Now that coronavirus has hit and people are reconsidering their priorities in life, many are wondering whether their highly stressful role and overbearing boss are really worth the excellent salary. Yes, you might be getting paid a small fortune but you might also be working eighty hour weeks, have your boss micromanaging your days, and you may hate going into the office every morning.
Instead, you need to consider the flip side of your situation. Could you cope with less money if it benefited your quality of life at home, in your personal life, and with your family?
Working in a role that you hate was once something that you put up with because of your bumper paycheck at the end of every month. Now, you might not be happy to simply make do. Take a look at whether the large salary is really worth it and take a look at these other factors when considering your next job move.
Environment
It’s all well and good working in an office with damp, rubbish hardware, a lack of atmosphere, and peeling paint if you are getting a great salary, but are there alternatives? Smaller startups might not be able to offer you a hefty paycheck, but they can make up for this in the working environment that they offer. You could be working with swankier software to make your job more efficient, you might enjoy the office camaraderie more, and you may spot stress-relieving touches of greenery across the workplace.
Younger bosses tend to value their employees enough to facilitate a more productive working environment. You may enjoy collaborative working pods, cool artwork on the walls, and more space to park yourself when hot seating for the day. The environment in which you work should be inspiring and dynamic, not drab and depressing.
Attitude
Does your current boss really care about your well being? More than ever, we need support from our employers if we need to work from home or self isolate due to the global pandemic. Seek out a role where your boss goes out of their way to ensure that you are coping with the new normal being thrust upon you.
If you are still heading into the office, make sure your boss has Covid-secure measures in place like one way systems of movement, hand sanitizer stations, and back to back working at a two meter distance. Many bosses will ensure that slip and fall accidents are kept to a minimum and will go out of their way to provide you with a personal injury attorney should an accident happen at work.
When working from home, employees can feel the pressure to work longer hours and be even more productive. They may be fearful of losing their job if redundancies loom. A decent employer will ease these worries and embrace remote working as a future business model. The world is moving forward so it’s crucial that your boss does the same.
When it comes to staff away days, those bridge-building afternoons and mornings spent building towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows will be nothing but a distant memory. Instead, you might find yourself taking part in an orienteering activity or you might be trying to get out of an escape room. Bosses are eager to get to know you outside of work, try to find out your motivations, and help you make friends with your colleagues. It is often the atmosphere within a workplace that cannot be defined that keeps you in a job. If you love where you work, the chances are that no salary will ever tear you away from your role
A paycheck cannot compete with a caring boss. You will value that boss that communicates effectively with their staff by having a Monday morning briefing every week. Here, you will value a forum where you can speak freely and air your views. On a Friday, you can enjoy an email popping into your inbox, detailing the week’s successes and namechecking those staff members that have gone the extra mile that week.
Salary Or Benefits
A salary should only be one factor that you consider when going for a job. Your new role may have an excellent wage attached to it, but if this is where the benefits package ends, it might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Instead, you should focus on holiday allowance, staff reward schemes, healthcare, and pension. A lower wage with more holiday, a generous pension scheme, and superior health insurance could be more appealing.
Many staff reward schemes are great to be part of. You could get money off the things that you enjoy doing on a regular basis, such as movie nights, meals out, or even spa weekends, or city breaks. Newer ventures are keen to encourage their staff members to look beyond the wage for more tangible benefits.
If you have been stuck in the same role for the past decade, you may be feeling a little stuck in a rut. A newer and more forward-thinking startup could be just the change that you are looking for. Getting in on the action while a business is still working out its ethos and vision can be a great way to have a meaningful impact in your professional life.
Many people are eager to work in a company that feels like a family, where the boss knows everyone’s name, and where the work you do is rewarded. Working with a youthful startup also gives you more opportunity to progress within a company. You can discover opportunities for promotion as the company progresses, expands, and develops a more global reach.
If the threat of redundancy is looming in your current role because you work in an industry that has been hit hard by coronavirus, such as tourism, retail, or hospitality, it might be time to reassess your priorities. Do you want your career dictated by a salary? Think about your future and consider whether the large pay packet is really worth it. The chances are that it isn’t.