone there.

I accomplished things I never thought I ever would or could in that three month period but for my own sake I had to leave otherwise one of two things would have happened.

1: I'd have continued, ended up taking long term sick leave having spiralled deeper into my illness and then been asked to leave having failed my probationary period.

2: I'd have continued and tried to do my best and still failed my probationary period and ended up being asked to leave and then spiralled deeper into my illness.

Neither of which are good options.

So – here I am again. Battling with myself to keep going and to find another job. I know I will get there and when I find the right one I will know that I have.

I know that the decision I made, though it is one of the hardest I have ever had to make, I know it was for the best.

Thank you to everyone who helped me throughout this past few weeks, I'm almost certain that things would have been a lot worse and darker without you.

I cannot tell you how much it means.

As the saying goes – onwards and upwards.