I'm in a situation where I'm considering taking a job for less. I'm wondering if anyone here has ever made such as choice and if so, under what conditions?
Right now, I'm in a position that's well-paid, but higher stress and expectations. It's quite possible that over the next year or two my current position will be unsustainable, or more precisely, what I'd need to do to sustain this position is not something I'm interested in pursuing. I have ways that I could probably manage this to eek out some additional years, but there is more risk in eventually hitting a wall. Plus the work environment isn't that great.
I've had an offer for a position that appears to be much more balanced in a good work environment. I've asked a couple of different people at the company and I'm led to believe this is true (this company has won top rating of a great place to work for many years in a row). The commute is also much better, 20 min max compared to about 50 min right now (7 miles one way vs 18 miles). I'd save at least an hour a day and could possibly bike to the new place. And it's a smaller company that is growing, so the long-term potential is a bit higher. The compensation decrease is primarily because it's not an area I currently have a lot of expertise and the job overall is probably more balanced (easy) once I come up to speed. In this job, I would also be learning new areas, which in 2-3 years would definitely make me more marketable. Plus there's the newness factor: learning new things is fun and I think I'd enjoy it, where the current job is more maintaining what I know/have.
Taking this job would probably add a year or two before I'd be able to RE - currently about 10 years out - but that could be worth the trade-off to work in a better environment (that's a hard one to gauge!). There would be no decrease in our current lifestyle. We'd still be able to vacation, spend, pretty much the same as we do now, we'd just be saving less.
So I'm wondering what others think of this situation? If you've ever found yourself making this choice, what are some of the items that you considered? Did you end up making the change?
Right now, I'm in a position that's well-paid, but higher stress and expectations. It's quite possible that over the next year or two my current position will be unsustainable, or more precisely, what I'd need to do to sustain this position is not something I'm interested in pursuing. I have ways that I could probably manage this to eek out some additional years, but there is more risk in eventually hitting a wall. Plus the work environment isn't that great.
I've had an offer for a position that appears to be much more balanced in a good work environment. I've asked a couple of different people at the company and I'm led to believe this is true (this company has won top rating of a great place to work for many years in a row). The commute is also much better, 20 min max compared to about 50 min right now (7 miles one way vs 18 miles). I'd save at least an hour a day and could possibly bike to the new place. And it's a smaller company that is growing, so the long-term potential is a bit higher. The compensation decrease is primarily because it's not an area I currently have a lot of expertise and the job overall is probably more balanced (easy) once I come up to speed. In this job, I would also be learning new areas, which in 2-3 years would definitely make me more marketable. Plus there's the newness factor: learning new things is fun and I think I'd enjoy it, where the current job is more maintaining what I know/have.
Taking this job would probably add a year or two before I'd be able to RE - currently about 10 years out - but that could be worth the trade-off to work in a better environment (that's a hard one to gauge!). There would be no decrease in our current lifestyle. We'd still be able to vacation, spend, pretty much the same as we do now, we'd just be saving less.
So I'm wondering what others think of this situation? If you've ever found yourself making this choice, what are some of the items that you considered? Did you end up making the change?