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My “Don’t Do Anything Rash” Toolkit for When Work Really Sucks

Jason Gutierrez
5 min readOct 28, 2023

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Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash

An old mentor once told me that “all jobs suck, but good jobs don’t suck forever.”

Right now, my job kind of sucks, so I thought it might help to share some of the ways I’ve learned to cope over the last 15 years in good ol’ Corporate America.

(And remind myself that quitting isn’t the only option.)

1. Bitch about it.

I’m really good at this one. It absolutely does not help my situation at all, but it makes me feel 50% better. I’ve found that the older I get, the more I bitch, which is somewhat counterintuitive. It’s mostly because keeping things bottled up inside isn’t an option for me. (Stuff weighs too heavily on the soul.) I’m always careful about who I use as an outlet, especially with coworkers.

2. Remember why.

It’s easy for me to forget all the good things that my job provides. Things like money, self-worth, food, and comfort in knowing there’s another paycheck coming. I threw that all away once and quit a high-paying job to learn the hard way what it’s like out there. In this economy, with a family to support, I’d be a dumbass to not remember all the good things my job does for me.

3. Set firm boundaries.

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Jason Gutierrez
Jason Gutierrez

Written by Jason Gutierrez

Engineer. Papa. Trying fiction. I also share short essays and stories on life and the creative process 🖊: https://parttimewriting.beehiiv.com/subscribe

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