There is a point at which working at McDonald's or temping is better than working for a boss you hate. Are you at that point yet? You can get a filler job and then look around for a job in your field. If there are no jobs in your field in your area, but you want to stay there, you can get a filler job and look for a job in another field, or get a filler job and retrain for a job in another field.

If you want to stay, you need put your head down and bide your time. I had a job that was absolutely terrible. I needed to stay for at least one year in order to get the experience for my resume, though. For the first year, I practiced just getting through each week. Every Friday, I put a hash mark on a post-it note that I kept behind my computer. (Just like a prison movie.) It seems silly but putting up that hash mark every Friday felt good and it allowed me to keep a visual record of how much time I'd done and how much time I had until my "out date." When I hit the one year mark, I started looking for a job -- hard. It took another 12 months, but I eventually got out of there. You will too.

Your other option is to sell the house. The market isn't the greatest right now, but if you are patient, you can sell it. Once it's sold you could move to cheaper digs and quit your job.

Good luck.

Oh yes, you were also irritated that the part time employee is being paid more than you. I assume more per hour.

This is not unusual. The part-timer also does not get benefits that the company has to pay for. You, presumably, do. Benefits are expensive and valuable. Many people knowingly and happily work for less just to get the benefits.

When you are married, and included on your husband's benefits package, maybe you can explore part-time or independent work.

simple

Cary's advice was right on. After 30+ very successful years in the Fortune 500 (I'm also a long term Stanley Bing fan) I'll add my own $0.02 ...

Whatever job you have allows you to learn something - perhaps corporate politics or other intangibles. Try and find some element(s) of the position you like and focus on those while giving minimal efforts to everything else.(to state the obvious here ... always do what's important to your boss, then blow off everything else!)

As an alternative (and I've done this for short periods of time and it's quite enjoyable).

If you really, really, really want to treat this job as a game, try this approach ...

Come into work everyday with the goal of seeing how little work you can do while appearing to work hard. Come in early, occupy your office most of the day but do no real work (the internet is really handy here). Print out articles of personal interest, sit at your desk and read them while highlighting passages of interest. Go out to lunch with coworkers. Book a long meeting on your calendar with a real or imaginary friend, then take your self to an afternoon movie. Make sure your in your office at the end of the workday, be pleasant to everyone (actually when you do this you'll find yourself being outright cheerful!).

You will be astonished at how you can do this without anyone ever, ever, ever noticing. You'll actually get tired of this type of goofing off and will eventually get back to work ... but your outlook will have improved dramtically.

Remember, it's just business - no one really takes it that seriously in their hearts! Good Luck!

When I was about thirty, I had a boss that everyone hated...except me. I was the only person who reported directly to her and really every other person in the company (except the other partners, well at least I think so) thought she was a total bitch. I honestly couldn't understand it. We were both divorced women with lots of smarts and ambition and she thought we had a lot in common, so we were a "good team," as she put it.

Well, then two things happened. (1) A man entered my life, and (2) I was absolutely stellar at my job, most of which used to be her job. I actually think she started to get jealous because I became known as the "wunderkind." Well, actually, lots of people didn't like that so much.

So, she started to send me SHOUTING emails, tearing me apart, and then refusing to discuss the issues with me in person. She told the whole company to please please come to her if they were overwhelmed with work, and when I finally did so (I really had the work of two full-time employees, and I'm a hard-working, very efficient person), she blamed me. It became a mind game for her. I was utterly tortured. I went from being a star there, to feeling her hatred every time I walked in the door. It was all I could to do make myself show up for work, and then I would scoot into my office and try not to cry. Sure, there were other jobs out there, but I was not a bit quitter, and otherwise I liked my job. I did not know what to do, even when our annual "health day" brought me the surprise news that my usual 100/70 blood pressure was now a whopping 140/100. I was so stressed out, it was taking a major toll on my health.

I ended up leaving there, but it wasn't so much to quit as to move to another city with my fiance. Still, I was so relieved. My blood pressure went back to normal, but now 11 years later I still think of that experience as one of the traumas of my life.

That was a nightmare, but in nearly all my other positions over the years, I have had many bosses that I didn't think were all that bright, or that annoyed me to no end (making horse sounds all day because they were stressed, or showing up at my desk to discuss an email before it arrived, or asking me to get things from their desk instead of handing them to me themselves, or even abusing company time or lying to clients over the phone or asking me to--which I refused to do), but that's something you just manage yourself. People are people. Nobody is perfect. At every other job I have had, I was really appreciated because I could get along with everybody very well. I was always very well liked, and in fact generally a confidante to people of all levels because I am a good listener and could be trusted.

Find a way to position **yourself** in the company and forget about the things that bug you about your boss. Figure out if there's anything positive you can learn from her, and do that! If you are interested in a career, focus on that instead.

If your boss isn't making your life truly a living hell, hang in there (you can certainly look for something else), and make yourself useful and well-liked. You will benefit, I promise.