Workspace drama is gonna pile on what you already have on your plate. It's gonna burn you out.

As the years go by, you'll get opportunities to learn things beyond what you were taught in college. It looks good on your resume (I've been to respiratory care, sleep diagnosis, and currently am being trained in PCR testing for covid) but look before you leap, not every new skill you learn will be relevant to every employer you're applying for. Polysomnography was fun, but it has very little to do with clinical laboratory work.

At times when you are unemployed, being conscious about having gaps in your work experience is gonna stress you out even if you've saved up enough to money to sustain yourself for a while. So my advice is to maintain a healthy and approachable relationship with your workmates, supervisors or the HR. (I've had HR problems too, but good people exist)

I get along pretty well with the HR manager at a job I left a long time ago. Whenever I happen to be looking for work for one reason or another, I still get calls for on-call duty whenever a technologist needs to take a day off or something. Keeps you from being rusty, maintains business relations, and keeps you visible to potential future job offers.

I can be a real quiet guy IRL, but as long as you're open to conversation, you can keep yourself updated on jobs and news and shit.

Also... mental health man... you gotta take care of yourself. Play video games or learn to draw or whatever.

Sorry for the late reply by the way. I'm not very articulate, so it takes me a while to put to words what I think.

Lastly, I've never worked a fast food chain before. Sounds fucking rough but you've learned to multitask. That's gonna be useful. Depending on the country you're working in, you'll quite often find yourself running several sections by yourself. Your years working in fast food might pay off here.

Glad you're on the lab now. Good luck