How to successfully bide your time in a job you hate!

Why is it good to bide your time? 

Oftentimes, people will say, “Well, how could you stand it? 
“How could you handle being in a job you hate?” 

Most people stay so they can bide their time to earn more money, to find a replacement position, or because of low self-esteem. 

Biding your time does not always have to mean begging your boss to let you stay longer. If you are going to quit a job you hate because things have become unbearable, you must find strategies to cope. This is in addition to knowing your motivation for staying.  

When you are in a high emotional state and loath your employers, clients, customers, or fellow co-workers, you run the risk of butchering your chances of securing a new position.  

Consider the implications of this. If you go into an interview with a negative attitude toward your current position and workplace, you may say something that gives the interviewer the wrong impression.  

Not finding another employment may be a gift in disguise because if you quit when you’re emotionally charged and unprepared, you may end up in another job you hate.  

• Biding time lowers the chances of you making the same mistake and entering into another job you might hate  
• Biding time allows you to put a plan in place   
• Biding time gives you the opportunity to save money  
• Biding time can help you reflect on whether you really want to leave  
• Biding time gives you the opportunity to say goodbye 

What you can do to bide your time for three months or less

1. Work More

I know it sounds odd to recommend spending more time in a job that you loath but with such a short timeframe, you should already have another job in place and be in a transitional period.  

Therefore, have you considered working more hours over a shorter period of time? Doing so can cut down the number of months you stay in a job. 

Alternatively, why not ask to work overtime and get paid double for one month? Working overtime will cut off one month of your original timeframe. 

If you haven’t secured another job but you know you can’t last more than three months, the best thing to do is to use up this time with your holiday (vacation) entitlements. Of course, you may have already maxed out your holiday days or you may have zero entitlements. But if you can use it. 

What you can do to Bide your time to stay in a job you hate for 3-6 months

Firstly, you can do this. You ARE CAPABLE OF DOING THIS. 

2. Get back the money you are owed

Are you due a sizeable tax return? The money you may be owed from your tax return may allow you to take one month off. Or to invest the money in resources that will allow you to buy the equipment needed to work on a side hustle. Of course, this strategy may not be suitable. 

3. Make a mental shift

• Get as much training as you can

You have a lot of time left, so why not use it to gain the training and experience you need to land your dream job? 

• Take up an interest in sports

If you’re not feeling particularly motivated at work, it’s important to find ways to distract yourself, find new things to get passionate about, and maybe even redirect your frustrations elsewhere.  

Surprisingly, tournaments can do just that. The Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon, French Open, and U.S. Open can temporarily take your mind off your own issues.  

You will become fixated and excited cheering on a team or participant, and if that team was to lose, you will become wrapped up in being in a depressive or happy state depending on if your team wins or loses rather than focusing on the job you dislike. 

Take up kickboxing classes if you are more physical. Or you could try something more like martial arts, boxing, swimming, or running. 

• Practice mindfulness and gratitude

Practicing mindfulness and gratitude means taking time to notice what’s around you. Simply put, observing or just appreciating what you have in your life and saying, “thank you.” Meditation, yoga, and journaling can help to facilitate both mindfulness and gratitude. And as a result, being appreciative of the job you have.

• Keep your sights on the daily victories

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

First, accept that you won’t achieve your goals immediately. But keeping yourself motivated is key to keeping on track and completing the goal. Celebrate the small wins.

What you can do to Bide your time for six months to one year (or more) 

It may seem daunting, but you can do this if you strategically plan how you are going to cope.

BUT HOW!!!!  

Of course, try all the examples given in the one-month stage and also the three-month stage. Nonetheless, the first point of action will have nothing to do with your working environment as such…  

Firstly, you’re going to need to do something to release your stress.   

4. Connectivity

• Get yourself online

That is right, join a forum where you can rant, bitch, and whine to others in a similar position about the job you detest. If you really do hate your company, role, customers, or colleagues, speak to others in a similar position.  

Do not just rely on talking to family and friends because they will get sick of your complaints and will tell you to leave your job, not because it’s the best decision, but because they will eventually become sick of you moaning.  

Additionally,

To successfully complete step one of biding your time, consider finding other people who are unhappy with their role in another industry rather than a similar industry, because what can occur is that customers who have had issues with employees in the industry you’re looking to escape will hop into the comments and point out flaws. The flaws they may point out could be weaknesses you’ve been doubting yourself.  

If you haven’t found a suitable forum to rant, then create your own. Creating a space for you and others to talk will help you to control who is communicating on the site and also keep you preoccupied by not wasting meaningless energy spent on hating your job. 

• Using up your holiday allowances, reducing your hours and getting an additional job, acquiring money from natural resources can knock off an additional 2 to 3 months. 
• If you don’t want to join a forum or see a counselor or a trainee counselor (who is cheaper than a fully licensed counselor), start journaling. 

Furthermore,

If you have to depart in more than a year, don’t take any vacations but reserve them for when things become really difficult, i.e., towards the end. You should have knocked off almost a month of your timeline. Of course, this might not be an option. 

Thus,

• Consider reducing your hours and making up your pay by getting an additional job at another company. 
• Use other resources, i.e., renting out a room for storage, renting out a room to a person, selling unwanted goods. And perhaps the money you make from “natural resources” will take off another month or two of the six-month to one-year timeframe. 
• Use this time to work on a brand, network, research, 
• Grin and bear it  
• Do not tell people you’re thinking about leaving or that you detest your job! 
• Get a side hustle or a hobby so you can have a creative outlet   

What does astrology say regarding timings? 

Saturn is the planet that rules time. Neptune rules waiting for something and Jupiter indicates a good opportunity to do something.

In astrology, the best timing for a new job is when an eclipse takes place in your 10th, 4th, 6th, or 2nd house, but especially your 4th and 10th house. 

If Mercury or Saturn is retrograde in your 6th, 10th, or 2nd house, it indicates returning to a former employee or reapplying for a role you applied for a long time ago. 

However, once a year, the sun will enter your 2nd, 6th, or 7th house (house of contractual agreements), or 10th house. And when the sun enters each sign, he spends approximately 28 to 31 days in each house.  

You can figure out the house position if you know your rising sign. For instance, if your rising sign is Aries, then the sun is most likely going to be in your 6th house around September or late August.  

The sun will be in your 10th house around December or late January. If your rising sign is Capricorn, then you may have the sun in the 6th house around late June to early July and the sun may enter your 10th house around late October to early November. 

Roughly three months before your birthday, there is a shift in energy, and if the planets align, a career change could be underway regardless of what you had planned.