Posted by Forest on June 30, 2008
No news yet from my previous employer about my email requesting my old position back. Not sure if no news is good news at this point. I realize that my old team lead probably isn’t going to be able to make the decision herself, so it will probably have to go up through a director and HR. But on the other hand, I haven’t even heard from her at all, so I’m not even sure she’s received my initial email. Maybe she is out of the office or something. There are a lot of scenarios my mind can come up with, but whatever, I’ll just work on my patience and continue to wait to see what happens.
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Filed Under: Work
Posted by Forest on
I spent the weekend hanging out at a friend’s cabin which kept me from spending much money. We had a ton of fun even if it did rain all day on Saturday.
I ended up buying dinner on Friday night as a thank you to my friend for driving. Dinner cost me $22, but I’m sure I got the better end of that deal as gas for the trip was probably more expensive than that.
Also, I ran my numbers for June tonight and I’ll try to post about them in the next few days.
Posted by Forest on June 26, 2008
Apologies in advance for this post. It’s going to be a long and probably boring comparison of my former and current employers.
I’ve been in my current position (company 2 for the purpose of this post) for just about four months. I left my last position (company 1) after being there for three years. Why did I leave? Mostly for the money. Plain and simple.
Here’s a breakdown on some of the pros and cons:
Compensation: Company 1 paid a decent amount; nothing fabulous. Company 2 paid me quite a bit more. That’s the primary reason I left. To go back, I’m assuming I would be taking a pay cut. That’s a win for Company 2.
Advancement: After three years at Company 1, I learned how it all worked and that there wasn’t exactly a fast-track to advancement. But all companies need higher-ups, and for whatever track there was, I feel like I was on it. I was respected, valued, and successful. Advancement prospects at Company 2 seem a little more realistic or achievable. It’s a larger company with more places to grow within. Another win for Company 2. However, if I don’t like the work, do I really want to advance?
The Work: The work at company 1 wasn’t soul-fulfilling, but I didn’t mind it. It could be repetitious and sometimes boring, but it was never stressful. And in the last few months before I left, I was getting into more interesting projects. I never felt like I woke up in the morning and dreaded going into work. At company 2, the work is challenging (good and bad) but also not very fulfilling. It can also be downright frustrating because there is a huge learning curve. They told me coming in that it takes almost a year to learn everything, and I am quickly learning that this is true. However, it might take even more than a year. Everything there changes so much, that it’s almost impossible to keep current on it all. You can ask someone a question and get an answer, but ask the same question to someone else and you’ll get a different answer and no one is quite sure who is correct. And the people that do have the final say are hard to get a hold of. Totally frustrating for a new guy who just wants to learn the correct answer.
The Commute: Company 1 was 15 minutes from my house using back streets with no traffic. Company 2 is a solid hour each way in stop-n-go traffic. I have little confidence that the house will sell anytime soon, so that commute could be around for a long time. I realize other people have long commutes, but it’s just something I can’t stand. I hate it so much. A total waste of two hours of my day.
Office Morale: Company 1 has a laid back atmosphere. Dress is casual (jeans every day if I wanted). People complain about their jobs, but not in a bad way, just in a “I’m a normal person complaining about their job” kind of way. Teamwork is emphasized. Cube walls are low, every cube has a guest chair; collaboration is valued. It’s also in a huge building with long halls to wander and places to take little breaks. I really think this helps to improve everyone’s attitude; just to have a place to get out of your cube for a while. Company 2 is not like that. It’s in a small building. When you get to your cube, everyone pretty much stays there all day. Dress code is pretty dressy, which I don’t find very comfortable. We’re still organized in teams, but my team is based in Ohio. I’m the sole team member here. When I started I thought it might be nice to have a boss in another state because no one would be looking over my shoulder. What I’ve found is that it is nice not to have that, but it’s even more frustrating not being able to get a hold of her when I need her. Morale seems to be low around the whole office. The email from the CEO about layoffs probably didn’t help. But the worst thing is what I like to call the blame game atmosphere. When I work on a project, I get a grade from Quality. Literally, like a score from 0 to 100. It’s very 3rd grade-ish. The thing is, this score matters because your overall score affects your merit increases, bonuses, etc. But Quality also gets scored on their work, so they really want to find things wrong with my work. And so they can get picky. And so if I get a bad score and disagree with Quality, I have to argue my score with Quality or take it to my Team Lead and defend my work. All this is time wasted when I could have been working on something else. So it feels like people are always walking on eggshells around there. Basically, it’s a lot easier to be held personally responsible for miscues at Company 2. Company 1 was big on teamwork and the team taking the blame or better yet, blaming “the system”. And it’s true, we did use a computer system that was prone to malfunctions. Anyway, Company 2 is more stressful and I don’t see it getting any better as I will only get more difficult projects in the future.
Schedule: I worked 4 10-hour days at Company 1. I had every single Friday off. It was also easy to schedule vacation or just take off at a moment’s notice. Again, real laid back atmosphere. Company 2 told me during the interview process that they would consider my flexible schedule once I got the hang of the job. I’m starting to realize I may never get the hang of the job. And even if I do, it’s not the kind of work I could do for 10 hours at a time, not to mention I’d still be commuting for two hours. So that’s not very appealing. I TOTALLY MISS HAVING MY FRIDAYS OFF! This is probably the number one reason I am considering returning to Company 1. If they say I can come back but not work that schedule, I probably won’t do it.
