I’ve been offered a new job and I’m so horribly conflicted about it that I’m tying myself in knots and boring my friends and family about it, so I’d appreciate any thoughts anyone might have….!
so briefly, been at my job for seven years now. I’ve worked from home since Covid and a couple of years ago, head office changed my contract to be an official wfh one. I’m the only one in my team who wfh because the others don’t like it, my performance has been markedly better working from home than when I worked in the office.
a couple of months ago, my boss (who I didn’t think knew of the change of contract as it had happened when they were on paternity leave) asked me to try to be in the office more, leading up to full time eventually. I agreed to do two days a week, but to be frank, I really don’t enjoy it. I’ve tried, but the atmosphere and culture is very blokey and although nobody is awful to me, nobody really TALKS about anything I can get involved with. I’m the only woman there and I feel quite isolated. I’d decided that if they wanted to force me into working from the office full time, I’d look for another job as I really enjoy the work/life balance I have now - but things hadn’t reached this point yet.
I was approached by another company in the same industry a couple of weeks ago and they’ve offered me a job. They are matching my current salary for three months and then increasing it by 2k once I’ve passed probation, although the bonus scheme is a lot worse, meaning even once the salary increases, I’ll be about £1200 a year worse off. They work from the office two days a week, but from home the rest of the time. The annual leave is better but only because you can buy/sell up to five days (if not for this, it would be one day less than I get now).
I did say I’d accept the role and they said they’d get HR to send me a formal offer by Friday last week. I’ve not had this yet, but I have had a message from the person who’d be my new boss today, saying they’ve heard I’ve formally accepted the role. I’ve told them I’ve not had a formal offer yet, and got a thumbs up emoji….
i had a meeting with my boss last week where I told him I was unhappy, and he said he’d found out about the contract and that they couldn’t enforce a return to the office, and if I was that unhappy with it, he would support me. I also raised a couple of other things I was unhappy about which he promised to look into changing, though these aren’t easy fixes and boil down to me basically being a bit unchallenged and frustrated with service issues.
the new job offer I have is for a company who have just been bought out, for the second time in about ten years, and the market in the industry I work in is terrible right now. In the back of my mind, I’m starting to doubt whether moving is the right call, I’m a little worried about the job security and a bit frustrated about the vagueness of the process so far. The job role is a bit woolly as well but I was hoping it would be fleshed out a bit more in the official offer.
the longer it goes without a job offer, the more I’m starting to doubt it. I’m fairly sure my boss would match the salary to keep me, so the money isn’t a huge consideration in that sense - but I don’t think staying at my current job will bring me any joy from working in the office whilst it’s such a male culture. The new job is mainly female (although every mostly female office I’ve worked in before has been bitchy). On the other hand, it’s a massive company and I feel fairly valued and well respected, in the sense that it’s about as secure as a job could ever be.
when I was expecting the offer last Friday, I was all set to hand my notice in and was fine with it. But then the chat with my boss, who doesn’t know I’ve got a job offer on the table, addressed a few of my concerns just enough to make me question myself, and like I say, the more I’m thinking about it, the more my resolve is weakening!