Update in first post: Who wants to play Should I Take That Job

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

update: I officially interviewed yesterday.  As it’s a hospital system they have this whole complicated matrix about the pay scale, and no one could really give me the official number.  If it’s enough for me to afford being able to work part time I plan to take it.  If it’s not, I will see if we can negotiate at all on the schedule.  I really have to have set days that I work and not weekends one month and two weekends the next month kind of rotation that they’re doing.  Essentially DH and I can’t ever work the same 24 hour shift(or very rarely; he is today but only because there was an open shift with me and it’s Valentine’s Day lol) because there’s just no 24 hour childcare in existence. They really want me, and I really want to work there, we’ll just have to see what we can compromise on.  I let them know what my minimum hourly rate would have to be for me to consider it.

Hopefully today I will hear something. I really need out of my toxic job.
 

Long story short: my dad’s best friend is now the head of emergency management in the county I lived in for decades and just moved out of.  Due to lack of volunteering and other shenanigans the county stepped in under his leadership and started a new ambulance service in partnership with a hospital system. It went live in December.

He reached out last night and basically offered me a job there.

Job A(new place)/

—significant pay increase of close to 25%.
—good benefits including vision, dental, and no co-pay if you use their hospital system.

—-much less call volume; I would run as many calls in a week as I am in one 24 hour shift now. If not less.  I’d sleep most nights. Much fewer long distance hospital to hospital transfers.

—retirement is 401K with 3% match.

—-incredibly better equipment. Including auto loaders into the ambulance which would save my back long term.

—schedule is 24 hours shifts: 1 on/1 off/1 on/1 off/1 on/4 days off. It works out to 11 shifts a month. I attached a picture of a sample month.

—Not for nothing, I’m homesick. The station is probably work at however is just over the county line and only about six minutes from my house. It’s next door to my parents, in fact(quite sure my dad actually had something to do with that).

—$2000 tuition/contuining Ed reimbursement that can also be used for student loan repayment.

Job B: 

—I work Sunday/Thursday, Tuesday/Friday on a rotating basis.
—High deductible insurance though the company pays 75% of that. No vision insurance.
—-401K match at 6%
—Incredibly busy. I’m running 13 calls between and then getting sent on a five hour hospital to hospital transfer. It’s rare to get more than 2 hours of sleep, so I get home the next morning and sleep all day.

—My Tuesday and Sunday night shifts are with my husband, which is fun, but he’s a supervisor and I hate how management runs the place so we just don’t talk about work anymore.

—Flexible schedule.  Five weeks of PTO and then you can take almost unlimited unpaid time off.

—I can’t stand most of the people I work with anymore. We’ve had a high turnover rate due to call volume and most of my friends have left over the last five years.

DH is pretty non committal.  He’ll support whatever I want to do, but we both really love my current work schedule. 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Mrs Tiggywinkle Again

[Ann.without.an.e]

I feel like you are leaning toward the new job? Just my thought in a quick read through. 

ETA: What is your PTO like in the new job? Did I miss that info?

Edited January 30, 2023 by Ann.without.an.e

[Soror]

I'd say Job A. 

With Job B you're off more but I'd guess it is not good quality time with as little sleep as you are getting when you are at work. Besides sounds like you hate it when you are at work. The huge pay increase is icing on the cake.

[ScoutTN]

Job A, assuming the PTO is reasonable.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

19 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

I feel like you are leaning toward the new job? Just my thought in a quick read through. 

ETA: What is your PTO like in the new job? Did I miss that info?

No, I know you’re front loaded some and accrue it based on hours worked, but that is one of my questions.

I am kind of leaning towards the new job, but I’ve also gotten really used to having a very flexible schedule where I could take off my kids’ birthdays and such with no issues.  The flexible scheduling and allowed unpaid time off is really what has kept me at this company for ten years despite disliking most of it.

[Faith-manor]

I think job A because a happy, less stressed mom is worth a lot to the kids and to your health.

[chiguirre]

A 25% raise 6 minutes from your house is very tempting. 

