Categories
Antiwork

I turned down a really good offer because I felt like hiring manager and his boss were trying to power trip me. Thoughts?

Ok long story but I’ll try to keep it clear. I used to work for company A for 10+ years. Most of those years were great, but I eventually left because of a very public and volatile disagreement I had with the top location manager. There had been a storm brewing between him and I for maybe 2 years. I was suspended for 2 weeks and he was fired after a lengthy “investigation”. Anyway I decided I didn’t want to work there anymore and took a job with competing company B. I’ve been at company B for nearly 2 years and love it. Great job, supportive bosses and open door to learn nearly anything I want. An old coworker called me recently and suggested I apply for new position within company A. I decided to try since it would definitely be a promotion and I hadn’t left on bad terms…


Ok long story but I’ll try to keep it clear. I used to work for company A for 10+ years. Most of those years were great, but I eventually left because of a very public and volatile disagreement I had with the top location manager. There had been a storm brewing between him and I for maybe 2 years. I was suspended for 2 weeks and he was fired after a lengthy “investigation”. Anyway I decided I didn’t want to work there anymore and took a job with competing company B.

I’ve been at company B for nearly 2 years and love it. Great job, supportive bosses and open door to learn nearly anything I want.

An old coworker called me recently and suggested I apply for new position within company A. I decided to try since it would definitely be a promotion and I hadn’t left on bad terms (the guy that took over that location actually tried to get me to stay when I gave notice).

So fast forward through 2 rounds of interviews everything has gone well and I’m waiting for an answer one way or another. I get an invite to a teams meeting with the hiring manager and his boss (director and VP). I accept, expecting this has something to do with the position. When we get on the call both guys were a few minutes late and then proceed to basically tell me that I was a bad boy and how many strings they had to pull with the SVP to get me in.

I was completely caught off guard. Although I do count that incident as a mistake, I was punished for it and ended my business with company A on good terms. I did the lip service thing and agreed with what they were saying, but honestly it felt wrong. I thought about it all weekend.

On Monday I got an offer ~22% increase(not counting 15% annual bonus) 1 additional week of PTO, and agreement to credit my years of service for seniority purposes. The offer was attractive but I felt like it was wildly inappropriate for those guys to say those things to me, like they just wanted me to come in knowing how much I owed them or something.

I think I did the right thing. Money is nice, but I believe this would have been a toxic work place and I like where I am now. Thoughts?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *