<p>First off, hi guys. I just started my account today, though I have lurked for a while. Here's my problem:</p>
<p>I'm a soph. at Cornell - I interviewed and was accepted for my first work-study job last week. I pretty much had no idea what the job was when I interviewed..I kinda winged it, and somehow got the job. </p>
<p>Anyway - I hate it. It's boring, repetitive, and meaningless. I can't stand going to work, and I wanna explode when I'm there. The whole thing just sucks - and I really want to find another WS job that I enjoy.</p>
<p>Thing is, this is a Research Assistant job, and I had to go through training for the job. The guy who hired me spent like a week training me and explaining what they do, and I'd feel bad quitting. They'd have to find a new person, train them, etc. At the same time, I can't imagine going to the end of the semester, and I know the further into the semester I go, the harder it may be for them to replace me, and the more time they've "wasted".</p>
<p>I have no idea what to do, how to do it, or what. I'd like to just email and say "I quit" and never see them again. Help please..</p>
<p>Is it really meaningless or has the purpose not been explained (or is it just busywork?).
Do you work with nice people or are you isolated?
Can you get any other work done (useful to you?)
Can it be considered "down time" and relax your brain?
Basically it isn't bad sometimes to have to do boring work because, so long as it is limited, many many walks in life involve some boring components....
If this is a could-get-a recommendation for being diligent and showing up situation, that isn't bad either...
Is there a way, after doing this for a few weeks, you could talk to your supervisor and see about upgrading?
What are your alternatives?</p>
<p>It's a mix of busy work and work I don't understand. It's terrible. With the busy work, he stands over my shoulder and watches, so I feel like I can't even take a break.</p>
<p>There's no way to upgrade...and a recommendation probably wouldn't help. It's not even related to my major.</p>
<p>how did you get the job...can you go back t talk to whomever organizes work-study or your original contact for the job and explain the situation? That way they can at least understand your quandary. If you are not desperate for the money right now and make sure it won't jeopardize your chances of getting another position then don't stay with it. Maybe they could intervene for the next person so that this particular manager (who apparently doesn't know how to manage) can learn from the experience as well. You might help "soften" the blow by leaving some notes about things you found particularly confusing or hard to remember for the next person. Life is too short for you to be that miserable. However, depending on your relationship with your parent(s) you might want to let them know what's up and why (we parents usually appreciate that sort of thing!).</p>
<p>It is the first week of February, last time I checked.</p>
<p>I would talk to him in person and say that you don't think the job is a good fit, and would like to give your two or three week notice, and that you would be willing to help find a replacement. </p>
<p>As long as you are polite about it, there will not be a problem.</p>
<p>I'm really kinda...afraid to do it in person. I can't stand when I feel people are upset with me..or something. Does that make sense? Too many times I've explained things to people ("I can't give my presentation...I just can't speak in front of groups..") to be met with those "blank stares of disappointment"...so uncomfortable. It's not possible to explain my feelings over email?</p>
<p>Email is really impersonal. If you want to leave on a good note, and since you're in a small community it would be <em>really</em> good idea to leave on a good note, you need to resign in person with a written letter of resignation. </p>
<p>It might be easiest for you if you ask for a meeting, hand your supervisor your letter, tell him you would like to resign. I employ a lot of teens and young adults. Some of them would rather do a horrible job and make me fire them, as opposed to being adult about it, saying it's not a good fit and they would like to look for something else.</p>
<p>No one ever has to stay in a job they don't want to do. They do need to be adult and upfront about it.</p>
<p>OTOH -- there are boring parts to every job, and some of the most boring are the most important, and therefore closely supervised at the beginning. You may feel that it's busy work, but if you are being paid for the work, it is by definition, worthwhile work.</p>
<p>What exactly is in a resignation letter? It's a reaaaally casual office, it just seems so out of place to be all formal. I just...gah...I don't know how to talk to him and let him know I want to quit. But it's really...this job...it's making me miserable.</p>
<p>Are you dead set on quitting the job- are there alternatives like bringing a radio or iPod in (since its a casual office)?</p>
<p>But if you definitely want to quit-politely explain that while you appreciate the opportunity, the job wasn't what you expected and that it isn't a good job for you.</p>
