Please indulge me in my 100% hypothetical work situation

October 18, 2013 7:44 PM

I know, what good is worrying about something that hasn't happened yet? Well, I am anyway. I am fairly certain that my supervisor in our very small office will be leaving her job soon. I am also fairly certain that when this happens, I will be offered her job. Our boss is lazy and this has always been her way of doing things (maybe I am giving myself too much credit?). While I sometimes like my work, I am also sometimes miserable, and I have been sending out applications for other jobs for a while now. I really, really, really do not want my supervisor's position for many reasons, not the least of which is that it doesn't align with what I want to do with myself career-wise anymore. I know there would also be no significant pay raise. What would you do in this situation? Decline and stay in your current position? Accept the new one and then jet when the time comes? I realize there are a ton of ifs involved, but I feel like I need to think about it.
posted by sandwiches to Work & Money (10 answers total)

If you don't want the additional responsibilities, won't get much more money, and will probably quit soon, why would you take the job?
posted by xingcat at 7:47 PM on October 18, 2013

Response by poster: I know. Obligation? A better job title?
posted by sandwiches at 7:50 PM on October 18, 2013

Get over the obligation part, and who the hell cares about job title if you aren't getting the pay to back it up? I urge you to politely decline--I have been in an almost an identical situation, did take it (and there was even a good pay raise, I just knew it was a direction I really did not want to go) and I've been trying to figure out (and dreading) how I'm going to have to eventually untangle myself ever since. Your answer should be "no".

And it's totally OK to be thinking about this if it's even remotely possible--definitely a sitiuation where it's good to be mentally prepared as opposed to caught off-guard and get yourself talked into something you'd have said no to with more thought.
posted by lovableiago at 7:56 PM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Having a more responsible job title seems pretty likely to help your future job searches, even if they're in a different direction from where you want to go, so unless the supervisory job would literally be soul destroying, I'd take it. You're not obligated to stay there just because you accept the bump.

And if you're kind of in nothing to lose territory because you don't want the promotion anyway, you could always try to negotiate a salary increase that would make it palatable to you.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:56 PM on October 18, 2013 [6 favorites]

Unless the promotion would leave you with no time or energy to pursue other job opportunities, I'd try to negotiate for more pay, take the job and keep looking. I would think that in 95% of cases, having the additional experience/responsibility/higher level job title on your resume is going to help rather than harm you.
posted by pianissimo at 8:36 PM on October 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yes! Take it, then put "promoted to New Title" on your resume, and jet that much faster. How would a promotion hurt? Even if it's in the wrong field, it's evidence of your capability and success.
posted by salvia at 9:07 PM on October 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'd take it. If you're going to quit, you're going to quit. You will have a better job title on your resume and it will show you were promoted within your current organization, which is surely a sign people like you and have faith in you. It's good that you are recognizing you are unhappy and taking proactive steps to leave, but unless this new job title comes with so much more responsibility and stress that it will make you more unhappy and/or detract from your time/energy to apply for new jobs, I don't really see why you wouldn't take it. It seems you know exactly what the job entails so you should have a pretty good idea of what you'd be getting yourself into.
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:13 PM on October 18, 2013

I'm with most of the rest here -- take the job and then blast when the time comes. Caveat: Do get more $$ or don't take it. Tell them yeah, sure, you were born at night. But not last night. They've got to pony up. What are they, on drugs or what? A bigger job is bigger dough.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:57 AM on October 19, 2013 [3 favorites]

Two other considerations. 1) If your boss is truly lazy, you might end up doing the job anyway as well as your own while the search for a new supervisor proceeds at a snail's pace. 2) The new hire could be someone awful.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:39 AM on October 19, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers, everyone. I know that even if I didn't take it, I would be "filling in" for a long time anyway, and knowing my boss, that could turn into a long time. I'll just hope something comes up for me soon!
posted by sandwiches at 6:06 AM on October 19, 2013