It sounds like you hate the job, but appreciate at least some of the people there. Taking your job seriously makes a great deal of sense, as there is no better way to demonstrate your integrity. A lot of people are just trying to get by with just enough effort to collect a paycheck, but they are likely to be suffering much more than you are. They live with the stress of possibly being caught not doing enough, and either guilt or forced numbness of conscience.
I figured out that by doing a little bit more, and better than was expected of me, I felt a bit of empowerment and control, and I felt as though there was less drudgery to the work. Such an approach doesn’t always work. Coworkers may become jealous or resentful. They may even try to make you look bad to management. Yet at the end of the day, you can leave with your conscience at peace.
I maintained that “go the extra mile” philosophy in all of my career paths, and despite occasional problems with coworkers, it worked well for me, leading to raises and promotions. Upward mobility and housekeeping may be slow, but it happens eventually.
I have had several career paths, but the one I found most fulfilling is the one I retired from after many years. I started out doing maintenance in a nursing home. Along with that, I became a CNA. Then for a couple of years, I was a full-time CNA, and attended a junior college for an Associates degree. I continued working as a CNA while going to nursing school, and ended up with a bachelor of science in nursing.
Another option is to become an LPN to begin with, and use that higher income to fund further education if you feel like it. There are a lot of other options in the medical field as well, for example physical therapy aide, x-ray technician, phlebotomist, pharmacy aid or host of other things.
Leaving a job where you have made friends is a sad thing, but can be necessary for any number of reasons. The sadness means that even if you hated the job, you found some good in it. Often, the only way to advance and increase income is to change employers. When it comes time to do that, it’ll be a sad thing again. It’s also possible that you can find yourself in a position that you don’t want to leave. That’s okay too.
I did manage to leave my employers on good terms, so they’d be willing to hire me back.
Low skill jobs offer a great opportunity to develop a work ethic that will serve you throughout your career. Before I went into nursing, I landed one of the best jobs I ever had by starting out feeding pigs. That one led to a partnership offer in a property management company on the Big Island of Hawaii. So, one can never know what future opportunities may come.