Job dilemma

[WhiteRabbitCandy]

I've been working in a job for a year with absolutely lovely colleagues. The work is a bit repetitive, but I have had additional tasks given to me over the year which has diversified the role a bit. It's a small business but there was no obvious route for promotion and I would like to progress, so I applied for another job a couple of months ago which to my surprise, I have just been offered.

The new job is with a company that everybody has heard of and makes better use of my degree knowledge. It's a newly created role so I would have opportunities to shape it. The size of the company means that I would probably have better opportunities in the future. However, just as I was about to tell my current boss, she asked to call me for a chat and has offered me a promotion with a 10% pay rise and was at great pains to say how valued I am and how happy they have been with my work. She had to work really hard to talk the directors into this, and I wasn't expecting this at all. The new salary means that there is very little difference between the two companies. So now I don't know what to do!

Company A (current role): Absolutely lovely colleagues and boss, happy place to work, total flexibility in terms of home/office working but it's mostly remote. Fits around my school runs etc. Have been offered a promotion but anything further is difficult to see happening, unless my direct boss leaves. Small business, statutory pension contribution (3%), statutory holiday, 3 days paid sick leave, pay is quite good. Work is a little repetitive to be honest.

Company B (potential future role). Very nice people that interviewed me, but obviously I have no idea what the team are like in general. Newly created role that fits in with my degree knowledge. Same flexibility in terms of home/office working - no particular rules. Very well known organisation and I would be part of a large department - company website says they support career development etc. 7% matched pension contribution. There are some really good travel perks with this job too. Salary is almost the same as new offer from company A.

I appreciate that I am in a very lucky position to have this choice but I have no idea what to do.

I think you need to put emotion aside. You feel grateful to your current boss for employing you and offering you a promotion.

From the outside, the second option is much better. More interesting work, better pension, more opportunities.

You’ll feel awkward for a bit for turning down your current boss. Think like a man - which is objectively better for YOU? (Clue - the second one. 😁)

I'd say on paper Option B, as better prospects and better pension.

Option B.

Option B, you always have to think about what is best for your future in these situations.

Having had a couple of really shit bosses I would think about whether option A might be good for a couple of years. But it depends how much you value stability, and I have been jaded by previous experiences. I've still moved but I now see moving as riskier than I did previously. I would have to be really, seriously unhappy to leave my current job as my team is nice and my manager would always back me. The work isn't necessarily ticking all the boxes but does tick some. If my team changed significantly I'd probably be off though.

Thanks, I appreciate everybody's input. I think option B is the better one but I can't help but feel bad if I leave job A as everyone is so nice and supportive.

Oh my God! I'm in exactly the same dilemma! It's crippling. Of course I'm grateful to be in such a privileged position but my God do I not actually NOT know what to do! It's killing me!

Job A - current role) amazing directors (have become my friends) career progression, unlimited support and flexi hours and I can steer the job whichever way I like. However, I'm running the show completely (which means any growth will be subject to me building the company). I have no staff below me yet (new company), tiny office (so not much company at work - a lot of the days I'm alone), and it's not using all my skills. Also, Mon to Fri job so don't get days off with my DH who works weekends.

Job B) DHs company have offered me the same job as his without a formal interview! Commission based so I can make as much money as I work hard for, and that's a lot of money! New trade (currently in healthcare). New job is sales and healthcare has it's woes! No guaranteed career progression, back to being a number and only as good as my numbers! Also, shift based which means no more evenings on working days. Longer hours. But will get same day off as DH.

OP any advice? 😁

I wish more people to comment on this thread! I need help!

Ps. Job B is repetitive whereas job a is diverse but very tedious just running the ship alone and working alone! I'm desperate to be part of a bigger team and work place. My current small office is starting to feel very suffocating, and my morale is very low. Bosses are lovely, but they rely heavily on my knowledge to keep things moving.

OP, in your situation, if career progression is important to you, then I'd go for B. While A is an amazing place to work (happy teams and work friendships are a blessing), for someone driven like you sound, it's a no brianer. It may feel scary, but I think if you stayed for the comforts of A, you'd soon enough feel frustrated and stuck maybe?

When I was in a similar dilemma years ago, one of my friends said to me 'ask yourself one question, if you don't take it, would you regret it and wonder what if?'.

That helped me make an instant decision that worked out brilliantly for me!

That question isn't working in my current dilemma. But I think it'll work in yours 😁

I totally get this! It's so damn hard to leave a team you've grown so fond of! Because it's so hard to find this!

Joining the thread as I'm currently on tenterhooks for a conversation with a potential job offer, and waiting to hear back from another.

Putting aside the many issues with my current workplace, the fundamental problem with my current workplace is that they have zero ability to help me improve myself. There's no coaching, no paid services to support me, and the one opportunity that I'm really suited for and said that I wanted went elsewhere.

The other two jobs are both in larger, well resourced organisations. The roles are more exclusively what I want to do, and I'd be working in teams that could support my skill development.

My advice would be not to hang around in an environment that stops you thriving.

