You deserve better. There's lots of good info on how to leave a toxic work place, and how to highlight your skills. Don't give those guys another second of your time.
I left a tough place that I'd been at for 10 years, and it was the best thing I did for my life.
I don't want to sound like an asshole, but why did you dedicate 20 years to a company? Stuck in a shitty location/education that only gets you employed in a few companies?
There's definitely something to be said about having a job that doesn't suck too bad, pay is ok and raises keep up somewhat (though of course not as much as it would via job hopping), coworkers are alright, commute isn't terrible. And then you wake up one day and realize that 20 years went by.
Probably bought a house and the industry he works in doesn't have much competition or his skills doesn't transfer. Also change is hard and they could be starting over. 20 years ago the dream was still in people's eyes and they had pensions still
90 hours a week is just insane. But so is working 40 hours a week tbh. I understand that many people need to work fulltime in order to provide for themselves and their families, but they shouldn't have to. Nobody should have to give up 5 out of 7 days of their life to sustain a moderate quality of life. We (humanity) should be better than that.
give up 5 out of 7 days of their life to sustain a moderate quality of life
Darn tootin’, we need Universal Basic Income!
I will say some people in some industries can give up 40hr/wk of their lives from their laptops at home and sustain a phenomenal quality of life. That should def be a choice available to those who care to make it. (And the privileges necessary to be qualified to work those jobs should be afforded to all, of course.*)
*not sure how this sentiment would survive a truly level global playing field with 8bil equal competitors, but don’t wanna be too domestically biased
It really blows my mind that people get stuck in this "that's the way it should be" mindset.
You know that with more exposure your comment would attract tons of replies about "you're lazy, 40 hours is the minimum you should work! You just want life handed to you for 5 hours of work." Completely ignoring that 40 hours a week was "recently" changed to be the norm and only because the owners realized that the workers need time to buy and use their products so that they can sell more...
There's nothing natural about 40 hours weeks let alone 90...
I'd rather die a painful death than work 90 hours. Even 40 hours is worse than the worse thing I've otherwise gone through (life threatening dehydration).