I work from home for tech support

I hear you @Stillhuman - there are so many stresses in today's world. It must be rough feeling like it is hard to change jobs. Sometimes "the devil we know is better than the one we do not know" to quote an old saw.

I hear you about slow computers. Here is an example of a refurbished computer with Windows 10 Refurbished: Dell OptiPlex SFF Desktop Intel Core i5-3470 3.20GHz 4GB RAM 128 GB SSD DVD-RW DVD-RW WiFi HDMI Windows 10 Pro - Newegg.com for <$100 USD that might speed things up.

Moving to Linux is a step away from Windows but if you are in a browser based environment the OS does not matter so much. The fastest Linux are those that are contained in a CD and will book from Flash Drive or solid state drive.

CANDC

[If you want me to see your reply to this post please tag me by including @CANDC in your message - not in requoting my message and not the first word of your message]

I'm sorry you're in this situation @Stillhuman

I was stuck. Then I was laid off 15 months ago after working at the same place for over 3 decades. I was doing very niche / obscure work, and I'm over 60yo. So I have to retrain and then "compete" for jobs against younger workers.

But I'm grateful that I was laid off because I could sense they were trying to fire me. They kept adding to my workload and complaining that I wasn't doing enough and threatening to put me on a PIP.

The job was making me have stomach pains, but I was stuck because my wife has serious health problems, we needed insurance, and I was afraid to make any change.

Many companies have extra computers; eventually they'll have to pay a fee to dispose of them. Would you be willing to ask them to give you one or at least borrow one? Or is this work that you could do on a library computer for part of the day?

[QUOTE=SquarePegGuy;7562166]
But I'm grateful that I was laid off because I could sense they were trying to fire me. They kept adding to my workload and complaining that I wasn't doing enough and threatening to put me on a PIP.

The job was making me have stomach pains, but I was stuck because my wife has serious health problems, we needed insurance, and I was afraid to make any change.
/QUOTE]

I was in a situation like that. The team manager would get tired of people and want them gone. It was a revolving door. She tried to make be quit, making my life difficult, because I'd been there a while and was owed significant severance pay. I wasn't going to leave that money on the table. Plus, I sort of need to be remote and there aren't so many remote jobs available.

I was also having health problems - not sleeping, losing weight. In the end, my husband took me to the ER and they put me on stress leave. There was even a workers' compensation investigation. When I came back they let me go, but with severance, and I also received unemployment. After a break, I was able to find something else, which isn't spectacular, but is much better.

Stillhuman - I definitely understand what it's like having a terrible job like that. I know the market is tough, but you need to keep trying, maybe try exploring options you haven't thought of initially. Also, as CANDC said, you should look into a refurbished computer. Having a slow computer just makes everything more frustrating. There are also some tricks you can use to speed up an older computer; do some searching on Google or ChatGPT for suggestions. Hoping things improve for you soon!