Good luck no matter what you choose!

[73349]

I'd take the new job. Sleep is priceless *and* it pays more.

 

 

*cheering for you in the background: TIGGY! TIGGY! TIGGY! TIGGY!*

[Drama Llama]

If you're going from 8 shifts a month to 11, is the 25% increase an increase per hour, or does it just reflect more hours?  Or are your current shifts longer and so the hours are the same?

Does the "no co pays" cover services you use?  I know you have a lot of specialists and I think therapies for some kids, would you be able to transfer them to their system or would those become out of network, and thus expensive?

[EKS]

Do you think that the 1 on/1 off piece will work ok?  I know you said that there are fewer calls, but I would think that if you're up a lot of the night the days off are just going to be recovery days.  

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

20 minutes ago, BandH said:

If you're going from 8 shifts a month to 11, is the 25% increase an increase per hour, or does it just reflect more hours?  Or are your current shifts longer and so the hours are the same?

Does the "no co pays" cover services you use?  I know you have a lot of specialists and I think therapies for some kids, would you be able to transfer them to their system or would those become out of network, and thus expensive?

The hospital system this ambulance is a part of is weird and gives salaries as yearly instead of hourly, even though you’re hired as an hourly worker.  It would be a couple dollar an hour increase but also reflects going from 48/48 to 48/72/48/72 a month. 
None of the therapies here are part of any hospital system unfortunately.  We’d remain paying for those out of pocket.  DH carries the insurance so we don’t have to switch if it’s not better. 

 

5 minutes ago, EKS said:

Do you think that the 1 on/1 off piece will work ok?  I know you said that there are fewer calls, but I would think that if you're up a lot of the night the days off are just going to be recovery days.  

If the call volume doesn’t explode for some reason, it probably wouldn’t be bad. They have 3 ambulances overnight and have only had 7 calls after midnight since they started December 20.  But I am not really sure I’d like the 1 on/1 off.  My weekends that I work now are 1 on/1off/1 on and it isn’t bad if I sleep most of the night, but if I don’t it’s terrible.

[vonfirmath]

is the new job flexible enough with your child commitments? That would be my main concern

[brehon]

2 hours ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

Long story short: my dad’s best friend is now the head of emergency management in the county I lived in for decades and just moved out of.  Due to lack of volunteering and other shenanigans the county stepped in under his leadership and started a new ambulance service in partnership with a hospital system. It went live in December.

<snip> How much have the shenanigans have truly been fixed/are being fixed? Are the same people in leadership/management positions? What is the culture like?

Job A(new place)/

—significant pay increase of close to 25%.

Holy Toledo, Batman! That’s a pretty significant pay rise!!

—good benefits including vision, dental, and no co-pay if you use their hospital system.

Will you be able to keep yours/the  kids’ specialists? Are there good specialists in that system that would be feasible to go to for y’all?

—-much less call volume; I would run as many calls in a week as I am in one 24 hour shift now. If not less.  I’d sleep most nights. Much fewer long distance hospital to hospital transfers.

Speaking as someone who averages 2 hours of broken sleep when on duty, this is very important. What’s the call volume projection for this new system in the next 3 years? 5 years?

—retirement is 401K with 3% match.

That seems like a pretty good deal. (I don’t actually know because I work for a third service county agency and we have a pension with an incredible match when you retire.)

—-incredibly better equipment. Including auto loaders into the ambulance which would save my back long term.

Having the Strykers with the hydraulic loading has given me back years on my health and ability to work. Better equipment = happier medics = better patient care

—schedule is 24 hours shifts: 1 on/1 off/1 on/1 off/1 on/4 days off. It works out to 11 shifts a month. I attached a picture of a sample month.

Is this a Kelly/modified Kelly schedule? We considered something similar, but ultimately rejected it due to our mandatory OT hours. Which reminds me — what is staffing like in the new system? How much mandatory OT will you need to work? 

—Not for nothing, I’m homesick. The station is probably work at however is just over the county line and only about six minutes from my house. It’s next door to my parents, in fact(quite sure my dad actually had something to do with that).

