Those of you that went back to your old job/company, why?

I quit when my wife(mother of my four young children) passed away, I simply couldn't focus on work at all and needed to focus all my time on my kids during this time of grief. The company were quite gracious about it, and a couple years later when they needed an expert on the system they were using and could work on getting rid of it in favor of a newer better system, they called me up to see if I would come back, and I did. Stayed there another 9 years until the company was bought by a conglomerate and I was laid off due to COVID. I'm glad I got laid off, the conglomerate was like all really large companies, with zero interest in individuals, only in workers.

43

Sorry for your loss. ❤️

9

New one got bought out 3 months in and they sacked my entire department. Old one had been struggling to replace me and offered me a 20% raise to come back.

Contract is up at the end of the year, and we’ll see how things pan out then.

41

Why did you leave in the first place? And if it was money, how'd you feel when they magically came up with the extra money?

10
- I had been stagnating and wasn’t really growing my skillset, I wanted a chance to experiment. The new job was supposed to be that.
  
  9
- They said their whole department was sacked, presumably that's why they left, I guess?
  
  -1

Left because I was doing three jobs as one person. They couldn't hire a replacement with that job description (surprised Pikachu face). My new job wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, so I got hired back in a properly defined job and that's been working out fine.

29

I have a friend who left her job for greener pastures, but realized quickly that her old job was better. Her old job asked her to come back several times over the course of almost 2 years, but she didn't want to move backwards in her career, so she always declined. It wasn't until they asked her to come back with a big promotion (which meant a different boss) that she decided to come back.

So far she has been happy.

27

So she came back to a new job then ;-)

10
- Yes true! She was actually in a completely different department. But the prompt did say job or company. :)
  
  10

Hated the new one. I am glad the old one was kind enough to take me back, even if we all knew it was temporary.

15

Necessity, multiple times. I had incredible luck out of college - and by that I mean that places I worked at kept closing or getting bought out by other companies and doing major layoffs. I kept going back to my fast food job I had in college because it was better than nothing. I went back 4 separate times before I found a job that didn't close within a year.

So it wasn't exactly by choice!

11

Oof, that must have been infuriating. I know there wasn't much choice involved, but good on you for going back each time. I know a few people whose pride would have financially crippled them in that moment. Patience and persistence paid off, in the end. Congratulations on graduating :)

3
- Thank you, it was a pretty crazy experience. Too many years in college and then years afterwards just job hopping - only to end up in the most unrelated career path possible. But hey, it all worked out ok!
  
  2

Money

2