Is the Country a Sinking Ship?

Is the country a sinking ship?

I listened to an interesting radio phone in last night regarding the state of affairs that this country is currently in. One chap, a pensioner, commented that in the ‘good old days’ companies like GEC (Marconi) used to only invest out of the profits that they had made. This guy had lived through WW2 and the aftermath and had witnessed this great nation pull itself off the floor, dust itself down and with grit and determination bring it back to the bustling, prosperous country that it is.

He went on to say that the country is not a sinking ship but does need better guidance and proper leadership before it can recover from the current crisis.

I liked what he said. He made a lot of sense and hit on a few good points. Marconi for example took over GEC and eventually bankrupted itself. Why? Because the original British business thinking of investing from profits has all but gone. Nowadays companies borrow to invest, merge, expand and very rarely – probably due to shareholder fear – use profits to acquire growth. If you borrow, profits (on paper) remain high…as does shareholder confidence.

Although he still firmly believes that this country is great (he does have experience to show how great a country it is – the clubbing together to rebuild after devastation etc) I disagree with his overall conclusion.

UK is in a bad way. It is focused only on short term goals and financial records that keep the world happy knowing that the UK is a safe bet.

Take the police force for example. In the last 7 days two teenage boys have been knifed to death (unrelated stories). One is very close to home in my own city. At a house party, there was a disagreement that resulted in one youth stabbing another some 12 times, of which two blows where to the head. The young man, 16 (or 17) died. What a waste. So why the knife? What happened to a bit of fisticuffs and coat off rooks that gave, at most, a black eye or broken nose?

I blame it on the Police – and not in a vindicitive way but more in a astonished ‘I can’t believe how misguided you are’ type of way.

I drove through the Mersey tunnel yesterday, around 2pm. There was a police officer standing on every toll telling, randomly, drivers to pull into a cordoned off area for inspection. I wasn’t asked to pull over but as I passed the inspection area there were 5 police cars and approx 15 other officers inspecting vehicles and drivers.

Later that evening, there where police cars and patrols everywhere in what is dubbed the ‘ring of steel’.

I asked a friend, who happens to be a police office, what it was all about and he said that it was a money making initiative to catch drivers with no insurance, speeding, bald tyres, no tax etc…in order to give on the spot fines to raise capital. This outraged me. Yes, unlawful driving needs to be punished – but to this extent? An extent where we allow valuable police resource to seek out offences against the Road Traffic Act rather than come across them when on patrol? What happened to the police officer sitting in a lay by and catching the occasional bad driver as he speeds past?

Instead, they spend time, money and other resources stopping vehicles in the hope to be able to fine motorists whilst kids are carrying knives, drug use is (to my mind and experience) at an all time high and street crime is worsening by the day. I’m only 28 but I can remember when a stabbing was top news and probably would feature on Crime Watch. It is, sadly, almost common place now and the news at ten doesn’t hardly feature it (unless some government official is using it as ammunition to get elected).

Next point on the sinking of the country…

Benefits.
Oh yes, everyone workers favourite excuse for having a pop at the government over tax. Us workers also have the regular pop at the lazy sods who sponge off the state and can’t be bothered to look for work. I agree. There are thousands of lazy, idle good for nothings out there who care for nothing but themselves. But there are many more who would want to work (even if it was just for the social aspect of work) but simply can’t afford to go back. As a case study, take my girlfriend of 6 months. She doesn’t work , is a ‘single’ mum and in receipt of benefits. Not only does she get cash in her hand from the state but she also doesn’t have to pay council tax, rent, school fees and sometimes is given extra money for uniforms and decorating. She has a newly fitted bathroom, kitchen and UPVC windows.

At first, when the relationship dust had settled and we wanted to take things a bit more seriously, I was of the same opinion as many working families – these benefit happy people are just sponging. Now however, I have a different view point and I don’t blame the recipients but do the government.

For example. My girlfriends rent would be £57 per week. Council tax £97 per month. School Dinners are £11 per week, after school club (school finishes before office hours do) £14 per week. Food, Gas, Electric, travel and clothes all have to be paid for. Dental treatment and prescription have to be included.

So I took it upon myself to work out what an average month for her would cost if she paid for it.

She visits the dentist once a month (she lost calcium when pregnant). That’s an average of £48 per month.

She averages one to two prescriptions per month (worse case) approx £13 per month.

