You do interesting work, you like the hours and the people, but the pay is measly. An option that seems attractive is to take a standard position in a larger organisation at a salary 50 per cent more than what you are getting now. So, what should you do? Go for money or job satisfaction?
Stay put, says Lucy Kellaway in ‘The Answers: All the office questions you never dared to ask’ (www.vivagroupindia.com). You don’t know how important job satisfaction is to you until you try living without it, and neither do you know how good or bad a new job might be, she reasons. “To move is to take a risk and, for it to be wise, the odds must be compelling.”
If you are so poor that you can’t afford to eat and pay the rent, or if the absence of skiing holidays has become unbearable, you need to move, the author advises. “But if you are in a greyer area, wishing you had more money but prepared to struggle on, moving looks too risky.”
She concedes that the ideal position is to have money and satisfaction. That may happen over time, but meanwhile you can think of supplementing your income with something else, Kellaway suggests. “Even if you can’t, you should move only when your need for more money has become intolerable.”
Each chapter has a collection of readers’ replies to the thread of discussion. For instance, in the ‘satisfaction vs money’ case, one response urges the questioner not to sell out. “The moment you sell out, you will never again get the opportunity to do unique, original work. That’s the kind of work that defines you – and your future value.”
New boss
Another query reads thus: ‘My new boss thinks I’m a waste of space.’ He is very political and has his favourites, whereas I like the work and the culture, and the money is good, says the questioner. “What can I do to convince him that I’m worth keeping? Doing great work won’t achieve that – I do great work anyway and he has never valued it… Any ideas?”
The author’s take is that the troubled employee’s best hope may be that the boss for some political reason finds getting rid of the staff is more problematic than retaining. “You are right that working hard is unlikely to impress him: in my experience good work always goes undetected by a boss intent on seeing your flaws.”
So, start looking for another job, she continues. “But don’t do anything hasty. It would be a mistake to jump before you are pushed. The great thing about being pushed is that you tend to get paid handsomely for the privilege.”
Instructive read.
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