Want to quit my job

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I have been reading this forum for a long time but just recently decided to join and now feel I have something to post about.

I have a job at Software firm (we develop security software), as a researcher. I've been at this job for 6 years, I used to really enjoy the job and the people I worked with but recent events have me wanting to leave. I feel I am getting unduly harassed my supervisor and being knocked on for every little thing all of a sudden out of the blue. For things that I had not known were part of my job (until recently they never had been). A year ago my job was great as I had great supervisor who was also my mentor and worked well with me. I was also in a nice quiet work environment in a small office with one other person (who was very quiet). My old supervisor has now moved on to a different company out of state. Also I am now in an open office plan with other people constantly talking (mostly about non-work related things), walking around etc. Its getting very distressing and I now hate going to work.

The thing is though it was very very hard for me to get this job and I can't just quit. I've never had a job where I had to do a proper interview, and every time I interviewed for a job it was a disaster. I also don't have much of a resume as I am now over 30 and have had only 2 jobs. My only other job was as a graduate research assistant at a university research lab. I have aspergers but haven't disclosed it to my current supervisor and I am kind of afraid to. I really don't know what to do.

try to talk to your supervisor as if he is a reasonable person
ask him questions like 'are you angry at me?'
if this doesnt work (and it might not) then I dont know what to tell you

Obviously the direct physical environment can't be changed, but some things are fluid and if you liked the job initially, I mean, this crap might pass.

I'm in a similar boat, I feel you. My job is horrendous right now, and it's about to get much worse--it's been decided that come January I'm going to be spending at least half my time at work doing other peoples' jobs in my department and basically being subservient to them while still carrying my full caseload.

To be fair, I do have a higher education/qualification than most of them and I am paid more as a result, but I'm not a supervisor by any stretch and there's no intention to make me anything of the sort (in fact it's basically the opposite).

Thankfully my direct supervisor has my back, but the upper levels of the company are salty on me basically because I have the hardest caseload of anyone in my department and thus things that are beyond my control go wrong more frequently.

I also work a slightly abnormal schedule (10-6, not bad at all per se, but definitely not my choice--it's drilled in hard from the upper levels that I stick to that) and still I get chewed out literally every single day for something that I was unable to attend to and wasn't at all aware of before 10:00.

It doesn't help that my department is full of wenches that pretend to look at it as a "team" but are eager to (and in fact may have had a direct hand in) pass all of their monitoring off on me on a dime when it's s**t I know nothing about, yet if anything goes wrong it's my fault.

They also hold clandestine meetings with higher-ups (ostensibly related to things outside of our direct duties) that they make clear I'm the only one in the department that's not invited to, but they talk about the meeting itself (in advance) right in front of me.

I'd be totally remiss and horrible if I didn't do as much soul searching as humanly possible to try to determine why I got jammed into this spot organizationally, but I've been doing that for months, plus I've talked to higher-ups about it and all that, and as far as I can discern there is nothing whatsoever that's happened for me to deserve this. (Admittedly I haven't directly talked to the people in my department, but that's because they can't be trusted for a second... All this s**t came from up the ladder, and I trust my boss, so I feel like I'd at least have a semblance of understanding in the discussions I've had if that were the case)... But it really feels like, because I came in the door like I'm down for what the f**k ever and will help out as much as I can, that attitude is just getting absurdly abused.

So the end result is, I'm 32 years old and I'm extremely good at my job, and I'm under direct supervision of a 40-something who is sympathetic, awesome, and generally extremely good at his job but is understandably overwhelmed, so I'm basically at the mercy of a 25 year old girl who is still stuck in high school style politics and pulls more weight than anyone else in the department just because she is the one who complains the most.

I hope it will pass, I really do. I'm looking for a new job passively because I really want to move to Colorado (if nothing else I'd love to have skiing and puffing bong rips as an outlet, as opposed to heavy weekend afternoon drinking), but I'm not ready. Financially it would be just barely manageable but a HUGE ordeal, I have a girlfriend here, cats, all that funk plus I've only been at my new job for 9 months and despite the horrible vibes a lot of the higher-ups assume I'm in for the long haul, so I could be hard pressed to get references.

s**t's bad. Sorry, that was long-winded and basically just venting, good to get it out of my system. Ideally it would help the OP, but despite my original intent I don't see how it would be helpful because all I'm doing is complaining, but whatever.

Unemployment is worse. Don't do anything to endanger your employment. It's easier to find a new job if you're still working, if it comes to that.

Expecting you to do things that were not previously part of your job may be the new supervisor not knowing, or it may be things need to be done that weren't previously done by anyone, and maybe you missed recognizing them as they came up. They may expect more initiative over time. You've been there 6 years. They may not have marked it with a well-deserved promotion, but they may now consider you senior. It may have happened gradually without your noticing, or the new manager may have different expectations.

It may also be the new manager just has more confidence in you than the last one.

If you REALLY have grown contempt for your job, then start seeking other employment opportunities in your spare time...don't just quit. Wait until you know for sure that you have nabbed another job before quitting, otherwise you'll put yourself in a tricky predicament where you have zero income and you'll unnecessarily put twice as much pressure on yourself. Try your absolute best to stay on good terms with your current employer, that way you'll be able to use them as a reference for your new employer.

I understand the income thing, that's why its very hard to quit. I guess I have become very complacent over the years and unwilling to take more initiative (mostly because in my early years here every time I did I was told not to). I did speak to my supervisor and asked if my performance is OK or needs to be improved. He said that I was doing great but the company did poorly on some industry tests and he was looking at ways to improve things.

I still feel though that I want to find another job as that this particular industry segment is not really something I'm interested in and it was just the only job I could find (I started as a temp). My background (what I went to school for) is in GIS/Geo-statistcs, its something I'm extremely interested in. I suck at interviews. I don't really have any references other than my professors. I'm over qualified for most entry level positions in my field. Most jobs for those with my educational background want people with at least 5 years experience. It seems like a futile task to find a job where I would be happy and truly use my skills.