To prioritise short commute over work satisfaction/ certainty?

[NumberSixtyTwo]

I currently work as head of a small team (getting smaller and smaller because of cut backs). Smallish public sector related organisation. I was ecstatic to get it because a local job doing this is like a hen's tooth. I'd been commuting to London for years, was sick of it, but I had to just wait for my predecessor to move jobs.

The job title and description is my ideal job. But since I started a few years ago, the organisation has been in severe financial difficulties and has had a new person running the whole show so big structural changes.

I started with a team of five, reporting into a Director the grade above me. Now I have two people (both brilliant though), the same workload, and am reporting into someone very senior, so it's stressful, and no career progression (can't go into my manager's job without the intermediate steps, everywhere has been cut so no sideways moves). The actual work I do is less senior than it should be as my manager is hard to work with (the director left because of this -budgets mean that role just disappeared- and others have said so it's not me!) so I don't really get proper oversight and input into things, am more just operationalizing his decisions. But this might get better gradually?

Another job has come up in a similar but much bigger org. Not London, but more of a commute. Current job is less than two miles away so loads of easy options, new job would be 35-40 mins drive or an hour or so of bus/train/bus.

New job is same grade, but job title worse (don't personally care but not sure about later career progression). I'm on the top of my band currently so no more rises ever, but in this place the band is wider so top is £10k more than I'm on. The organisation is larger, stable, properly staffed. I'd be coming in to help run a big new exciting project, not my dream one but pretty interesting. As it's less senior in title there might be less chance to have autonomy, but then I don't actually get listened to etc in my current role! Opportunities for progression/sideways moves if I stay. However, there's one part of my current role I love that there would be limited opportunities to do (because another team does it, I'm a jack of all trades here).

I guess nearly everything about the new job seems better, except I'm signing myself up to a commute again (albeit not London). And I have a lot of flexibility- I do compressed hours so catch up a lot in the evenings so at the moment I can spend one day a week with kids, do each morning with them, spend time between bed and nursery, and still work full time. Obviously I'd have to see what the possibilities are but having a 40 min drive home is obviously going to make this difficult.

What would you do? Jobs in the new place might come up again but are still very infrequent, and given my place's financial difficulties I'm worried about redundancy and then having to take something further away.

Extra context: I'm early 40s. Love my job and career. Have three kids under five (none in school until next year). DH works 4 days a week, mostly from home so can do drop off/pick ups most days, one day a week or fortnight he's in London so it would need to be me. Been in current role three years. I have recently started hating driving at night because of reflections on my glasses, find it stressful.

YABU - go for the new job
YANBU - stay in your current place and enjoy the lack of commute stress

I think ideally it would be great if the new job had come up in a year or so, a friend sent it to me, I wasn't looking. I don't know if I'm panicking as current job feels like a sinking ship. I've also been on mat leave in my current job (other leave was before this job) and been back about five months so maybe that's tangled up in it? I wouldn't feel bad about leaving so soon after returning from mat leave as I feel I'm having to work so hard/it's all tough at the moment so I don't feel much loyalty and am happy to prioritise myself and be selfish. But I don't know which option does that! If I didn't have kids I'd go for the new job I think, I'm just worried when I do drop off/collection it's going to be stressful.

Definitely go for the new job. You spend all day at your job, so need to be happy during that time.
Basically:
Option 1: spend 5 mins travelling to a job you’re unhappy with, and with no prospects and spend all day there

Option 2: Spend 40 mins travelling to a job that’s interesting, and with more progression and more money, and be happier all day.

Seems bonkers to stay. The company is going down in a challenging economy, and your responsibilities are slowly being stripped. Jump ship while you can. 4O mins isn’t long.

40mins is not a long commute by any stretch so go for it

you don't sound happy in your current job
the new job is closish, but not a full commute to London,, which you're suggesting as the other option - presumably more expensive as well as time consuming.

so the options seem to be:
Stay, not particularly enjoying the role, and potentially be made redundant in the nearish future - which if the company folds, there may not be sufficient cash to pay redundancy entitlement in full (and unless there's enhanced redundancy pay, statutory redundancy is pants anyway), plus you'll be forced into a job hunt at a time which may not be convenient to you. Also, if you've gone through redundancy and/or the business folding, you may not be in the best frame of mind to be positive about the new role search.
Take the new role offered - do you like the new organisation, the role offered?
If the commute is the issue, can any degree of hybrid working be negotiated?

