Long term Contract job or stay in job I hate

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am a Policy and Procedure writer for an international bank with offices in Ny and Houston . The powers that be are carving up bits and pieces of the NY office and migrating it over to Houston. My staff has been "outsourced " and I’m the sole survivors, the head of a department of one.

I have just been offered a position as a contract worker for 12-18months with possibility of full time status for a salary that exceeds my current salary by sixty thousand dollars or potentially more if I’m able to work forty plus hours. I have health insurance from my husband .

I don’t know if I should take the contract or not. There’s an excellent chance my position will be outsourced by year end anyway and I’d just get 90 days pay, taxed at a bonus rate, which is, in my state, 48%. I have never done this before but in all honesty, I HATE my current job. Hate the company which is crappy, hate my Boss with a passion that surprises me, and I’m tired of dreading going into work.mi am on call 7 days a week due to the megalomania of my boss who has absolutely no life nor sense of boundaries and is the worst manager I’ve had in thirty years.

Intelligent opinions, please?

2

From what you’ve said, it sounds like you should jump at the opportunity.

You hate your job and the pay is lower than the alternative, so there’s no argument that you should stay because you are happy or well-paid. That pretty much just leaves job security - and that sounds like a wash, since neither your current job nor the contract position is totally certain; either might or might not be around in 2 years.

So I vote go for it! Even if you hate it, at least you won’t be looking longingly back at your old position.

Good luck whatever you end up choosing.

3

Your question has been asked and answered.

No one should stay in a job they hate. In that position, the only reasonable step is to find a better job. The contract position you described is an excellent alternative.

4

Yeah, I’m not sure what the question is.
Should I leave the job I hate that I’m 50/50 to be laid off from in the next year, or take a year-long (but maybe more) temporary job at a much higher salary?

Really, unless you’re hoping to be laid off so you can do unemployment while doing some other unpaid projects, this seems like a no-brainer. What’s your concern with taking the contract?

5

To address what I believe is your main concern: Job security…

I think if the position is 12 months guaranteed (as much as these things can be) with the potential for full-time that actually translates to “potential for full-time or a contract extension”. Either way you have a job. If you’re that concerned, depending on your outstanding debts/costs/etc. maybe you could take the shit-tons of extra money you’re making and put a little aside each check in the off-chance you aren’t renewed or brought on full time. Then you can have a cushion for whatever the future holds

6

Go! God, if I could leave my job now I’d shank so many bitches to get a chance at it. Go go go go! If you feel worried about it, take that 60K and sock it away - depending on how expensive where you live is, that’s a couple YEARS of job hunting time.

7

Supplemental wages like bonuses and severance pay are taxed exactly the same as all other earned income. The difference is in temporary withholding of taxes. Admittedly that temporary withholding could be a legitimate problem for some people, but it’s only a temporary problem.

But it doesn’t change anything about your situation. You’d be crazy to not take the contract position.

8

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Life is too short to stay in a job you hate, even when you *don’t *have a better alternative. And apparently you do.

9

I’d say:

  1. Take the contract job; and,
  2. Give Zsofia a wide berth if she’s ever in your proximity carrying a sharp object.
10

You don’t even know.

11

I’ll be contrarian and suggest you take the contract job. In nine months or so you can start looking for another one, versus having to do so right now in your current job.

12

You should stay. Maybe your boss’s managerial skills will magically improve and he/she will recommend that you get a big raise, a bonus, and 4 weeks off at double pay.

Or you could quit and take that other job which already offers you more money, a better future and improved piece of mid.

13

I love you guys! I provisionally accepted this afternoon.

14

For those who haven’t yet noticed:

There is no such thing as “job security” in the USA.

Jump.

Contract pays better, is more flexible than “permanent”.

My folks wanted me to “get a good job in a big company” and sit at it my entire life.

That:
a. is no longer a viable strategy.
b. would be incredibly boring.

Jump!

15

Agreed. Take the new job. Keep living on the same salary level that you are at now, bank the difference. When it comes time to look for a new job, you’ll have a cushion.

16

Bolding mine. This is very true. I was in the OP’s situation a few years ago - was re-org-ed into a position I hated with the fire of a thousand suns, and a few months later found a contract-to-hire position. Had to give it some thought, tho - giving up a FTE position for what amounts to a temporary gig. I am the breadwinner in the house, and the tipping point was health insurance, which the contract position did offer, so I took the leap. Less than a year later I was hired on regular - so was a good risk to take, very glad I did.

You will be, too!

17

Congrats! I was also going to recommend taking the new opportunity, if for no other reason than you apparently hate your current job. So, good for you.

18

New Job starts Monday!! Very psyched. I had to give an exit interview. My former boss is well known in HR, for many of the same reasons that I’m leaving… Let’s just say they were not shocked and I was asked, actually urged to not hold back from the truth. I filled in the blanks on the exit interview form and then attached 4 pages of additional comments, statistics showing the uselessness of removing my staff member (said we were operating inefficiently, while the contrary was true. My team of 2 produced 43% more documents than her Houston Based team of 5)…

I won’t be asked back, which is just fine. Stupid me gave two weeks notice, out of ‘courtesy’ , but I found out that my division head takes any one leaving as a personal affront and won’t ask them to stay, even if their departure means a serious loss to the company, as mine does. There is no one in the NY Main office writing policies or procedures and we have a massive new role out of a new system that I dragggggggggggged my butt in writing…

The real kicker is that I heard through the grapevine that this woman was telling people that my leaving was a mutual thing and that I wasn’t a good fit for the role.

Despite numerous emails and commendations from the Head of the Banking and Securities Division. Despite their request that I be their only contact and that they not deal with her, in her narcissistic pathetic mind, she asked me to go!! The Nerve!!!

So the lovely thank you letter I wrote was addressed to her boss, my NY office branch manager and her arch-nemesis. I proceeded to thank the Associate who worked for me (whose job was relocated to Houston) for her intelligence, support and wisdom despite our circumstances. I thanked all the people in Houston and I also wrote that, “Unlike policy and procedures which require strict disclosure and complete transparency, the real reason from my departure will be less detailed. I won’t mention the real reason that I’m leaving the firm. But it should be evident from the exclusion of this person from my email. She is cc’ed on it, as she demanded I cc her on every other piece of correspondence. I wish you all luck.” Her name did not appear anywhere in the body of my email.

Catty? Yes. Petty? Yes, but she actually was telling people that I was not a good fit after two years and that my departure was a mutual decision!!! Mutual implies you asked me to leave. It doesn’t imply that you accepted my resignation" So, I really feel quite OK with being such a jerk.

Oh. and she scheduled a meeting with me at 5 PM after the exit interview. Seriously. I took great joy in saying, “‘Ex-boss’—you do realize I quit? Right? And that once I’m done with HR I won’t ever be going to another meeting with you ever again? You do realize that?”

She didn’t realize that.

19

Take the contract! Don’t even stop to think about this. If you stay and get “let go” then you have to explain yourself as being unemployed and all that BS. Just take the job and get out of there, it’s a sinking ship!

UPDATE: I see you took the gig, congratulations!

20

Huh, I’m a little surprised at the unanimity of the responses here. What happened to “There’s a support group for people who hate their job. It’s called ‘everybody’ — they meet at the bar’”? What happened to “you need to prioritize survival over everything else”? If being able to continue to draw the steady paycheck was more of a guarantee, would it have been different?