Travel to a job would be £3 a day (bus ticket) – that’s £66 a month (22 working day month)

Son’s school dinners £44 a month
Son’s school snack money £10 a month
Son’s after school club (when in full time, currently only half days) £56 a month.
Son’s crèche fees (half days until end of September) approx £200 a month (that’s an estimate on what other Mum’s pay).

Her food bill is £250-300 per month
Her rent is £228 per month
Council tax £97 per month (with discount as single adult)
Gas is £35 per month
Electricity is £35 per month
Water is £36 per month

So, I am assuming that if she returned to work she would get an average UK salary of approx £21,000 – or, monthly nett (after tax) of £1347.50 per month (Assuming no contributions to pensions etc).

Her monthly bills would come to: £1168 leaving £179.50 per month disposable income.

You could argue that this is a fair amount of disposable income for one person to have per month…perhaps.

Lets take a different stance. When she left work (for the Job Centre) she was earning a whopping £13,000 per year. Or, to keep in the format above, that’s £834.17 per month after tax.

Using the expense figures above – that’s a monthly loss of £333.83

She may get somewhere in between (her friend who is still working in the same department earns £17,000). This would give her a monthly income of £1090.83…a loss of £77.17 per month.

I think I am proving my point here. Its not worth her going back to work to make a monthly loss. (which will increase with the current rising cost of living).

Back to the original point…the country sinking? Perhaps its not sunk, but the bung is definitely lifted out every now and then by the current leadership…a point raised by the elderly gentleman who ‘phoned in’…

 

Being Single – good or bad…

Last christmas i came out of a long relationship with a partner that barring marriage, I had done most things with. She is very good looking and I fancied the rocks off her but, after eight years, it just wasn’t working. We had become almost too close and it was very difficult to be intimate. Often taking each other for granted, we started to miss the important things that mould a relationship – the real caring, give and take, emotional help and romance. It was easy to ignore it and just ‘exist’ as a seemingly good (for each other) couple. Under the surface though, for about 2 years, it just wasn’t working and we knew it without being able to be honest enough to face and admit it. We knew, perhaps subconsicously  that it would end what appeared to be a strong relationship. Plus, we did love each other and I doubt that has even changed now! I still love her and I still want her to do well and be of good health. Eight years is a long time for a couple of young adults in their twenties.

Making the inevitable even more difficult was the fact that we had built a relationship infrastructure. A house, furniture, bills and even pets! It was much easier to let the drift happen and quietly hope for it to sort itself out than to face it head on. Sometimes I really wish we had been honest with each other and talked more…we may have sorted it out and regained our spark. But it wasn’t to be.

I really regret (its a hang up of mine) the way that i brought the relationship to an abrupt close. It was very cold and it upsets me to think how I did it. I loved her and on that day, I know I broke her heart in a big way but I couldn’t see my future and that really worried me.

How could I be in love with someone when I couldn’t see the future!? Or was it that I didn’t want to see the future? I don’t know – and I’m not sure that I ever will know but I still very much regret my actions on that decisive day.

I was in denial for many days, weeks afterwards. I couldn’t speak to her with feeling awkward and I couldn’t give her the time to talk it through. I was lost and it proved to be deadly as far as my relationship was concerned.  There is only so much time someone will wait to here something that they might not want to hear.

We actually had an agreement to leave things for a month and see how we got on away from each other. She was certain that I would live  a single life and go out on the pull. This was the furthest thing from my mind, i wanted a break to clear my head and gather my thoughts. I definitely did not want more women in my life (even if it was just for one night). Despite me trying to reassure her that this was never my intention, her own mind was not convinced and probable in a bid to make sure she wasn’t left out, she slept with someone (one night stand). She didn’t tell me, my Sister and Mother did. Although I had an idea because she changed her view about our relationship break after that point and seemed used to the idea that it was over. When I found out, it hurt. Really hurt. I felt like my heart had been grabbed by both of her hands and squeezed so tightly that it could not pump my blood around anymore. Numb is an understatement.

I was not angry though, just very sad, after all I had sort of forced the issue and really left her with little choice. I had in fact made her feel a little worthless and unwanted and this was never meant to be the case. I really regret that and I would love some how to make up for it but I doubt she’d ever let me. She wasn’t (isn’t) worthless and she certainly wasn’t unwanted. I struggled with knowing how to deal with my feelings and how to progress a break down in communications…the result, I messed up.

Being single has had its benefits. I’ve met a lot of girls in the eight months that we have been apart and with some of my friend’s help, I have become a much stronger and confident person and I am proud of my achievements. I just sometimes wish that she was there still to see and appreciate the changes because I know she’d be happy for me and I know that the relationship would have been better as a result of my newly found confidence.

