I’ve been at my current job for 15 months. It’s never been a good job but the pay was okay especially with how many hours I’m working. But it is exhausting. I’m working 6 days a week at this point and usually 70-75 hours (no less than 65) per week. I have no life outside of work. I haven’t taken a sick day all year. I’ve been willing to grind through it because I needed the money and the goal was always to go back to school this spring for my masters. That may or may not be possible now due to financial things and my academic performance when I was still in school. Idk what I’ll be doing when December ends but I don’t want to be doing this.
My job has had a supervisor role for my department open for 9+ months. I applied for it when it opened but knew I wasn’t ready for it. But now I’m clearly qualified for it and have pushed for that promotion. The first time I asked my boss gave me a list of 3 bs reasons why it was currently not in reach for me. In the month since that conversation I’ve directly improved on all of those things. I submitted a formal application for the position and a talent acquisition rep immediately reached out saying she thought I was a good fit and would be scheduling an interview as soon as my manager signs off on it. That was a week ago and I’ve heard nothing since. I really get the impression my manager is sabotaging it. This isn’t the first time he’s prevented or stalled me and my coworkers from getting a well deserved raise. Meanwhile our job requirements have expanded significantly and we now have to cover up the mistakes of 2 other departments. They receive no consequences for their incompetency but we will if we don’t fix it.
I have another company that is strongly interested in hiring me. They’re willing to meet my requested $7/hr raise but said they can only guarantee 45-50 hours per week, so I’ll still be earning less money. It seems like a better company to work for and it honestly can’t be worse than my current one. But ultimately it is a lateral career move in a field I don’t want to stay in past this year. By the time I would start there it’d be nearly the end of October, which gives me barely two months to work there if I go back to school. And if I choose to put school off longer logically I’d be significantly further back in terms of promotion/raise potential than I am at my current place (assuming no more sabotage at my current company).
Even when I’m in a really shitty situation I hate job hopping. Even though I’m seriously underpaid and working for a boss who seems to be determined to be as shitty to me as possible for no apparent reason I’m comfortable where I’m at. I like being in charge, as I am in my current position. I hate being the new guy. And as much as I hate my job I love working with my coworkers. Aside from my boss’s shittiness it’s a good work environment for me. I know that’s not a reason to stay though.
The end goal is always to go back to school but I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that this semester so I’m not really sure how to plan this out. Should I ask for more money in my interview? Should I just try to secure an acceptable job offer so I can try to demand a raise or promotion at my current job? Should I just keep my head down and gut it out for a couple months so I can save as much as possible?