What made you happy today?

[wolfking]

I have never heard the term LBG before.  I had to google it.

[Stadler]

I guess at the end of the day you work because you need money to function in society with paying the bills, having roof over your head and food on the table, and after that maybe you can treat yourself to a vacation once a year or a new TV or something else whenever you feel you need a 'boost'. I guess for me when you start talking about working 70-80 hours a week it becomes a "what is really the point with that lifestyle?". If you need it to make ends meet then fine (though that's kinda sad you have to sacrifice so much of your life just to make the hamster wheel go around) but yeah I guess my mindset has always been that time is more valuable than money in some cases.

Heck, here in Europe they're even talking about shortening the 8-9 hour work day to 6 hours in some countries (i think they might even have started).  I know this is a separate discussion entirely but even in a 9 hour work day sometimes it feels like there's a lot of fluff you could trim and the discussions about a 6 hour work day being more efficient is something I can sort of buy. 

What if, god forbid, you actually LIKE your work?   I enjoy what I do, and I'm invested in it.  He laughed at me then (and we laugh about it now) but when I met my boss back in 2015, he asked me what my goals were, and I said "I don't want your job, I want to be the guy you go to when you have no idea what to do with something you're given".   Basically, his go-to side man.  That's what I'm cut out for, and I know it and accept it.   I understand leadership, and I can do it, but I don't have the heart in it that you need.   And I've worked up to that position; I'm basically his number two, sort of a "consigliere" of sorts, and that suits me fine.   But to do that job, I don't get to say "oh, five o'clock, going to drink wine and play PS4 now!"   It also explains how I can put so much time in here; my job isn't a set number of tasks that I burn off in eight hours each day.  I deal with problems as they arise, issues as they arise, and people as they arise.  Some weeks, there are 80 hours of problems/issues/people.  Others there is not.

My wife comes from a family of tradespeople.  They still talk in terms of "x dollars per hour".  I've tried, oh how I've tried, to get them - particularly my oldest step son - to think more in terms of salary, but it's now how he was brought up.   This is an arrogant thing to say (but I don't mean it that way) I don't think it's a coincidence that I make ballpark just about the same as my wife, her ex-husband (also an "hourly" guy), her father and my step son COMBINED. 

[Stadler]

Just from personal experience I have had guys look down on people/me not working 80 hours a week, but I could see it was more resentment that they had to and some didn't. It's what you want and need out of life I guess. I do not need to work 80 hours a week so I don't. I can complete my projects in 40-50 and doing ok with that, so someone telling me that I should work as much as them? You do you right.
I don't care how much you work, I won't get richer or poorer from that, just don't act like you are better/more productive. Ehh. Sorry, this hit a sore spot cause I just went through this the other day.  Nothing I said is to any of you. Just some people at work.
Saying all that, when shit hits the fan, of course I will work long hours and help the team, but usually I am very organized so I complete my tasks. But alot of these 80 hour guys are either milking it or just not very good at managing.
"Your lack of planning and managing is not my emergency"

Actually, I think the saying goes "Piss poor planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on my part".

Which is of course, true, unless you're the guy that is tasked with cleaning up the crisis.  I don't disagree with most of what is written, I don't disagree with the mindset, but there has to be SOME understanding in a company that not everyone works in a vacuum.   I'm thinking now about my company and how many roles are really "40 hours" and where the unfinished work can be put aside and left until Monday at 8 am, and there's not a lot.   If the company, for example, does projects for it's customers, and has deadlines, they have to be met.  My job is, in part, to handle disputes, so when we miss a deadline, it comes to me.  I'd love to be able to tell the customer or the courts that "well, sure, we missed that deadline, but you know, the weekends are the weekends and there was a NASCAR race to go to, and our lead engineer plays guitar in a band and had a gig all Saturday afternoon".  I don't think you need to be a lawyer to know that that's not an acceptable excuse for missing a contractual deadline. 

[Stadler]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

Firstly, my job entails running 3 public venues 7 days a week and 15 hours a day, so it's a necessity of my job.  Agree with Tim, probably a ME problem but yeah his comments got my back up too.  I just felt the comments were kind of taking the piss to people like myself that sometimes have to do long days and work every day to keep their business turning over.

Sure, I'd love to work 5 days a week 8 hours a day, but sometimes that perfect world just doesn't exist and you have to suck it up and do the extras sometimes when you're needed.

