fuyu's journal

[fuyu]

@Chris: Lol, thank you for painting that image. I'll think about that when I talk to my manager and feel nervous. I'll ask for things that frustrate me the most and if he says no, I'm free =)! This sounds bad, but I wouldn't trust my manager to not let me go after busy season if I say I want to quit. A few years ago, the firm let go of 50% of the staff accountants and hired interns to replace them the day after busy season. I stopped trusting my manager after that. Especially after seeing my coworkers, who worked so many late hours, leaving his office crying.

@Eureka: That's so nice =). I think that could work if I was working somewhere else. Its weird. At the firm I work at, an employee's PTO, salary, and bonus is based on their job title, regardless of how well or bad they do. So, my manager can't approve that. I think people only work long hours because they want to make partner or for senior accountants and below because they get paid overtime.

[fuyu]

I tried to quit last Friday. The idea of telling my manager was so nerve-wracking. I wonder how my friends and coworkers go through with it so easily. It felt too mean to say the things that I dislike when most of those things my manager has no control over. I tried to quit by saying I want to work from home full time and that I would be moving to Boston in May and to not work on client I dislike the most. He agreed and even offered to transfer some of my work to another manager (I said no because I would feel bad that my coworkers had more work when they already work longer hours than me). Even though previously, he had said no to working from home during busy season.

I guess I should be happy that I don’t have to worry about finding a new job? My roommate suggested I should start saying no more often as practice or I'll end up continuing to work there when I'm 60 ><.

[Eureka]

Working at home full time? Congratulations! Well done, fuyu.

[fuyu]

Thanks, it feels wonderful to get 18 hours back each week =). And thank you for your encouraging words. My friends thought it was insane to consider quitting my job before getting a job offer.

[Chris]

My friends thought it was insane to consider quitting my job before getting a job offer.

But quitting your job without a job offer is the ultimate goal, isn't it? (-:

You should accept the "insane" label as a compliment.

[Smashter]

Awesome! It's inspiring to see what can happen when you have the confidence to put your foot down.

[fuyu]

Thank you =) I’m grateful that this forum exists. Its the only place where I can admit that I want to do something that outside of the normal and not have to give an excuse for why I want to do it, like intermittent fasting or wanting to rent forever. The other 95-99% of the time I happily follow my family and friends values.

[OTCW]

Congrats on getting to work from home. I've quit jobs four times in my professional career. Three times after landing another job, and once without another job lined up. People thought it was crazy, but really, it was just fine. The benefits of getting away outweighed the uncertainty of not having an income. It worked out fine and I am still at the job I landed (part time) years later. Best job I've ever had by far.

[lightfruit55]

Awesome fuyu! Been following your journal for a while now as we are around the same age and I can definitely relate to your career situation.

I look forward to the day when I have the financial and mental strength to do what you did too.

Keep us updated on how "work from home full-time" goes!

[fuyu]

My manager told me that once I move to Boston, I would have to go back to working in the office twice a week (because that’s what one of the Boston partner wants). Earlier this year, he had reassured me that nothing would change if I wanted to move to Boston when I asked him. If he hadn’t said this as if I should be happy I could still work from home the other 3 days of the week, I would be less annoyed about this change. I really wanted to ask, are you serious? Every year for the past 6 years at least, people ask to transfer from the Boston office or quit because that office is so miserable.

I was hesitant about quitting before for many reasons, but none of those reasons seem worth it to keep staying. This isn't the first time where he'd agreed to something and then later say no and say it was because a partner said no or its firm policy. I thought about saying that I haven't change my mind about quitting if I have to work in the Boston office, but even if he says okay I can continue to working from home full time, I would still be upset. Maybe this is normal and I’m overreacting. Do other people accept it when their manager says one thing and changes their mind later?

A small, spiteful part of me hopes my coworkers will also quit once my work gets transferred to them.

[Chris]

If you're working from home full time, what difference is there between "working from home in New York" and "working from home in Boston"?

What would happen if you moved to Boston and just didn't go into the office?

If it hasn't come across already, I rarely ask my manager for things beforehand (-: My policy is summarized as "inform, then do". If there is a problem during the "inform" phase, it's up to him to raise the problem. Most people dislike confrontation, so that rarely happens. Then if the "do" phase produces acceptable results for the business, it's proof there isn't a problem. No verbal exchange, and things just keep rolling along...

[fuyu]

During summer, I have to go into the office a few days to watch webinars to meet CPE requirements. And I would need payroll to withhold MA tax instead of NY.

Most likely my manager would be unhappy about it and maybe assign me worse clients (the ones with messier books and shorter deadlines). Not sure what other consequences could be.

[fuyu]

I finally quit in early July and moved to Boston in late August! There weren’t any major new things at work. It was just little things that added on top of the previous things made work feel unbearable.

I told my manager that I was quitting to take one year or two break from working. And he said he understood. And also that if I wanted to come back after my break or if I changed my mind or if I wanted to do other work at the firm, just call him. I guess it was nice of him to try to suggest other type of work I could instead of quitting entirely?

I think my manager tried to assign me more interesting work when he could and other seniors seemed to like it when he does that, but I really didn't care if the work was boring or not. I wonder if I should have been more honest about why I was quitting. But, it seemed best to not saying anything in case I needed a good reference later.

[Eureka]

Congratulations with quitting! Well done!

I am in a similar situation about to quit anytime soon and in the process of figuring out the best way. I am pretty sure that if I say, that I'd want a 1-2 years break, they will offer me an unpaid leave for that duration. And as I know I will not go back, I have exactly the same considerations as you. Glad to know I am not alone.

[fuyu]

Thank you =)

[Chris]

That's excellent news! Always nice to see someone leveraging their FU money (or fuyu money?). It's quite empowering.

How does it feel to be rid of that job for the past few months?

[fuyu]

Overall, each day feels very carefree and wonderfully lacking in urgency. I’m happy that I can hangout with my friends more, that I’m in interested in learning again, that I can start volunteering at cat shelter next month, and that I’m sort of exercising. Unless someone asks, I don't think my accounting job. Brain is cluttered with other stuff.

The first two months I kept going back and forth between thinking that maybe I should have asked to worked part-time instead of quitting and being a zombie that spent too much time sleeping and eating way too much junk food.

The third month, I finally went back sleeping and eating normal amount and feeling that yay, I’m free! And, I started to translate Chinese online novels as a more fun way to learn how to read Chinese than studying through workbooks. I initially started translating the dialogue in a Chinese drama that I really liked but and wanted to talked about with my friends, but they didn’t know Mandarin. Then, I switched to translating Chinese online novels when I lost interest in that drama.

At some point, I noticed that there are translators who earn some money by offering readers advance chapters through Patreon that haven’t been released on their website yet, so I’m trying that right now.

After break is over, instead of applying to accounting jobs, I’m considering apply to a Chinese online novel publisher which is what a lot of fan translators do after translating for a while. Their criteria seems for hiring seems pretty low… I just need to translate one of their novels for a few chapters and show that a lot of people are reading it.