The People: I never used to think so, but the people you work with can really make or break a job. I genuinely liked my coworkers at Company 1. I was put on a new team a few months before I left and I absolutely loved working with them. They were super fun and work never seemed like work. Even when we had to put in overtime, I didn’t mind because we were having a good time. And the department was huge, so I got to know more people. Currently, I work with about 20 people and while I’ve only been there four months, I’ve gotten to know them all and honestly, I only really connect with 2 or 3 of them.
There are many, many other little tiny things that have been considered, but this post is probably too long as it is. But let me just talk about one more thing. The Future. Or Dreams vs. Realities.
I have a dream of being my own boss some day. Hopefully, with an internet business. It’s a dream a lot of people have. But I’m serious about this, and I really want it to happen. Therefore, I’m taking steps. I got my first taste of business with my own used book business. Now I am trying to get into some other ventures.
When I left Company 1, I thought the extra money I was getting from Company 2 would enable me to take a few more risks and really go for my dreams. What I’ve found out is that I have the extra money but no time. With my Fridays off at Company 1 and the shorter commute, there’s a lot more time for side projects.
And if the dream takes off….then I don’t have to worry about career advancement at either company.
Out of all of this…I’ve learned some things. One of my friends mentioned the other night that one of the most valuable things I’ve learned is what I don’t want or what I don’t like in a position. I would agree with that. However, the most surprising thing for me was learning that I value my time more than money. Six months ago I never would have thought that.
Like I said, there are several more little things on the pros and cons list but I won’t bore you all with the details. And as always, stay tuned as my life plays out before your very eyes. I’ll keep you posted!
ps. Yes, this post is totally skewed towards Company 1 and I’m sure just like I have done with a few ex-girlfriends, I’m probably looking back on it as a little rosier than it really was. So I’m trying not to get my hopes up because there’s no real reason to think that they would let me come back, but if I’m honest with myself, my hopes are already way up and I will be disappointed if it doesn’t work out. But no matter what happens, life will go on and if I can’t go back…I will soldier on at Company 2 and do the very best job I can do.
*It’s also come to my attention that a 3rd option would be to look for a new job all together. That doesn’t sound too appealing to me at this point in time. So it’s not gonna happen.
Posted by Forest on
On Monday, I got an email from someone at my old company telling me that my old team was swamped with work and she said that they really missed me. I replied back saying that I missed them too, which is true. She responded by saying she was sure they would take me back if I wanted. (FYI - she’s in no position to have any say in something like that)
The email was out of the blue, but all the same, it got me thinking or at least escalated some thoughts I was already thinking. And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. All day Monday I kept thinking about what she had said and debating the pros and cons of each job. I used my lunch break to physically write out a pro/con list. I had dinner with my most trusted friends on Monday night and talked it all through with them. Talked to my roommate about it on Tuesday night and then my parents last night. Talked and talked and talked, running the situation by my closest friends to make sure I was covering all the angles and not missing anything when it came to the pros and cons. And through all this talking, I ended up leaning towards trying to get my old job back.
All of that talking and thinking based on one little email out of the blue. I think my dad said it best when he said, “there’s no point in all this talking until you know it’s a real option.” Well said. So today I emailed my old team lead and told her the new job wasn’t such a great fit and asked if there was any possibility of returning to my old position.
Now I’m in a holding pattern. And isn’t waiting always the hardest part?
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Filed Under: Work
Posted by Forest on June 25, 2008
We got an email from our realtor yesterday noting that we hadn’t received a single call about our house yet and that we were probably priced a little on the high side.
Basically, she was telling us to lower the price. And I knew from the very beginning that we were at least very close to overpriced if not just straight-up overpriced. But we’re also priced pretty much at the break even point. She’s the expert, so she should know, but it’s only been two weeks and everyone knew going into this that it wasn’t going to happen just like that! Patience is a virtue. I don’t want to lower the price just yet.
I’m not prepared to take a huge loss on this thing, so I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do. I’d be fine with taking a small to moderate loss (not sure what exactly that means in dollar terms!), just to get it off my hands. But I don’t have to move. Yes, the commute sucks. Yes, things aren’t as good as they could be with my co-owner, but they’re not exactly terrible either. So we’ll see. Time will tell. As always, I will keep you updated.
Posted by Forest on
As part of Super Summer Fun Fest, it’s jeans week at work. And yes, Super Summer Fun Fest is about as lame as it sounds. So yesterday I was wearing the only pair of jeans that I really like and I somehow managed to completely rip the knee out. Luckily, it was in the afternoon so I didn’t have to sit at work too long with a big hole in my knee. Anyway, looks like I need to go shopping again.
Posted by Forest on June 24, 2008
I haven’t talked much about investing yet, but I plan on writing a few posts about my investing experiences in the future. For now, I just wanted to note that I signed up for my company’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan today. I’ve chosen to allocate 5% of my net pay per paycheck to buying the company stock, but the cool thing is that I get to buy it at a 15% discount to the market price. So in a way it’s like I get an instant 15% return on my money, as long as the stock stays the same or goes up! But even if the stock goes down a little bit, my investing outlook is for the long term, so I’m not too worried.
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