Earlier today, my boss at the day job informed me of my raise and bonus pursuant to the annual review process. There were no surprises; the corporate world—particularly in my non-sales-generating area of the corporate world—continues to fail to impress when it comes to monetary compensation. They say the benefits are good compared to the rest of our industry, but sometimes I feel management believes likes to perpetuate that feeling to keep good people from leaving. Before announcing compensation changes, the human resources department conducts a tour explaining the “total benefits package,” ensuring employees are looking at the whole picture when comparing their salaries to those at other companies.
Anyhow, I’ll be receiving an increase of $2,000 per year, the same as last year. My bonus reflects about 7% of my salary, and my “salary grade level” allows for an incentive range of 0% to 9%. The bonus is in line with last year’s as well. As I said, there were no surprises.
This year, I’ll have some opportunities for moving forward within the organization. If they don’t work out as planned, I have other options to consider. SmartMoney Magazine interviewed me for an article the other day (but may not cite Consumerism Commentary because I refused to give them my real name) and the conversation is getting me thinking about the viability of blogging full-time. Being able to work on Consumerism Commentary and other web projects full-time would allow me to devote much more time to writing—it’s very difficult to manage what are basically two full-time jobs right now without the quality of one suffering.
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I totally understand. That’s not feasible for me right now, of course.
But running even a smaller blog like mine (and with all the commenting I do…) takes up a lot of my free time. I literally haven’t worked less than 8 hours every day for the last 3 months—-whether it’s on the job or the blog. Generally it’s more like 12. BOCTAOE…like Christmas. That was only like 1 hour. :P
Of course, there’s a lot to consider. What kind of lifestyle cut would you take? Do you have enough to blog about? (looking at your archives, I’m thinking yes….) Could you go back to work?
It is good that you are managing your career so proactively.
So many of us just drift from job to job and waste away many chances to organise better positions and opportunities for ourselves.
Good luck if you opt for full-time blogging. I enjoy your blog, and I’m certain it will get even better if you do it full-time. So, for my own selfish reasons, I’d say go for it!
Based on your work on your blog, I would bet you are worth much more than your salary indicates, but I would imagine you enjoy your day job quite a bit.
Otherwise you would have already quit, since you make much more from your side business. If you get another job paying 20% more, you won’t notice any difference from the money, but you may not like the work environment at all, possibly making you miserable for 40 hours a week.
Just another thing to consider… you are past the point where additional money makes you any happier (something like $40k/year I think), so you might as well do what you enjoy!
If you decide to move on, at least wait until after your bonus check clears! ;)
Our company is of the opinion that bonuses and raises should be announced, then held back for several months as an incentive to keep people around. Yes, it’s that bad. I am currently looking and hope to have more news soon!
Whichever you choose, I wish you the best of luck!
As the author/owner of three blogs and a full-time job, I can truly appreciate the thoughts you are having right now.
If the new opportunities at work do not pan out, do you think it would be a situation where you might be able to work part-time at your current job and devote more time to blogging? That could provide a transition period into being a “pro” blogger.
Right now my blogs do not make anywhere near enough to support my family so I will be grinding it out until the day is here where I can make that decision.
I look forward to hearing more about what you decide to do.
Congrats on the pay increases! I know what you mean about not feeling fairly compensated. We won’t get rich working for someone else, that’s for sure.
As a husband and dad, my advice would be to make the jump now before you have a family to support. It will be much more difficult later in life when you have to worry about being “responsible” :)