A few weeks ago I accepted a permanent job a lot closer to home.
I was doing a temp job. I was gutted to leave as the people there became good friends, we would talk and laugh at work which I have not experienced in a workplace in years. I know some people don't like friendships at work but interaction is important to me.
There were some factors why I did not stay. The commute would mean I had to get up a lot earlier and get home a lot later and I was starting to get tired and not eat healthily.
One of my colleagues was bombarded with work, I did offer help when I could see they were stressed but they had pride and would refuse help. The office was short staffed and as it was open to the public, my colleague always had to cover the Reception every morning and deal with public enquiries which meant they did not get their work done. This should not have been part of their role but for some reason the manager tries recruiting a reception person but cannot get anyone - people seem to enjoy working from home instead.
For some reason my temp role was part time yet the permanent position for it being advertised was full time so again the same colleague had to cover parts of my role answering the phones/emails when I was off 2 days a week as my role was part time. I was willing to work full time but the manager said only if needed. I don't know if they were trying to save money on temp costs as it's a charity.
I was quite upset about leaving as the role was enjoyable and I loved the staff, I told the colleague the one who was bombarded with work that I had been offered a permanent job. He had no idea I was going for an interview and told me to take the closer to home job. He then confessed he had an interview that week as he had enough of the management passing too much work down and since the restructure it has not been the same as there are hardly any staff in and most want to stay working from home.
This colleague got the job and joked and said his job is there if I want it. I don't see why I would stay when the job stressed him out. If I had decided to stay there I also would not want to stay as the colleague who is leaving would mean I would have been in the office on my own for the first 5 and half hours of the day until people came int later afternoon until they found his replacement. The replacement would not have as much knowledge of the organisation as he has been there for 13 years. Plus I think I would have been bombarded with his work.
He said he would have stayed if they allowed him to work from home some days and just let him get on with the job. He always had to stop was he was doing and was asked to sort things out as he had the most knowledge. When I spoke to the manager about the permanent role she was only willing to negotiate me working from home 2 days a week. My colleague and I realised that we could work from home as the work phone can be diverted to the mobile and emails etc done at home but the manager wanted us there to cover the short staffed reception which for some reason was an issue they kept masking.
The in-house maintenance team was culled and on my last day external contractors were not turning up which means I or others would have to keep calling or emailing contractors to chase up jobs and attendance times which is stressful when you have other work to do.
I noticed every Friday afternoon I would leave at 5pm and there was just me and another temp in the building as everyone else had fled by 3pm.
My colleague who is leaving was quite upset when I left and kept saying he will stay in touch and I was upset too. As much as I initially enjoyed the people and the job I feel in time this job would affected me.
The job closer to home I have already worked at this employer before permanent and temporary so I will know some people when I go back.
Did I do the right thing leaving?