So I took a new job last month, mostly because I felt like I had stagnated in my previous role, both financially and growth-wise. My goal from the start was actually to get an offer letter and take it back to my employer to see if they would bump me up in pay to match it, or at least come close to it. I wasn’t unhappy at my job, I just wanted something more after almost 10 years of service with little to no career advancement and the cost of living increases that don’t even keep up with inflation.

Well, I did not have to search for long. I was headhunted for a role that is technically a promotion from my old job, and it came with a substantial salary increase. I took that offer back to my former employer and they offered me a very low raise as a counter. Not even coming close to the offer from the other place.

So I decided to take a chance on it and left for my current role. So far, I am not enjoying it. I anticipated that there would be some growing pains getting used to the new environment, new co-workers, new workflow and so on, but I’ve encountered a bunch of red flags within the first three weeks of working here and had I known about them I would have not accepted the position to begin with.

Mostly, I am just not feeling fulfilled here. I don’t have a clear understanding of what my job responsibilities are, and they stuff they are having me do are not things that I envisioned myself performing in this role. There is no clear onboarding procedure, and every one of my peers seems to be chronically overworked.

I think the thing that is stressing me out the most, however, is that my old manager (whom I am friends with outside of work) said that I could have my old job back, but that he couldn’t keep the seat warm for me forever. That window, as he told me last weekend when I spoke with him, is rapidly closing. If I wanted to go back, I would have to decide very soon. Part of me wants to tough it out for a while and see if the anxiety and apprehensiveness I’m feeling in the new job is just something that will pass in time, but another part of me wants to cut and run while I still have a chance to go back to some feeling of normalcy.

Does anybody have any advice? Is this normal? I did not feel this way when starting my last job, but I did have other short lived jobs where I felt almost exactly the same. Is it a matter of me not giving it enough time or should I listen to my instincts telling me something isn’t right?

edit: Thanks y’all. There’s some good wisdom out there. I appreciate everyone who took the time to write out a well thought out reply or shared their own experiences. I think for now I am going to tough it out, get the help of a therapist to work through some of my anxiety problems, and maybe in 6 months if things haven’t started improving, I will start searching for a new job at a different company, not my previous employer.

  • oddlyqueer@lemmy.ml
    7·
    6 days ago

    I’ve job hopped a medium amount. It’s extremely common. The red flags you’re seeing are most likely indicators of serious problems, and you should trust your intuitions about them. Especially the thing about everyone being overworked jumps out at me. That kind of problem is systemic, and unless the new company leaders are honest about it being a problem and are taking steps to fix it (for example, hiring more people) you won’t be able to fix it as a low level employee and it can burn you out if you try. On the other hand, one month is not a lot of time to get familiar with a new workplace and understand the dynamics. Are there upsides that counterbalance the downsides? Can you find ways to mitigate or improve the situation at your new job? How much power do you feel like you have with your team to change the problems you see, and is this job worth the effort that that will take? Since you’re on a short clock, you won’t be able to get all the information you need to make an informed decision, so this is partly going to come down to your gut, which is scary. And no one on the internet is going to be able to make the decision better than you, for better or for worse.

    Something else to consider: counteroffers are sometimes a trap. If your employer knows you are actively looking to leave, they will often begin preparing to replace you on their own, before you can make a move. Deciding whether this is a realistic possibility comes down to how much you trust your manager friend, how much you trust the other powers that be at your old company, and whether or not your old company can resolve the issues that led you to leave in the first place. Because if you go back to your old job and it’s the same old job, you will probably still want to leave at some point, and now your manager knows it.

    Good luck. that’s a tight spot, and I hope you navigate it and land somewhere you feel comfortable ❤️