So, I've recently been headhunted directly by the owner of a small but successful business offering managed services and internet services to other businesses, some quite large compared to the MSP themselves. I'd be taken on as a lead technical resource, working on a mix of internal and external projects, as well as support escalations. Working hours are typical office hours, the commute is currently 11 miles (each way), but will only be 3~ miles (each way) when we finally move house (hopefully before Christmas, but anything involving houses, probate, solicitors, etc takes an age). There is scope to flexibly WFH once probation is completed, likely 3 days a week.
My current role is titled "IT Operations Manager", however I only people manage two individuals and am still very hands-on myself, probably a split of 60/20/20 between hands-on/management/other stuff. The managerial parts of my role are my least enjoyable aspects of the job. There's also a demand on myself to be someone that does MI reporting for support stats, platform up-time, etc which is a tedious, manual and time-consuming process, I typically end up having to do this in my own time as there aren't enough hours in the day. Finally I've also got to play a leading role in attaining and re-certifying our various accreditation such as ISO27001, ISO22301, and PCI-DSS, there is no buy-in from the business as a whole for this, as such this is also incredibly time-consuming. Hours of work are in a shift-pattern of 7:30-15:30, 8:30-16:30 and 10:00:18:00 (I'm happy to do the first two, the late shift is problematic both from a family perspective, but also a parking one, arrive at the business park after 9am and you can't park, it isn't happening). My commute is 16 miles (each way) currently, and will be 20 miles (each way) once we move. WFH is limited to one member of the team at a time (two in exceptional circumstance), and is typically reserved for the guy doing the 10-6 shift due to the parking situation.
It's also quite plain that I don't see eye-to-eye with my direct line manager (Head of IT), though really do get on with HIS line manager (and my exec) the Chief Operating Officer. I get the feeling that my line manager doesn't really want me in the role I'm in.
I guess this debate sounds a little one-sided already as my language seems to suggest a lot of disdain for my current employer, however it's complicated:
When I started with my current employer back in Feb 2020, I had to re-structure the team (originally comprising of 3 first-line tech, and one first-line tech who was also the service-desk manager, all of their 2nd/3rd line support came from an utterly terrible third-party who were fleecing them for huge sums of money and providing them with antiquated solutions to technical problems... 4 file servers, all physical, no resilience or redundancy... awful). So I ended up bringing in a previous employee of mine whom I trust completely, know he's an excellent tech, and am also great friends with, we made 2 of the techs redundant (they were "lifers" with no ambition to be anything more than 1st line support), and moved the service-desk manager over to be a project manager (not my decision here, I wanted to keep the service desk manager in her role), the final first-line tech we retained as he was a quick learner and a willing and happy guy. I'd also wanted to take on either an application support role or a 2nd line tech.
The first line guy has been a trooper, basically one-man-banding the service desk 75% of the time whilst myself and my lead tech got on with the job of replacing the entire aging and physical infrastructure with a hybrid-cloud infrastructure (long story, can't go full cloud in one step as the board and shareholders are mainly OAPs and are petrified of going "cloud"). Needless to say this finally got a bit grating, as whilst he was being exposed to the project work at hand and thus learning, he felt that the situation was unfair, which it was, had I got my wish for either an application support guy or another tech, the workload would have been drastically reduced, but I simply could not get the budget. The first line guy ended up interviewing elsewhere whilst I was off on paternity leave, and the IT director fought back with a counter-offer, making it plain that changes WOULD be coming. The first line guy stayed on the proviso that he would re-evaluate in 6-8 months, and made it clear that he was only staying because he enjoyed working alongside myself and the lead tech, we've built up a good rapport in the team.
My lead tech, I'd feel incredibly guilty for leaving behind, though I know he would continue to do a great job.
I've still got a lot I can technically accomplish here and certainly don't feel like my job is done. I've been in that situation before, knowing that I've done all I can and am simply becoming part of the furniture, but I can see and feel that this isn't even close yet.
I realise I've not mentioned the salary difference between the two roles, but I'd be looking at around a 12% uplift in base, with the bonus scheme being 10% of salary in both cases. The pension is worse at the new role (3% contribution at the new role, 5% contribution at the old), as are the benefits (that I tend not to use anyway). PMI seems to be similar in both situations.
I'm at a loss of what to do, I usually say that if someone starts looking to leave, then it's only a matter of time anyway, but I wasn't "looking" per-say, I was contacted, though the fact that I took the opportunity to go speak with them perhaps says something. Moving would allow me to spend slightly more time with the wife and kids, but it's not an earth-shattering difference, maybe an hour a day at most. Staying would involve me convincing the business to make a step-change in how some things are done, as well as finally getting that application support role I need, but it's not escaped my thoughts that I'm currently expected to do more (as well as have more responsibility) for less.
