25 - I quit my job after 6 years
Today, on August 11, I told my boss I quit.
I've been a social media manager and general admin for a religious learning center for 6 years now. I mostly help with administering classes while also managing the center's Whatsapp and Telegram channels mainly, and Facebook and Youtube secondary. It was rewarding work, and I learned a lot about things from handling live seminars to dealing with very difficult elderly students.
What I didn't like however was that I was getting paid a very humiliating rate.
For a long time I said nothing about it. In my mind I held on to this job because it was sort of like a debt. I won't go into too much detail about it, but my own mother knew the owner of the learning center. So when that friend needed someone to help manage classes and their socials my mother immediately put my name on the hat. "You'll reap so many blessings from God if you do this, because you're connecting other people to religion", my mom said. "You're also getting the benefit of learning valuable knowledge of the Quran! Isn't that wonderful!"
Look, the past few years I do consider myself a religious person. I do believe God's mercy, blessings and bounty are endless and will always be available to me. But what blessing is there to be had when you're getting paid frankly slave wages, with zero worker benefits? Even my country's laws dictate that part time workers must be paid a livable wage and have employer benefits granted to them. My investment into an afterlife isn't something I'll deny, but even in this world, when I'm basically chronically ill and need access to medicine and treatments, I still need to be able to afford to pay for that, don't I? I still need to be able to earn a dignified living on this earth so I can better help people, don't I? Plus, ever since early this year when my hard work was mostly snuffed out by another staffer's AI-generated video, I haven't felt very good about continuing to work there at all, not especially when I've been pushed to incorporate it into what little design work I've made for my workplace.
I told my boss I quit via a text message after a bit of going back and forth, and thankfully, my employer wasn't so toxic about it. I've sat on it all day trying to process what I just did this morning because that job has a very heavy baggage attached to it (my mother's expectations, bc my ex employer was a friend of hers in a high place), but ultimately I decided "I have too many unmet needs to wait for an afterlife reward".
I have too many unmet needs to wait for an afterlife reward.
I pray many more doors will open up for me in wake of this. I've kept silent about it for 6 entire years chasing after approval that ultimately doesn't matter. And in my age of 34, I'm getting quite sick of chasing that approval. Being able to live by my own principles and my own means is a journey long overdue.
If you'd like to help in any way while I continue to search for a job that fits my skill set and can accommodate for my needs, here's how you can help:
- tip me at ko-fi - or better yet, why not be a member for the small price of $3?
- grab a commission on my vgen!
- buy something from my acggoods store!
And if you're in the market for a social media manager/stream or online class manager that you don't mind working remote with, please do reach out to me via eliosaidi@proton.me.