I'm with Bill too, I've get paid fucking well and while I've struggled with my job, I've made it my own, make my own rules, have benefits because I've worked so hard for the company.  They don't really give a shit about me, but I've kind of forced their hand and I kind of do what I want but work hard that everything is in check that I'm not scrutinized.

Maybe it was my time at GE, or maybe the company I went to after GE (around 2009, both my then-wife and I were let go within a week of each other) but I came to peace a long time ago that this is business.  My company DOESN'T really care about me, not in the way we're talking about, and I accept that.  It's not for the "happy" thread, but if I value "caring", then I need to find a company that does that.   It almost strikes me as a sort of hubris to expect million and billion dollar companies to bend to the will of one employee.

[Stadler]

Not today, but over the weekend:  I did plugs and ignition coils on my car.  The car is one of the best driving cars I've ever owned, but it was "hitching" and I was getting a 5th cylinder misfire code.   I haven't driven it far yet, but initial indications are "problem solved!".  It's the worst to have a car you WANT to drive and when you hit the gas it doesn't deliver like you hoped.  I'm happy that I think I've fixed that, for about $240 and a couple hours of my labor, plus the personal satisfaction of having done the work myself.

[Evermind]

I won't answer every post as you guys posted a lot, but just to address a few moments:

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

Firstly, my job entails running 3 public venues 7 days a week and 15 hours a day, so it's a necessity of my job.  Agree with Tim, probably a ME problem but yeah his comments got my back up too.  I just felt the comments were kind of taking the piss to people like myself that sometimes have to do long days and work every day to keep their business turning over.

I didn't feel that way at all (I'm also not taking the piss to people like you and Tim). I rather felt your and Tim's comments were a little bit passive-aggressive which is why I posted. There are people who work OT, 80 hours a week, or 7 days a week; I've got no problem with them. There are also people who work 40 hours a week and don't want OT, and it's alright in my book. Obviously people need to be flexible, but it's also a two-way street; there's got to be some compromise between the worker and the company. Which takes me to the next point:

Well, it's like anything else, isn't it?  You CAN do you, but accept/acknowledge the consequences.   Not so much now, but I worked for a company that rewarded people for working globally.  The entire world doesn't work on "8-5 eastern time, four days a week", so I would get calls almost all hours of the day.  The concept of "40 hours" was a pipe dream.  By all means set your limits, but accept them.   If you don't get that promotion, or don't get that raise, it's not because your boss blows, or the company sucks or you're being discriminated against.  It's because you made a choice to limit your contributions to that company.  Other companies may be fine with that, but that particular one might not be for you.

I agree with all that and never said anything against it. Personal example, I was promoted to a lead engineer two years ago (ironically, it happened because I got fed up with my company and gave two weeks notice) and honestly right now I think I'm at the optimal point where my salary is pretty good, yet I can manage all my projects in 40-45 hours a week. When my boss is on vacation I fill in for him and the workload there is overwhelming. I can totally see why he works OT. I do not want it (it's more of management stuff and going to meetings, and I'm inclined towards engineering work anyway) and in case he eventually goes higher up and they offer the position to me, I'm pretty sure I'm going to decline it. So yeah, not disputing your point at all.

If the company, for example, does projects for it's customers, and has deadlines, they have to be met.  My job is, in part, to handle disputes, so when we miss a deadline, it comes to me.  I'd love to be able to tell the customer or the courts that "well, sure, we missed that deadline, but you know, the weekends are the weekends and there was a NASCAR race to go to, and our lead engineer plays guitar in a band and had a gig all Saturday afternoon".

See, from my point of view this really depends on what kind of deadline it is. If the deadline is ridiculous in the beginning and basically can't be met with the amount of people allocated on the proejct (even with OT, or requires a stupidly high amount of OT in a span of few months), and I've pointed it out multiple times before we began the project and was met with "well, you've just got to do it, no way around it", then yeah, I'll leave on Friday at 3 PM sharp and go play guitar or whatever. If the deadline is a few days away and some other department institutes a written standard which requires me and the team to re-do half of the 3D models which are already good to do (this happened before), I'll also leave as soon as my working day is over. If the deadline is reasonable but we have to crunch the last two weeks? Sure, let's do this.

Look, I'm not saying OT is anathema. I just wish people who do OT stopped giving shit to people who don't, when they do good work in those 40 hours and want to spend the rest of their time doing something they prefer.

Also yeah we should move to another thread for sure.

[cramx3]

Add me to the group of people who sees how much their boss works and says "nah" (and have stated this many times to my boss).  I don't make enough money to brag about, but I make enough to live a comfortable life and to me, that is more important than being a slave to the work grind.  I do think there's lots of positives of working OT.  I work a good amount myself, but I do have my limits.

