Sick of my miserable job (effecting my health)

Hi everyone! first time poster here. I am a 25 years old male from Pakistan. Currently I am sickened by my job. Allow me to elaborate.

Here in Pakistan, we do not have any labor laws so you are for the most part at the mercy of your employer, hence, people normally have to work gruesome hours everyday and things like work-life balance, over-time payments, and vacations are almost unheard of. I am in a similar situation. My boss expects me to do work that only a very experienced person in my field can do and me being relatively new, can't do those jobs adequately, therefore I have to (am forced) to do long shifts at work, almost as long as 18-19 hours daily - including sundays and saturdays, in order to ensure that I can complete the assigned work. However, being a novice at this, I still make mistakes and my boss gets all angry at me and puts me under more pressure everyday. As of late, I am extremely burned out due to this, and I feel more stressful,weaker and feeble everyday. I can't even bath or cut my nails properly as there is always a deadline to meet, phone is always ringings, always an incoming email.

To make it even worse, I and all my colleagues are being paid only $80 a month (even lower than national minimum wage). And mind you this is a job that requires professional qualification such as CPA to practice.

The trouble is, I had a verbal commitment with my boss that if I leave this job before 1.5 years, He/they will not provide me with an experience letter. And now I'm no the verge of breaking psychically and mentally and sometimes I just wanna leave without saying a word when I am constantly being put under pressure, and they can't stop me from leaving, but I wont get any experience letter, and I won't have anything to prove to other employers that I have worked here for almost a year.

I am in huge dilemma as to what to do, whether to keep taking abuse and keep being mentally and physically tortured or to just call it quits without an experience certificate.

P.S here in Pakistan, you can't complain to any authority regarding this due to them being inordinately corrupt and incompetent; the legal system of this country is also in shambles as you would expect. So I am own my own.

Please guide me.

Thanks for the long read.

Sounds like a horrible situation to be in. Do they ever not give the experience letter even if the person stays that long? I'm not sure how it works over there, but it doesn't sound like they care much about their employers, so what assurance do you have that at the end of it, you will get what you need?
I assume that this letter is a big deal and you need it to advance in what you do and get a better job? I can't really tell you what to do in the situation, but do what you can handle. I you don't think you can handle more than 6 months staying there, leave. But on the other hand, you've made it a year, what's another 6 months?
I can't even imagine only making $80 a month for that kind of work.

Is there no one else who could give you an experience letter or does it have to be from an employer? Could one of your former teachers or your doctor give you a reference for another job instead? A new employer will be well aware of labour practices and if you explained your situation, maybe s/he would understand.

TheRealCallie,
Thank you for your response. This letter is a big deal, but I really don't know how am I gonna manage another 6 months here. Almost everyday is a living he'll. I almost feel like I have no self worth doing such a tedious and stressful job for $80/month even laborers in my country earn more than this. This being said, I might not have the letter with me if I prematurely leave but I do have the skills acquired over here. Here, even though I've been only working for one year, but I have done the managerial level take on regular basis.

I understand you can't suggest me what to do, but thanks for your response, it made me feel a bit better.

Could you look for a new job before you leave the old job? That's what we would do here, but it doesn't sound like much is similar over there. I would look around, see if you can get another job that's better and if you can, then leave this job and never look back.

Even over here in North America there are employers who try to circumvent or bend the labour laws and get away with it. I worked for a few, one who thought he was above them and enjoyed manipulating his employees, another who was ignorant of them. Hopefully your employer honours their word. Sounds like you are kind of stuck in a crappy situation. It can take awhile for change to come, heck it might even be you who helps to initiate some kind of labour laws, you never know. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger and it seems like you'll need that strength in your work force.

Thanks for the responses. I know employers do manipulate and abuse their workers everywhere, but at least in good countries (for the most part, you can do something about it). But anyways, I am stuck and I don't know for how long can I take this abuse for just a piece of paper.

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@ TheRealCallie yes I could but seriously since I am in the office for almost 12 hours everyday (including Sundays and Public Holidays), I hardly have time to pursue any contact or job leads etc, and over here contacts are pretty much the only way of securing a job. So in essence, I can't look for a new job because of this. Hell! the employer doesn't even allow short leave; it is like a jail, and to make matters worse, one of my colleagues complies so much with the instructions of manager and director that he even left his child of 3 years alone when the child had a typhoid and was admitted in hospital, just to make sure that whatever the manager had wished for is granted to him. Hence, the manager expects all of us to be like that colleague, and that's why one of my junior colleagues left this job the other day because he was expected to give up all his liberty and social life for this job - a job that pays less than the wage of a janitor here.

