A Little Lunch, A Little Ego Stroking and A Potential Job Offer
So I went and had lunch with one of my old employers. I knew going in that there was more than just a lunch thing going on because he'd already told me that my old mentor was leaving the company. And that was going to leave a large and ragged hole in their ability to care for those clients that had previously been his.
So part of the lunch was to test the waters for whether or not I'd be interested in and a good fit for rejoining the company. Of course, one of my huge questions was what kind of a raise I might be looking at. And no, not just so I could have my ego stroked. I wanted to know so that I could actually make a reasonably informed decision about whether I'd want to give up my easy commute, autonomy and very lax dress code for higher pressure, higher stakes, much more client facing and more travel likely PR in an agency setting where there is support available.

But there was no talk about what my possible new salary would be, it was more about whether I could be happy doing the work, whether I could reassimilate myself into the agency mode and whether I could actually handle the workload as it is very different from what I do now.

I've thought over a pro and con flowchart in my head and there are a large number of both so maybe I need to actually chart all of this out, assign weighted values to each pro or con and see what the math indicates I should do. It seems that my inclination is to stay put. I've got a nice gig here in my present company. I like my work, I like the office (for the most part), I make decent money (good money with my incentives) and I get to ride to work everyday in pretty much whatever clothes I feel like wearing. Its really not a bad job at all. And I'm held in pretty high regard from my boss because of the high quality coverage I've been able to secure for us over the last 18 months or so.

Plus the fact that she's really gone to great lengths to make it worth my while to stick around here. By implementing my incentive program (which is going really well this second time around) and lauding my successes to the rest of the company in our meetings, she's giving me a vote of confidence that's very welcome.

But it is nice to think that other companies are seeing a value in my work and considering trying to hire me away from my present position. I wish there were some way to parlay it into more pay here but I don't think I want to risk having to take the other job because I burned my bridge here. That would take alot of the fun out of it. Instead, what I was thinking about doing was seeing where the other job may lead before turning it down and then letting my boss know that I was offered another position with more pay but I chose to stay here because I believe in the company and like what I do. But, I will, in the end, most likely just let it slide and not worry about it. That doesn't mean that I'll never move on from here because I fully intend to but when I move it'll have to be of my own volition and not just so I can earn more jack because I know I'll have to bust my ass to earn my pay with the other company and there's alot more dignity swallowing when you're responsible to clients in an agency setting.

It has been interesting but I think I'm happy where I am for now. It will also afford me the chance to explore some of my own projects that I want to try out without risking loss of job as they're totally non-competitive. We shall see, there's so much to think about after the wedding that I've already filled up a few pages with notes. Now it'll just be a question of figuring out which ones come first.

In Interesting Ecological News
Giant Snakehead Fish caught in Wisconsin's Rock River This is a fish that can get out on land and shuffle itself along for a little ways. Its also one hungry, hungry fish that's also aggressive and has no natural predators here as its an Asian import. What's all this mean? It means, if this snakehead fish starts to find a place to thrive in then it will likely kill off most of the indigenous population. And that can upset the ecological balance which will cause wider and wider ripples through the ecosystem and will, ultimately, end up with the whole world collapsing upon itself. No wait, that's a wee bit extreme. But its bad to have non-native species introduced to a new area where there are no natural predators. We'll see what happens with this one down the road.

But check out the article just to see the pic which is pretty scary. Especially if you were a five inch fish just trying to get by.