[lordxizor]

Maybe it's my industry as a whole (medical device) or just all the places I've worked. But I've never been anywhere that expected more than 40 hours a week on a regular basis or to be available at all times. I put in an extra half hour to an hour once every few weeks when something comes up. Even if I wanted to put in extra hours on a regular basis I'd struggle to find work to do after a while. Putting in long hours has just never been the culture of the places I've worked. And that's been exactly what I've wanted. If I felt the need to put in 12 hours of productive work every day, I could easily find 4 hours of work to do around the house and it would likely be more fulfilling than time at the office.

[wolfking]

I didn't feel that way at all (I'm also not taking the piss to people like you and Tim). I rather felt your and Tim's comments were a little bit passive-aggressive which is why I posted. There are people who work OT, 80 hours a week, or 7 days a week; I've got no problem with them. There are also people who work 40 hours a week and don't want OT, and it's alright in my book. Obviously people need to be flexible, but it's also a two-way street; there's got to be some compromise between the worker and the company. Which takes me to the next point:

Firstly, Tim and I are both dicks, we know that.  And second however, we both kind of backtracked and said it was an US problem and commended Zantera for taking our comments on the chin.

Okay, again, it's a me problem the way I took his comments, obviously I have work issues, but I think both of us were coming from the perspective (I know I was) that people sell themselves short in what they are capable of.  I see someone say they can't handle the mental stress of 6 days of work, well.........you kind of can if you dig deeper within yourself.  His comments came across as being soft when I don't know him, but I'm sure he's tougher than that.

My big weeks over the years has been nothing to do with the company.  I had a mindset that I had to do what I needed to do but I turned it into a personal challenge.  How far and how much can I do and still keep going while performing.  I've grown immense mental toughness doing what I do and the amount of work and responsibility I've taken on.  It's been challenged lately but my point is that's fine if people just stick to the regular working week, if they can great, that's normal, but Zantera I'm sure could do more easily.  It's not about not wanting to, it's about pushing past that mental barrier.  As a leader at work, I've gotten a lot out of people they never knew was in there and they've surprised themselves.   

So, again, a me thing, and I have a different perspective at times.

[TAC]

Firstly, Tim and I are both dicks, we know that. 

  

[wolfking]

I guess at the end of the day you work because you need money to function in society with paying the bills, having roof over your head and food on the table, and after that maybe you can treat yourself to a vacation once a year or a new TV or something else whenever you feel you need a 'boost'. I guess for me when you start talking about working 70-80 hours a week it becomes a "what is really the point with that lifestyle?". If you need it to make ends meet then fine (though that's kinda sad you have to sacrifice so much of your life just to make the hamster wheel go around) but yeah I guess my mindset has always been that time is more valuable than money in some cases.

Heck, here in Europe they're even talking about shortening the 8-9 hour work day to 6 hours in some countries (i think they might even have started).  I know this is a separate discussion entirely but even in a 9 hour work day sometimes it feels like there's a lot of fluff you could trim and the discussions about a 6 hour work day being more efficient is something I can sort of buy. 

What if, god forbid, you actually LIKE your work?   I enjoy what I do, and I'm invested in it.  He laughed at me then (and we laugh about it now) but when I met my boss back in 2015, he asked me what my goals were, and I said "I don't want your job, I want to be the guy you go to when you have no idea what to do with something you're given".   Basically, his go-to side man.  That's what I'm cut out for, and I know it and accept it.   I understand leadership, and I can do it, but I don't have the heart in it that you need.   And I've worked up to that position; I'm basically his number two, sort of a "consigliere" of sorts, and that suits me fine.   But to do that job, I don't get to say "oh, five o'clock, going to drink wine and play PS4 now!"   It also explains how I can put so much time in here; my job isn't a set number of tasks that I burn off in eight hours each day.  I deal with problems as they arise, issues as they arise, and people as they arise.  Some weeks, there are 80 hours of problems/issues/people.  Others there is not.

My wife comes from a family of tradespeople.  They still talk in terms of "x dollars per hour".  I've tried, oh how I've tried, to get them - particularly my oldest step son - to think more in terms of salary, but it's now how he was brought up.   This is an arrogant thing to say (but I don't mean it that way) I don't think it's a coincidence that I make ballpark just about the same as my wife, her ex-husband (also an "hourly" guy), her father and my step son COMBINED.

