Given a choice

I was called into the company manager's office today and given a choice. I am getting laid off and have the option to take a job with another company that shares the same owner. They can only offer me the exact some (really low) pay and they don't have or want windows servers. They have one linux server that runs an accounting package. I would be doing helpdesk, accounting, and some office administration.

The move includes a switch to paid insurance (175/month for the same package I get for free now), paid retirement, fewer sick days, fewer vacation days, and 24/7 call for the company and the owners.

In all I'm offered a 3000/year pay decrease to do less IT work. I guess my other option is to take a layoff and take a 100% pay decrease to sit at home and look for jobs. I'm not in the worst position but I don't know what I want to do.

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Comments

mypcrepairguy

If I was in your position, I would take the job. Then I would spend most of my free time attempting to secure a better position with a more desirable company. Most folks don't have this opportunity that you find yourself in. Take it from someone who has been looking for work for about 5 months now. It sucks.

forkvoid

Some money is better than no money. Take the job and spend available time searching for a new job.

[Deleted User]

Shouldn't even be considering it.. you should take the job. What if you are laid off for 12 months? It is always easier to find a job when you have a job and don't need it. You don't want or need the added stress of trying to figure out how you're going to get by without a job. Not saying that is what your situation is but it could turn into that if you don't find a job in a reasonable amount of time.

tomahawkeer

mypcrepairguy wrote: »

If I was in your position, I would take the job. Then I would spend most of my free time attempting to secure a better position with a more desirable company. Most folks don't have this opportunity that you find yourself in. Take it from someone who has been looking for work for about 5 months now. It sucks.

This is probably the best choice, however, if for some reason unemployment benefits are better than the 3k pay decrease, it might be worth it, however you whould probably hvae to pick up some insurance somewhere until you found something new.

tbgree00

Thanks for the advice. I talked with HR here and I couldn't take unemployment if I turn down the job because it then counts as me quitting. I'm trying to talk to the guy who would be my new supervisor about the position to see what exactly they expect and want me to do.

It could be a great opportunity and yes, some money > no money. I'm just frustrated at the ordeal I guess.

Edit: I talked to my would be boss and his manager. The job would give me the title Systems Administrator and allow me to build things however I wanted them. The manager seemed to resent that he had to fire his part time IT guy to hire me to take the job on and said for me not to expect any budget to work with. Then they told dirty jokes for 20 minutes and I left. It was very uncomfortable for me and my wife has been totally opposed to it since I told her today. I did some work for this company deploying computers and they liked me from that but my wife hated how they treated me. I'm stuck between them saying take it or quit, her saying quit, and me saying I don't want to be out of work.

Turgon

tbgree00 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I talked with HR here and I couldn't take unemployment if I turn down the job because it then counts as me quitting. I'm trying to talk to the guy who would be my new supervisor about the position to see what exactly they expect and want me to do.

It could be a great opportunity and yes, some money > no money. I'm just frustrated at the ordeal I guess.

Edit: I talked to my would be boss and his manager. The job would give me the title Systems Administrator and allow me to build things however I wanted them. The manager seemed to resent that he had to fire his part time IT guy to hire me to take the job on and said for me not to expect any budget to work with. Then they told dirty jokes for 20 minutes and I left. It was very uncomfortable for me and my wife has been totally opposed to it since I told her today. I did some work for this company deploying computers and they liked me from that but my wife hated how they treated me. I'm stuck between them saying take it or quit, her saying quit, and me saying I don't want to be out of work.

Take the job. You cant afford to be unemployed right now. At the same time I dont get the feeling this is going to be a very good place to work. Get in and get out. You can look for another job while this one pays the bills.

genXrcist

Yep, take the job. Unless the decrease is significant enough to say, put you under the Federal Poverty level with multiple dependants in your household, the UIU office is going to have a problem with your claim. Once they call your former employer and discover you turned down an offer with only a $3K pay cut, you'll be denied for sure.

So take the job but spend all your energy finding a different gig, even take a contract job if you can. The idea is to keep working in IT as it can be really easy to just sit in a lower end job as long as it pays the bills.

I was laid off Nov. 1st with no new job offer but had a signed contract by November 5th to implement a VDI infrastructure, something I've never done before!

eansdad

If KY is anything like NJ the fact that they offerred you the job instead of laying you off would mean either waiting upto 6 weeks for benifits or not recieving them at all. I had a company try that back in 03 when they laid everyone off then tried to crame 500 people into 10 other openings. Dealing with unemployment was fun but luckily I got another job a few days later.

Take the job and look for a better one. A title is nothing to sneeze at. Try convincing an HR rep that you currently do Sys Admin work with a technician title.

Good luck...