S/O new jobs

JackoftheBox · May 2014

The job i applied for yesterday would be a $6.00 paycut and would be a 25 min commute. If you were in my position would it even be an option for you? DH says no but i'm still wondering....

PS please put all other job complaints/worries/interview possibilities here!

JackoftheBox · May 2014

lildis09 said:

Probably not, that's a big cut in pay... I just want a job at this point & am worried that if I get more than 1 offer that I'll end up choosing the wrong one.

I know...

if the job were in my town i wouldn't mind. But the paycut and commute would not be good.

I know how you feel. That's how i wound up at the job i have. I was offered this job and took it and three days later i was offered another job. Sometimes (a lot) i wish i would have waited.

JackoftheBox · May 2014

DutchKatie said:

I'd say, depends if you can still make it work and how much you hate your current job, or if prospects on growing in the new job. Do you feel your husband's 'no' is reasonable?

And S/O jobs: I just got offered a part time teaching job starting this fall. Currently I am working freelance and don't have enough work, so am eating up my savings. So happy to have more money and to be making my self useful outside the home again. I loved spending lots of time at home the first year of DD's life, but think it's good for me to work more again.
@lildis09 was right, there must be something in the water, even on the other site of the ocean

I feel like we could make it work, but i also know that we live comfortably now so i don't know as though it is worth it....

That's great! I think it would be nice to be home mostly and do something i liked part time

It's like the best of both world's.

PS @lildis09 i blame this whole job thing on you.

gwendarling · May 2014

I agree with @DutchKatie‌ , depends on the fit at the new company, benefits, the whole package.

I'm waiting for a company to check my references ( they've already done the background check) for a lateral position that would pay slightly less but make up for it in bonus potential, days off, etc.

oh, and the commute is brutal - an hour for sure. but it's better than my current situation.

TittsMcGee · May 2014

That's a big pay cut @jackofthebox. Can you give us more info about the job.

What are the benefits like? Is there potential for growth and future pay raise?

hopefulmom81 · May 2014

I think a $6 cut in pay is still better than making NOTHING if that boss is writing you up and intends to terminate your employment.

I also think money isn't everything. If you can make it work, then you are still making a paycheck. In my past life as a retail manager, when I quit they tried to offer me more money and I said, "It isn't about money", and they looked at me like I had three heads.

JackoftheBox · May 2014

The job is a guidance counselor secretary at an elementary school. This would allow me to be home with DS during holidays, snow days, and some during the summer. They pay for your insurance so that would help out tremendously. I am assuming the hours would be 7:45 to 3pm (the same hours as school is in session). But i would have to now figure in gas to and from each day. Also when DS starts school we would be in different districts. I would work for one and he would be in school in one. So there would be instances where our days wouldn't match up (which is why i wanted to work for our district). Also the pay cut....

Where i am currently. I am close to home about 5 mins. And i make great money. We also have decent insurance. My issues here are my ass of a boss. And the time that i am allotted off for my son (which apparently is 3 days). This wouldn't be an issue except my mother works full time, my dad has cancer and can't keep ds, and my husband doesn't get paid time off. So it usually always falls on me. Also i have been told for 5 years that I need to improve in my position although i have never had any proper training and i am never given any specific areas to focus on.

Helenahhandbasket · May 2014

JackoftheBox said:

The job is a guidance counselor secretary at an elementary school. This would allow me to be home with DS during holidays, snow days, and some during the summer. They pay for your insurance so that would help out tremendously. I am assuming the hours would be 7:45 to 3pm (the same hours as school is in session). But i would have to now figure in gas to and from each day. Also when DS starts school we would be in different districts. I would work for one and he would be in school in one. So there would be instances where our days wouldn't match up (which is why i wanted to work for our district). Also the pay cut....

Where i am currently. I am close to home about 5 mins. And i make great money. We also have decent insurance. My issues here are my ass of a boss. And the time that i am allotted off for my son (which apparently is 3 days). This wouldn't be an issue except my mother works full time, my dad has cancer and can't keep ds, and my husband doesn't get paid time off. So it usually always falls on me. Also i have been told for 5 years that I need to improve in my position although i have never had any proper training and i am never given any specific areas to focus on.

I took a pay cut at my current job.

The pros for me were- better known comapny, 100% paid benefits, mor vacation and sick pay.

A horrible boss isn't worth extra money, IMHO. It's why I left my previous job-- I used to feel sick in the mornings just thinking about going to work. I don't have that feeling now.

JackoftheBox · May 2014

M&MHaveMyHeart said:

Oh another thing I wanted to add that even though the pay cut might be a little different/sucky right now, in a couple of years DS will be in school so daycare expense is out so might not be so bad in the long run.

