How long do you give a new job before deciding it’s not for you?

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Correct-Ad-6605@reddit

Did two days in a huge commercialized turkey factory at xmas once upon a time. I now know its waiting for me in purgatory.

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Start looking right now so you can quit asap with something aligned. If anyone asks at an interview why you’re looking so soon, you can always say it wasn’t a good match and you found it was best to leave sooner rather than later, for both you and the company. Don’t bad mouth the current employer though, be diplomatic.

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excitedbynaps@reddit

Ive left jobs after 2 weeks, 1 week and 1 day before... Sometimes you just KNOW.

1 day - overheard the owner say he only hired me cos I was single. And it was such a weird and uncomfortable workplace anyway.

1 week - was asked to do shady things and put in very bad situations. It was a care home and I was left alone with residents who I didnt know were exceptionally sexual or violent. And I was asked to cut the nails of a diabetic without training.

2 weeks - people were accusing me of weird things, I was left without work (i managed to do the years worth of CPD courses in one week), no one bothered to train me and the commute was a bitch.

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Glittering_Vast938@reddit

Yeah I left a temp job at lunch time once . It was in a solicitor’s office on the switchboard and I was screamed at for not getting a name right! Was only in my 20s but I wasn’t putting up with that shit.

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lonehorizons@reddit

Good for you!

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FunkyYoghurt@reddit

Yes it's important to listen to gut instinct. I had one job at Uni where I walked out during my first shift. Cocktail bar. The night after it was raided and the owner was arrested.

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XV8BATTLESUIT@reddit

Started a new job at the start of December last year and I was out of there at the start of February this year. Sometimes you just know. In that case it was an extremely disorganised workplace, with tons of pressure from day one. Combined with workers who were heavily cliqued up socially, it was an all round terrible environment.

Luckily for me I started a new role within three weeks of leaving and I’m much happier. It meant taking a pay cut and it was definitely worth it.

Good luck with the search OP!

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wetqueenspace@reddit

trust your instincts, move on

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Simplythebest_3@reddit

Do you work with me? 😂

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thowmeawayandforget@reddit

Probation period is a two way street. Its for you to see if you like the job, and it for your employer to see if you're a good enough employee.

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TehDragonGuy@reddit

It is, but it isn't. The bills won't pay themselves, but the company should hace redundancies in place for if someone leaves on a whim.

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CrowApprehensive204@reddit

Depends how much I need the money.

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Infamous_Dealer6210@reddit

Not worth the mental struggle to hate the job. Find somewhere else and no you don’t have to give it 6 months or 2 years. I left after a month from one job and I would have left sooner if the paperwork for the next one were ready earlier. I wanted out after three days.

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tamhenk@reddit

6 months. Although if it starts shit and gets worse then just fucking go after 3.

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Longjumping-Toe-8643@reddit

Nearly left a job at lunchtime on the first day be used the vibe was terrible and I just had 'that feeling'. However, my heavily pregnant wife convinced me to go back in and give it a go!

Glad I listened as spent another 15 years there and had a good time.

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leclercwitch@reddit

I started in July last year and I’ve wanted to leave since like November. I’ll be looking for a new job very soon. Other things are taking priority at the moment and it’s really easy money, I do fuck all at work. Once I’m through my life stuff I’ll be job searching again.

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kitty-cat-charlotte@reddit

I had one job that I knew on the very first day it was not going to be good, took me 9 months to find something else and it was a miserable 9 months. If you don’t like it, start looking around, you never know how long it’s going to take to find another

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Brownjamesbond69@reddit

While I’m applying for it

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Fraggle_ninja@reddit

I got offered a job once and they didn’t put the seniority on the job contract and I got some bs reason about why, so delayed my start until they rectified it - i had a bad feeling then but managed to stay 18 months and leave with a decent pay out because they were a bad company. Another place I realised there was a leadership vacuum and bad vibes on day 2. Joined the dots by day 5. Week 2 tried to figure out if I could make it work, what my leverage was and they offered me another team by day 8. Witnessed a BA screaming at a dev to do what she said on day 10 and quit then. I think it’s better to get out early than stay if you can, it’s why probations are for.

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Zubi_Q@reddit

My last one, I gave it 6 weeks. Decided it wasn't for me, when I was getting shouted at my new boss for asking simple questions 😅 I was unemployed for 2 months before I found my current one, which is so much better!

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ManageThoseFootballs@reddit

I don't know if it's like this, but there's nothing worse than joining somewhere and realizing everyone is deep in the politics game, cliqued to the eyeballs. I'd look for something else.