As a single bloke, I have enjoyed myself. I have experienced the immense highs of meeting new girls, swapping numbers and joining the ‘game’ that all singles play to iron out the creases and see which, if any, are good from the pool of bad! I have dated every size and shape, every level of intelligence, married, nutty, strange, gorgeous, ugly blonde, brunette – I’ve tried my hand at everything. Every girl though, regardless of how far things progressed, has been subconsciously compared..and failed. It’s most certainly a hang up of mine. Even girl ‘friends’ aren’t in the same league but that makes it easier for me to not fancy them and spoil friendships that could mean a lot to me in the future.

So I suppose I am trying to argue a point for both sides of the fence. I often convince myself that I made the right decision – and I did. The statement made to end the relationship was overdue but I presented it all wrong and I then messed up the negotiations – terminal failure. I often convince myself that I made the wrong decision and that I need to get her back.

The only thing I know for certain is that, some months on, I am really still unsure – even if I don’t have choices anymore.

In conclusion, I promise myself one thing…I’ll never say never because you really don’t know what is around the corner.

 

 

 

 

Gosh…are you all as Selfish as Me?

Society prides itself on being altruistic. The higher members are often placed in positions that allow them to help the other members of their community by ‘putting’ something back in. Take your local councillor for example. He/She campaigns all year round and tells you the things you like to hear regarding that road improvement or your quarm about your bin not being emptied every week…he/she makes promises about improving your society as long as you vote him in. Good times?
I often get newsletters from the many different politic parties in my area fighting for that one seat in the local council. Each promise bigger and better things that we currently have, each promise many improvements and great investment to preserve the infrastructure that we have already spent many a year and bead of sweat to put in place. Interesting and often thought provoking is the one sentence/phrase/pledge that ALL councillors (or prospective councillors) use to convince themselves (and their constituents) as to why they are putting themselves forward for expenses, salary…er.. I mean election; is this:

‘I really want to put something back in to my community’

This is heart warming. Somebody, from the neighbourhood like me, wants to give up his time to make things better. Yeah right. Call me cynical (and if you’ve ever read any of my other posts you probably already have me down as a cynic!) but I read the above statement as actually saying:

‘I think I’ve taken too much from my community and I need to give it back’…or even worse ‘I failed in my job and never made that management position, this is my chance to prove to myself (and my bosses) that I can do it’…

Either reason (if not usually for both), the candidate really couldn’t give a toss about the actual concerns of the community. Their motives for trying to win election is based more on personal greed and want than a genuine concern for the councillors neighbours.

Councillors are after the position of strength, a place where they are considered to have power and authority. A position where they can influence things that matter to them (and not ‘us’). It’s a seemingly altruistic job that really encourages selfishness.

Lets take another civil servant role…the police officer.

Doing it for the good of the people…I don’t think so. Its more for the good of their own pocket (ask the North Wales police commissioner why he sets so many speed traps!). Have you ever called a Police officer out in the UK? I had my car broken into about 3 years ago. The police didn’t even show up but promised to send a Crime Scene Investigator to exam the vehicle. I was told not to touch anything. The car was on my driveway the whole time. One week passed and I received a letter saying that the CSI had visited and the evidence was inconclusive. When did he visit? If he (or she for all you overly politically correct numbnuts out there) joined the forces to help society, why did he not come? Why do the police officers who pull you over on the street have attitudes (if its just a ‘routine’ stop check?)…Its all about the personal career.

I am no different. I do a fairly important job within my team – a team who I am very fond of. That hasn’t stopped me dropping them like a stone for a better offer

And please don’t read that last sentence in horror… or comment ‘why would you do that if you love it so much’ because, and excuse my language, that moralistic view is a load of old bollocks.

We all move on when we think that we have a better offer…end of. Ask Cristiano Ronaldo!

 

Criminal Misjustice?!

Okay, so here is the next instalment of my attempt at proving my hypothesis.

Criminals! Why does anybody actually commit crime when there are clear incentives not to do so (prison, death penalties, fines).
Lets take a heavy drug user who has already spent his allowance on his addiction. Unfortunately for him, the allowance did not purchase enough to satisfy his ever growing habit. As a result the addict is faced with two options; 1 do not take any more drugs until the next allowance and go through a certain amount of suffering and craving or 2, find some more funds to purchase more substances and stop the cravings.

