‘Happier on unemployment benefits’: Single mum quits ‘dream job’ at 30 due to ‘severe burnout’

A single mum has revealed why she decided to quit her “dream job” at the “pinnacle” of her career, saying she was happier on unemployment benefits.

The young woman says she quit her ‘dream job’ due to burnout. Picture: @AussieBarbie123/YouTube

A single mum has revealed why she decided to quit her “dream job” at the “pinnacle” of her career, revealing she was happier when living on welfare.

In a viral social media video earlier this month, Alicia explained that at 30, she was “experiencing severe burnout”.

She had been working in the community sector but found she was “happier” when she used to be on unemployment benefits.

“Over the last two years I have been working 14-hour days on average, I have worked hard to kind of get into a job I thought or I believed for a number of years was my dream job, which it’s just not,” she said in a TikTok video which has been viewed more than 12,000 times.

“It’s been really tough as someone who unfortunately sees a lot of success in my output or how much I’ve grown in my career. It was a real kick in the guts.”

She explained that “so many of us, particularly when you come from marginalised collectives, we see success on the west or the white man’s scale of what it means to be successful”.

“And for the first time in my life I’ve pulled out a halt,” she said.

“Turning 30 and being in this job I had to sit back and think, this is my moment where I choose what world I want to walk in, and I cannot choose a job or an institution [that] is going to cost my identity and most importantly my core values and beliefs.”

Alicia quit her ‘dream job’ due to burnout. Picture: @aliciaj1111/TikTok

Alicia stressed that she had been “really lucky to work for community, in community, and this was arguably my first time stepping out of a community org, and it was a big reminder of why I’ve dedicated my working career to working in community”.

“To have to now kind of scale things back and think about what I want the next 10 years to look like is not easy, but in saying that it is so exciting, thinking about what I want to do,” she said.

“When I was on unemployment benefits, or single parent benefits, I was happier than I was the entire of last year. Last year was me doing this doing that, doing this doing that, and particularly the five months while I was at that job that I’ve resigned from, had drained me of my happiness.”

@aliciaj1111

I reached my career high and dream job at 30, but I quit it shortly after. Hey, my beautiful people man if you have asked questions about the move to India and why… I will be sharing a series of videos which really covers how I was feeling leading up to the move, including quitting, my dream job as I didn’t align with my core values. I’ve worked since I was 18 years of age to get to this point, and to reach this job, but realise it just an align with me was a big shock. I’ve decided that my values are worth more than monetary gain or a career position. I am also experiencing severe burn out like countless people are, where, for so many years we’ve been managing so many different roles above what are job description covered. If you’d like to hear the whole video, it is available on my YouTube but I would love to hear your thoughts. Have you experienced something like this? Have you experienced burnout? I’d love to read/hear

♬ original sound - AJ 🖤

She described how she would be “dreading having to provide your insights for them to only be knocked back, that is not the job that I want to live”.

“The person that you need to confide in is yourself,” she added.

“Did you meet a pinnacle moment where you got your dream job and you’re just like, this isn’t my dream anymore?”

The video was met with positive responses.

“I support you 1000 per cent. Colonial expectations of productivity and capitalist success are antithetical to human wellbeing,” one commenter wrote.

“100 per cent just did this. Quit my job. Now doing me,” another said.

A new trend has been dubbed The Great Burnout. Picture: iStock

A third wrote, “Community work is challenging, rewarding and burnout is rife, self care is 100 per cent req, it’s hard holding peeps stuff, we need to help ourselves too.”

In other videos this month Alicia revealed she and her daughter had moved to Amritsar in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab.

It comes amid a new trend dubbed The Great Burnout, with Aussies revealing their “soul destroying” experiences at work and why they’re being forced to “quiet quit”.

A study conducted by The Future of Work Lab at the University of Melbourne revealed some alarming results about The Great Burnout experienced by Australians — primarily aged between 25 and 55 — due to the pandemic.

It found that a whopping 50 per cent of workers in those age groups were exhausted in their job, with about 40 per cent reporting feeling less motivated about their work than pre-pandemic.

The study also showed that 33 per cent found it more difficult to concentrate at work because of responsibilities outside of their job, while many saw fewer opportunities for promotions than older workers and did not have enough time to get everything done in their role.

‘Higher numbers of workers are taking sick leave.’ Picture: iStock

“It’s perhaps no surprise 33 per cent of this prime-aged workforce is thinking about quitting,” Professor Leah Ruppanner, founding director of The Future of Work Lab, wrote in The Conversation.

“These workers may be showing up to their jobs but they are definitely burnt out. They are the ‘quiet quitters’ and they are sounding the alarm bell.”

Women in particular make up a large number of those experiencing The Great Burnout, according to Prof Ruppanner.

She said increased childcare and housework during the pandemic on top of the pressures of remaining productive at work had resulted in poorer mental health, worse sleep and more anxiety for females.

“Women are increasingly concentrated in industries such as nursing, childcare workers and primary school teachers, all of which were particularly impacted by the pandemic. Young prime-aged women were particularly impacted during the early period of the pandemic and lockdowns,” she wrote.

“The pandemic was unforeseen, severe and detrimental to our working lives. Many Australia workplaces and workers continue to be impacted as the pandemic continues. Higher numbers of workers are taking sick leave, which may in part be driven by exhaustion and other Covid-related reasons.”

— with Sarah Sharples