Accepted a job offer but now been offered another....

[Hoofy]

Raymond Reddington said:

Thanks for your thoughts everyone, I'm trying to look at this objectively and not use your opinions to reinforce what I'm leaning towards... but it does seem like the answer is now obvious

I think it's the other way round, really. You present the options and we present arguments for either side.

Reality is, though, that neither option is terrible for you (well, for me, anything meaning getting up before 9am sucks ).

[TRIUMPHBULLET]

45 mins to a job you like is far preferable to 5 mins to a job you hate.
As ever your working environment is critical.
Is there a way of finding out via reviews?
Negative reviews are more common for a reason and usually mean trouble ahead, a company with out many usually means most employees are happy and don't want to move.

[Raymond Reddington]

Jasandjules said:

You can either spend 1.5 hours a day travelling to and from work (assuming no traffic etc) OR about 30 minutes...

1 extra hour a day, 5 days a week, 20 hours a month or over 2 full working days. You work 11 months of the year so you are talking about 24 DAYS a year you will be travelling....

Quite significant when you put it like that!

[Raymond Reddington]

TRIUMPHBULLET said:

45 mins to a job you like is far preferable to 5 mins to a job you hate.
As ever your working environment is critical.
Is there a way of finding out via reviews?
Negative reviews are more common for a reason and usually mean trouble ahead, a company with out many usually means most employees are happy and don't want to move.

My friends wife works there (and hates it, but she's quite difficult if I'm completely honest) and it's quite a small industry in that there are lots of freelancers who have been to loads of places for a few months at a time, myself included, so word does get around.

It does have a new manager who has joined from another similar company which has a very good reputation so perhaps things will Improve further.

To be fair, my job is one where you can go in, headphones on and crack on. Certain types of work can be boring but after 13 years it's all pretty much the same to me. But point taken that it can be worth the travel to go somewhere decent.

For extra context, job 1 you are there for 46 hours and paid for 42, whereas job 2 you are there for 42.5 hours and paid for 40, I've just realised this, so job 2 pays you for teabreaks, 1 does not. Small thing but it means being out of the house even longer on top of the commute. Food for thought.

[Exige46]

I would talk to the people at job 1 and explain the dilemma. Perhaps they can do something about the hours, perhaps they can do something about the money. If they can't budge then you have at least had a good conversation, they will understand your reasons and no bridges burnt if you end up choosing job 2 and it doesn't work out.

[Raymond Reddington]

Thanks for the help everyone.

Bit of a new twist to the story, speaking to the HR of the second company and got very bad vibes - they said they'd heard my friend works there (friends wife, previously mentioned above in the thread) and proceeded to slag her off to me, to my amazement!

You'd think HR should remain professional above all else...

I was happy with my original offer from the first company before, and it's still good, so I think I'm just going to go with that, and possibly remove LinkedIn for a while and indeed so that I don't have to go through this again!

I'm starting to wonder if I negotiated a strong enough package now as there appears to be a massive shortage of my skills, but the money is fine so I don't think I'll mess about now, as I've already accepted the offer after all.

[Hoofy]

That's bizarre. And possibly a data protection issue (as in they've broken the law).

[55palfers]

Good luck in the new post.

Looking forward to reading your "What car for a 45 minute commute?" thread