LOL have you forgot about my crazy dream of another? The light at the end of the tunnel is a little longer for me if that happens!

JackoftheBox · May 2014

Helenahhandbasket said:

JackoftheBox said:

The job is a guidance counselor secretary at an elementary school. This would allow me to be home with DS during holidays, snow days, and some during the summer. They pay for your insurance so that would help out tremendously. I am assuming the hours would be 7:45 to 3pm (the same hours as school is in session). But i would have to now figure in gas to and from each day. Also when DS starts school we would be in different districts. I would work for one and he would be in school in one. So there would be instances where our days wouldn't match up (which is why i wanted to work for our district). Also the pay cut....

Where i am currently. I am close to home about 5 mins. And i make great money. We also have decent insurance. My issues here are my ass of a boss. And the time that i am allotted off for my son (which apparently is 3 days). This wouldn't be an issue except my mother works full time, my dad has cancer and can't keep ds, and my husband doesn't get paid time off. So it usually always falls on me. Also i have been told for 5 years that I need to improve in my position although i have never had any proper training and i am never given any specific areas to focus on.

I took a pay cut at my current job.

The pros for me were- better known comapny, 100% paid benefits, mor vacation and sick pay.

A horrible boss isn't worth extra money, IMHO. It's why I left my previous job-- I used to feel sick in the mornings just thinking about going to work. I don't have that feeling now.

Thank you. That makes me feel a lot better. I feel like that most mornings. I have even had to up my anxiety meds to cope...

TittsMcGee · May 2014

@jackofthebox that job doesn't sound too bad. You can work there and gain experience and apply to your school district so hopefully by the time your DS is in school you'll score a job.

JackoftheBox · May 2014

TittsMcGee said:

@jackofthebox that job doesn't sound too bad. You can work there and gain experience and apply to your school district so hopefully by the time your DS is in school you'll score a job.

This is what i told DH. He told me I should just wait for a position to open up here. I guess it won't really be an issue until i get an interview/an offer for the job LOL. I also thought maybe if I said i can only come on for X amount of dollars that this might help.

meo34 · May 2014

I think $6/hr is quite a pay cut but could you get some child care savings as the hours are more flexible? Also you should factor in the loss in pay because your ass of a boss is requiring you to take unpaid leave instead of paid vacation. I will say though that if your job is causing you to need to up your anxiety meds then it is worth the pay cut. Also this experience could help you gain a similar position with possible better pay and in your school district. I don't think 25 min commute is bad at all. That is what I do and find it fine.

My FWP is that I have a new job starting on June 2 and it a senior level management position and I am super nervous. I know I competed against people with much more experience than me. I am also the youngest and first female to hold this position but I am not thinking wow, look at me I am so great, instead I feel a lot of pressure to meet expectations now they have selected me. I feel like I have no idea what I am doing and will fall flat on my face. My logical/career minded self tells me I will rock it out but sometimes I don't know!

Helenahhandbasket · May 2014

Also, a 25 minute commute to me sounds like a dream-- but I realize that long commutes are pretty regional.

I used to have about an hour and 15 min commute for an old job (driving). Right now my trian ride is about 35 min- but if you include walking to the office I would say my commute is ab 50 minutes door to door.

Just wanted to also throw that out there.

JackoftheBox · May 2014

meo34 said:

I think $6/hr is quite a pay cut but could you get some child care savings as the hours are more flexible? Also you should factor in the loss in pay because your ass of a boss is requiring you to take unpaid leave instead of paid vacation. I will say though that if your job is causing you to need to up your anxiety meds then it is worth the pay cut. Also this experience could help you gain a similar position with possible better pay and in your school district. I don't think 25 min commute is bad at all. That is what I do and find it fine.
My FWP is that I have a new job starting on June 2 and it a senior level management position and I am super nervous. I know I competed against people with much more experience than me. I am also the youngest and first female to hold this position but I am not thinking wow, look at me I am so great, instead I feel a lot of pressure to meet expectations now they have selected me. I feel like I have no idea what I am doing and will fall flat on my face. My logical/career minded self tells me I will rock it out but sometimes I don't know!

Umm hello they offered it to you for a reason!! It's bc they are confident that you will do an amazing job! Don't second guess yourself. You got this shit!

law&order · May 2014

2 years ago I took a very large paycut (like 30%) to leave a work environment that caused me a tremendous amount of stress due to the type of work I was doing, poor managers, long hours/little time for DS, lots of take-home work, poor clerical support, no opportunity for advancement...the list of "cons" is huge.

