Day 327 – Decision Process

4

A few days ago I alluded to some goings-on and said it had been a strange week. There was some decision making happening, but it is all resolved finally. There was a major choice to be made, but no, it wasn’t made this way.

Kirk has been less than satisfied with work in recent months, and some things had happened which were threatening some personal planning we had put into play. So he had started to cast his eyes around to other companies that might be a fit, and which would offer some proximity benefits. A company that he had been interested in working with, one that is a mere three minutes from where we live, came up and he applied. He had expressed interest in them before, but they had always said they couldn’t afford him regardless of how much they would like to have him on their team. He was interviewed twice, and then invited back again for further discussion, before being offered the position. The package wasn’t perfect, but it would cut out a commute and save a great deal of money on associated vehicle costs. It meant a cut in wages, but the fuel savings offset a little of it, and there seemed to be good growth potential.

After much soul searching, Kirk made a difficult choice and decided to make the move. It was hard because he didn’t hate his current position, he didn’t dislike anyone at work, it was a move to be made based on other factors. Flexibility, growth potential, location. Over the course of a week or so he cleared out most of his things quietly, leaving the obvious items in place. We started looking at bicycles since he could ride to the new workplace. I looked into a parking pass for downtown since I’d be riding everyday now. We wrapped our minds around some changes.

And then, he wrote a kind resignation letter, thanking his employers for the challenges and the opportunities he had been afforded. Last Wednesday he went to work, steeled himself, asked his manager if they could talk, closed the door, held out the letter and said “There is no easy way to say this, I am leaving…”

The story would logically seem to be clear now, right? Not so much. Have you known anyone who tried to quit, and failed….twice!?

His manager refused the letter and asked if it was about more money?

“No”

The he asked Kirk to hold off until the evening so that he could counter-offer?

Excuse me? Totally unexpected. Kirk came home and the offer came in later that evening. My feeling was that it was a knee jerk reaction to the potential loss of a valuable employee in the busy season and that once they had sorted things out there would be a lack of trust and potentially worse fallout.

So the next morning Kirk went back in and told his manager that he was flattered and that the package was fabulous, but that he was still leaving. He again tried to deliver the letter, and again he failed.

I was apparently very wrong.

They were closeted for a few hours at the end of which Kirk was given a few days off to think and he went to the other place of business to sit in for a few hours and make a decision. He went and talked to friends for other opinions, and when he came home that evening he had made up his mind. He was going to stay with his present employer. It wasn’t about money, and what tipped the balance was that he was offered some flexibility in his work that he so desperately wanted – and a bit more money didn’t hurt the equation.

And so, there is no change, and there is major change.

The coin toss certainly didn’t end the way we thought it would, but everything turned out fabulous when it finally spun to a stop.

Except that now Kirk has to take all his “stuff” back to work 🙂