I’m a nurse. I recently wrote about how I’ve discovered this job can be enjoyable, provided ratios are respected, I don’t work with gossips, micromanagers and drama queens. I also like working with doctors that explain to me how things work and as a novelty, I’ve started reading on my free time about diagnoses, procedures and medicines.
Option A: go to my new unit and do the same.
Option B: patient transporter. I’d earn the same, I wouldn’t have any boss over me telling me what to do except if I lazy around and I wouldn’t have to run as I sometimes do as a nurse. No drama of any kind (I’d be alone most of the time), ample opportunities to sit and read, drink coffee or do nothing while waiting for my next assignment, other opportunities to learn while watching procedures being done to patients.
Yes. It really is this relaxed. I shadowed already.
My old self always though a job is a job and I should aim for maximum income doing the less amount of job I can. I’m also an introvert and enjoy being alone. This second job seems to offer exactly that.
Except that I’d miss learning from the doctors that have shown an interest in teaching me and the adult nurses (the ones not acting like children, the gossips).
I really don’t understand myself. I feel I’d be dumbing myself down, but otoh earn the same I do now.
Age is also something that matters here. Are you middle-aged yet? I ended up pulling the brakes on my career to get a better work-life balance, but it ended up stunting my career trajectory a bit.
Once I had more free time and realized I wanted to earn more, I had to hustle to get back to a top-of-market position.
In short: there’s always time on the future to pivot to Option B. If there’s more value to extract where you are, milk it for all it’s worth and then exit before it goes south (as all jobs do).