a) When I joined it seemed like a genuinely interesting and good place to work. I joined leaving somewhere worse; and at first it was a great place to work. I

a) When I joined it seemed like a genuinely interesting and good place to work. I joined leaving somewhere worse; and at first it was a great place to work. I did not even think of asking "does this job offer telecommuting?", as I never telecommuted in the past. I had only been out of school for a year, and the company had a lot of cool things going for it, like beer Friday meetings and an office in the "hip" part of town. b) I was trying to find another job. It just happened that I got fired before I could find one, this was also happening at the height of the recession and in my neck of the woods the opportunities were slim. It worked out really well in the end. We had our first child that year, and I got to spend 3 months with my family before finding a much better paying job that had a healthier environment. Sometimes leaving one job is the only way to get a raise.