Everyone else is right. Try to line something new up first. But I was once in the position of quitting without something lined up, and the decider for me was that if I didn’t quit, I was likely to actually take my own life. It’s a matter of perspective at that point, and clearly, surviving was the better option.

When a job is toxic, I send off a job application for someplace else every evening. It makes the job I have bearable cause I feel like I’m already gone but the toxic boss still thinks they have power over me. Gives me a chuckle.

Every time I left a job to find something better, I doubled my salary as well.

If you need the money then start looking for jobs now, and quit when you’ve got something.

I just one day said fuck it and gave notice with no plan. I burnt out to the point I was probably getting fired if I stuck around much longer. Besides, If I stayed I was going to quit life instead.

It was a miserable month or 2 of draning my savings finding a new job and I had to take a small pay cut once I did. It was worth it alone for the better work environment.

Line something up if you can, but get out before it gets worse for you.

Answer based on European standard where worker have some basic rights

• Not happy in the job : do the bare minimum while looking for something else guarantees that pay keeps coming, worst-case they fire-you giving you a severance pay (not necessarily big if you’re new in the company) and keeping your right to unemployment (which in general are lost when you quit).

• Toxic environment impacting mental health : Go to your doctor and take sick-leaves, and please do it before being in full burn out, then come back to previous point

• Very toxic environment, like harassment : Talk with a lawyer or an union representative you may have a case to sue the company, and even quit on the spot while keeping severance pay and unemployment rights, but you may-need a legal advise for it

I’ve left two jobs because they were toxic. I always had something else lined up beforehand though.

I am a homeless man in San Francisco because I quit a public sector job that I was not allowed to fix with my good-ass coding skills. I have no regrets.

The requirement for a steady paycheque is what keeps everyone working in terrible conditions. I’m lucky enough that I’ve always had a lot in savings and it has come in handy a few times. Twice I’ve walked off a job and never went back after failing to negotiate proper working conditions with the boss. Both times I burned through about $10,000 in savings while searching for a new job. Almost nobody has that much saved up. If they did, terrible bosses would lose employees on the regular.

I’ve never been paid enough to really do anything but feed myself, so I’ve never had to choose between working a shitty job and being homeless. Yet.

If I ever got a job that paid me enough to afford rent, I’d definitely be less willing to bail unless it was really shitty.

Do the math. See how rational the fear is. Whatever the result, admit you’re afraid and decide if you also want to be brave and act despite the fear. Make a plan. Start working on it. Hopefully things are better on the other side, but either way that fear will pass.

Fear is a natural part of human life. Often useful, but also often not. But as long as you can manage to act despite your fear, it won’t harm you.

Ok, cortisol and stress exist, but you have bigger things to worry about.

It scared the shit out of me, but was one of the best decisions I took, on my next job I learned to impose limits from the start.

I managed to find something very soon, but if I were in a similar position nowadays I would first find something new.

I’ve never had trouble finding new work, so it hasn’t been too scary for me. Once I got laid off and found another job before the severance ran out but that job turned out to be a disaster and I got laid off there as well, only months later. That was definitely discouraging but a relief as well. I got right back on the horse.

However now things have changed a lot. I am much more senior and earning a lot more. Senior roles are fewer and more competitive. And the job market has been a disaster this year. It used to be that I’d get a couple of recruiter emails per week and now I can hardly get a response to any job applications I send. So yeah. At this point the financial hit terrifies me because I have a lot more at stake and I don’t know when I could get back to where I am if I left. I’m not miserable but I am unhappy as well as bored. For now I’m just dealing with it. I’m a little afraid to be “dealing with it” for the rest of my days though.

Don’t quit, slowdown, make them fire you, collect unemployment and get a better job

Well yeah, that’s why some people stay in toxic jobs unfortunately.

It seems that everyone already answered, but I will give my perspective as well.

It’s definitely very different for each person. Some people need the money more or less. Some people suffer more in their job or less. Some people have more options or less.

I like to imagine a scale where on one side you have the reasons to leave and on another side you have the reasons to stay. And reasons to leave are multiplied by how many options you have outside.

So if your job is terrible and you’re pretty financially stable and you have a lot of options for finding other jobs then the scale would lean towards leaving. Or if your job is pretty terrible, but you’re not financially stable and you don’t have a lot of options, then the scale would be pretty equal and you’ll have to take a risk.