<p>With happydad being out of work for 13 months, I would definitely take job B and wait and see what happens with job A. It would be different if he had offers up the wazoo or had these offers after only a few weeks of job hunting. Then you could be a bit more confident that other offers would be come along in a relatively short time frame. That doesn’t seem to be the case here.
Also job A is not a definite at this point, only a possibility on the horizon. So while I see eyemamom’s point, there is no definite plan to only work at job B temporarily. It might not work out for other reasons, totally unrelated to whether he has another pending offer.</p>
<p>There is no classy way to take B and quit it a couple of months later. </p>
<p>I understand that it takes effort and money to hire someone, and I would have been uneasy doing the suggested B to A switchover, if… I had not been on the receiving end of this as a newly hired employee. I was recruited by a certain employer, quit my current job, accepted the job offer and started my new job only to find out that the company decided to make a strategic change in its direction and to let go of the entire new division that they just hired! So my attitude towards employment is to never treat employer as “family”. </p>
<p>Oh - if I were in happydad’s shoes I’d probably do it too. Your family comes first. There is no graceful exit out of company b should company a come through. </p>
<p>" he has developed an interest in over the past couple of years"</p>
<p>I would take job B and see how it goes with job A . Because you never know he may end up loving job B and not want job A after all…</p>
<p>Yeah, I was once hired and then laid off in a mass layoff a few weeks later. Many eons ago, but really what were they thinking? I hate to say that he should take B, and leave them, but that does seem likke the wisest course.</p>
<p>Congrats to the HappyFamily Household!</p>
<p>UPDATE ***** UPDATE</p>
<p>Happydad is just off the phone with the future boss and colleagues at A. The review panel does not decide Yes or No. It decides the Grade. If the Grade is not as high as boss wants, boss will put him at step 10 in the lower grade. Everything is cool. B is off the table.</p>
<p>Woo Hoo!</p>
<p>Thanks to one and all for helping me through this, and for the congratulations. Yes, it’s been a long, long year.</p>
<p>Congrats to him! Crossing fingers for the higher grade.</p>
<p>Congrats. Fight for the higher grade. If you are at step 10, you can’t get any raises until you are promoted to the next grade, so it is better to be at a lower step in a higher grade than at 10 in a lower grade, even if the salary is the same.</p>
<p>twoinanddone is right, but it may very well be that a year at the lower grade will qualify him for the next grade, and it’s likely there is at least a minimum increase he would receive with the promotion. Congrats!</p>
<p>Excellent news!</p>
<p>Congrats to the happy family!!!</p>
<p>Congrats! I’m sure this is a tremendous relief!</p>
<p>Congrats… but as a federal manager who has hired plenty of people, I strongly suggest he make sure he has an Official job offer before turning down the other job. Ideally, something in writing, from the HR department, but at least an email with the details spelled out. If they don’t know what grade they are going to make him, it doesn’t sound solid enough to me. I don’t mean to be a downer, but I have seen things that seemed pretty sure go south.</p>