My station is 5 miles from my house. I consider this a huge perk.

—$2000 tuition/contuining Ed reimbursement that can also be used for student loan repayment.

This is a nice perk. Will the tuition reimbursement apply for loans taken out prior to employment? I wish the county I work for was not as parsimonious as it is. We technically have tuition reimbursement, but so few people are approved for it - in any county department - that we effectively don’t have it.

Job B: 

—I work Sunday/Thursday, Tuesday/Friday on a rotating basis.
—High deductible insurance though the company pays 75% of that. No vision insurance.
—-401K match at 6%
—Incredibly busy. I’m running 13 calls between and then getting sent on a five hour hospital to hospital transfer. It’s rare to get more than 2 hours of sleep, so I get home the next morning and sleep all day.

—My Tuesday and Sunday night shifts are with my husband, which is fun, but he’s a supervisor and I hate how management runs the place so we just don’t talk about work anymore.

—Flexible schedule.  Five weeks of PTO and then you can take almost unlimited unpaid time off.

—I can’t stand most of the people I work with anymore. We’ve had a high turnover rate due to call volume and most of my friends have left over the last five years.

DH is pretty non committal.  He’ll support whatever I want to do, but we both really love my current work schedule. 

I added some thoughts inline in italics in your original message.

Don’t underestimate how much of a toll not liking your workplace can take on you. You don’t like your coworkers; you don’t like the management; you detest the call volume (and I’m right there in the trenches with you on that minus the 5 hour transfer).

Would it be possible for you to take the new insurance and leave the kids on your husband’s insurance (assuming it’s the overall better deal with prices and access)? Or would the reverse work?

Would your husband’s schedule remain 24/48s? How often would y’all see each other? How would things like school runs, school holidays, etc be impacted?

Edited January 30, 2023 by brehon
Additional thought

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

17 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

is the new job flexible enough with your child commitments? That would be my main concern

At this point we don’t have much that my husband can’t do. But there would be more days most likely that we’d be working the same days, whereas now we have only four night shifts a month where we need childcare as we’ve rearranged our schedules.

[Ann.without.an.e]

Job A seems better but I have a few thoughts - 

As a mom, flexibility is worth a lot to me. 
 
How certain do you feel the new job won’t have the same issues that you struggle with currently? Sometimes we think we’re fixing it but we’re really just having the same problems in a new place or trading one set of issues for a new set. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

Just now, brehon said:

Don’t underestimate how much of a toll not liking your workplace can take on you. You don’t like your coworkers; you don’t like the management; you detest the call volume (and I’m right there in the trenches with you on that minus the 5 hour transfer).

Would it be possible for you to take the new insurance and leave the kids on your husband’s insurance (assuming it’s the overall better deal with prices and access)? Or would the reverse work?

Would your husband’s schedule remain 24/48s? How often would y’all see each other? How would things like school runs, school holidays, etc be impacted?

His schedule is ridiculously complicated but he doesn’t work the 24/48s. He works 2 night shifts and a 24 one week and then a 39 hour shift and another 24 the next on a rotating two week schedule.  It’s fixed days.
Since the new job schedule isn’t fixed as far as days(it’s a Kelly schedule) so basically some months we’d see each other more than we do now and some months a day or two less. Because of that too some month we’d need more childcare and some months we may not need any at all.  

Our call volume is out of control. Last Tuesday I had 16 run numbers between 0800 and 1700.  Management isn’t blind to it and have added more crews, but as I’m sure you know there isn’t an abundance of unemployed paramedics looking for jobs.

It is better insurance overall and we’d probably switch.  The hospital system it’s through is fine and has decent providers, so we’d be fine switching our care to there.  

My sticking point is really just making the schedule work.

 

[brehon]

Understood about the scheduling. I thought it was a Kelly schedule.

We have the same staffing issues every other EMS system out there has. I’m…not thrilled with how upper management (distinctly not leadership) has chosen to handle them.