One final thought is that I've never worked for an MSP, and having spoken with friends and colleagues across the years, some love it, some hate it. I'm really not sure what camp I'd be in.
My current role is titled "IT Operations Manager", however I only people manage two individuals and am still very hands-on myself, probably a split of 60/20/20 between hands-on/management/other stuff. The managerial parts of my role are my least enjoyable aspects of the job. There's also a demand on myself to be someone that does MI reporting for support stats, platform up-time, etc which is a tedious, manual and time-consuming process, I typically end up having to do this in my own time as there aren't enough hours in the day. Finally I've also got to play a leading role in attaining and re-certifying our various accreditation such as ISO27001, ISO22301, and PCI-DSS, there is no buy-in from the business as a whole for this, as such this is also incredibly time-consuming. Hours of work are in a shift-pattern of 7:30-15:30, 8:30-16:30 and 10:00:18:00 (I'm happy to do the first two, the late shift is problematic both from a family perspective, but also a parking one, arrive at the business park after 9am and you can't park, it isn't happening). My commute is 16 miles (each way) currently, and will be 20 miles (each way) once we move. WFH is limited to one member of the team at a time (two in exceptional circumstance), and is typically reserved for the guy doing the 10-6 shift due to the parking situation.
It's also quite plain that I don't see eye-to-eye with my direct line manager (Head of IT), though really do get on with HIS line manager (and my exec) the Chief Operating Officer. I get the feeling that my line manager doesn't really want me in the role I'm in.
I guess this debate sounds a little one-sided already as my language seems to suggest a lot of disdain for my current employer, however it's complicated:
When I started with my current employer back in Feb 2020, I had to re-structure the team (originally comprising of 3 first-line tech, and one first-line tech who was also the service-desk manager, all of their 2nd/3rd line support came from an utterly terrible third-party who were fleecing them for huge sums of money and providing them with antiquated solutions to technical problems... 4 file servers, all physical, no resilience or redundancy... awful). So I ended up bringing in a previous employee of mine whom I trust completely, know he's an excellent tech, and am also great friends with, we made 2 of the techs redundant (they were "lifers" with no ambition to be anything more than 1st line support), and moved the service-desk manager over to be a project manager (not my decision here, I wanted to keep the service desk manager in her role), the final first-line tech we retained as he was a quick learner and a willing and happy guy. I'd also wanted to take on either an application support role or a 2nd line tech.
The first line guy has been a trooper, basically one-man-banding the service desk 75% of the time whilst myself and my lead tech got on with the job of replacing the entire aging and physical infrastructure with a hybrid-cloud infrastructure (long story, can't go full cloud in one step as the board and shareholders are mainly OAPs and are petrified of going "cloud"). Needless to say this finally got a bit grating, as whilst he was being exposed to the project work at hand and thus learning, he felt that the situation was unfair, which it was, had I got my wish for either an application support guy or another tech, the workload would have been drastically reduced, but I simply could not get the budget. The first line guy ended up interviewing elsewhere whilst I was off on paternity leave, and the IT director fought back with a counter-offer, making it plain that changes WOULD be coming. The first line guy stayed on the proviso that he would re-evaluate in 6-8 months, and made it clear that he was only staying because he enjoyed working alongside myself and the lead tech, we've built up a good rapport in the team.
My lead tech, I'd feel incredibly guilty for leaving behind, though I know he would continue to do a great job.
I've still got a lot I can technically accomplish here and certainly don't feel like my job is done. I've been in that situation before, knowing that I've done all I can and am simply becoming part of the furniture, but I can see and feel that this isn't even close yet.
I realise I've not mentioned the salary difference between the two roles, but I'd be looking at around a 12% uplift in base, with the bonus scheme being 10% of salary in both cases. The pension is worse at the new role (3% contribution at the new role, 5% contribution at the old), as are the benefits (that I tend not to use anyway). PMI seems to be similar in both situations.
I'm at a loss of what to do, I usually say that if someone starts looking to leave, then it's only a matter of time anyway, but I wasn't "looking" per-say, I was contacted, though the fact that I took the opportunity to go speak with them perhaps says something. Moving would allow me to spend slightly more time with the wife and kids, but it's not an earth-shattering difference, maybe an hour a day at most. Staying would involve me convincing the business to make a step-change in how some things are done, as well as finally getting that application support role I need, but it's not escaped my thoughts that I'm currently expected to do more (as well as have more responsibility) for less.
One final thought is that I've never worked for an MSP, and having spoken with friends and colleagues across the years, some love it, some hate it. I'm really not sure what camp I'd be in.
