Do I have too much on my plate? (fairly long) [View All]

Am I crazy in considering this or not?

From early 2001 through early 2003, I worked for a good company but under terrible working conditions – not only did I have an hour commute each way, but the people running the department were always in crisis mode. Basically, every little thing was an emergency bigger than yesterday’s emergency and had to be solved immediately. I worked a lot of hours and was on salary, so it was expected. 60 hour work weeks were common, and 70-80 hours working was not unusual. And, this was often with somebody breathing down my neck, and the necks of the other worker-bees in our department. (words from one senior person in our department, "If I get fired because this isn't done by x date, I'm not going alone..." and, this guy's boss - the company controller - when a woman's teen son got hit by a drunk driver & was in a coma, she wanted to take time off to be with him, the controller's response was, "I hope it doesn't interfere with your quarterly responsibilities.")

I finally found a new job much closer to home in early 2003. The new job was also a decent raise and required very little overtime. However, it was a slightly different industry than I had worked the previous 13 years, so I had to learn a lot of new terminology, new formats, different financial statements, etc.

The day after I started the new job, my daughter was born.

In October of 2003, we started having a new house built for us that was finished at the end of June of 2004, less than 6 months ago. It enabled my wife to have a much shorter commute to work (65 miles each way would become about half that each way) and not increase my commute much at all. We sold our old house ourselves.

I do not know if I have been distracted by the baby and/or the house or if it is also partially a letdown from going from a pressure-cooker atmosphere to a more laid back place. Or, maybe it is a combination of everything on top of learning a different industry. But, my performance at the new job these past almost two years has not been what I would personally call stellar, to put it mildly. I find myself sometimes making simple mistakes and forgetting some basics on occasion. Have I done a crappy job? Not really, but I am not happy with myself. And, I do not really like my job that much, which could also be part of the reason. Even though my salary & title are better, the work itself seems to be beneath what I had done at the pressure cooker place before.

That said, I have been contacted in the past month about two good jobs for seemingly good companies that would require me to relocate – one to another, more expensive, part of Connecticut (or Westchester area NY) and another to the Richmond, Virginia area. Both would be back in the old line of business I had worked before.

Also, my wife, while she has been very successful at her current job (3 promotions in less than 2.5 years) is not entirely happy at her current job, either. She would be open to a move. Being closer to NYC or in a metro area like Richmond, it would probably be easy for her to find a good job.

Most of my family is along the I-91 corridor of Connecticut.

Is another move & new job going to drive me completely insane?