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| "November Winds" |
(New York, Sun, Nov 16, 2003, 10:31 AM)
Change, change, change. What a strange year. First change this week was that my departure from New York, which was creeping up very quickly (can something creep quickly?), has been pushed back for the fourth time. They pleaded with me to stay longer, and I listened, and pretended to agree reluctantly. The truth is that I'd found myself suddenly feeling sad about my impending departure from New York, so I was glad to add a couple more weekends here, even though that takes me into the brrrrs of December. (We've already had some truly wintery days here, with brisk, chilly winds wooshing down the avenues. I've discovered, amongst other things, how difficult it is to operate a cell phone wearing gloves.) Now my departure is delayed a little - not by much, just by a couple of weeks.
The other large event of the week was that I was given a rather nice job offer by the guy in charge of the group I've been working for since June. It would be an internal transfer of course, but even so they'd pay for my relocation. More importantly, he promised me that he'd get me my promotion. So all of a sudden I'm faced with a huge decision, and he's only given me two weeks to make up my mind.
So I've spent the day totting up the pros and cons. For the moment, I'm assuming that if I move to the East Coast, it will be to D.C., and that I'd work from our Maryland office.
| Move to DC | Stay in SF | Weight for DC |
| Like E. Coast. Feel at home here. | Will miss beautiful San Francisco like heck. | +2 - This is important, but the East Coast vs San sco is a narrowly fought contest. |
| Cement friendships with East Coast friends. | What about all my San Francisco friends! | -4 - Close again, and also very important. I give this a greater negative score if it wasn't that I felt that at least one of my important San Francisco relationships is stuck in the mud. |
| D.C. more affordable (just) - could maybe buy a house. | Working in suburban Maryland | +2 - Narrow again. It would be nice to own a but I'd miss working in the vitality of a city. Of course, I could always chose New York instead, but then I'd be back to apartment dwelling. |
| Warm Summer evenings, warm rain, seasons! | Winter | -2 Oh Lord, this is a tough one. I loved the Summer here in New York. But I reme ow I used to hibernate through Philadelphia winters. |
| Guaranteed promotion. Good for career in other ways. After this project, my San Francisco job is going to feel sleepy. | Might get my promotion anyway. Will I miss the 30 orking week? Probably. | +5 - This is huge. I'm really going nowhere in my job in San Francisco. |
| Excitement of new life. | Starting over again at the age of 38. | -2 In some ways, I feel that I might take the opportunity merely to a change. My gut says yes, but might I regret it? |
| The high culture. | Can run outside year round. Film Arts Foundation. | +2 I'm talking quality of life here. |
| Close to Europe. | Will miss the club scene in San Francisco | +1 - No contest, but not by any means the most important factor. | <
| And the winner is ... | Move to DC. | |
Let's see, did I miss anything out? That may have been an interesting exercise, but I'm not sure it tells me what to do. In the end, it's your intuition which tells you what to do. And it's such a complex decision, because one option would be to take the job but stay in San Francisco. The problem with that is that I'd lose the opportunity to get a paid relocation. On the positive side, though, I'd get lots of frequent flier miles flying back and forth to the East Coast. Oh God, here I go again - another decision table?