“Stay in Job I Hate? Or Try to Make My Hobbies Work for Me?”

I was a teacher for the first ten years of my career. About two years ago I was completely burnt out, and felt it would be doing a disservice to my students to stay in the classroom when my heart wasn’t fully in it. I realized that I would have to start again from the bottom, and got a new job as an entry-level office employee.

To put it bluntly, it’s awful. I hate feeling like my work has no meaning, and it will take a while to work my way up to any significant paycheck.

I’ve done some things on the side like tutoring, writing articles, playing music, and giving shiurim, but I don’t see a way of turning any of those into real jobs. My question is, should I stay at my job and try to move up faster? Look for another job? Go back to teaching?

Aha — so what seemed like an easy solution has become your problem!

You left a job because you felt an obligation to your students, but what about you? Just like they deserve a teacher whose “heart is in it,” you deserve — nay, you need — a job that speaks to your heart as well.

There are two categories of people: those for whom meaningful work is a bonus, and those for whom meaningful work is a must. Generally, teachers-who-quit-their-job-for-fear-of-not-putting-in-enough-heart fall into the second group.

In the Myers-Briggs personality type system, there’s a category called Thinking and Feeling. This refers to how a person naturally makes decisions. When faced with a decision (Which apartment should I choose? Should I leave this job or not? Which pair of shoes should I buy?), notice where you naturally go first: your heart or your head? People who are Feelers tend to reply to that question with “heart.”