Which is the better job?

[ZednotZee]

Please settle a slight disagreement for me?

Its a choice between two job roles and although I have made my choice my DH thinks that I am wrong.

First role is paid hourly at £25 per hour for 40 hours per week. So £52K. Paid breaks.
Working 12 hour days over the seven day period. Sometimes ad hoc night shifts as required.
No enhancements for weekends/evenings.
Bank Holidays paid at double time.
No sick pay apart from ssp.
NEST pension with employer contributions of 3.8%.

Second job;
Salaried at £37.5K
Company sick pay
Company pension
Company car.
Unpaid breaks so working week is 35 hours.
Paid at 1.3 of salary hourly rate for evenings and weekends.
No nights.
Paid at double salary hourly rate for bank Holidays.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts please agree with me so I can show the idiot

Depends on your circumstances really. If you need a car and want to avoid nights, job 2. Lower income but better quality of life.

I agree.

Job 2.
Seems more stable.

It really depends which job makes you most excited but all things being equal for me it would be job 2.

The decider for me is that I think any company that offers only SSP is unlikely to be a good employer.

Job 2 sounds better, although unclear what the pension payments are. Depends on what you want really though, there's more to life than money and not doing nights could be a deciding factor.

It really depends... your life circumstances, career development potential, is the work the same in both roles or different, more responsibilities in either, commuting time?
Job 1 is 12-hour shifts over 7 days, but presumably not every day, what's the shift pattern?
Both have pension contributions but you've only given the % of one?
Job 1 presumably is a contract job so you have the freedom to walk away when you want, job 2 sounds like a salaried employment that ties you in with a notice period?
Neither one is better than the other, it depends what you are looking for in a role. What did you base your choice on, why does DH think you are wrong?

@imnotacelebritygetmeoutofhere

All very good points and I should have probably elaborated.

Job 1 is 3x12 hour shifts with a five minute commute with a 4x12 hour week every third week.
Its a management position in private healthcare, hence the need to work nights ad hoc as the need arises due to staff sickness/holiday cover.
Four week notice period were I to choose to leave, they only need to give me one week to terminate my contract.
Only one more rung up the ladder then nowhere left to go. Will be promoted to this position, almost guaranteed within five years.
Small limited company, circa £1 million turnover per annum.

Job two 3x13 hour days. Unpaid lunch of 1.5 hours per day. Field based. Half hour commute to territory area.
Not management but much more technical, I would need to acquire specialist skills. Training provided for this prior to commencement of role.
Pension initially 5% rising to 8%.
Bonus of 1K per annum.
Yearly salary reviews.
Much scope for progression both upwards and/or sideways.
Large multinational company.

I've accepted role two.

DH thinks I'm wrong to do so due to 'losing £300 pcm.
I'm never ill and thirty years away from retirement'
Those are his reasons but ultimately he does support me and wants me to be fulfilled at work.
I just want to prove to him that he's generally being a bit myopic as salary in paper isn't everything.

How much do you need the money?
Not enough info to decide really. Is 2 a M-F job? Or is it still variable days? What's the pension like?
What is the job role like? Is one more senior than the other?

The pension and no sick pay would do it for me. Job 2, glad that was your choice too.

We can afford the drop in salary as DH earns similarly to me and is up for promotion in January.

I supported him to be a SAHP for five years so I am not now prepared to carry on killing/stressing myself to keep earning over 50K when its unnecessary.
DH is more than happy to become the breadwinner as I have been in that position for the whole of our relationship thus far, he just doesn't understand why I wouldn't prioritise a higher salary with a guaranteed progression.

The thing that would put me off job 1 is actually the term "ad hoc" - it means in practice that you're expected to be available to work 24/7/365 (possibly with the exception of your actual booked annual leave, possibly not - do both roles offer identical annual leave? How do weekends and holidays play into that?).

A lot of salaried jobs actually take the piss unpaid overtime wise, so are you sure job 2 wouldn't do this?

For me work-life balance is the most important thing (I also work in healthcare doing shifts including nights - salaried position but we log our hours and over the year we don't do anything unpaid - as in I might work way over my hours every week in May and June without being paid overtime aside from the extra night and Sunday bonuses, but it balances out because I end up barely working at all in November and still getting my full basic salary... or whatever). That suits me, but it doesn't suit everyone.

I'd be looking into the nitty gritty before deciding just on salaried with higher sick pay = best, but you're probably right... (I don't know what a NEST pension is as I'm not in the UK any more - is it definitely worse than the specific company pension scheme?).

The somewhat disposable/ insecure sound of job 1 is a bit off putting, but the term "ad hoc" is more so!

Job 2 for sure.

No, job 2 isn't a M-F role either, however this suits me. I hated working 9-5 M-F as only having two days per week felt difficult.

A lot of salaried jobs actually take the piss unpaid overtime wise, so are you sure job 2 wouldn't do this?
True, I had a previous role, the M-F one in fact which was salaried but necessitated lots of admin once home in the evenings.
This new role doesn't appear subject to this as all admin is done via ipad, on the job during work hours. If I am required to do overtime then I am paid 1.3x my hourly rate.

*weekend and bank holidays that was meant to be - how do weekends and bank holidays play into the annual leave equation?

We're not actually allowed to book weekends or bank holidays as annual leave, which sounds weird but they also don't count into our leave allowance. If we have a booked ordinary week day each side we get the bank holiday/weekend "free" but we can't just book a Saturday off using one leave day... We also get a certain number of hours extra leave on top (as well as obviously the hours and extra night pay) every time we work a night, so working a night every week gives you six or so extra bookable holiday days per year.

Things like that also make a difference!

I think I would have chosen job 1 but that's just me. I still don't think there is a right or wrong, they give you different options, it's not just the money difference. I particularly enjoy management responsibility and would have based my choice on that. Other people might be more attracted to the technical skills aspect of the other job.

I would definitely pick no. 1 the higher salary, the bird in the hand ( you might be dead before you draw a pension etc). It could also make it easier for your next job (always plan ahead) as your starting pay is higher. If you keep going for higher and higher pay that tends to be a good plan.

ZednotZee that's good - being able to draw a clear line between work and home is massively important for quality of life IMO - sounds as though it is in yours too. Job 2 is certainly sounding better on that score.

Not convinced about the notice period from the employer for Job 1
After two years service they have to give a weeks notice for every year of service. This is a statutory minimum.
So what else are they trying to get around?

@Xenia DH, is that you?

Yes that is more or less his argument too.

And I can see where he is coming from but having worked in management in this role for four years I am burnt out, especially with all that the pandemic brought to social care.
I don't think he appreciates this fully, which isn't his fault. Its hard to have my perspective when you have been wfh for the past eighteen months.

Thanks for all your replies. Its not unanimous in my favour but that's to be expected as we all value different things.

I suppose the sense of relief I am feeling at getting out of management and of social care in general tells me and hopefully DH that I am doing the right thing.

Second job

Second job for me, I think.

I have no desire to work my whole life and zero desire at all not to be able to take time off sick without worrying. 3 thirteen hour days will be long but even allowing 1 day per week in recovery time you should still have loads of free time.

The second one seems better perks, and no nights