My current job has it positives and negatives, but I love the work. I started looking for new jobs a couple months ago because I was frustrated by some managerial changes that were occurring (more on that later) and some other small complaints that I had been reiterating multiple times with no change. I applied to a job where I would be working at a new company, in a new job description, but that interacts with my current work group and I just received the formal offer.
The thing is though that I really love my current company. They are very flexible with allowing employees to work on many different projects and I think I am standing out to them as a leader and an innovator. I don't know if I necessarily want to leave my company because the flexibility really helps me from getting bored and feeling like a robot. My immediate work group is also amazing. We all get along very well and we have a great team atmosphere.
Some drawbacks to my current company:
1. I don't have a computer - I've worked at the company for 1.5 years and I still don't have a computer of my own. We have common computers in my work group, but we are all supposed to have desks and computers of our own as well. I have a desk at our corporate office, but no computer. I have asked repeatedly for one and the answer always is "okay I will work on that"
2. Contract almost over - I work on a gov't contract and it ends in the fall. We cannot re-compete as the prime contractor, so we are subbing for another company. Even if we win my work group may have to start working for the new company. I do not want to do that.
3. Salary - When I got my first "raise" this year I was very disappointed. I am one of the higher performers in my work group, so I had expected a larger raise. I talked to my manager about it and come to find out that the measly amount they gave was actually very high by the companies standards even though it was barely a cost of living increase. My manager said he would try to work on it, but he didn't think there was anything he could do about it.
4. "Managerial" issues - My work group get a new "lead". The leads are pretty much supposed to be like everyone else in the work group, performing the same work, but with a little more documentation. The new lead came into our group 7 months ago and she still doesn't know wth we do. We try to train her, but she just does not understand (multiple people, multiple paths of explanation). She also doesn't really seem like she wants to learn and she is "delegating" all of her work on to us to the point where we don't even know what she is doing all day long. She is also very hostile. Whenever you ask her a question she gets automatically very defensive and will send nasty emails to our entire work group and our managers about things that we "did wrong" that we didn't even do. We have talked to our managers about this situation with her and how she is creating a hostile work environment, but they just seem to be backpedaling and trying to justify hiring her. She has been getting a little better recently and being more of a team player, so that is good, but it was getting really bad for a while and she was one of the main reasons I started looking for new jobs.
Drawbacks of the new job:
1. Not as flexible - I would be working in the one position and would not get a lot of chance to branch out and try new things like at my current company
2. No company culture - instead of being part of a company you are more ingrained in the gov't agency culture. This could be good, but would be a lot different than current company.
3. Stay for 5+ years - I think I would need to stay at this new job for at least 5 years, so it doesn't look like I just hop around all the time, but this would be pretty difficult for me because I seem to get bored after about 1-1.5 years.
4. Unsure if I would really love the work as much as my current job. They are similar, but the things that I love the most about my current job are not included in the new position.
The benefits are pretty similar at both companies, but the new company would contribute $500 towards an HSA and covers more life insurance (double salary as opposed to $50,000). I still have a lot of student loans to pay off (I'm working on knocking them out hard though!) and my mom is the cosigner, so I don't want to leave her holding the tab if I kick the bucket. Vacation and holidays are the same, but I would be starting my counter for getting an increase in annual leave over again.
Current salary: $75,000 gross
New salary: $88,500 gross
I am only 26, but I want to be able to stay home with my kids when that time comes. It is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, so the extra money would help a lot to pay off my student loans and get to FIRE.
I am wondering if I should accept this new job offer or if I should tell my current company about it and see if they counteroffer. I have heard some bad things about counteroffers (lesson: never read the internet unless it is a mustachian), so I don't know if accepting a counter from my current company would change anything (such as making them think I am not loyal and I'm just about the money, etc). Help please!