That's the kicker isn't it.  I've struggled at times with the politics at work but clearly I'm invested in my role giving as much as I do and have been for years.  Personally, I'd rather give 70-80 hours a week in a place I enjoy and feel comfortable going to, having so much influence and delivering outcomes then working half that, dreading going in on the weekend and watching the clock for 5pm to race out of there.  I feel the latter situation would be more damaging to mental health.

[KevShmev]

What if, god forbid, you actually LIKE your work?   I enjoy what I do, and I'm invested in it.  He laughed at me then (and we laugh about it now) but when I met my boss back in 2015, he asked me what my goals were, and I said "I don't want your job, I want to be the guy you go to when you have no idea what to do with something you're given".   Basically, his go-to side man.  That's what I'm cut out for, and I know it and accept it.   I understand leadership, and I can do it, but I don't have the heart in it that you need.   And I've worked up to that position; I'm basically his number two, sort of a "consigliere" of sorts, and that suits me fine.   But to do that job, I don't get to say "oh, five o'clock, going to drink wine and play PS4 now!"   It also explains how I can put so much time in here; my job isn't a set number of tasks that I burn off in eight hours each day.  I deal with problems as they arise, issues as they arise, and people as they arise.  Some weeks, there are 80 hours of problems/issues/people.  Others there is not.

My wife comes from a family of tradespeople.  They still talk in terms of "x dollars per hour".  I've tried, oh how I've tried, to get them - particularly my oldest step son - to think more in terms of salary, but it's now how he was brought up.   This is an arrogant thing to say (but I don't mean it that way) I don't think it's a coincidence that I make ballpark just about the same as my wife, her ex-husband (also an "hourly" guy), her father and my step son COMBINED.

The guy I work next to and back up at work (and vice versa) is definitely of the "once I leave work, I shut it down until I am back in the office."  I am not, although I am not one of those people who is glued to my phone always checking work emails for problems to fix after hours. I will check here and there and jump in to assist if and when needed, but I stopped turning in my cell phone bill to work a while back because the expectation was, "if we are paying for your cell phone, then we expect any emails you get after hours to be answered promptly," and I found that too stressful, so I stopped turning it in.  I still check, as I said above, but just knowing that I don't have to all the time relieves quite a bit of stress.  And I definitely do not look an hour or two before going to bed anymore since if there is a major issue that I know will have to be attended to first thing in the morning, I do not want to stress myself out thinking about it before I go to sleep (as that can sometimes interfere with my ability to fall asleep). The problem will still be there in the a.m., but if I do not know about it until then, no harm, no foul.

[wolfking]

What if, god forbid, you actually LIKE your work?   I enjoy what I do, and I'm invested in it.  He laughed at me then (and we laugh about it now) but when I met my boss back in 2015, he asked me what my goals were, and I said "I don't want your job, I want to be the guy you go to when you have no idea what to do with something you're given".   Basically, his go-to side man.  That's what I'm cut out for, and I know it and accept it.   I understand leadership, and I can do it, but I don't have the heart in it that you need.   And I've worked up to that position; I'm basically his number two, sort of a "consigliere" of sorts, and that suits me fine.   But to do that job, I don't get to say "oh, five o'clock, going to drink wine and play PS4 now!"   It also explains how I can put so much time in here; my job isn't a set number of tasks that I burn off in eight hours each day.  I deal with problems as they arise, issues as they arise, and people as they arise.  Some weeks, there are 80 hours of problems/issues/people.  Others there is not.

My wife comes from a family of tradespeople.  They still talk in terms of "x dollars per hour".  I've tried, oh how I've tried, to get them - particularly my oldest step son - to think more in terms of salary, but it's now how he was brought up.   This is an arrogant thing to say (but I don't mean it that way) I don't think it's a coincidence that I make ballpark just about the same as my wife, her ex-husband (also an "hourly" guy), her father and my step son COMBINED.

The guy I work next to and back up at work (and vice versa) is definitely of the "once I leave work, I shut it down until I am back in the office."  I am not, although I am not one of those people who is glued to my phone always checking work emails for problems to fix after hours. I will check here and there and jump in to assist if and when needed, but I stopped turning in my cell phone bill to work a while back because the expectation was, "if we are paying for your cell phone, then we expect any emails you get after hours to be answered promptly," and I found that too stressful, so I stopped turning it in.  I still check, as I said above, but just knowing that I don't have to all the time relieves quite a bit of stress.