Choosing option 2 means getting a job (which is very difficult due to his addiction and painful because it removes his current freedom) or committing a series of crimes to help pay. The easiest choice is to commit crime – it doesn’t hurt him (only the victim is hurt) and its relatively easy to do provided that you have the right (or wrong) frame of mind.

Stealing, mugging or dealing drugs are crimes that bring in quick cash. All three are readily available occupations to anybody who wants them but they have clear incentives to keep you away. The incentive for not committing crime is freedom and life within a good, stable society.

The addict weighs up, probably subconsciously, the option of committing a crime. He looks at each crime, the benefit of committing it and the pitfall of the penalty should he be caught. Stealing is the easiest option – its almost guilt free because you don’t have to see the person who owns the property and the items you take are normally easy to move on.

If he gets caught and sent to prison (in the UK), then at most he will get a couple of months prison but may only get a small fine (in comparison to his profits) or community service.

The point here is that the drug addict has taken on rational thought/reasoning to satisfy an apparent irrational behaviour (the urge to take more life threatening/worsening drugs). He has chosen to commit crime because the gain is good and there is not enough incentive for him not to do this. It’s made to easy and the benefits far outweigh the punishments that he is likely to receive.

So further questions raised…does crime pay? Are punishments really that weak that its more beneficial to commit ‘petty’ crimes? Could we make getting a job more attractive?

One thing we do know…(for the conspiracy theorists)…it keeps police officers, judges and law firms in a job!

 

Selfishness – right or wrong?

After Yesterday’s blog, I decided to direct my thoughts at why the guy who organises our weekly 5-a-side games fixing the teams. Okay, he almost always puts himself on the stronger team in a bid to ensure that he wins but is winning the rational reason behind his bias?

Firstly, its is worth pointing out that the stronger team is sometimes ‘too strong’ and is defeated by the apparent weaker team – perhaps due to an over self confidence. Sometimes the biased organiser pts himself on the weaker team just to remove the bickering by giving himself the chance to say that he has played on the weaker team.

However, in the main, he is always on the stronger team – the team with the fitter and more skilful players. Both of which are important factors in a game of 5-a-side. Our game is supposed to be friendly as we all know each other but it never is. The Male testosterone kicks in straight away and it almost becomes as serious as the English Premier League ( I am one of the worst culprits for taking it too serious).

So perhaps the reason that pride is at stake is the only reason that the organiser places himself in the most advantageous position each game? Not really…I don’t doubt that this is part of the reason but there are other factors. As it happens, he is also rather unfit and overweight and as a result has to rely on other players to do his running. In the stronger team, the fitter players ‘carry’ or mask his underperformance and keep up his appearance as one of the better players.

I stopped at these reasons for a while. Selfish motive of not having to work as hard and keeping his pride intact lead me to believe that this is why he was always fixing the teams. There is another point to consider though. More selfishness.

He always plays in the stronger team. The stronger team nearly always consists of the same core three players – all of whom play in a local 11-a-side team and league, all of whom are avid Liverpool supporters with better than average social lives and occupations.

By being involved in the team and enjoying the regular highs of winning twice a week, the organiser is incorporating himself into a click (or circle of friends) that offers him the best possibilities currently available. He wins weekly, keeps his pride and is involved with people of similar qualities and hobbies as himself. Its not just a win situation…it’s a win win situation and again proves my point that people are selfish. Is there anything wrong with being selfish?

 

Incentives and Bribes

Despite the constant ramblings of many do-gooders within society I am still firmly of the belief that the world evolves around money, incentives and bribes, As a consequence most decisions are made with profit (or damage control) in mind. Or in other words, rationality is related to the money, financial dealings and gains.

If this is true, then I should be able to apply a rational (and therefore financial) decision to everything that everyone does. I may not be able to do this immediately but I’m certain my hypothesis can be proved.

I read an interesting article on www.ft.com by Tim Harford. He describes an experiment that shows friendship is short-lived when it comes to incentive. I am not going to regurgitate the article but it basically shows that when employees of a fruit picking farm where allowed to join teams, they all formed teams consisting of their friends. Although this was often not good for production as friends had different fruit picking performances. When incentives where applied to the amount of picking done per day (and league tables formed, the winning team receiving financial reward), the teams very quickly changed and friendship was no longer a factor. The financial incentive soon destroyed loyalty and friendship as reasons to pick the members of your team. Instead, team captains picked members based on individual picking performance.

