Hi all,
Hoping for some opinions/advice please
I work in the creative field. I left my last job in January after 2 years (I didn’t like it when I started, gave it a chance and after 2 years I still didn’t like it - job content itself was fine but the culture was very toxic and bitchy), took a break of a month to spend time with my kids and just ‘reset’, then started my current job. It’s also in the creative field, in a ‘mid weight’ position (not junior but equally I don’t manage a function or a specific team). I got into a rhythm pretty fast and I’m comfortable in the work already. I’ve been there for 3 weeks.
There’s 4 particular issues I have with the role:
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I took a £5k pay cut for this job (I decided a pay cut is a fine trade off for a better atmosphere/culture)but as you’ll see in the later points, I feel this promise of a better culture was very ‘smoke and mirrors’
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In the interview I was specifically told the job is hybrid (I really wanted this as I like an office day or two a week for many reasons, and I stressed my need for this in the interview) but in reality nobody goes into the office and it’s fully remote
3)equally I was promised in the interview that there would be flexibility with my working hours, but in reality there is none - most of my team don’t even seem to take their lunch break. The hours here are very regimented, even my first office job out of university gave more flexibility than this
- standard hours are 9-6pm but I noticed my whole team tend to log on at 8.30 or even earlier, and are online long after 6. I’ve started to feel pressure to do the same so that I don’t look like the ‘lazy one’ who logs on just before 9 and leaves at 6 on the dot. I’m already waking up at 4/5am feeling stressed about starting work, dragging my feet, and struggling to have that all important work/life balance as I’m finishing at 6.30 some days, at this point my DH and DC are eating dinner and I’ve only got about 45min before it’s time for the DC to have bath/bed.
I’m annoyed as the old job was very toxic and I wouldn’t want to go back, and I was excited for a fresh start but this job doesn’t seem a much better swap. Bit embarassed that I hyped it up to everyone and it’s not what it seemed. I am not a job hopper by any means - I’ve worked in my previous roles for 5-10 years, but redundancy started this chain of unlucky jobs.
I sadly don’t have enough savings to just quit, but I have already started looking at other jobs. Do I seem like I’m being unreasonable? And equally, if I got another job, am I better off saying I had a career break or being honest and saying I did this and it didn’t work out?
Thanks for anyone’s views. I have discussed with my best friend who told me to leave, going to chat with DH later on but I’d like your opinions to get some balance in case I’m looking at this with negative nelly glasses on.