I hate my job in the DMV.

Hi guys,

As the title states, I work in a DMV (and no I am not an NPC). I absolutely HATE it; I have worked in the same position since 2012, and I feel like there is no end in sight and I’m majorly burned out.

I have no HR department so to speak of, and my boss & her 2nd in command are extremely hateful. While working in the DMV I feel like I have a ton of experience because I’ve been there so long (which I do). The office I in the “boss” is an elected official so they’re elected in by the general public. I handle car tag renewals, vehicle transfers, lien filings on vehicles & more. The office also handles elections & candidate filings for people who want to run for any kind of office within the city & county.

My boss has treated me terrible a number of times and doesn’t accept when others make mistakes. The worst thing she’s done to me so far is this: I was filling out candidate filing paperwork, had one of my coworkers come over and double check and then my boss came over and talked to my customer who was filing for candidacy and even looked over his paperwork and said it was good. At the end of the day, she asked who handled his paperwork and I said, “I did, why?” She then proceeds to tell me how stupid I am and that I needed to learn to read and go back and finish college (I still haven’t but I am enrolling this year because I have no idea how to get out of my current job into a better position).

Her 2nd in command is just as bad and has told me that “skinny jeans don’t make me look skinny”. My response was I am aware that it’s in the name of the type of jeans and that it doesn’t reflect my current appearance as so (I’m not fat but I’m not skinny either). She also came up to me after I opened a box of Christmas cookies, and my coworker wanted some and wanted to see what kind of cookies there were. She proceeded to poke me (more like jab at me) & she blamed me for leaving the wrapper on the counter and proceeded to treat me like a child saying we don’t leave trash laying around. I told her it wasn’t me, and my coworker chimed in (who’s also pregnant and wanted the cookies) oh that was me! I wanted one and got distracted and left it there then the 2nd in command told her that it was completely okay and that it happens and laughed.

The problem is, there is a “clique” to the office, and I am not in it, and I don’t want to be in it. I have no idea how to get out of the office and find a better job because the county pays a huge portion of my health insurance. When I do look for jobs on indeed, I get in this funk of “I’ve never done that, will they even want me?” Then talk myself into staying again and going through this again with the same behavior (this is the ONLY job I’ve ever had since graduating high school). Is this normal workplace behavior? Should I try to leave, or should I just stay put until I finish college?

I want to grow, I want to escape this, I want to do something different and be more for myself. I want to be surrounded with people who don’t treat me like I’m stupid or a child, and I want to be in a positive environment where I’ll be allowed to grow and taught how to correct my mistakes vs. being yelled at and degraded. There has to be something more out there for me.

Side Note: I have no HR at all since she’s an elected official, we don’t even have an HR department. She literally cannot be reprimanded. There is no board that she reports to or anyone to even tell to make anything better. She has addressed herself as my HR several times in my yearly evaluation.