Another example of this relates closely to me. I play 5-a-side with ten friends. Four of them are close friends, five are really just friend of friends or acquaintances. If we were to pick the teams each week based on friendship, one team would be very poor and the other would be very good. I can tell you that team picking is the biggest cause of arguments at the weekly event but it always ends up mixed. Okay there is some corruption because the guy who picks the team always places himself in the team more likely to win but that is somewhat uncontrollable. When we select ‘captains’ to pick teams, they tend to pick players based on ability and not on friendship. What I am getting at here is that the incentive to win is greater than the incentive of keeping your friends happy.

The last two paragraphs haven’t necessarily proven my hypothesis but they have told us something…friendship isn’t that valuable or at the very least, we take it for granted.

So back to the original point, Money makes the world go round. And it does.

Going back to the friendship v finance debate. We are currently experiencing a credit crunch. People are finding it a lot harder to pay for the more luxurious items. Last year, before the financial difficulties, I frequented the same pub with the same group of friends as I do now. We would all be in a round, roughly getting two rounds in each over the course of the evening. If you were lucky enough to skip your round (closing time etc) then nobody would really care. You would simply make up for it on the next occasion. Now I am experiencing more arguing and back stabbing over round buying when somebody gets lucky. Why? We are still friends and the principal of ‘making it up’ next time hasn’t changed but the attitude has. Money matters and it matters much more than some would like to admit. All of a sudden members of my drinking clan are thinking they are out of pocket because ‘little johnny’ didn’t buy his second round but I did! The mindset has changed and its gone from considering friendship as the most important aspect of the evening to spending the least amount of cash.

By now I hope that you have read the title of this post. Incentive and bribes. I have solely related them to money but they are in fact related to everything and perhaps it is not Money that makes our world spin but it is selfishness instead.

The fruit pickers dropped their dependable friends for better fruit pickers

The team captain picks his team to increase his chances of winning – friends included or not

Rounds in a pub, the person who misses out is better off and that annoys people – because its not fair? No, the round dodger just has more money to show for the same end result. Ouch!

We may make many of these rational decisions subconsciously but all said and done, our programming causes us to be selfish and look out for ourselves only. Money is not a cause of selfishness but is a visible symptom. 

 

 

Rational Marriage?..perhaps

Okay, Okay…the last post was written because I can’t see the rational side to getting married. I still can’t (fully) but I have had the insight of many of my colleagues and other posts on these types of site.

You have to give me some credit here, I’m simply not a conformist unlike most. I’m not a conformist unless there are clear incentives to be one – for example speeding…I will conform because the incentive to keep me within the limit is that I will not receive a speeding ticket and a £60 fine. By conforming I will have the hard earned cash to spend on something else – like partying.

To me marriage is difficult to put any real belief into because so many fail. Its also a undertaking by the masses because it’s the ‘right thing to do’. So many before us, so many after us and its seen as one of those milestones in your personal development that really stamps your presence in adulthood. I’ve often pondered my unwillingness to fall into societies norms but I justify my opinion by proclaiming that I am just different. I also like to self proclaim that I think outside of the box and there aren’t enough other people like me in the world. Furthermore, I can justify my lack of falling into societal definition by showing that those who don’t conform are often those that change the way we think.

We almost always talk about marriage as though it is elective but the simple fact is, it is a social construction that has been reinforced time and again. A construction that is thrust upon us by those who have invested into the institution and wish it to succeed to prove that the correct decisions have been made. The fact is, I don’t believe in marriage any more than I believe in paying more for fair-trade goods, shaving my face in the morning or admiring thin people – they are all just driven, overrated society models that are supported by the many. Traditions that are absorbed as ‘right’ because it is what society is doing (or certainly my society!).

Returning to my quandary regarding the rationality of marriage. I am now thinking that the idea of marriage is not just to keep your female (or male) companion happy and throw an overly expensive party (with everyone you know freeloading)but its also a way of being accepted in society and appearing to be ‘of good moral fibre’.

So, basically put, marriage does in fact (emotion aside) involve a (perhaps subconscious) rational decision. When two people decide to get married and blow the savings account or borrow a loan, they are also making the decision to conform and be able to write their name as Mr & Mrs. All for the benefit of society seeing this single statement as a strong, plausible gesture as to your belief in contributing to your society. Something which, to the masses, is very important – as important as lobbying for those road crossings! Its also like the voluntary excess on your car insurance. Society is as equally blind to your personality and potential contribution to the cause as and insurer is to your ability to drive. The excess system is a way to gain an insight into whether or not you are a competent driver. If you set a high excess, this tells the insurer that you are willing to pay more out of your own pocket if you crash – you set it high because you are not likely to crash and are a good driver. (Therefore the insurer lowers your premium). If you set your excess low, it tells the insurer that you are only prepared to stick your neck out for a small amount because you don’t have the same faith in your driving ability and the premium raises to reflect this. In marriage, when society is scoping you out to see if you fit in, marriage suggests conformity – just like higher excesses.

