On paper I have a great job, high pay – low 6 figures, remote, big tech – adjacent. I’ve been at my current role for 3 years.
I work for a major consulting firm, my main client is a top international tech company, where most of my work is large scale survey and experimental research on current and future tech, digital, or online products. But after every 1:1 or team meeting w/ management from the consultancy firm, I hit the job boards.
Employee morale is low all around after 20% of our coworkers were laid off earlier in the year. Management is a revolving door it seems, I’ve had 3 in the last 4 months, and getting used to new people is a chore, though most are nice enough, but you have a feeling they are not in your corner but their own or the business’ corner, and they’re trying to squeeze out even more work out of you with no raise in pay.
Promotions and pay raises have been frozen for the last year, and I’m the only person on my team to not get one since I was brought on, because of the arbitrary hiring date they set as the boundary of when the freeze takes place.
Hours are long, often 50+ hours weeks, 60+ a number of times a qtr, but the actual non-admin/business related work is enjoyable to me which is mostly data science / research / coding, though it is often mentally exhausting.
Hours are highly variable with a few 100 hr weeks and a few 45 hour weeks in the last qtr for example
The work for the client is phenomenal and it is everything I wanted to do after many years of grad school and after a decade of trying to get into this type of role and industry. The work and dealing with the administrative and business side of things from the consultancy firm is not great.
Idk if I should jump right now, but I’m actively looking. I work remotely, in a small town, sole income earner of a family of 3, child aged 4. I have my healthcare set up, with regular doctors I see for certain critical conditions for me and my family. If I have to move and go back to the office in a new place, it’ll be a pain to set all of that up, but doable. A larger pain would be selling our home.
We also moved to this small town and house because we were thinking remote would be the way of the future for most tech industries and office work as a whole, but looks like those opportunities are dwindling.
Should I just continue to tough it out?
3 comments
Tough it out. Can you start your own business with your professional experience? That seems to be the only option to improve your life. Let be honest 50 or 60 hours is not much.
I knew a guy who came to work for my company after jumping ship three times (back when software development was booming). He was always hoping to find a place where he was more appreciated.
So, finally, as things got bad in the department he was in, he got a job on my dev team. Things were going fine until a management change and he started getting itchy feet again.
Then one day, at lunch, he was suddenly in a good mood, not complaining about what he was doing and he said, “I finally figured it out. I don’t give a rat’s ass if I’m appreciated or if my work is valued. It all pays the same.”
And that became his mantra, “It all pays the same.” He puts in his time, collects his money and goes home to his family, which is what really matters. He does good work, because he believes in teaching his kids to do good work. He’s doing just for himself.
It all pays the same.
Stick it out and learn that lesson. It’s good for the soul.
Consultancies operate on a pyramid model where the “assets” in the bottom 3 tiers get “sweated”. They take take take and push push push, and then the profits go via a tax haven to the pockets of those at the top of the pyramid who earned the right to claim them by being the few who stuck around and endured all that to get promoted, and who happily perpetuate the model.
I (45, business & enterprise architect) have unofficially managed and mentored lots of younger consultancy staff whilst independently contracting. I’ve watched them get needlessly flogged on working hours and start to crack. When I was in a pretty senior position contracting at a multinational bank, I actually stepped in, got the Consultancy senior management on the phone, and insisted that a couple of key mid-20s staff with long commutes were allowed to work remotely when I did, so they didn’t burn out, rather than be tied to the consultancy model of the time, which was in the client office or theirs every day.
My advice to the staff was always the same – take what benefits you from the consultancy in terms of experience, training and broad exposure, and suck up the working culture – but then go when the balance shifts and the juice is no longer worth the squeeze. A permanent employee for one of their clients or an adjacent company in the same field is the next logical step – you’ll have more attentive and stable line management, be treated better and “sweated” less – the choice then is whether to pursue promotion, independent consulting, or starting your own company.
You ultimately do need to leave the consultancy to keep doing what you love whilst having a more appropriate work/life balance. Getting your head down for a few years young is wise as you have more energy, but as you get older, you need some balance and the time to put into your relationships. Don’t rush out of the door, but do keep looking for a better option. Making the decision to go in the longer term is liberating. Cap yourself to 60hrs max – don’t accept any more 100hr weeks, you don’t need to if you don’t want to become an equity partner.