u/Life_of_Sydney

I recently left a fully remote job I’v had for a couple years. The reason I left the job were sound: there was no more room for advancement, no opportunity for growth in paycheck or title, and yet the workload kept increasing. I loved my team, the flexibility of schedule, being home with my family and fully remote, but I began to get frustrated with the amount of work I was putting in and how it wasn’t reflected in pay or title.
Despite all the pros, I had trouble seeing beyond those cons. Then came a new job opportunity: in-office, more demanding, higher pay, higher title, better company. I debated the decision and when I went to my then company and asked if there was anything they could do to keep me or match and they didn’t, I felt I had my decision. Even if they couldn’t match the offer but could at least offer *something,* I’d have stayed but the truth is they didn’t make a single effort to keep me and that spoke volumes.

I’m now one month into this new job and all I can think about is what I’ve given up. My husband tells me the gains will eventually reveal themselves but so far, it’s all loss. Loss of autonomy, loss of freedom, loss of personal time for my own creative projects, loss of time with family, loss of interest in my work. I’m so upset with myself. I wake up and wonder how I could have done this to myself? Why I gave up a situation that afforded me freedom and flexibility to trudge back to the corporate world and office space? I look back now and wonder, were those cons in the old job really *that* bad?

I’m told to hang in there. Wait until 3 months or 6 months and reassess. Don’t live and die by the job if I decide it’s not a fit. But I’ve always been the kind of person to care too much (if I wasn’t, I’d have stayed in my old job and just coasted).

I don’t know how to deal with this. It’s a champagne problem and one I’m embarrassed to confide in friends living paycheck to paycheck. There are people with harder and more time-consuming work, I’m embarrassed to tell family that I feel overwhelmed. It’s a matter of perspective I know (it’s temporary, not a permanent situation) and yet I wake up feeling so frustrated with myself about this decision and dreading my work. I could quit but I’m afraid of quitting a high profile job after just one month.

And so I turn to you, dear strangers. What would you do?

I recently left a fully remote job I’v had for a couple years. The reason I left the job were sound: there was no more room for advancement, no opportunity for growth in paycheck or title, and yet the workload kept increasing. I loved my team, the flexibility of schedule, being home with my family and fully remote, but I began to get frustrated with the amount of work I was putting in and how it wasn’t reflected in pay or title.
Despite all the pros, I had trouble seeing beyond those cons. Then came a new job opportunity: in-office, more demanding, higher pay, higher title, better company. I debated the decision and when I went to my then company and asked if there was anything they could do to keep me or match and they didn’t, I felt I had my decision. Even if they couldn’t match the offer but could at least offer something, I’d have stayed but the truth is they didn’t make a single effort to keep me and that spoke volumes.

I’m now one month into this new job and all I can think about is what I’ve given up. My husband tells me the gains will eventually reveal themselves but so far, it’s all loss. Loss of autonomy, loss of freedom, loss of personal time for my own creative projects, loss of time with family, loss of interest in my work. I’m so upset with myself. I wake up and wonder how I could have done this to myself? Why I gave up a situation that afforded me freedom and flexibility to trudge back to the corporate world and office space? I look back now and wonder, were those cons in the old job really that bad?

I’m told to hang in there. Wait until 3 months or 6 months and reassess. Don’t live and die by the job if I decide it’s not a fit. But I’ve always been the kind of person to care too much (if I wasn’t, I’d have stayed in my old job and just coasted).

I don’t know how to deal with this. It’s a champagne problem and one I’m embarrassed to confide in friends living paycheck to paycheck. There are people with harder and more time-consuming work, I’m embarrassed to tell family that I feel overwhelmed. It’s a matter of perspective I know (it’s temporary, not a permanent situation) and yet I wake up feeling so frustrated with myself about this decision and dreading my work. I could quit but I’m afraid of quitting a high profile job after just one month.

And so I turn to you, dear strangers. What would you do?