Just over a year ago, my wife, a freshly minted MBA got a job offer from a Fortune 5 company to help start a new division that moved us from the suburbs of Washington, D.C. to Phoenix. At the time she was 8 months pregnant with our first child and the massive salary increase and instant ability to buy a nice home was very attractive. So we signed on and moved our family across country.
However, many things went wrong with the project, starting with the fact that her boss was a salesman and not a manager, and that he did not make friends with any people at corporate headquarters. So at the beginning of the month her boss was let go and all employees were given the choice of moving to the corporate headquarters in the deep south or being laid off come October 2.
My advice was that she shouldn't take the relocation unless her "ultimate goal was to try and become the CEO of that company and turn it into a force for good in the world."
But, trying to do our due diligence, the company paid for a plane flight for us to go visit corporate headquarters, and the surrounding towns, but after facing three flight cancellations before leaving town, that seemed to us a clear indication that Providence didn't want us to take the relocation, so my wife told her bosses that she "appreciated the offer, but that God had sent us a clear sign that moving was not in our families interests."
So she has been spending the past few weeks searching for jobs (and I've been looking too). And it seems that most of the companies that suit her qualifications are either what could be considered "evil" (defense contractors, big pharma, health insurers, financial services) or "cheap" (is taking a 40% pay cut smart?) or require moving again.
While she toys with the idea of self-employment, I am already self-employed with two employees and my wife fears the wild ride that has been my income over the almost 7 years we've been married (great in years divisible by 4, okay in years divisible by two, and teetering in odd years). Plus, while we are relatively healthy, my wife likes seeing a doctor on a regular basis and there is no way that I can afford $10,000 per year per person for health insurance.
So Kossacks, what would you do? Do you follow the most self-interested choice and work for a company that is part of the problem, take the moral choice and try to do good in the world even if it means a massive pay cut, or disrupt your family and move again?