Job Offer - what should I do?

[Ploddingalong67]

I have received job offer and I don’t know what to do!!!

Job A (current role); 35 minutes commute, almost complete flexible working, I’m able to be in the office whenever suits/is needed or can work from home. As long as the work is completed no one bats an eyelid. Company as a whole has many many issues and the working environment is very toxic. It’s a small (ish) organisation of around 250 staff with limited progression opportunities. Day to day I enjoy my role, there is variety and no two days are ever the same. My boss is incredible and I would follow him to another organisation / role.

Job B (holding an offer); 2.5 hour drive to office location, 3 days per week in the office is non negotiable. Large, multi-national, well established company. Fantastic progression opportunities and training. Role seems ‘traditional’ in that quite process / policy driven and slightly worried I would be a little bored. It’s 10k more salary wise and they have agreed to pay for all accommodation costs associated with staying near the office 3 days per week.

What do I do? I am relatively young, I have no children (and don’t plan to for a few years) but a house and partner in current location.

I don’t think long term job B would work, not being away every single week - and what if they suddenly decided it needed to be 4 days in the office or were stopping the hotel payments?

But, if you think it could be a good career move on your CV I’d consider only taking it with the knowledge you’d not plan to stay long term, and use it as a stepping stone to another role more suitable long term.

Then I'd turn Job B down and start looking for Job C. The pay rise isn't enough to accommodate the inconvenience

Would you consider moving towards Job B?

To answer a few in one go;

I have a partner in current location and we own a home together.

It works out to be just under 5k extra after tax, NI, pension, student loan dedications over the year. Circa £400 per month 'better off'.

I hadn't thought about the 'what ifs' regarding stopping hotel payments or increasing it to 4 days a week in office. A good point.

@Grrrpredictivetex - very unlikely. My partner is the higher earner in a very stable job in our current location and we own our home here. It wouldn't make sense I don't think.

New role wouldn’t be for me. I like to be home. Depends how much you like to be away. I think I would cope with new role initially , then after about a month I know I would start to resent being away so much. I am old enough now to know money isn’t everything and I don’t have much of it and I have made peace with that. Good Luck with whatever you decide 😊

I'd say that stopping hotel payments is quite likely - the sort of thing companies "review" or renege on saying they thought that was just for the first few months while you get sorted. Otherwise you're talking about a £250 a week expense claim indefinitely and someone's going to take a look at that budget line at some point.

As you have no children I'd be inclined to go for the new job. However I would negotiate to either increase the wfh days or a further increase in salary.

If it’s short term as the next step on your career ladder I would consider job b. I would want the hotel costs and three days in the office to be covered contractually though.

Definitely go for the new job. I did this for years (and paid for it myself) so the options they have given are amazing.
No need to be lonely, you are there on set nights for the long term so just do what you would at home. Yoga class, gym, choir, whatever floats your boat.
You might even be able find a part time lodging situation then at least you could cook properly etc.
I also used to catch up on life admin which meant I had more quality time when I was actually at home.
Could you also look into compressed hours, so you can arrive later on Tues, leave earlier on Thurs and just work a lot whilst you are there?

It's important to play the long game with planning career progression. If this opportunity will help you move to bigger/better/more interesting things, you should seriously consider it. Mitigate the impact on your personal life as much as you can - e.g., can you do an occasional Weds-Thurs-Fri, your partner coming up on the Thursday and work remotely in the hotel on the Friday so you have more time together? Is there anything regular/interesting you could do on the evenings you're in the city, a book club or night class or something? Take full advantage of that time, don't just devote it to working and then sitting in the hotel on your own.

You're still young and these sorts of opportunities do feel more like a burden than something exciting as the years go by, why not try it out? Give yourself a year or two in the role and see how you feel then.

Your current job sounds awful, so even if you don't accept this new offer, keep looking and get out of there.

Go for Job B!
Invest in yourself!

And if work are paying for a hotel, you could look to swap it to a house share or studio instead for the same budget or top it up yourself.

I wouldn't take a role witha 2.5 commute tbh, although maybe you could move closer since you wouldn't have to uproot children etc. Its not a high enough salary jump to do a commute like that imo. Would it evencover the increased costs ?

You will be taxed on the accomodation as 3 days a week would make it a regular place of work and therefore they can't pay it tax free

Job B - you have the accommodation costs covered, your current place is toxic, and you don't have to stay longer term. Get the career development benefit from it, and then look closer to home or relocate when it's time for a family.

Especially if your partner could come with you and work from that hotel some weeks.

I hate staying in hotels. I’d stay put and keep looking for a better opportunity. The pay raise isn’t worth it.

I would stay in job A and look for job C. Personally I think staying in a hotel three nights a week, would wear pretty thin, unless you have a hobby/project/something else you can do to make the hotel nights, a good use of time. Even then, not sure I'd want to do it for the medium/long-term.

I'd go with the third option - stay in your current role for now but keep looking for the right new option. Job B doesn't sound sustainable long term, to me.

On the boring but important issues to consider - food.

You will be much more limited in your choices which can be a pain diet wise and is certainly expensive.
£20 a day could easily be the minimum on hotel days. If you take lunches in now (perhaps you don't in which case this is less of a factor) then you'd have no where to prepare the next day or keep it cool so that means buying.

Evening meals you'd probably have to buy out. Even the sandwich type options soon add up.

By the time you add up this and the petrol you may see very little of the extra £400.

I wouldn't take the job for financial gain. There would have to be career progression or satisfaction benefits to make it worthwhile so I'd consider it mostly on these terms.

What made you apply in the first place? Perhaps you need to revisit your motivations there.

I agree with @Thepartnersdesk, easy to get into bad lifestyle and eating habits so I wouldn’t do it. Especially to go from an already very good salary to a slightly better one.

Do you really want to be doing all that driving in the autumn and winter months?

I very much doubt the new company will pay your hotel costs for very long. Eventually you will get a new manager or maybe a new role and then someone will mention what you are doing is not normal and can’t continue (that is how the large multinational dinosaur I work for behaves anyway) and they will suggest you either commute or relocate. Do you want to risk that?

For me the flexibility of the current role would be the thing I would stay for. Nothing about the new role you describe (3 days in the office, you already say it’d sounds boring and you are not even doing it yet) would make me move. Yes there is a £10k payrise but you already earn £80k so do you really need the extra and how much of the extra would you actually see considering your additional weekly costs associated with the new job (more travel, more eating out etc).

Id stick with the current role & keep looking for something that is a better fit.

This. Having done the working away 2-3 nights a week, it gets old very quickly, even when you have somewhere nice to stay.
I think stay where you are and keep looking for option C.

I did a similar thing a few years back for about 12 months.

I quite enjoyed it for the first couple of months, not worrying about having to cook dinner, just chill and watch a film etc.. But, after that it became a chore and the novelty kinda wore off and I came to dread it.