TLDR: I’ve potentially been offered a higher paying, higher position job in a company that has a much more corporate culture than I’m currently in and which I’ve heard a lot of bad feedback from others that worked there.
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I’m currently managing a restaurant in a small independent chain and my work/life balance is almost perfect. The place serves a great product and we get nothing but positive feedback from customers and have a great atmosphere to work in. I’m hesitant to name it as people actually recognise me from it around town and many places give me trader’s discounts upon recognising me (always a baller move on dates haha). However the pay isn’t exactly impressive and there’s zero room for promotion as it’s basically the owner (who is a delight and incredibly helpful/hilarious) above me. I’ve been extremely comfortable working here but have basically no prospects for advancing my career further.
I just found out that I’ve been name-dropped for a GM position in a restaurant that’s part of a recognised brand that has members clubs around the world. By all accounts it would “open doors” and expose me to a lot of movers and shakers, as well as coming with an obvious pay increase. It is in a different field, namely fine dining, than I’m used to but I’ve got a lot of experience in the industry.
BUT my gut instinct is yelling at me, because the site in question has been suffering a lot since it opened. I’ve been there and been very unimpressed with basically everything except the location and decor. The staff have that recognisable beaten-down look and I’ve heard it on the grapevine (hospo gossips) that staff turnover is huge and the management and ownership are insufferable.
I previously worked for a company that got taken over by investors and rapidly expanded. I was on the openings team at sites across the country (UK btw) and subsequently was the fireman manager that had to travel back and forth around them all as they started to collapse, mainly from mismanagement and lack of staff from opening too many bloody sites at once. I lived in Travellodge’s for a long while and faced constant Kafka-esque budget targets and middle-management micromanagement that completely soured my desire to ever work for a company like that again. I’d sleep like four hours a night and I remember coming back to my hotel room one evening after hobbling around with a painful foot all day and finding my toenail had come off in my sock. The place I work now is literally a panacea to that life, when I handed in my notice a tangible weight came off my shoulders!
My other issue is that I’m 37 and sick of goddamn hospitality at this point. I’ve sweat and bled in this industry for so long that I see my current job as almost a swan song in it.
What are people’s opinions of what I should do? I’m more than capable of rising to a challenge, but it feels like it’ll be a physically exhausting challenge to get a result I’m not really interested in achieving.
Also if anyone has a good idea for non-hospitality people facing jobs that I could step into?
My friend who’s putting my name down it is also trying to bribe me by saying that celebrities frequent their member’s clubs like… celebrities used to visit my old employer and most of them are dickheads haha
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