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ImpossibleBonus1950@reddit

Ahh this is literally like the new company I’ve been at for 3 months within the first couple of weeks of me being there my supervisor was bitching about loads of other workers to me I would just not say anything back to him because I’m not like that and then I noticed the cliques it’s honestly draining

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Justboy__@reddit

It really depends on the scenario? I’ve previously tried to stick out a bad situation and eventually caved after about 8 months in one job as it was such a toxic environment as soon as something else came along I jumped at the chance.

There was another I was only there about 4 weeks but they were making us do at best highly unethical and at worst likely illegal things so I just sacked it off without any fallback.

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buy_me_a_pint@reddit

All the jobs I have had have been via employment agencies at companies

I known someone at one company who was also a temp walked after 20 minutes he was fed up of waiting to be shown how to use the database for the work we were assigned to do

I had a temporary job and left after a day my frozen shoulder did not help, I was mis led by the employment agency and was not told that I needed a mobile phone so I could get my access code each morning (I was not asked) just guessed that everyone has a mobile phone

I had another temporary job via an employment agency at a company I lasted three days was given no training, and was let go, I would have walked

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Marvel--Jesus@reddit

Depends on the money. I'll suck it up all day if the wage is good. If not I'd be gone in a week.

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BrieflyVerbose@reddit

If you're feeling like this within 2 months you might as well start looking right this minute. This should still be the honeymoon period!

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random_username_96@reddit

If you'd said you felt stressed I'd have said give it longer to see if the new-job nerves settled (provided no major red flags of course). But bored at 2 months? That quickly? Definitely doesn't sound like the job for you!

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FilmFanatic1066@reddit

My shortest tenure was 3 months because everything was on fire and the good people were all leaving like rats leaving a sinking ship

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

Once you realise, it's time. Don't ignore the signals.

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clutchingdryhands@reddit

A couple of weeks to realise that the job ultimately wasn’t the right fit for me, but I’d be willing to give it a go for a couple of years.

About 3/4 months to realise my manager is a total nutcase, but I figured I’d work on ways around that and still give it a go.

About 8/9 months for me to realise that my manager will never change and I’m not invested in the job enough to stick around, and luckily at the same time my old department (it was an internal move) reached out to me to ask what they needed to do to get me back.

Currently waiting for them to formally advertise for a vacancy in my old job, which hopefully should be any day now, and then I’m out.

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DueBand5919@reddit

I’ve done 1 week and 3 weeks before. I think when you know you know. At 2 months I would start looking for something else.

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I've given it 7 years so far

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Aromatic-Story-6556@reddit

Yeah 10 years here, I absolutely hate it and it’s destroying me mentally, but I’m still settling in. I’ll see how I get on

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FullofSurprises11@reddit

Depends on the career.

If you work in education, you kind of need to work for at least two terms.

The first one to try and settle in and the second one to fulfill your notice (that has to be given at the start of a term).

I would just bite the bullet and finish at least 3 terms so it doesn't look too bad in the CV.

Ideally you would finish the year, since it's less prone to create questions in the next school you step in.

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FunkyYoghurt@reddit

I worked for 6 years at my last school and I can't believe how stupid I was. I hated the school after term 1. And it wasn't the children.

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FullofSurprises11@reddit

Indeed.

Currently going through my ECT period and while the majority of the things work related are OK, the structure and the lack of support when you need a kid to be removed otherwise the lesson is unteachable sometimes turns the lesson in a circus with a few clowns you can't get rid of.

I like it the majority of the time, but there's a bottleneck on what you can do.

There's not a lot of leeway on the way you teach and pretty much all classes are shared (which makes you sometimes bump heads with the other teacher).

It is what it is, I suppose.

I hope you are in a much better place now 😊

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FunkyYoghurt@reddit

Weirdly I was a Behaviour Manager, so my job was to basically come to your classroom and remove that child, and either spend the rest of the lesson or rest of the day with me where I would teach them your lesson, or just Maths and English if for some reason I couldn't get hold of your lesson plan or whatever. At a point of "I cannot do this", you'd basically radio/phone me and I'd be there within minutes.

I thought this was typical but evidently not.

SLT hated me. They just couldn't stand that the most challenging children in school liked me and listened to me, yet they're senior as fuck and children would just laugh at them. Too much ego and throwing people under buses in education. I had to walk before I decked the headmaster.

I'm a lot happier thank you. I will go back to education at some point. It's "in my blood".

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FullofSurprises11@reddit

Oh dear.

I don't have your role in my school.

Asking for a child to be removed is very much frowned upon (even when there is no other alternative).

