The Pros and Cons

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.