I am sorry you have having a rough time with your job. And yes, having a bad job has health effects. But, having No job also has health effects as well. So, my advice is to just hang tough while looking for a better job. Cast a wide net and find something better.

delledonne11 said:

I am sorry you have having a rough time with your job. And yes, having a bad job has health effects. But, having No job also has health effects as well. So, my advice is to just hang tough while looking for a better job. Cast a wide net and find something better.

Click to expand...

Hi thanks for the response. Unfortunately, the current management doesn't allow any time off from work, so it is really hard to look for any new opportunities. I know this sounds hard to believe, but this is what happens when there are no laws and regulations.

UPDATE:

The current situation is getting even worse, I do not know for how much longer I can hold on. On almost a daily basis, I have to sit until 9-10 pm, and even then I can not satisfy management. I have acquired a good skill set here, and have also managed to save a few pennies by relying totally on my parents. So my question is, to what extent would to go for just a piece of paper? I mean, this paper is important, but it's not like my entire life depends on this paper

I feel so alone, I don't even know who to talk to about it. It feels like that I am in a worst situation in this entire world; I just don't know what to do.

You're obviously being over worked.

But the only thing that keeps you staying is the prospect of that experience letter?

I would try to get out of there. Perhaps you can document your work there in some other way, that a good, compassionate and understanding employer would accept. Coworkers that could be your reference or something like that.

Just throwing out advice here. Perhaps it's not applicable to you at all.

Good luck anyhow. Personally I would've cracked fast under the pressure you're exposed to.

I would never stay with any employer who abused my employee status.
Health is the most important thing in your situation as you are only 25 years old.
Nothing is worth sacrificing your health and sanity to just get a piece of paper. Will this piece of paper guarantee that you will get a better job when you leave?
I really despise these employers who treat their workers as if they were indentured servants.

despair3218 said:

delledonne11 said:

I am sorry you have having a rough time with your job. And yes, having a bad job has health effects. But, having No job also has health effects as well. So, my advice is to just hang tough while looking for a better job. Cast a wide net and find something better.

Click to expand...

Hi thanks for the response. Unfortunately, the current management doesn't allow any time off from work, so it is really hard to look for any new opportunities. I know this sounds hard to believe, but this is what happens when there are no laws and regulations.

UPDATE:

The current situation is getting even worse, I do not know for how much longer I can hold on. On almost a daily basis, I have to sit until 9-10 pm, and even then I can not satisfy management. I have acquired a good skill set here, and have also managed to save a few pennies by relying totally on my parents. So my question is, to what extent would to go for just a piece of paper? I mean, this paper is important, but it's not like my entire life depends on this paper

I feel so alone, I don't even know who to talk to about it. It feels like that I am in a worst situation in this entire world; I just don't know what to do.

Click to expand...

If you quit do you have enough money to sustain yourself? A place to stay? Can you just work somewhere else and start the 1.5 year requirement over again?

No one can tell you what to do. All I can honestly say is no job is worth your soul. Im from the US so im not familiar with your system. I highly suggest you make a list of pros and cons. One for if you stay and one for if you go. Have you looked for other work? While working a your current job. In the US people make a paper called a resume we list all our experience on it. Not all employers were happy with us but they cant take away our experience. So we put it on the resume we make. Can you go to another work site and tell someone your qualifications? Explain your situation to different people? I dont know your culture but someone might be willing to listen. On your off days go around looking for employment and tell people your a hard worker explain what you do. If you explain your work well enough they'll know you have true experience in the field and arent lying. Before paper all we had was word of mouth. Im pretty **** sure when people needed and employee in the 1800s they didn't walk hundreds of miles to see if someones story was true. They believed the person because the person knew what they were talking about. The truth flows freely lies dont.

Indian here. So I know what its like. People would advise, I warn you. Leave your job immediately. Screw experience, Get a better one. The one that you wanted to have. You believe that doing this may make you happy in the future. It wont. Probably, it will give you money, bit no happiness, because what you are doing to achieve it isn't making you happy either.