That's fucked, don't agree with that at all.  That's just silly IMO.  I found a good balance over the years of checking emails periodically after hours, but 9/10 they'll sit there until I'm back in the office.  Some employees put the stress on themselves thinking they need to answer right away to be seen as 'good employees.'  No, that's just getting taken advantage of and expecting to jump after hours which will then become expected from there on.  I turned notifications off so I have to physically open the email app and have a look.  My thinking is, if something is urgent, its a phone call or a text.  Or if they boss contacts me and says 'hey sorry but I know it's Saturday arvo but can you please respond to this when you can,' then sure, I see no problem in that.

[KevShmev]

What if, god forbid, you actually LIKE your work?   I enjoy what I do, and I'm invested in it.  He laughed at me then (and we laugh about it now) but when I met my boss back in 2015, he asked me what my goals were, and I said "I don't want your job, I want to be the guy you go to when you have no idea what to do with something you're given".   Basically, his go-to side man.  That's what I'm cut out for, and I know it and accept it.   I understand leadership, and I can do it, but I don't have the heart in it that you need.   And I've worked up to that position; I'm basically his number two, sort of a "consigliere" of sorts, and that suits me fine.   But to do that job, I don't get to say "oh, five o'clock, going to drink wine and play PS4 now!"   It also explains how I can put so much time in here; my job isn't a set number of tasks that I burn off in eight hours each day.  I deal with problems as they arise, issues as they arise, and people as they arise.  Some weeks, there are 80 hours of problems/issues/people.  Others there is not.

My wife comes from a family of tradespeople.  They still talk in terms of "x dollars per hour".  I've tried, oh how I've tried, to get them - particularly my oldest step son - to think more in terms of salary, but it's now how he was brought up.   This is an arrogant thing to say (but I don't mean it that way) I don't think it's a coincidence that I make ballpark just about the same as my wife, her ex-husband (also an "hourly" guy), her father and my step son COMBINED.

The guy I work next to and back up at work (and vice versa) is definitely of the "once I leave work, I shut it down until I am back in the office."  I am not, although I am not one of those people who is glued to my phone always checking work emails for problems to fix after hours. I will check here and there and jump in to assist if and when needed, but I stopped turning in my cell phone bill to work a while back because the expectation was, "if we are paying for your cell phone, then we expect any emails you get after hours to be answered promptly," and I found that too stressful, so I stopped turning it in.  I still check, as I said above, but just knowing that I don't have to all the time relieves quite a bit of stress.

That's fucked, don't agree with that at all.  That's just silly IMO.  I found a good balance over the years of checking emails periodically after hours, but 9/10 they'll sit there until I'm back in the office.  Some employees put the stress on themselves thinking they need to answer right away to be seen as 'good employees.'  No, that's just getting taken advantage of and expecting to jump after hours which will then become expected from there on.  I turned notifications off so I have to physically open the email app and have a look.  My thinking is, if something is urgent, its a phone call or a text.  Or if they boss contacts me and says 'hey sorry but I know it's Saturday arvo but can you please respond to this when you can,' then sure, I see no problem in that.

My boss has been really good to me, so I am not ragging on him by any means. There was just one incident a while back where someone emailed the company on a Sunday evening about something (they sent it to the entire company so someone would see it), and because I did not see it and reply till first thing Monday, I got the thing about needing to check emails if they are paying for the phone.  I get it.  I didn't have an issue with it at all.  But, by not turning in my cell anymore, I don't have to worry about it anymore. I stress out about work enough already in general. 

[wolfking]

Hmmm.....I get it but I have a work phone too and have never had a condition like that.  I still think that's bullshit.  So say you're out to dinner with your wife Sunday evening and you have to answer work emails mid meal?  Fuck that.

[Cool Chris]

My wife comes from a family of tradespeople.  They still talk in terms of "x dollars per hour".  I've tried, oh how I've tried, to get them - particularly my oldest step son - to think more in terms of salary, but it's now how he was brought up.   This is an arrogant thing to say (but I don't mean it that way) I don't think it's a coincidence that I make ballpark just about the same as my wife, her ex-husband (also an "hourly" guy), her father and my step son COMBINED.

As someone who has always worked in terms of "x dollars per hour" and currently employed in the trades, there really isn't any reason for me to think it terms of salary, because that isn't the reality of my industry. Just as my wife, who was always worked salary, has never experienced it the other way.

And while I appreciate you recognizing potential, untended, arrogance, the income is not just a factor of how you view work. I could work 80 hours a week and still not rake in as much as my wife, because of the markets for our respective skills.