Marriage is a hidden message to society that you are one of the good families. ‘You can trust us, we do all the right things’ and that to some people is incentive enough to call the decision rational.

 

Weddings?!

In my life (my personal thoughts) I always try to put a rational reasoning to what I observe and hear – even when something may seem completely irrational at first.

Take Weddings for example. In 2008, when there are such things as common law partners and thousands (if not millions) of people live together with out the need of legal contract, why do people bother getting married?

Marriage ceremony and frills last all of one day. Everyone in your family and circle of friends gets together and free loads. The end result, you have entered a legally binding contract and…like most contracts, it has cost you some serious amount of CASH. A wedding costs, in the UK, somewhere around £10-£20k (Unless your Wayne Rooney and have a bossy wife who wants to spend Millions!). Considering this cost and comparing it to the average national salary of approx £22k per annum, it appears a few irrational decisions have been made toward the planning of such an event..!?

One days excitement for £20k? It doesn’t make sense…?  Also, we are in a today world and things change. There are more divorces now than ever before because people no longer put up and shut up. Divorce = contractual termination = expense and, in many cases heartache and pain.

So again, why go to the delibrate trouble of signing a contract of “all that I can give, I give to you?” If really, we will never give anything because our selfish programming tells us otherwise? And, regardless of people’s moral stand point on Money – it makes the world go round and is the reason that many a man trys to hide his assets before telling the wife he wants a divorce!

I can normally see the rational side to all things – like the reason the local council estate, with a busy main road running through it has hardly any zebra crossings but the more affluent area one mile away, with a far less busier road has several?! Its because on the estate, people come and go…rent on short term and leave – therefore there is no vested interest in lobbying the local council to put a crossing in because by the time its installed, they wont be there to benefit. In the richer area, the people have purchased property and are going to stay – its therefore worth their time to lobby and argue for the crossing..a seemingly irrational situation is actually rational…but weddings?!

If someone can help me with this, please…enlighten me. I am not shooting down the emotional purpose surrounding marriage. Its important but not as important as the logic of life – which is to, sorry to say, look after ones self.

 

Decisions, decisions, dismay and excitement

Well, tomorrow sees the start of the English premier league. As an Evertonian I am not overally excited about it. We have signed nobody, let players go and there are problems behind the scenes. Its not a great time for Everton Football Club. But, I’ll still be there, cheering them on and backing the lads to hopefully notch up 3 points on the board.

I have made the decision about my dilemma. I’m going to take the new job. I would rather be an IT professional than a HSE professional and i have some good reasons for this. One, I work for a great company and having IT on the C.V. (Resume to you yankees!) looks great when its coupled with the name of a large oil corporation. Also, the HSE area is bound to go through a resourcing plan soon and I can imagine that alot of roles will be shipped out to Malaysia or similar. So is it time to jump ship?

So basically put, I’m outta here!

 

Dilemma? Really?

As you may have read from my first post, i have recently been offered a job within the same company but in the IT community. The company I work for is one of the largest in the world.

The current job i really like. I like the people I work with, the office i work at and most of the time the acutal work is fun too. The Job i applied for (and have been offered) is in an area that I would like to expand my career, its a promotion and its more corporate than my current role.

So here’s the dilemma…my current boss is trying to pt together a package that changes my current job (to be more inline with IT) and also offers a better remuneration package. He is hopeful that by doing this i will stay and he will not lose my knowledge and experience. Should he tailor the package, it would be very similar to the job i applied for but just not within the IT community directly.

So…technically i have a dilemma..or more to the point, the opposite. Dilemma is defined as having a choice to make between two equally bad options. Neither of my options are particularly bad…so is it really a dilemma?

I have asked others what they would do but most give their answer based on selfish opinion…either they are jealous (and dont want me to progress) or they have other personal reasons to not want me to go (or to go)…

What would you do…

Same pay deal (promotion, pay rise).
One job would mean commuting, the other allows me to stay where I am.
New job has a structure career path, Current (restructured) job has no set deliverables as it would be a new position…
New job exposes me to a wider company network and a more corporate environment, current job is very comfortable and in a nice environment where everyone nearly always gets on…

Dilemma…dilemma…what would you do?