I’m not sure if you read my comments within your original post; they’re in italics. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

4 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

Job A seems better but I have a few thoughts - 

As a mom, flexibility is worth a lot to me. 
 
How certain do you feel the new job won’t have the same issues that you struggle with currently? Sometimes we think we’re fixing it but we’re really just having the same problems in a new place or trading one set of issues for a new set. 

My major issue is that our equipment is old and outdated, especially our critical care transport ventilators and IV pumps, and that our call volume is absolutely ridiculous. The call volume frankly would be less going anywhere else because the population and demographics.  I’d be going from a county of 80,000 with urban and poverty issues to the second least populous county in New York that is filled with farmers who don’t call 911 unless they’re actively dying. I worked in that county for 8 years, so while the ambulance company itself is new, it’s still operating in a system I’m familiar with. I have also worked with most of the employees before and remained friends.

There are still issues but my particular gripes would be resolved.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

1 minute ago, brehon said:

Understood about the scheduling. I thought it was a Kelly schedule.

We have the same staffing issues every other EMS system out there has. I’m…not thrilled with how upper management (distinctly not leadership) has chosen to handle them.

I’m not sure if you read my comments within your original post; they’re in italics. 

I just saw them.

I think it’s a modified Kelly schedule because they don’t give a Kelly day.  There is no mandatory overtime other than what is already built in.

I expect the call volume to either stay steady or slightly decrease as the population continues to decline.  This was actually supposed to be a third service county run agency but the hospital stepped in with funding and the county determined that was better.

It is the Stryker auto load system.  I’m working someplace that uses Fernos and no auto load. My back hurts. They also have Hamilton transport vents and Lifepak 15s, which we do not have.  
 

Truly, more than the money or nice equipment or any other perk, the biggest draw is the call volume and chance of sleep.  There will always be those busy nights, but it’s every single night right now.  

[brehon]

12 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

I just saw them.

I think it’s a modified Kelly schedule because they don’t give a Kelly day.  There is no mandatory overtime other than what is already built in.

I expect the call volume to either stay steady or slightly decrease as the population continues to decline.  This was actually supposed to be a third service county run agency but the hospital stepped in with funding and the county determined that was better.

It is the Stryker auto load system.  I’m working someplace that uses Fernos and no auto load. My back hurts. They also have Hamilton transport vents and Lifepak 15s, which we do not have. 

Truly, more than the money or nice equipment or any other perk, the biggest draw is the call volume and chance of sleep.  There will always be those busy nights, but it’s every single night right now.  

Good heavens! The lack of mandatory OT is incredible! We’re averaging 12-13 24-hour shifts per month because of mandatory OT. Which means, of course, that my schedule has functionally changed to almost a 48/24 shift. 

Love the strykers. Thank goodness for auto-loads. We’re moving to the Hamilton’s in the next fiscal year and we currently have the LPs.

Ayup, sleep is so important. Our call volume is only increasing. In the past couple of years, it’s increased by 3-5% per year.

ETA: What are the promotion chances in the new system? How would promoting, especially to a desk job, affect some of the issues you’re thinking about? 

Edited January 30, 2023 by brehon

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

9 minutes ago, brehon said:

Good heavens! The lack of mandatory OT is incredible! We’re averaging 12-13 24-hour shifts per month because of mandatory OT. Which means, of course, that my schedule has functionally changed to almost a 48/24 shift. 

Love the strykers. Thank goodness for auto-loads. We’re moving to the Hamilton’s in the next fiscal year and we currently have the LPs.

Ayup, sleep is so important. Our call volume is only increasing. In the past couple of years, it’s increased by 3-5% per year.

ETA: What are the promotion chances in the new system? How would promoting, especially to a desk job, affect some of the issues you’re thinking about? 

There’s promotion opportunity—frankly if I said I’d take the job but wanted a supervisor position, they’d probably give it to me.  They’re actively recruiting me and there’s some negotiation room.

But the truth is if I take this job, I’d work two years, take the extra money, be able to pay off almost all of our debt, and then probably drop to part time/per diem until my youngest is nearing the end of high school.  

[Carol in Cal.]

