Work life balance

I used to love my job. I've been doing the same thing, with a few slight changes to job title and duties, since January 1996. If I'm honest I just kind of wandered into it. I left school in 1991, during the last big recession, with nine good GCSEs and slightly disappointing results at A-level.

I had been warned off my dream job of teaching by my mum (a primary school teacher) and didn't want to start my adult life in debt without a specific career in mind, so decided not to go to university . The only job I was able to get at that time was working in McDonalds. I stayed there for four years, only leaving when the last of the colleagues I considered a friend left to work elsewhere.

It wasn't the best job in the world, but it paid the rent, gave me my first taste of independence and brought me out of my shell. It also gave me the customer service skills that are a major requirement for my current role. I get annoyed when I hear people say they would never work in a job "like that". It shows no respect for the people who do jobs "like that" and assumes that they are there because they don't deserve any better or can't do anything else.

I used to be proud of the organisation I am employed by and of the work I did. I felt that we really made a difference and helped people when they most needed it. I don't feel that way any more and haven't done for a while now. I've tried new roles and thrown myself into additional duties to try regaining that sense of doing a worthwhile job to the best of my ability, but it just isn't working.

So, do I stay where I am because it's well paid compared to anything else I'm qualified to do and gives me the freedom I need to balance my work and home-life or risk upsetting everyone and everything while I figure out where I want to go next, at a time where work is scarce and competition fierce? I'm too scared to even think about it right now.