It’s evaluation period at work, that time of year when tension gets so thick sometimes it could be cut by a knife.
It’s also the time when a lot of people, depending on whether or not they get a raise or promotion, how much the raise ends up to be, or what that new position is, start thinking about their jobs, and if they should maybe consider moving to some other company.
Personally, I think there is a very simple equation to all this, which mainly consists of the balance between job, environment and financial satisfaction.
The main questions a person should ask himself are:
Job: Do I enjoy my job? Am I still learning new things in it? Am I gaining useful experience from it?
Environment: Do I like working in this company? Is it a healthy environment? Do I get along well with my colleagues?
Money: Am I comfortable with how much I’m getting paid for my job? Do I feel that I’m being compensated for my efforts? Is my salary advancing at a healthy pace?
Lucky are the ones who get to answer yes to all those questions; for the rest, it’s a game of balance between how many “yes”, “no”, “almost”, “barely” answers they give to those answers across the three areas.
For example: If you’re happy with your job and with the environment, then you can easily bring yourself to accept a salary that is a bit lower than what you wished for; and that applies in all directions.
Of course I’m not for a person staying in a job he hates just because they’re getting paid well, in fact I’m totally against that. But if the person’s job satisfaction is a bit less than perfect, but he’s very happy with his salary and the environment he’s working in, I think he could bring himself to hang on in there a little longer.
Personally, I’ve been applying this principle throughout my career, and up to now I’m very proud of how things have played out for me.
Work life isn’t all about the job, nor all about the money, nor is it about the environment; it’s a combination of all those to make up a whole experience, a big part of our life; and just like we do with life, we have to balance between all the different elements to get the most out of it for our future.
its a matter where you cant win!
You get paid well but the environment suck and your not paid well but you the environment is cool
i cant see what you can do, but moving companies just cases an extra headache.
You’re right MMM, though for me this period will be some months later (March). As a I am still new at the company and the atmosphere is quite good, moving on to another company is not something I’m gonna think about for the moment (may be in two years or three). I will of course depend on the factors you called (satisfaction with salary, job, atmosphere, learning useful new stuff, etc).
As you may imagine, MMM, there’s little competition for my current job. (Go figure.) At the end of this school year, unless the management’s prescient enough to dispose of me, I’m tenured. Then my little blog goes live. I believe you already know the general tone of my workplace observations? (Live through an anonymous IP service, thank you, hosted someplace where U.S. civil court subpoenas are recycled as toilet tissue. Thinking probably more your part of the world than mine. Am open for suggestions, please.)
Finally got around this weekend to setting encryption on the wireless router that supports our three home computers, as the router admin software showed five computer on our network. Odd. Finishing the encryption setup on all three machines, I threw open our home’s windows, reset the router, grabbed a beverage sat back and waited. (It was a lovely weekend morning.)
About four minutes later, kids from the houses to either side of us issued loudly into our quiet little street. The oldest, a girl of 12 said, “The Internet’s down!” “Yeah,” said the boy from the other neighboring house, “Our’s too. I can’t get on Myspace! It keeps saying, ‘Enter access code.'”
As the poet Robert Frost reminds us, “Good fences make good neighbors.” 🙂 (He wouldn’t have classified the abominations being constructed along the Mexican and Israel-Palestine borders as good.)
Time to go to school. Lotta teenage shooters this past week. That kid at that mall could’ve walked out of my classroom, such a classic Columbine type was he.
Where the hell’s my Kevlar vest? Ah! Of course. The dog’s sleeping on it.
Cheers,
J.