Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit not sure exactly where to post:
Hi All,
Thanks in advance for any advice that can be offered.
About 4 years ago I began working for an appliance store in my home town. I was a salesman and was making roughly 45-50K per year pretax but hated the job.
I am not meant for sales and do not wish to pursue a career in in-person sales at all, but was sticking it out for the money. Plus the environment was amazing and I genuinely loved the people I worked with, just not the job itself to no fault of my employer.
Fast forward to Nov 2021, my now SOs step dad offered me an account management job at the electronic manufacturing company he works for, and I took it.
I started at 50K and within a year got a raise to 58K, the job is very easy about 90% emails, and is a typical 9-5 desk job.
The issue is the work environment is beyond toxic. You get dirty looks for being too loud, and the sales manager is clearly bi-polar and has major anger issues. If you send an email with the wrong wording or don't CC the right people he may do any of the following: not speak to you for weeks on end; refuse to help you with any issues; ask if you would like to “go outside” to handle things (i.e. fight); curse at you behind his closed door, etc.
Again, sticking it out for the money. That is until my previous boss reached out, let me know he has an opening for an appliance installer technician on his truck. He offered me 47K salary, with promise of anywhere from 7K-12K in cash tips throughout any given full year. Both jobs offer 401K, health, and dental, and both are 8:30-5pm Mon-Friday with same PTO.
I am now stuck deciding if I want to leave my cushiony higher paying desk job working for a maniac for a lower paying manual labor job that I know I would like much better. I am horrible at making decisions and do not want to screw my life up more than I already have so this is a big thing for me.
Some key notes;
I am 24 y/o Male in central NJ, USA area.
I attended college for 2 years but had to drop out cuz I went broke – Have no degree besides GED
I have previously worked many days on the appliance truck and always loved doing it, labor intensive yes but much more fun than sitting at a desk 9 hours a day.
Current desk job is 40min commute both ways, Appliance store is 5 min from my house.
Possibility of taking over as lead appliance technician eventually. Also possibility of taking on higher position at current job but honestly don't even want it since I don't love what I am doing now just love getting paid a decent amount.
I think going back to appliance store might be better overall as even though it is less pay I would be happier and much less stressed, and would also allow me to go to local community college to finish degree much easier than where I am now. This would be on top of learning the trade of appliance installation.
On the flip side I don't want to leave my (very easy) desk job now and regret going to a tougher job for less money just because my boss is an asshole.
I don't know what to do!