I got a job offer recently, which really shouldn't upset me. It really shouldn't, but it does.
I don't know yet if it will be for more money than I make now, but it's tempting to take even if it's about the same money. It's relevant to my research area in grad school, which is nice since right now I only do web development. Web development is nice, but it's not super challenging or exciting. The job is also funded by the local university, which means it's about as stable as a job can get, short of a tenured professor or full time postal employee. It's really a good offer.
So, why am I upset?
Because the company I work for, which I've worked for for over 6 years, is going through a bit of a hiccup caused by my direct manager leaving next week. Our dev team consists of 4 people, which will soon be 3. The loss of said manager has caused some pretty severe damage to morale in the department, including for me. So, I'm scared that if I were to leave the company soon, it might cause severe damage to more than just morale. The loss of the top half of our dev team would be pretty devastating to the company, and our most junior member told me that he'd be immediately and actively seeking a job if I left.
Even worse, I spoke today with the other member of our team, who told me that he would soon be looking for a job himself because of pay issues and the loss of our manager.
So, if I leave, he might leave, and the third and last developer would probably leave soon. It is conceivable that our entire development team might walk out the door in the next few months for a variety of reasons. I honestly don't know if the company would be able to recover from that. It feels like a bit of a jump to say so, but if I leave, it could indirectly result in quite a lot of people losing their jobs or being laid off if the company starts collapsing.
One monkey doesn't run the show, but do the four of us? Kind of...
I really don't want to have that on my conscience as I try to decide if I want the other job or not.
I also really like this company, and they've been very good to me the entire time I've worked for them. It feels wrong to possibly just leave them hanging like that. But then, what happens if the others leave and the company collapses in a few months whether I'm there or not? If I pass on this job offer I won't be able to go back to it.