Goodbye 3 hour drives on the M25

Goodbye 3 hour drives on the M25

This morning I rang up my manager and told him that I’d be sending over my resignation letter. This wasn’t the first time I’d left a job but I was still nervous about how he would react. I explained to him that while I appreciated all of his support and enjoyed working on the various different projects over the past 18 months it had become clear that I would never ‘get used’ to the long commutes and never really being anywhere long enough to get to know my co-workers on a project.

Fortunately he was very understanding, said he completely understood my reasons for wanting to leave and acknowledged that it was the kind of role you wouldn’t know if you were suited for it or not before actually trying it out first. I’d made a great contribution to the company during my time there and would I consider staying on until the end of August? I politely declined.

How did we get to this point?

I’ve been feeling for awhile now that my current role wasn’t right for me, ever since that first disastrous annual appraisal and the following 1-to-1s where it was constantly reiterated that no matter how good my performance may be on the job.. it needed to match some obscure HR scoring matrix. Urgh. The thought of having to go through another of those this summer made me seriously consider moving on.

As it happened, a couple of weeks ago I had a phone call from an old manager at a previous job. He said that a senior member of his team had just left and they were desperate to get a replacement in ASAP. The timing couldn’t have been better and I already knew the company/team/role and what it would all involve. I managed to restrain myself enough to push for an increase against my current salary to which he agreed and asked when I’d be available to start.

What about the career progression?

I left my last job because, frankly, there was none. Unless my manager left then there was no way I could have progressed upwards. Infact had I received this phone call last year I’d have declined the offer to return for that very reason. However, because I’ve been rapidly scaling up the side-hustles over the past 6 months it’s become apparent that the day-job’s salary has a much smaller impact on the overall monthly income. I’m now in a position where I feel comfortable enough to sacrifice rapid career progression (and all the stress that comes with it) for a much easier ride in the 9-5 knowing it’s heavily supplemented from other income sources.

One day those side incomes may well be enough to quit the world of working for someone else entirely, but with a large wedding next year and a still sizeable mortgage balance.. I don’t feel that now is the right time to be making that gamble. At least not until I come up a way of laying it off on Betfair ;)

 

 

13 thoughts on “Goodbye 3 hour drives on the M25

  1. Congratulations Guy!

    Awesome news. Your hard work has paid off, and you can now get back some valuable time to earn more on MB and Kindle…. or perhaps with the missus. ;-)

    Good luck on the transition.

    1. Huw, You know full well the inspiration for pursuing side incomes came from yourself. I owe you all the credit my friend.

      I’m looking forward to having alot more free time in the evenings for pursuing the other side incomes or indeed perhaps the Mrs ;) Hoping to drag her up when we meet for that pint.. not least because quitting the consultancy job will mean losing my car!

  2. Congratulations Guy. It sounds like you have a really healthy attitude to work at the moment – hope your notice period isn’t too onerous.

    1. Surprisingly short actually, I called HR to confirm and it’s only 4 weeks. They wanted me to stay on longer but I’d rather leave on a high and move on to the new role as soon as possible.

      I think my attitude to work has completely changed in the past 6 months. I’ve realised the job salary really isn’t as important as I once thought it and that by building up side incomes I can then afford to sacrifice day-job salary for an easier ride.

  3. Nice one Guy! It was quite evident from your posts that the commute wasn’t great and the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ was that one-to-one, which clearly had no benefits for either parties involved!

    Your side income gives a massive boost to your salary (congrats on getting that pay rise too!) – with less travelling, you’ll have even more time to dedicate to the side hustles.

    All the best in your new role!

    1. Thank you Weenie.

      I really should have seen the writing on the wall 12 months ago but thought I owed it to the company and myself to give the role a proper try for at least a year. The problem has been that as a consultant all of my work is away with other companies so it is near impossible for my company to accurately judge my own performance. Because of this they implemented scoring systems to try and judge our performances on the few and obscure things they could actually measure. It made no sense to me and I believe made no sense to my manager either but he was required to just follow the system.

      The side income is really what gave me the confidence to be able to give up a long term career plan for a much easier ride. Even if my current side hustles die out eventually, it has shown how possible and easy it is to spin up this sort of thing and so I’ve got no doubt I’d be able to find more in the future. I was surprised they came back with a pay rise tbh… I’d have accepted a slight pay cut in order to go back to a local job!

  4. I am in the EXACT same situation as your are/were currently. I’ve been working a large proposal over the past few months (100+ million) and I have seen the managers that I report my findings/research too, work 60 hour weeks over this span of time. They all make easily over 150k a year and have said that I have done a very good job these past few months. Should we win, I will take a spot on the new contract to get it up and running and perhaps after a year or two, move up to a managerial role as well. I look at how miserable some of these people are and how they look like zombies and I have decided I do not want it any longer! I wanted to move up the corporate ladder, make a bunch of money (save it all) and retire early, but the stress level and time commitment is not appealing at all.

    In the coming weeks I will have this discussion with my manager, should we win, and tell him “I value my time of my work” — I will have to decline the new role and stay where I’m at. It might cost me two years or so towards retirement, but will save me more years than that due to stress. I forgot to mention — currently, I am at the point where I will lose my leave hours if I do not use 6 HOURS every two weeks! So essentially, I can leave early from work by 1 hour for 6 our of 10 working days, or, work 2 extra hours during the first 9 and take off every other Friday!!

    This lifestyle of saving/investing/living below my means and retiring early has opened my eyes to a whole new world and I love it!

    ADD

  5. Hi Guys,

    Congratulations on finding the right balance! I cant blame you for ditching the 3 hours on the M25 – it can be a real nightmare for sure! I hope the new balance works out for you and fingers crossed for the ongoing building of the overall networth!
    London Rob

  6. Hey Guy!

    First time reader here, just discovered your site, glad I made it on time to catch this Post and congratulations on your move! I know too well the commutes around the M25 and how soul destroying that can be. Your comment about realising your value on full time employment and salary is decreasing is great. Some day you will have enough to resign and not have to stress about another job until the urge comes up out of passion and not out of requirement. Best of luck to you in your new role.
    Cheers
    R

  7. Sorry for the late one but congrats.

    You’ve secured a much easier life for yourself for more money right now. What’s not to love about that?!
    Fair enough future prospects might not be as good but who wants the stress of a higher paid job anyway… not me that’s for sure. Matched betting and I’m guessing Kindle are practically stress free compared to any job I’ve ever done! Makes sense to keep some regular income whilst the mortgage is still quite large which is why I’ll try to keep my part time gig going for as long as possible before seeing if i can go it alone.

    You must be already left by now so hope you’re enjoying your new/old role!

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