I work for a nonprofit law firm, and I used to enjoy working with them because my co-workers were easy to get along with, and I felt like my work was meaningful. I wasn’t just filling the pockets of some rich guy who wanted more money, I was helping low-income people in the right direction to obtain an attorney when no one else could help them.
Ever since new upper management took over, things only went downhill from here. More than half of our staff is gone ever since our new managing attorney showed up, yet she still insists on blaming us instead of taking responsibility.
My new manager has loathed me (and my co-workers) since day one. She’s constantly looking for small non-issues to blow out of porportion and act like they’re a big deal.
I already know I’m getting fired. They haven’t told me, but it’s obvious they want me gone. They put me on probation because I “followed the directions of my old supervisors, and my new one didn’t like it”. Whenever I express my concerns, she plays the “Nuh uh, I don’t wanna hear it!” card.
Where am I supposed to go from here? I wouldn’t mind making less money than I currently make, which is $43,000 per year.
In the end the deciding factor is the supply and demand dynamic for someone like you in the job market. That is going to determine how picky you can allow yourself to be in your job search. Most people will try to use this dynamic to get a higher income, but you can also use it to get better working conditions etc. So you can look into jobs with a higher demand for applicants (searching job boards (1) and asking people who actively recruit can give you a feel for what is in higher demand), and you can look into jobs that have a lower supply of applicants (less populated areas, requiring rare qualifications, “unglamorous” fields that many aren’t interested in or don’t know about).
Of course stuff like asking the right questions during the interview, talking to employees, doing prior research etc. is important, but that only helps if you’re in a situation where you can allow yourself to be picky because you have better options. So I’d focus on how to get into that situation if I were you.
At least, this line of reasoning has been very helpful to me. There’s also people with different approaches that seemed to make them happy. Just something to think about.
(1) job boards are NOT very reliable sources of information, but they’re a good start