Work Life

[Alcremie]

Personally, no. I wasn't technically a supervisor, but one of the only person in hardware tech at a FAANG company with the rest softwares. It was hard to get people to listen. I'm a girl though so that was a bit of a factor. I decided I wasn't going to be in a sort of role that is responsible for others that much. Sure, I make less money but I'm a heck of a lot happier. No RTO funny business, no shit-for-brains folks trying to micromanage. I'm honestly living the best life as much as I can.

Also important, look at the tax brackets. Will you be bumped up in the next bracket for this new income?

[nestlepak]

yeah agree with the others.. to me, the most important factor (assuming you are getting enough money from the current job to live as comfortably as you would like) is how happy you'll be in the job. especially given that its now going to be so much larger a percentage of your life. you're spending most of your waking hours doing it so are you going to be miserable for those hours? if so, its not worth it. money is an important factor but it comes after like culture, people, in general how much the day to day responsibilities make you miserable.

the richest people in this world are the people that love every second of their job

[Rook]

TL;DR: Depends on the person and their situation. For me, I'd take it, but I'm a corporate simp with no healthy work boundaries (:.

I think everyone's situation is different. I think anyone in making a decision like this should be asking themselves the following:

- What parts of life and work drive you? What is important to you (work life balance, pay/benefits, stress levels, enjoyment or impact to others of your work)? Does your new job satisfy this need?
- How do you handle stress? When you get stressed, are you someone who buckles down and does what needs to be done, or do you need to often take a step back to breath? It's ok to be either, but be realistic and honest with yourself. If you cannot handle a stressful job, you should consider your health and wellbeing over anything else, including pay.
- As others have mentioned, where does this place you in tax brackets? Make a few budget sheets and compare based off your current salary, expected salary, and make a third for somewhere in between if you were to find something similar.
- Where will this new job place you in 5 years? Is there room to grow and learn? Can you expect similar hours once you move up? You could be working 60 hours now, but will you be working 80 hours or 50 hours later? Once you break the boundary and say, "Sure, I'll work 60 hour weeks!" it's nearly impossible to go back. They will then expect it from you. Can this schedule work with your current obligations and hobbies or are those obligations and hobbies something you can even sacrifice?

I, personally, just had to ask myself these questions. I very recently had to make the choice between a 40% raise and a promotion at my current job, or a pay cut and a lateral move at a new company that just so happens to also be my dream company. The new work I'd be doing met my emotional needs--feeling like I was doing something worthwhile and impactful, but also less stressful.

I chose to stay with the 40% raise and promotion at my current company. The step back wasn't worth it to me, despite it being my dream company. Financially, I needed the money but I also have so much more opportunity where I am currently to grow in my industry whereas I won't get as many teaching opportunities at the new company. I chose to stay to hopefully apply at a later date. It's a sacrifice, but a sacrifice to grow and be ready for when it's the right time.

[♥ lint ♥]

Depends on the environment imo. If I understand what I'm getting into, I would probably do it. This includes knowing who will be above or below you. I don't like the idea of supervising people because I'm aware that I lack the emotional intelligence to probably effectively deal with certain issues, but if I would be supervising people I already know, then I think it would work. In a previous department that I worked in, the senior directors sucked, so I knew there was no way I could see myself going further in this dept. Where I work now, I see the directors and senior managers as much more competent and giving more of a crap about the work, so I feel more confident in being supported should I go into a supervising role. I think that the concern of having more work is definitely valid, but I think that as a manager, you would also have more control of your work schedule. Of course, it would depend on lifestyle factors as well as private vs public. My manager (I work in the public sector) is married, but doesn't have or want kids so his lifestyle I guess is not so busy. He emphasizes work life balance so he sometimes works on things after work, but at the same time will run errands during the day to balance things out. He also emphasizes to do what he needs to and not do so much more because we're not paid to do more.

I think maybe in the beginning the adjustment of work and the hours might feel like a lot, but I think you can adjust to it to make it less than that time. I remember when I was moved to work with a new team, the work practically doubled compared to other people in lateral roles to mine, but I got used to it and found ways to make it work for me and not spend so much time I guess if that makes sense.

Imo it's not just about pay either, but beefing up the resume. If it doesn't work out or seems like too much, at least you did it, you know, and now have experience for other jobs in the future.

[Alister]

I agree with everyone else on it really matters what your personal circumstances are, but the other thing I'd mention is if the promotion takes you from not being a people manager to being a people manager, that'd be a strong negative for me. Managing people is much more stressful imo than being an individual contributor. If you're just the supervisor, that's one thing (like people reporting to you through dotted line/you oversee the process but don't have direct reports), but being the one in charge of disciplinary action can be really stressful.

I'm in a similar position where I'm weighing going after a formal promotion for the work I'm ready somewhat doing against the longer hours it would come with to do the job properly (to be fair, I don't put the full effort in on it right now because it's WAY out of my job role). Talked to my boss last week about it. Essentially my boss, a director, left two years ago. His boss, a VP, decided having me fill in for the work is good enough that they don't need to go hire someone to replace my old boss but that I'm not polished enough to be promoted to the title myself.

He seemed taken aback when I told him that since I wasn't awarded a pay increase to continue doing this work as-is, I'm very happy to take a step back on leadership stuff, return to being an independent contributor, and he can go hire a new director for me to report to (which would be ~8x the expense of just giving me the increase I think is fair for what I'm doing). Conversation to be continued lol