False start

I’m sorry, readers, for the emotional rollercoaster, but I’m going to decline the job after all.

I got the formal offer through today and it turns out the working hours are longer and the holiday allowance is lower than my current job. Once you account for all that, the money per hour worked is only slightly higher than I’m on now, so it’s not really worth it.

I haven’t put all the details in here but yesterday was a bit of a mess. This job was originally advertised as working from home 4 days a week with a salary up to a certain number. I asked them about the working from home yesterday. They wouldn’t commit to anything other than being “flexible” but they’d expect me in the office a certain undefined amount of time. So, okay, I can probably work with that, but it felt like a bit of a bait and switch.

Then they came to me with an offer which was a lot lower than what I’d asked for (and, it turns out now, worse per hour than what I’m on now). They gave the excuse that they “hadn’t expected to find someone as senior as me” and hadn’t really budgeted for that much – but what I’d asked for was less than the upper number on the advert! So I just said no and felt a bit perplexed that they’d try to lowball me when I already have a job and can just say no.

A few hours later they came back with what I’d asked for, but it made me feel they probably wouldn’t be interested in keeping my salary at its market value in future.

I’m not disappointed though. Between all this and having a surprise second final interview, I feel like they’ve been messing me around so I’m a bit relieved to just give a hard no and make them go away.