Should I stay or should I go? (office edition)
August 22, 2016 9:35 PM Subscribe
If you'd asked me a few months ago, I would have told you my gig was pretty sweet, but that was before ... THE INCIDENT! [dramatic music cue] Now I need to decide if I want to stick around (blizzard of snowflakes inside).
First, the good:
Two years ago, I switched careers into a technical field, and a year and a half ago a small client services firm hired me into my first real, full-time job in the field. They offered a competitive salary, great benefits, and combination of a laid-back environment with a ton of learning opportunities that was really appealing, and for the most part, everything has been great. They've given me a tremendous amount of experience and responsibility for someone that's still new to the field, and I've grown and learned a ton. If I were to switch jobs, I could probably get a 10% pay bump, but not because they've been lowballing me (I got a substantial raise 6 months ago, and will probably get another one in 6 months, when I hit my two-year anniversary). Various senior people (management isn't really the right term for a company with less than 20 employees, and very little hierarchy) have specifically expressed that my contributions are valued and they'd like to see me continue to develop my career at this company. For the last year I have spent most of my time working closely with one of the founders of the company (we'll call him Horace) on projects for our biggest client (we'll call them GigantoCorp).
Now the ugly:
About a month and a half ago, there was THE INCIDENT. Leaving out the gory details, Horace engaged in some serious bad behavior in his personal life over the course of several months, which finally backfired in a spectacular and public way, dragging everyone in the office into the middle of it. It doesn't look like this is actually going to kill or seriously damage the company (though there were some moments where that seemed like an outside possibility) but it definitely is a sore spot for everyone. Over the last month I've picked up bits and bobs of information about exactly what happened, and everything indicates that in the run-up to the incident, Horace basically lied to or misled everyone involved, including his co-founder and other people in the office. To say that there has been a loss of trust is a serious understatement.
To make matters worse, this also occurred at a time of transition for the group we work with at GigantoCorp, where they were restructuring to take on a massive new project with our help. With Horace busy dealing with the fallout from the incident, we lost our leader and best advocate with the client right at the time that important decisions were being made about how we should do this work. The result is that we have a lot less autonomy and ability to drive this project than we did previously, and that's starting to wear on everyone on the team.
The question:
Basically, should I stay or should I start actively looking for other employment? On the one hand, there's still a ton of stuff that I love about this company, and leaving would feel like betraying a number of people (not just Horace) that have given me great opportunities and put a lot of faith in me. On the other hand, it looks like we're facing a long, hard slog under a leader that I no longer really trust, and I'm fortunate enough to be in a role where I could probably find another job pretty easily.
First, the good:
Two years ago, I switched careers into a technical field, and a year and a half ago a small client services firm hired me into my first real, full-time job in the field. They offered a competitive salary, great benefits, and combination of a laid-back environment with a ton of learning opportunities that was really appealing, and for the most part, everything has been great. They've given me a tremendous amount of experience and responsibility for someone that's still new to the field, and I've grown and learned a ton. If I were to switch jobs, I could probably get a 10% pay bump, but not because they've been lowballing me (I got a substantial raise 6 months ago, and will probably get another one in 6 months, when I hit my two-year anniversary). Various senior people (management isn't really the right term for a company with less than 20 employees, and very little hierarchy) have specifically expressed that my contributions are valued and they'd like to see me continue to develop my career at this company. For the last year I have spent most of my time working closely with one of the founders of the company (we'll call him Horace) on projects for our biggest client (we'll call them GigantoCorp).
Now the ugly:
About a month and a half ago, there was THE INCIDENT. Leaving out the gory details, Horace engaged in some serious bad behavior in his personal life over the course of several months, which finally backfired in a spectacular and public way, dragging everyone in the office into the middle of it. It doesn't look like this is actually going to kill or seriously damage the company (though there were some moments where that seemed like an outside possibility) but it definitely is a sore spot for everyone. Over the last month I've picked up bits and bobs of information about exactly what happened, and everything indicates that in the run-up to the incident, Horace basically lied to or misled everyone involved, including his co-founder and other people in the office. To say that there has been a loss of trust is a serious understatement.
To make matters worse, this also occurred at a time of transition for the group we work with at GigantoCorp, where they were restructuring to take on a massive new project with our help. With Horace busy dealing with the fallout from the incident, we lost our leader and best advocate with the client right at the time that important decisions were being made about how we should do this work. The result is that we have a lot less autonomy and ability to drive this project than we did previously, and that's starting to wear on everyone on the team.
The question:
Basically, should I stay or should I start actively looking for other employment? On the one hand, there's still a ton of stuff that I love about this company, and leaving would feel like betraying a number of people (not just Horace) that have given me great opportunities and put a lot of faith in me. On the other hand, it looks like we're facing a long, hard slog under a leader that I no longer really trust, and I'm fortunate enough to be in a role where I could probably find another job pretty easily.
To me, it sounds like you're not quite sure yet what the "new normal" will be at your workplace once things settle down after the incident. If that's true, I think you should give it a few more months, to see if the dismal future is really as dismal as it seems. And if so, start actively looking for a job at that point.
posted by mekily at 10:25 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by mekily at 10:25 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
If this was me, I'd lay low and do my job - but I'd also make sure my resume, LinkedIn, GitHub (if applicable), web portfolio (if applicable), etc. were all completely updated. If you then have to bounce from the current gig suddenly, you won't have the added stress of having to update everything as well for job hunting.
posted by spinifex23 at 11:55 PM on August 22, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by spinifex23 at 11:55 PM on August 22, 2016 [8 favorites]
Has Horace come clean to everyone or have you learned the background story despite his best efforts? If his co-founder is still in the dark, you should be making plans to exit, and Horace is a potential sociopath that will drag the company down again and the co-founder is a nice but clueless person that can't detect when their partner is lying to them. The combination is very bad.
On the other hand, if the co-founder is clued in and taking steps to get rid of Horace, then it's a whole lot safer to stick around.
A certain amount of loyalty to employers and co-workers that have treated you well is good, but keep in mind that almost all of them would fire you if it were necessary to save their own job. If you're relatively early in your career, keep in mind that every raise you get or don't get has a ripple effect on your salaries down the line, both in terms of ease of getting better raises and the compounding effect that cost of living raises down the line will have. If you stay with a company that's stagnant for two years and doesn't offer you 10% raises that you're capable of earning, you might be denying 50 year old you quite a bit of income.
Another key question is did Horace lie to GigantoCorp and did or will they find out about it? If I found out that an owner of a contractor lied to me, even if the workers performed the terms of the contract perfectly, that company would never get a contract with me again.
posted by Candleman at 7:16 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, if the co-founder is clued in and taking steps to get rid of Horace, then it's a whole lot safer to stick around.
A certain amount of loyalty to employers and co-workers that have treated you well is good, but keep in mind that almost all of them would fire you if it were necessary to save their own job. If you're relatively early in your career, keep in mind that every raise you get or don't get has a ripple effect on your salaries down the line, both in terms of ease of getting better raises and the compounding effect that cost of living raises down the line will have. If you stay with a company that's stagnant for two years and doesn't offer you 10% raises that you're capable of earning, you might be denying 50 year old you quite a bit of income.
Another key question is did Horace lie to GigantoCorp and did or will they find out about it? If I found out that an owner of a contractor lied to me, even if the workers performed the terms of the contract perfectly, that company would never get a contract with me again.
posted by Candleman at 7:16 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by Kwadeng at 10:06 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]