Leaving a job without another offer sounds irresponsible to many people. I understand why.
Dubai is not an easy place to be unemployed. Your income, stability and ability to remain in the country are closely connected to your work. Resigning without another role waiting can turn an already difficult decision into a frightening one.
But by the time I resigned, staying had also become a risk.
The job change that initially felt like progress
After settling into my first role in Dubai, I eventually moved to another opportunity around the middle of February.
At the time, changing jobs felt like progress. I wanted a role that aligned better with where I hoped to grow. Like most people, I believed a new workplace could give me better experience and move my career forward.
The beginning did not immediately reveal what the experience would become. Difficult work environments rarely announce themselves clearly on the first day. The pressure grows slowly, until the things that once seemed temporary start becoming normal.
When long working days became the expectation
My workweek ran from Monday to Saturday. A normal day could begin around 9 in the morning and continue until 8 or 9 at night, sometimes even later.
The problem was not only the number of hours. It was the culture around them.
Staying late was treated like proof that someone was committed. Finishing work and logging out on time could be viewed negatively, even when the work for the day had been completed. The longer people remained available, the more dedicated they appeared.
I tried to set a simple boundary. I would work seriously during my scheduled time, but I did not want being constantly available to become the only measure of my contribution.
That boundary was not always received well.
My health started telling me what I was avoiding
Over time, I began falling sick more frequently. I was tired, physically and mentally, and there was very little energy left for anything outside work.
My days had narrowed into preparing for work, travelling, working, returning home and recovering enough to repeat the same cycle.
There was no real space left for creativity, rest or a personal life. Even when I was not actively working, my mind remained occupied by work.
This is the part people sometimes dismiss as normal pressure. Every job has difficult days. Every workplace has busy periods. I kept telling myself that perhaps I needed to adjust, become stronger or wait for the situation to improve.
But when the difficult period becomes the everyday reality, it is no longer only a busy phase.
Being blamed made the situation clearer
Another difficult part was being blamed for delays or problems that were not always within my control.
I was willing to take responsibility for my work and learn from mistakes. But there is a difference between accountability and becoming the convenient person to blame whenever something goes wrong.
The combination of long days, six-day weeks, repeated pressure and blame gradually changed how I felt about the job. I was no longer growing through a challenge. I was simply trying to survive the week.
I reached a point where I had to ask myself a difficult question: Was staying really the safer option if the job was affecting my health and taking away every part of my life outside work?
Deciding to resign without a backup
I left around December, with roughly two months remaining before I would have completed a full year in that role.
There was no offer waiting for me. I knew the sensible advice would be to secure another job first, resign only after everything was confirmed and avoid unnecessary uncertainty.
I had tried to continue. But eventually, waiting for the perfect time to leave began feeling like another way of convincing myself to stay.
Resigning did not feel like a brave movie scene. I did not walk away feeling instantly free and certain that everything would work out.
I felt relief, but I also felt fear.
I had removed myself from an environment that was draining me. At the same time, I had stepped into unemployment in Dubai without knowing how quickly I would find something else.
Both feelings existed together.
Leaving was not failure
For a long time, I associated leaving with giving up. I thought strength meant staying, adjusting and proving that I could handle whatever came my way.
That experience changed my understanding.
Sometimes leaving is not failure. Sometimes it is the decision to stop sacrificing your health and identity for a situation that is no longer helping you grow.
It does not mean the choice has no consequences. Mine certainly did. Resigning started a new period of applications, interviews, rejection and visa pressure.
But it also gave me the chance to look for something better instead of using all my energy to survive something that was clearly wrong for me.
I left without knowing exactly what would happen next.
What followed was one of the most uncertain periods of my Dubai journey, and it tested my decision more than once.