I had a staff member like that once, just couldn't offer him the work he wanted. If they genuinely value you, they'd be as thrilled as I was for him when he got a new job. If not - it was only ever business. As it should be for you.

'Stops you from thriving'. 🙌

This is precisely what prompted me to start looking elsewhere. In my current role, I've seen my language skills slowly wither, and it's not mentally challenging. Yes I can grow the company, but nothing is challenging, and I'm going at it alone for someone else. It has niggled away at me for months that I'm building a company for someone else when with an investment I could pretty much do it (better) for myself because I'd know what I'm doing. Current bosses don't know how to run the business, and I've had limited resources.

Yes! The worst part is when you feel your skills going backwards because you end up actively rowing back on what you've learned.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is moving forwards!

For example - technical skills. I'm hardly likely to advance my own if I'm having to explain to the other staff the benefits of having a shared network as if it's 1996.

YES EXACTLY THIS! I just want to apply myself! Not have to baby my employers first understand, and then convince them that it's a good idea!

They're lovely employers! But they're not business minded. Just money driven! You don't have to have trade knowledge to succeed. But investors do need to have business skills along with money motivation! Otherwise their best employee [the me's of the world lol] will wind up irritated and frustrated.

Yes, it's nice to hear 'we'll make you the director of so and so' but after a while it becomes a little delusional when in actual reality you question if the business will ever get there.

Oh my god, you are me!

I'm not paid enough to hold the CEO's hand through every conversation, or to sit and patiently explain why it might be a good idea if the business plan and the budget had even a nodding acquaintance with each other. It becomes hard work just to bite your tongue for the millionth time.

And like you, I know that I have the skills to go it alone, and can do everything to a high standard - and if not, for that to at least be a conscious choice, not because I'm not allowed to use the level of skill I have.

Make the leap, take the new job. It'll improve your career prospects. You can't be tied to a company because a boss is nice to you.
She may actually have picked up vibes from you that you are wanting more and pushed for the pay rise and promotion to dissuade you from leaving. Obviously if you stay, it makes her life easier but in this situation, you have to look after number one.

*GASPS My GOD YOU SOUND JUST LIKE ME!!!! *

YES IF I HAD THE INVESTMENT, I WOULD SO SMASH IT (NOT BEING DELUSIONAL - I HAVE YEARS OF BUSINESS AND TRADE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE)!

AND I know I am proactive in my learning! I know enough to know I can do brilliantly, but keep my ego at bay and feet on the ground to know, I will learn so much along the way and happy too! I have to be honest here... I secured an investment to go fly free! But it fell through last minute, so my head and heart are no longer in the 'game' where I work! I just can't find the will to do it for someone else after coming so close to tasting it for myself! I have tried for AGES to give myself time to 'get over the disappointment' of losing my opportunity to be self employed. But I have realised, my dream will always remain and when the time is right, I will get the chance once again. But in the meantime, I have checked out in my head at work and simply can't look to anyone to keep me driven and motivate me again. One of my bosses will never let the business go, and the other has explicitly expressed numerous times that he'd have never gotten into it in the first place if he could turn back time! Not exactly boosting for my morale to then break my back for them!

What do you do for a living? I am now intrigued! hehe

Operations - though trying to specialise now in tech and privacy.

But just received a job rejection - overqualified. Gutted. I thought it would be a brilliant role in which to learn from a woman who was clearly really switched on in an area I don't have experience of and would love to learn more! Possibly they're going to interview me for a higher up role...

But I bet you can do it. Once you're in the habit of facing down unfamiliar challenges, that's a mindset that will serve you very well in business.

What's your work area? I bet you could deliver something small to start off with, then scale?

Funnily enough I've just come back from a weekend with my sole trader female friends, and we were talking about how much we were sick of the bullshit of employment.

Ah the jarring 'over qualified'! Hopefully they can still allow you to work for them and grow in other ways!

I work in homecare services!

I'm contemplating, do I leave for another trade and figure out what I want to do in my own field of expertise in my free time! Or do I stay and embrace the niggles and learn and grow still? Ps. They're not the worst employers at all, just professionally inexperienced, and I really struggle to work under management! So going back to that if I do change jobs, is really making me feel sick. I'm basically a boss where I'm at!

It's a bloody dilemma that's literally suffocating my emotions! Your thoughts if you don't mind sharing?!

Working for the self is harder work, but it's so liberating!

I found that even though there's loads of transferable experience in my current role to my last one, I find the lingo/culture much easier to sell myself on - whether for my own business, or for applying for jobs.

I reckon hiring managers are scared stiff at the moment with recruitment. They seem to be desperate to get an exact fit, if that makes sense? Whereas this time last year, I feel like they were willing to take a risk on someone with relevant transferable skills.

Either way, at the moment I'm going solidly for the work where I've got the reputation.

I recommend sitting down and working on your business plan from the very basic level. I found that the sheer level of energy I got from it was what I was looking for. Because it's impossible to underestimate how much a bad job and bad management drain you.

My ideas started out really ambitious - but actually, I've since worked them down to a much, MUCH simpler plan. The first one was an "escape work" plan. The second is real, scalable and very viable - especially in a recession economy.