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I'm really tempted to take the puppies. (Edited)
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Business and friendship
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Should we stay or should we go?
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Hi! And welcome back to Let’s Choose A Job, the game show that’s sweeping the nation! I’m your host Monty Hall, and here are the jobs!
Behind door #1 is a job with a stable, larger company where there would be opportunities to advance. They don’t work a lot of hours, and the benefits are terrific, as is so often true with large corporations. We’d be living in a great city. The downside: because of the cost of living in the new city, our standard of living wouldn’t improve, and might even have to come down a smidge.
Behind door #2 is a job with a small company, it would pay quite a bit more than we make now, and we could stay in our neighborhood, and oh, how I love and adore this neighborhood. The downside: they work more hours, expect faster turnaround time for prototypes, and the benefits aren’t quite as good.
Honestly, we’re very fortunate to be in a position to choose from these options. We’re in a very good position, and either job is going to be good, so there’s really no wrong choice. What it comes down to is the equation that’s going to bring the most job satisfaction to Aaron. Which got me to thinking about the equation of job satisfaction.
What criterion do you use to decide if a job is right for you? There are so many variables. Is it a larger paycheck, being challenged, or a friendly working environment? How important is loving what you do, and being good at it? (Aaron loves his work, they could pay him in T-shirts and pizza, and he’d be happy as a lark.) How do the number of hours you work impact your job satisfaction? Do you balk at having to put in extra time at the office? What about having autonomy, good corporate culture, a short commute? Free cookies? Come on that’s got to be in the top ten.
So tell me, what ranks high in your list of priorities for job satisfaction? And let’s play Let’s Choose A Job in the comments. Will you choose door #1, door #2, or the “mystery prize” behind door #3? (Psst, it’s litter of puppies, but keep it under your hat.)
(Edited to add: He took the job behind door #2. Whew, that was tough. I would’ve been happy either way, for different reasons. Right now, I’m just glad we’re through hashing it out six ways to Sunday!)
This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 7:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
October 8th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I think job satisfaction needs to be weighed against family satisfaction. When you’re single, you have only to consider job satisfaction. When you’re married/partnered, you have to consider the impact of your job upon those you love.
Will the extra hours affect your family negatively, positively, or not at all? Will working in a higher-pressure environment increase or decrease job satisfaction? Will the higher pressure make you a better or worse partner at home?
For me, relationships are the highest rung on my Ladder of Life’s Meaning. (Or maybe that’s the bottom, foundational rung…) Anyway. If the job detracts from my relationships, it’s the job that’s the problem, not the relationships, and, though I would expect partner and family to be supportive of me and my needs, I would also demand that my job allowed me to have the quality relations I need in my life. If it doesn’t allow for that, I’d look elsewhere.
But for other people, professional satisfaction/ stimulation/ challenge /validation (whatever) is way up there. Or maybe there are other values that are factored in. I hear you factoring in stability, neighbourhood, standard of living. How do those weigh for you against hours, job satisfaction, pay?
Depending on the weight you give to each of your personal factors, you will come out at a different point than another person might. So, what weighs most in your personal balance? When you know that, you’ll know how to proceed.
Phew. That was long…
October 8th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
I think I would be tempted to take door number two. Mostly because you speak so lovingly about your neighborhood and it’s a smaller business. I have a fondness for small businesses. Relocating, also, is hard.
I have been self-employed for two years. Recently, a position opened at the local university in my field: a grant position. If I took the position, I would have a steady salary, though probably a lower one, at least I would know it was guaranteed month after month. I would have much better benefits than I get now, paying for health insurance myself. The office would be six minutes from my home, on foot.
I would be trading: flexibility of hours; being home when my kids get home from school; the freedom to fly out to visit my parents when I need to; being able to work the hours that need to be worked, and then to do what I want; the ability to work where I want to work, whether it’s my parents’ living room or my local coffee-shop.
Also? The clients I currently work for respect me, even though I don’t have a PhD. If you put someone with an MA into an academic setting and then surround them with PhDs, you are going to have someone who is patronized and condescended to constantly.
So, I am staying put.
October 8th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Mary– The kids and are pretty flexible, although none of us are too thrilled about moving– the stress of selling the house, living w/o Aaron for several months, and packing up the entire house by myself. If I make it through all that without ending up in a straight jacket, I’m good to go.
I don’t mind that Aaron has to work a lot of hours, he already does. I personally would like to stay here, but I can see the advantage of moving to a cool city too. But Aaron is the one who has to show up everyday, so I want him to really like his job.
Jen– I would’ve made the same decision. Flexibility and autonomy are really important. Which is why I freelance too ;o)
October 8th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
My point regarding your two job options is this: Your husband seems to LOVE his work. Will the extra hours he puts in be harder on you, him, or the kids? Will it significantly improve your family’s quality of life for him to take the larger corporation’s position?
October 8th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Yeah, it’s hard to know if our quality of life will be improved if we move because we don’t know what life there will be like. It’s hard to compute an unknown quantity.
October 8th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I think relationship dynamics are a big factor, too. If a couple tends to fight about money, having more time to see each other and therefore more opportunity to fight about money would be a bad thing.
If the standard of living might not be an issue in two to five years (raise/commission/bonus/promotion) , I’d probably vote to move. If the longer hours don’t bother him and you can live with the benefits offered, I’d vote to stay put.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:04 am
I’d take the job with the bigger firm, more flexible hours and better bennies hands down. I’ve done both job switches in my life and small companies are often unstable and demand much to much out of their workers. Larger companies can spread the work around and can afford to offshore some of it. The flexibility would make me want to work there, hands down.
As for moving to a new city, that’s an adventure, and with your school experiences being rather unpleaasant where you are, I’d look at this as a new opportunity to find better schooling for your kids.
October 9th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
That’s a toughie. You sound happy in the neighborhood, and the kids wouldn’t have to adjust to a move. Just how bad are the hours with the small company? Is there comp time or other perk to balance the extra time? Is the stress factor bad with the pace? Difficult decision; good luck.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
honestly - job type #1 will alwasy be around (big safe company with good hours and decent pay) but job #2 - well, not always!
why not take a crack at the higher paying and see how it goes? You could always drop back and look at the big companies in the city again. At least with #2 you know you tried to stay in your lovely neighborhood AND it would be higher money which can get your in the door at a big company for more money/higher level position that moving in that direction now. plus, if you like #2 it’s a done deal.
Big companies are great, but the ‘opportunity for advancements’ can sometimes be more about politics than anything else (and so with salary increases!). to me the no brainer would be #2… but thats me
let us know what you decide!!!
October 9th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
eeny meeny minie mo. I have no idea which one you should pick. My job satisfaction is mostly this: do I love what I do? Am I busy or bored? do I have to sit in an open landscape? Is my boss a dick? Is my job/company flexible? If I can answer yes, busy, no, no, yes, then that’s the job for me. Money is actually secondary (okay, to a certain extent anyway)
October 9th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Congrats - it sounds great and I know how great it feels to have finally made a choice!!!
October 10th, 2007 at 1:21 am
congratulations!! you get to stay put and make more money! the hours will be tough for him (and you!) at first but it will get better
yay! so exciting!!!
October 10th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Congratulations! And now you can STOP WORRYING. Isn’t that nice??
October 10th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
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