So I took a new job last month, mostly because I felt like I had stagnated in my previous role, both financially and growth-wise. My goal from the start was actually to get an offer letter and take it back to my employer to see if they would bump me up in pay to match it, or at least come close to it. I wasn’t unhappy at my job, I just wanted something more after almost 10 years of service with little to no career advancement and the cost of living increases that don’t even keep up with inflation.
Well, I did not have to search for long. I was headhunted for a role that is technically a promotion from my old job, and it came with a substantial salary increase. I took that offer back to my former employer and they offered me a very low raise as a counter. Not even coming close to the offer from the other place.
So I decided to take a chance on it and left for my current role. So far, I am not enjoying it. I anticipated that there would be some growing pains getting used to the new environment, new co-workers, new workflow and so on, but I’ve encountered a bunch of red flags within the first three weeks of working here and had I known about them I would have not accepted the position to begin with.
Mostly, I am just not feeling fulfilled here. I don’t have a clear understanding of what my job responsibilities are, and they stuff they are having me do are not things that I envisioned myself performing in this role. There is no clear onboarding procedure, and every one of my peers seems to be chronically overworked.
I think the thing that is stressing me out the most, however, is that my old manager (whom I am friends with outside of work) said that I could have my old job back, but that he couldn’t keep the seat warm for me forever. That window, as he told me last weekend when I spoke with him, is rapidly closing. If I wanted to go back, I would have to decide very soon. Part of me wants to tough it out for a while and see if the anxiety and apprehensiveness I’m feeling in the new job is just something that will pass in time, but another part of me wants to cut and run while I still have a chance to go back to some feeling of normalcy.
Does anybody have any advice? Is this normal? I did not feel this way when starting my last job, but I did have other short lived jobs where I felt almost exactly the same. Is it a matter of me not giving it enough time or should I listen to my instincts telling me something isn’t right?
edit: Thanks y’all. There’s some good wisdom out there. I appreciate everyone who took the time to write out a well thought out reply or shared their own experiences. I think for now I am going to tough it out, get the help of a therapist to work through some of my anxiety problems, and maybe in 6 months if things haven’t started improving, I will start searching for a new job at a different company, not my previous employer.
Never go back to an old job. It’s like breaking up with a girlfriend, there will always be a distrust associated with it. Give the new job a year and if it sucks, find a new one.
Just curious, do you mean specifically the job as in role, or do you think this about going back to a company as a whole?
I can name easily a dozen, maybe two dozen people at my company I personally know who left then came back, although generally to a different role. And I’ve seen most of them get promoted after coming back, even to high roles like Director or VP. I don’t know if that’s just because of a good company culture or if it’s because it’s a larger business (2-2.5k corporate employees).
I shy away from large corporate roles, so the rule may be different there.
I was firmly against them but an opportunity showed itself early in my career and figured I could stick it out for 2 years to get a big name on my resume… and somehow it’s been ten years now. But it’s a company with a genuinely good culture and my career has grown constantly over those 10 years, so I’ve been happy. TBF, my employer before this was extremely toxic so in comparison it’s been amazing.
The big corps I’ve been at have always been toxic. Part of that was an inability to get anything done due to the stifling bureaucracy. I wish I had gotten lucky at a big place, but oh well.
I was about to answer something about “never” being a bit too absolute for my taste and try to give a nuanced perspective about it being OK to get back to an old job if you feel it’s better for you.
Then I realised I am just 100% projecting and creating excuses for myself, which whether I am right or wrong is a really bad basis for giving out advice.
I am leaving my current job in 3 weeks to go freelance, and I am definitely anxious about it. Somewhere in the back of my head I was keeping a door open to allow myself to go back in case it does not work out. Fact is, I know why I quit and it would indeed be a terrible idea to go back to the same company. So, thanks for helping me sort this out!