Hey ladies! I need some advice since this is definitely a pros and cons situation. Sorry in advance for the long post..
Anonymous
Hey ladies! I need some advice since this is definitely a pros and cons situation. Sorry in advance for the long post..
Situation: My company had hired me as remote/ work from home status over a couple years ago, but is now requiring everyone to come into the office 10
days each month for the full week every other week, regardless of hire letter status. I am totally fine with going into the office, however, my teams are in Boston or Raleigh, which are clearly not commutable distances from Philadelphia, where I live.
We cannot move because we have a physical family business and also a small child. Going to these required locations for a week at a time would take me to be away from my family basically about 50% of the time. This travel would also be on my own expense as with anyone else’s “normal commute”.
Because of this, I decided that I will voluntarily leave my position by the end of the year and take the severance package that they are offering me since they changed the employment location on me, and this pays me until June next year (6 months of salary).
Options: I work at a very large company, and another part of the business has a role they created for me that can report out of Jersey City, which is the closest home office location that I am allowed to report to (my current role does not allow this due to my teams being elsewhere above). They offered me the role which includes an elevated title and level, higher base salary by about $35k, and higher target bonus percentage increase by 50%, which in total should slightly more than cover the additional cost of travel/ Amtrak, childcare, and other expenses going to Jersey City 10 days each month, after tax etc. I should also note that the other part of the business created this role for me and got the level raised knowing that the commute would be difficult and wanted to make this more appealing so I could stay at the company.
I am also actively interviewing for other roles that would pay me around the same amount or more, but where I can commute within an hour in our region vs. 2 hours each way. However, I do not have firm offers in hand yet to compare, even though I’ve been having conversations with higher level executives at these companies, as things move slow as expected.
I should get back to my current company and the new role they offered me this week to let them know of my decision.
I am feeling pretty optimistic about the other options that are local or remote, and I don’t want to sacrifice my well-being as well as my family’s well-being. But I also don’t want to give up a good opportunity that was given to me, and risk that I might not have any new options as the new year rolls around as I know the job market can be tricky as the new year and new administration comes in.
Other wrench: we are trying to have another child, and I could be pregnant within the next year if all goes well. I am already vested and eligible for all benefits etc here at my current company. And I would need to potentially be looking for a new role while being pregnant or soon after, maybe not qualifying for leave, etc.
What would you do??
Thank you in advance!
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