In your situation, I'd move now.

Hi OP - it is odd but your post sounds exactly like the position I find myself in at the moment. I chose to move because it is the role that I want, and I'll put up with the travelling. My DC are older though - year 6 and year 10.

A couple of things, I stayed for too long in a public sector organisation when DC were little and I regret it now. I'm late-40s and I do feel like I'm 8-10 years behind other people with my career so I've only now been at Director level for a couple of years. I took a job that allowed me to WFH before it was really a thing so I do look back and tell myself that the flexibility was great at the time but really, I wince a bit that I stayed in that role for far too long once the children were settled in school.
We also moved out of London and for my role, that set me back too but I've found my feet now although it has taken longer as the number of opportunities just weren't there.

If you want to DM me to chat through, I'm happy to help. I have some great RL professional friends whose ears I chewed over the summer! And don't forget that you haven't got the other role yet (I assume). So go for it regardless and then decide once you've actually got the job offer!

Thanks all. Some really helpful points to think through.

It's not at all guaranteed that I'd get the job. I think this is basically my next best option for anything that would avoid being another London commute (that I'm really determined not to go back to) so I was thinking that I dint want to mark my card by applying unless I'm fairly sure I would accept the position. I don't want them to see me as a time waster in case something else came up later. Who knows what they will think though!

Is it school that made the difference, @Sparticle ? Should I hang on until they've all started, do you think looking back that the flexibility was useful when yours were little? If you could have a redo, what age do you reckon you should have scarified flexibility for career?

I will definitely ask about hybrid, @ThinWomansBrain , good shout.

Good points, @Dotcheck .I just wonder if it's an easy life to know I can always do drop off/pick up when needed and make any meetings required, or if enjoying the actual job is worth the shoving kids through the nursery door on the dot of eight and then having a stressful drive in to make sure I'm not late for a 9am meeting by the time I've found a space, parked up etc.

I have to say getting all three out in the mornings feels like a challenge at the moment and that's with the timings being much easier so often it's more like 8:55am drop off!

Personally I wouldn't take on a 40 minute commute over a 5 -10 minute one for the potential of a 10k rise over the next few years. I value my time more and 1.5 hours per day is nearly 8 per week, plus petrol costs. I would however do it if I hated my job, it wasn't flexible or I really needed the money.

Apply, do your best and see what happens next.

I would apply so at least you stand a chance of having to make this decision. If you don't get it, fine, you aren't sure about leaving right now anyway and it's good application/interview experience.

If (hopefully when!) you get offered it, you can decide then. Is there likely to be any scope to negotiate a slightly higher starting salary, or to set out what flexibility you want (e.g. wfh on set days, ability to start at 9.30am so you'll never have the 9am meeting stress etc)? I am in public sector and while the salary bands/grades are fixed and jobs always state 'you will start at the bottom of the band', in my experience there is often a bit of wriggle room, and even if it's tiny, it might be enough to make you feel better about the time/cost of the commute.

If it helps, I'm about to start a new job with a commute of well over an hour each way, a few days a week. In comparison to my current role, where I wfh 4 days a week and the single day I do have to commute is fairly quick and easy (albeit on unreliable trains), it seems like a crazy idea! I have one toddler at nursery and one DC in primary and my current role is very forgiving re flexibility, but the opportunity to progress is here right now, and I don't want to stay in my current role forever. Just another year or two would have been nice, but if I wait, I may not get the same opportunity again, so for me it's worth the gamble. Good luck!

I think the kids being school age makes a massive difference 'head space' wise, but from a practical perspective can be even harder to manage pick ups/drop offs. Our primary is massively more chaotic in terms of randomly cancelling after school club/activities/expecting you to drop everything and come in than our nursery. It's state though, I imagine things are easier if you go private.

did you get the job op?

Not heard back yet!