<p>just try and be professional about it- its not like you are breaking this person's heart or anything- s/he will be a little disappointed but that's just how it is.</p>
<p>Doing internship/work is a very good way of finding out if it's something you would like to do in the future. Let this be a lesson to you to make sure you do enough due diligence before you accept a job. It is time consuming for an employer to hire/train a new candidate. At the same time I am wondering if you are giving the job enough chance before you quit. It is hard to find challenging entry level work. Figure out why you dislike this job so much. If it's just the supervisor, it may be a good life lesson in how to deal with that. In real life, we often don't have the luxury of working for people we like. I have been lucky - about 50-50 so far.</p>
<p>My daughter works in an office at Cornell. She started with data entry, copying, dropping documents off to various professors, and even setting up luncheons for meetings. Now she works on mostly projects - department budget (has a view of professor's salary), website, reports... This is her second year at the job. There has been some ups and downs with the job, but she has tried to work it out with her supervisor(s). I believe what she is doing is going to add quite a bit to her resume. It didn't start out as such.</p>
<p>If you are going to quit, you should let your supervisor know in person and offer to give 2 weeks notice or to train the new person. During your notice period, you should still work as hard as possible. The important thing is to always leave on a good note.</p>
<p>Dull, boring work is the hallmark of entry level jobs. It's part of what motivates us to work harder in order to rise above it.</p>
<p>I would be very careful about quitting a job that is only a semester long - you can't stick it out for 12 more weeks? Think about how this will impact your next two years - it's clearly going to be part of your record. Will another researcher take a chance on you? Why wreck you chances at a good position as a junior or senior because you don't like an entry level job? Also, what makes you think that you won't start the next round as a research assistant doing a very similar type of work? You have to pay your dues.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to reach deep inside yourself and find the motivation to make this job a productive one. You can use distractions, like the Ipod, or carrots on a stick, like asking for more responsibilities. You can also reward yourself after every shift with a treat, if that's what it takes. And think about how this will help you in the future. Believe me, you will be faced with nasty jobs that you absolutely don't want to do, but resilience is sort of like a muscle, and it becomes stronger when you build it up.</p>
<p>I guess for me, I honestly wouldn't mind some boring grunt work. Just answering phones, typing on the computer - I don't mind it.</p>
<p>I do that with this job...but it's like, there's a lot of the job I don't understand. A lot of duties that don't make sense...and I'm assigned homework to complete outside of the office, like writing papers, that don't count toward my work hours. I had to write a 5 page paper for them, got paid nothing.</p>
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A lot of duties that don't make sense...and I'm assigned homework to complete outside of the office, like writing papers, that don't count toward my work hours. I had to write a 5 page paper for them, got paid nothing.
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<p>Was it a research paper? If not, it sounds like you should be getting paid for those hours.</p>
<p>If there is a lot about the job that you don't understand, then that is probably the real source of your unhappiness. To turn this situation around, you need to talk to your supervisor as soon as possible. (I agree with the other posters that you really should try to stick this out until the end of the semester.) </p>
<p>Tell him, in a very polite way, that you are feeling a little overwhelmed because there are some things you don't quite understand -- and then give him specific examples and ask him to give you more detailed explanations so that you can do the job correctly. You should also bring up the fact that you have to spend so much time outside of the lab (writing those papers) -- but only if they hadn't told you about that before you accepted the job. Then you can tell him that you had not anticipated such a big time commitment when you signed up and/or you had expected to be paid for all of the hours you spend on work related to this assignment.</p>
<p>Well, you don't necessarily have to be paid. But, if you wrote a paper for them, you should be credited as an author. For example, I've spent something like 20 hours in the last 2 weeks writing a manuscript for a mentor and I'll be 2nd author on it. I'm not getting paid but a publication in a peer-reviewed journal is probably worth more than $.</p>