Thread: Job Dilema

Having been looking for 4 months I've now been offered 2 different jobs.
1 is as a dental nurse doing what I've been doing for the last 10 years and quite frankly a bit bored of. But its 4 miles from home, I know what I'm doing, Its the hours I want but not great pay.

The 2nd is something I've never done before, is going to be quite challenging but feel I can do it quite well, and enjoy it. But its nearly an hours drive away from home. Its more pay and fewer hours but really could do with some advice from others.
In my head I've decided, its just the travelling and cost of diesel at the moment thats a bit of an issue.

Ohhh decisions! See that extra dosh will just go back into travel expenses

Why not take up the dental nurse job, if it's ideal. Then have a look round for other opportunities? They say 'the best place to find a job, is when you're in one'

I have to say I'm on the opposite side of the fence to Jo. I'd go for the other job. Ok it's further to travel and the extra money may well be swallowed up in diesel but for me job satisfaction is very important to me.
I'm more likely to stay in a job if I enjoy it even if the pay or some other factor is a bit crap than i am to stay in a job i can do but don't really enjoy much even if they paid me the earth to stay.
That's just me though work takes up a large portion of your life and for me i want to live not exist so if i have a choice (ie financially its not take what i can get regardless) then I will always go for the job that excites me more and gets the blood pumping.

I agree with S_T. A challenging job makes you feel vibrant and alive whereas doing something you're not gripped by just becomes a slog. I commute an hour each way and I have to say that I quite like it. It's effectively my only alone time - unless of course Mr. H is away.

I've totally turned into the 'safe option mum' lol

I commute by car on a round trip of 120ish miles and to be honest I get into the zone and the time flies by. It depends on the roads, though and the time of day. I can work flexibly most of the time so start early and finish early to miss the worst of the traffic. Nothing worse than sitting in a jam.

It's job satisfaction that keeps me going - big strategic influential stuff rather than trivial small-world nonsense. It makes the commute worth while.

Go for the challenge!

Or you could get a motorbike and never ever get stuck in a jam.

I'd go for the job that is further away but more of a challenge. I am destructive when bored though.

I would go for the challenge too. I've been in a job that was "safe" that I could do with my eyes shut and paid really well but I hated getting up every morning for it. I'd much rather do a job that was a challenge and interesting for less money than a job I hated, no matter what the pay.

Am with the challenge too. I commute and use it as my chill time. Good luck xx


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There's good reasons for both, working close to home has good and bad points.
I've done long commutes and like others have said it is nice me time all alone. This can though be spoiled by traffic. How traffic free is your route? How would being delayed by 30 mins/ 1 hour eat into your home life?
That said there is something invigorating about a new work challenge, and if your going to be always thinking I wish I had tried xyz then prehaps take the risk.

Thanks everyone. I've made my decision - the challenging job it is then!! Its not the commute that bothers me so much - its a drive along the M3 but they're flexible in my working day, and I'll be working on my own 90% of the time anyway.

It was just the extra cost in diesel, but thinking about it, that would be outweighed by the cost of the extra childcare I would have to pay for working the extra hours in the "safe" job.

my mum works over an hour away from her home. She used to have a Mazda MX5, ate more fuel that she could remb, so the excuse came to buy herself a new car saved a lot of money in fuel.

Could be an excuse to buy yourself a swanky new car too

Oh no, not the M3!! Avoid going northbound from Fleet to the M25 or southbound onto the M27 between 0715 and 0900.

Josephine thats something we've discussed - buying a little runaround just for me to go to and from work, save on fuel a little bit. I guess we'll have to see how our car does the drive for a couple of months

If it helps, mum has a citreon C1, barely uses any fuel according to her x

Good luck Mrs_M.

So, having been doing the job for just 2 months it would seem that I'm super worker and up for a promotion already!! With it being local authority they've got to advertise the job but have told me that if I apply I'll get it.

I love what I'm doing at the moment and it fits in really well with my family life. Promotion means working full time, and doing something slightly different, although still working in the same field. They have said that I don't have to start working full time til October which fits in with eldest starting school and getting settled in properly.


So, just want to see what other RP'ers think.

I've done full time before after eldest came along, so I know its hard work. We would be better off financially as the pay is obviously more. The hours are flexi as long as I do 37 hours a week. But wondered whether they would be likely to drop the hours down to maybe 32 a week - have people tried this before and been successful?
They've also mentioned that my boss is due to retire in 2 years so if I do will in this new post, I could effectively take over from him when he retires!

Well all you can do is ask, if you don't ask you don't get!

I can only comment on my sector which is not LA, there are certain jobs now which are not open to a reduction of hours, these are all roles where you have responsibility for managing people. They found when there were managers who worked less hours than their team it was not as effective as a manager working full time hours. Very different environment to LA which might be more open to this type of thing. I guess all you need to show is that you can do the job role in less hours, although I know in my sector doing this, would probably then lead to how can they make that more efficient and reduce those hours!

Good luck!

What about doing the 32 in the office and the remaining 5 from home?

If it's local authority they should be open to looking at flexible working including working at home. For example I used to do a condensed forthnight which meant I did 10 days hours in 9 days (it worked out as something like an extra 40 mins a day) so I didn't have to do the commute every day.