Good luck Hvert... that makes sense. You don't "have to" take the job... it's a really hard thing to believe sometimes, but it's true! When I graduated from grad school, my mom got me an interview at the company she was at.... out of state for me. I got the job, and spent a week stressing over what to do. It was awful. I realized I really didn't want to live there, didn't have a good feeling about the boss (ex-military, very strict, sort of beat me up in the negotiations) and saw some red flags in the team interview itself. But, I had no other jobs lined up, and was just scared to death.

I turned it down - and though I freaked out a little after that (!) - I still think it was an amazing thing to do for my self-esteem. To be able to say, "yeah, I need a job, but not THAT job. THAT job is NOT a good match."

So, if you feel that way too... by all means turn it down!

I am sorry that you feel like it's going to cost you the contract work though That's a bummer, and I hope maybe you can still work something out with them.

And, yeah, re: my friend - it was crazy. Thankfully she's not at this job anymore. She actually got moved to a much saner, better group that she loved - but has since taken off to be a full-time mom with her first baby. She's going to put in a good word for me with her new group, so I'm hoping that *I* can escape the insanity in our group too! I know though, I felt so bad for her when she was in our group and told me that the stress had caused her to need to be on meds. That is really terrible. But our group is really terrible!!!

Good luck!