I hope you go back into the system, since you appear to really enjoy it 😊

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Theallseer97@reddit

I usually give about 2 months to see. Once the probation is coming up at the three months mark I'll know if I want to stay or not.

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No_Chemist2922@reddit

If you hate it you hate it. TBH if you're already asking you already know the answer; life is too short for shit like this.

Just move on if you can.

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muffinator@reddit

I knew really quickly as my manager turned out to be a crazy sociopath from the get go, but still took me two years to find a better job

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FreeBogwoppits@reddit

I've left on day one before.

The HR term would be "not a good fit".

Two months is easily long enough to have given the place a good try.

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GALM-1UAF@reddit

I think it can take one bad interaction after small interactions to realise you’re not fitting in. That would be my cue to leave but finding a new job is even harder than sticking it out in a bad one.

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Mediocre-Island5475@reddit

If I hate everyone I'd give it a week at most.

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when_music_hits@reddit

Hours

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Affectionate-Day8307@reddit

6 months to determine if it's God awful. 2 years if it's wearing out. 5 years innand it's probably a good place to be.

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suttq@reddit

Most jobs I've just put up with until Ive found something else. Only on one occasion did I leave after the first day. The manager was so rude to me and even more rude to my colleague. I knew within the first 3 hours I wasn't going to come back

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International-Wear57@reddit

1 day

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setokaiba22@reddit

3 months usually is the barometer I’d say but I think you know if you know too so you know what to do

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Competitive_Ad_429@reddit

Depends on whether you have something lined up or not and if you are in a professional career or not.

Lots of rapid job switching doesn’t look good in any of those scenarios actually

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Past_Hunt_8222@reddit

Make sure you have something to go to. It’s a lot harder to get a job when you don’t have one.

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dragons-tears@reddit

A week

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Revolutionary_West56@reddit

Yeah that’s a good enough time to tell. Usually the first few months are the honeymoon period before you get annoyed with everyone lol

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quite_acceptable_man@reddit

You know the difference between new-job nerves and 'this definitely isn't right'.

I've had a couple of jobs where I thought 'have I done the right thing?', but stuck it out and they were fine.

However, one job I quit after one morning. I'd been offered more money to return to a previous employer, but on my first day back all the reasons I left in the first place came flooding back, and I knew I couldn't work there any more.

Made a phone call at lunchtime, and was back in my old job the next day.

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HellPigeon1912@reddit

Honestly I think 2 months is a sweet spot, long enough to know when it doesn't fit you, but if you start getting towards the 6 month mark then on your CV it looks more like you've failed a probationary period and you have to stick it out until a year

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JoesRealAccount@reddit

Usually about 12 years. currently preparing to start considering evaluation the possibility of trying to look what else is out there sometime soon in the not too distant future just in case

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waxfutures@reddit

In this job market? As long as it takes to find something else, so potentially forever. I'm over 6 years in my current hellscape of a job.

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Distant_Planet@reddit

I haven't had many different jobs, but I did once quite one on the day I was supposed to start, while I was on the premises.

There were a group of about ten new starters. We couldn't get into any of the campus buildings, and there was nobody there to meet us. When we got in we were given a load of HR paperwork to fill out, and told that we wouldn't get access cards or email accounts for about a month. What are we supposed to do in the meantime? "Don't know." My prospective boss wasn't replying to emails. We were turned loose from HR, and I was given very rough directions to find my dept, because nobody had heard of it, and they had to look it up on the campus directory. How will I get into the building when I get there? "Don't know." Can you call me line manager? "She's not picking up."

On the walk over, I got a call from another, better job, where I thought I had flunked the interview. Took their offer, went back and stood over the HR numpties while they shredded my paperwork, and after that, they wouldn't see me for dust.

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jackgrafter@reddit

Depends on the job. If it’s something that has many other similar convenient opportunities elsewhere then not long. If it’s a more niche thing I’d give it more time. My current role was awful for the first few months but once I got settled in I enjoyed it. Been there for more years than I’d care to admit now and back to hating it again but for very different reasons. There were ten+ good years in between.

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preaxhpeacj@reddit

I really disliked my job when I first started, and was actively looking for other jobs for the first 3 months I was there but I stuck it out and really enjoy it now, to the point I have done additional training and have applied for other internal roles.

Granted, I didn’t dislike my colleagues though

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Striking_Smile6594@reddit

Once you know you are unhappy and thinking about leaving, then things are unlikely to get better.

Don't worry to much about it only being 2 months, if anyone asks you why you are leaving just tell them it's a bad fit and there isn't enough work for you to do. In the future just leave it off your CV.

Remember probation periods cut both ways.

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