*this is gonna be a long one*

This year has been a Year™️. I'm kinda fed up with the industry in general, and I'm not sure how I'm gonna get back to working.
I also got an official autism diagnosis, which makes me feel like there isn't really gonna be a workplace where I'm not gonna want to die. It's fucking exhausting to deal with corporate bs and I don't have the bandwidth for that.
Recently I've been focusing on finishing my studies and I've been considering a hard turn to academia. tbh it's not an idea i like to entertain, but i do like that it has more autonomy and room to breathe. I also like teaching, that's not the problem for me, i just hate the research culture in general. I find it pedantic and gatekeepy in a way that really pisses me off.
Anyway, I'm mostly exhausted, but i do enjoy this field, I just don't know where to go from here.

to me, teaching is more scary and a bigger game of politics.
there is more audience (students) watching your/other player (teachers) moves, and it is easier to sway them in a particular teacher's favor. the principal could single you out to do overtime, while leaving other teachers who are experts in the art of butt kissing

I've worked in the food service industry, and you'll just get yelled at by insufferable customers at unreasonable hours for a pittance of pay.
I've worked in what is probably the most structured of all industries - the Navy. They tell you when to sleep, what to wear, what to eat, what to do in extremely specific details, and even what to say when someone talks to you. Oh, and how to accept the blame when something makes your officer/boss look bad. If deadly office politics and intended lack of autonomy is something that annoys you...
I've spent some time in academia, and it is pedantic even when trying to be practical. It is like moving to a big city after living your whole life in small communities. Your skills are useless unless properly presented and within some seemingly arbitrary confines. And gatekeepers reign unchecked. But time is abundant.
And I've been in the industry for a decade. DevRant has a lot to say about it.

Tl;DR The grass ain't all that green on those other sides.

@dotenvironment ah i guess this is a brazil thing, but to become a professor you have to pass a test and you keep your position for life. it is like that for any public servant actually. it is a very cushy job