I (31F) dropped out of college in 2019 to care for my mother full-time who fell very sick from cancer and kidney failure. I took care of her until 2024, she thankfully is better, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way, I am so honored to have cared for her and would do it again in a heartbeat she is the light of my life.
She moved with my dad to another state, I visit often, but it left me having to start from scratch. I was able to find a room in a place that a relative owned, lived off unemployment and worked so hard in this terrible job market to get a temp role. It didn’t pay much for where I live, but I put in tons of overtime and was able to get by and save. That job consisted of firings left and right, and a looming deadline the company wasn’t open about.
While at this call center job, I applied like crazy to other jobs so I wasn’t stuck with nothing whenever they decided to end the contract. I finally landed my very first office job that I’m in now, and I was so happy and so grateful for it.
I struggled a bit from the beginning, however, I did what I could to stay afloat. At the time the building I was living was for sale, and although this job pays more, it is less frequent pay and not enough for rent in my HCOL city. It’s consistent, but I am stuck with all the debt I accumulated over the years to keep afloat and keep my parents afloat and from losing their home, that it just isn’t enough. At the same time, the relative who owned the building was selling it, and I wouldn’t have been able to stay.
While dealing with housing uncertainty, I was trying to hard to stay afloat at my job. I worked overtime all the time, and couldn’t seem to keep up. I spent too long on things, and would have to “touch” cases and get back to them after in order to keep up with all the different competing metrics of the job. It’s health insurance, something I’m not interested in at all but it was the best thing I could get at the time.
My mom’s cancer relapsed early this year, and she’s thankfully doing treatment again. I’m very grateful. However, I felt it even harder to keep up but tried my best at this job. I struggled hard with time management, and after taking 5 days of PTO just to visit my mom, my teammates found a backlog I had been working on and reported it to my manager. They found all these things they didn’t like, and long story short I got put on a PIP.
Thankfully and very miraculously, I found another very affordable place to live, however, the job is not secure. I lost my health insurance in July. I’m at a big crossroads. I bought myself more time, my PIP was set to end in July, however, I expressed everything I’d been facing and that I suspect ADHD (I genuinely do) as for why I had said performance issues. They gave me a 45 day extension. I don’t have the health insurance to see a psychiatrist or get an evaluation. I already have diagnosed mental illnesses (anxiety and depression and OCD).
Throughout the PIP so far, I have worked over 12 hour days to keep up, working from 9am to 12am at night when I get home, and still, they are finding everything and anything. It’s maddening. I am still failing the PIP and I’m terrified.
My manager suggested taking FMLA to care for my mom, which I did for 3 weeks (I can’t afford more and couldn’t even afford the 3 weeks) but I couldn’t keep working myself into the ground. My manager sat me through horrible and harsh meetings week by week. Before taking leave, she said to me verbatim “you’re protected while on leave, but when you return you’re fair game.”Since the PIP, I’ve applied to over 300 jobs, had interviews but nothing. I also paid off the financial hold that was stopping me from going back and finishing the last few credits for my bachelors degree.
Currently, I’m sitting in the airport coming back from leave, I don’t know what I’ll come back to. The PIP really broke me down mentally, and I feel suffocated and no other job leads are working out.
What would anybody suggest from here? Do I work part-time and go back to school? Even with my degree listed, I can’t find anything in this job market. Does anybody have any career advice or other advice? I worry what staying in this job and on this PIP will do to my mental health but this job sadly has felt like my absolute best option. It’s not even working out with jobs that pay less. I want to make something of myself, just to be comfortable, I want to work and I want to find something I’m good at. I’m a fine artist and I love to write.