A, hands down.

Hating your job erodes you over time.  It’s great to have a fresh start with more money, and more sleep.

[Faith-manor]

46 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

There’s promotion opportunity—frankly if I said I’d take the job but wanted a supervisor position, they’d probably give it to me.  They’re actively recruiting me and there’s some negotiation room.

But the truth is if I take this job, I’d work two years, take the extra money, be able to pay off almost all of our debt, and then probably drop to part time/per diem until my youngest is nearing the end of high school.  

That sounds like a winning proposition to me. 2 years goes by fast, and you still have a lot of time left with your kids at the end of it.

[KungFuPanda]

I say make the jump. If you hate it, it sounds like the turnover is high enough that you could always get your old job back. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

2 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

That sounds like a winning proposition to me. 2 years goes by fast, and you still have a lot of time left with your kids at the end of it.

I didn’t even think about that part myself till today. DH sat down and worked all the numbers out this morning.  Here I didn’t think he’d really been listening when I kept talking about wanting to go part time lol.

I would always be able to get my old job or go pretty much anywhere else.  I have certifications that are becoming really necessary  but very few people have them. 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Mrs Tiggywinkle Again

[rebcoola]

Yeah I agree with the 2 years and than you can go part-time definitely seems worth it.  

[Reefgazer]

To me, Job A would be the easy choice.  But when you make your decision, listen to what your gut says and make sure your final decision is in agreement with the gut test.

[Harriet Vane]

Curious where you landed with this. 

[pinball]

I might be remembering this wrong…but it seems like every time you tried to leave, you ended up returning to your original job.

 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

1 hour ago, pinball said:

I might be remembering this wrong…but it seems like every time you tried to leave, you ended up returning to your original job.

 

Pretty much because there is just absolutely zero childcare here, especially for kids over age 5.  I have offered as much as $250 for 5pm-8am where all my kids need is dinner, a movie and bed, and then the babysitter can sleep all night, with some assistance getting ready for school, and can’t ever find anyone who is reliable. I’ll get people and then they call off last minute or just don’t show up.

I submitted everything they wanted but it’s a large hospital system and it’s been two or three weeks for other people to hear back. Once they come back with the official offer it’s then contingent on a physical and PPD and drug screen, and my acceptance is also contingent that they meet my scheduling needs.  Right now DH and I work mostly opposite days(and never the same 24 hour shift) because we have set days of the week that we always work; a schedule that isn’t set like that will mean there are times we both work a 24 and 24 hour childcare is certainly impossible.  If they wanted me bad enough to recruit me I am hoping they’ll want me bad enough to work with me on the schedule. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Mrs Tiggywinkle Again

[Katy]

Years ago I worked at a hospital that had both regular (even overnight) deeply discounted daycare for employees and an RN staffed emergency sick care for kids up to 13. The sick daycare was free and I think the other one was only $200/wk for the first kid and $100/wk for each additional kid. This was in a bigger city suburb where I think daycare was usually at least twice that and couldn’t be found from 6 pm-6 am. And I think they had some agreement  that there might be a wait to hire someone to add your kids, but they would move things around so your kids could be in care every time you were working. 

I didn’t have kids then and everything else about working at that hospital system was terrible but I remember thinking that people with kids would never leave, that benefit was too valuable. And I was right. Most people with younger kids stayed 10-15 years at least. 

If I had a friend of the family in his position I would suggest it as a benefit. Idk how much of a hassle all the licensing was, but it was a teaching hospital connected to a university so maybe the employees were mostly education students and nursing students. Or maybe they got special exemptions because it was a hospital. I don’t think they had a preschool built in, I think I remember a coworker having trouble with her preschooler getting bussed to that because she lived in a different town. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

If someone here opened an overnight daycare they’d make bank.  There is none at all.  Most people rely on spouses/significant others/grandmas when they are overnight workers.  Even 12 hour day care is almost but not quite as impossible.  Either nothing opens early enough or stays open late enough. To be fair there is only one day care center; everything else is home daycares. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

Update in first post.