My new job, despite the paycut, has better benefits, a retirement plan, holidays. I'm also 80% instead of full-time (a factor in the paycut, obviously) so I have 8 weeks off in the summer. I'm 100% happier and I can care for DS, I have flexibility, and again, I'm happy. My old boss was an ogre and I'd never go back. It was probably my #1 reason for leaving.

Money is tighter for sure. We definitely have to be very concious of our spending each month. But it's been worth it. I'm a compeltely different person. I have control over my schedule. I love my boss.

If you can make the paycut work, a pleasant, fulfilling work environment is worth every penny lost.

I commute 30-40 min each way so 25 minutes seems like NBD to me.

JackoftheBox · May 2014

law&order said:

2 years ago I took a very large paycut (like 30%) to leave a work environment that caused me a tremendous amount of stress due to the type of work I was doing, poor managers, long hours/little time for DS, lots of take-home work, poor clerical support, no opportunity for advancement...the list of "cons" is huge.
My new job, despite the paycut, has better benefits, a retirement plan, holidays. I'm also 80% instead of full-time (a factor in the paycut, obviously) so I have 8 weeks off in the summer. I'm 100% happier and I can care for DS, I have flexibility, and again, I'm happy. My old boss was an ogre and I'd never go back. It was probably my #1 reason for leaving.
Money is tighter for sure. We definitely have to be very concious of our spending each month. But it's been worth it. I'm a compeltely different person. I have control over my schedule. I love my boss.
If you can make the paycut work, a pleasant, fulfilling work environment is worth every penny lost.
I commute 30-40 min each way so 25 minutes seems like NBD to me.

The commute would be 25 min each way. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. If it were round trip you better believe i would be on it!!

You guys are making this seem a lot more doable the more everyone talks!! I guess I will have to crunch some numbers and see if it could be a real possibility.

law&order · May 2014

JackoftheBox said:

law&order said:

2 years ago I took a very large paycut (like 30%) to leave a work environment that caused me a tremendous amount of stress due to the type of work I was doing, poor managers, long hours/little time for DS, lots of take-home work, poor clerical support, no opportunity for advancement...the list of "cons" is huge.
My new job, despite the paycut, has better benefits, a retirement plan, holidays. I'm also 80% instead of full-time (a factor in the paycut, obviously) so I have 8 weeks off in the summer. I'm 100% happier and I can care for DS, I have flexibility, and again, I'm happy. My old boss was an ogre and I'd never go back. It was probably my #1 reason for leaving.
Money is tighter for sure. We definitely have to be very concious of our spending each month. But it's been worth it. I'm a compeltely different person. I have control over my schedule. I love my boss.
If you can make the paycut work, a pleasant, fulfilling work environment is worth every penny lost.
I commute 30-40 min each way so 25 minutes seems like NBD to me.

The commute would be 25 min each way. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. If it were round trip you better believe i would be on it!!

You guys are making this seem a lot more doable the more everyone talks!! I guess I will have to crunch some numbers and see if it could be a real possibility.

That's what I thought you meant

25 minutes each way doesn't seem bad to me.

TiffanyBerry · May 2014

a $6/hr pay cut is, roughly, a $45/day pay cut. Or a $225/week pay cut. If it were a year-round job, that'd be about an $11,700/yr pay cut, but since it is (I presume?) less than year-round, would be more. That's a BIG step back in your potential, life-long earning power. (You'll have to take the time to climb back up that "ladder" to where your current salary is, and since you are in a different field, you might not be able to.)

That said, salary isn't everything, and the emotional (and even medical!) costs of a high-stress job can be quite high. As I've mentioned, my health degraded BADLY under the stressful job situation with a boss who really didn't like me. For us, cutting our combined income in half (ugh!) was worthwhile. We may live a little differently (hello, no vacations in years!), but it was a worthwhile trade-off for us. And if/when I go back to working more, I'll do it as a yoga teacher, instead of a software/systems engineer, which is definitely a lot less money, but a much happier job.

I don't have any answers for you.

If you think it's doable, then it's doable. It may mean a lifestyle (or, really, mindset) change. But that can be a good thing to, overall, to you life.

The measure of your life, decades from now, may have some dependency on your income (so you're not, say, destitute and homeless in retirement), but it also has a lot of dependency on your happiness and freedom and emotional state throughout that time too.

PB102012 · May 2014

It sounds like the cons are outweighing the pros on this one. If it were me I wouldn't take it. Good luck!

KS02CS08 · May 2014

I would rather enjoy my job then hate working at the higher paying job

kristennd · May 2014

I took a $7/hour paycut when I changed careers, and it absolutely was for the best.

But I was unmarried at the time and it also involved moving to a lower cost of living area. Integrating a salary cut into an existing lifestyle is more complicated.

I'd always at least crunch the numbers, however. And factor in the non-salary benefits.

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