[KevShmev]

Hmmm.....I get it but I have a work phone too and have never had a condition like that.  I still think that's bullshit.  So say you're out to dinner with your wife Sunday evening and you have to answer work emails mid meal?  Fuck that.

Nah, it's not like that.  It's just a matter of replying in a timely manner after hours (within a few hours not counting sleeping hours).  I get it.

[wolfking]

Hmmm.....I get it but I have a work phone too and have never had a condition like that.  I still think that's bullshit.  So say you're out to dinner with your wife Sunday evening and you have to answer work emails mid meal?  Fuck that.

Nah, it's not like that.  It's just a matter of replying in a timely manner after hours (within a few hours not counting sleeping hours).  I get it.

Okay......I could probably live with that.

[Stadler]

My wife comes from a family of tradespeople.  They still talk in terms of "x dollars per hour".  I've tried, oh how I've tried, to get them - particularly my oldest step son - to think more in terms of salary, but it's now how he was brought up.   This is an arrogant thing to say (but I don't mean it that way) I don't think it's a coincidence that I make ballpark just about the same as my wife, her ex-husband (also an "hourly" guy), her father and my step son COMBINED.

As someone who has always worked in terms of "x dollars per hour" and currently employed in the trades, there really isn't any reason for me to think it terms of salary, because that isn't the reality of my industry. Just as my wife, who was always worked salary, has never experienced it the other way.

And while I appreciate you recognizing potential, untended, arrogance, the income is not just a factor of how you view work. I could work 80 hours a week and still not rake in as much as my wife, because of the markets for our respective skills.

No, I understand that last point.  Where I was going was more toward... my stepson is an excellent mechanic.  He loves cars, loves BMWs (that's our bonding thing; between us we've owned I think nine of them, maybe 10) and went and got a job as a mechanic for the local BMW dealer.

He lasted about four months.  It was his "passion", his "dream job", but changing the oil for rich old ladies that didn't give a fuck about those cars really got him down.  He upped and joined the Army, which really was the right move for him and now he's up to Sergeant, servicing Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters.  It has literally shown him a world - geographically and otherwise - that he never would have seen.  He's likely staying in as a career, but I've been suggesting, when your pension vests and you do decide to get out, don't go work for the airport at x dollars an hour, servicing planes and helicopters.  Take your knowledge, your experience, your world class (I'm not kidding) leadership skills you learned from the Army, and go get a salary job as a CONSULTANT to a company like United Technologies or Sikorsky.  Get all the bennies you would earn as a salary person, and not have to worry if there is going to be 40 hours worth of "repairs" to do on any given week. 

He loves the idea of teaching/mentoring, he loves the idea of problem-solving that that kind of role would entail, but at 28, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.  "What do you mean, I make the same amount whether I work 30 or 60 hours?"  It's a hard concept to grasp.

[pg1067]

Remember when this was the HAPPY thread?   

[Stadler]

Remember when this was the HAPPY thread?   

It IS happy!  I LOVE my work!   

[emtee]

Your work is posting on this forum

I'll bet by word count, you've written 4 80K word novels.

[TAC]

Your work is posting on this forum

He's a DTF Influencer.

[Dublagent66]

Yeah sure, Friday is a great day to be happy, get drunk and stoned and forget about how life is fucked right now.  Thank you...

[Adami]

Walking home from my final interview with a place. First in person interview for over 3 years. Think I did really well. Felt comfortable and confident and told them why Stadler is wrong. Always a crowd pleaser.

[jammindude]

Walking home from my final interview with a place. First in person interview for over 3 years. Think I did really well. Felt comfortable and confident and told them why Stadler is wrong. Always a crowd pleaser.

 

[ProfessorPeart]

For years I loved my work but hated the conditions. I had bosses that expected 24/7 availability. The work/life balance was about as unbalanced as it could get. I occasionally tried looking for other jobs and once even applied for another position in the company knowing full well my Director would blow a gasket. Well, he did. I was the preferred choice of the manager I would be working for but my Director had his minions block the whole thing up. That led to a meeting where he gave me a token raise as consolation for stopping my move up to Supervisor. I literally had days I remember sitting in my car in an empty parking lot as I was the last person still in and just falling apart. I hated everything. Mainly, I was staying because I worked for a hospital system and the insurance was crazy good and I have a rather medically challenged family.

We had a bigger fish in the hospital world 'merge' with us a few years ago and I was certain I would lose my job. I was scared to death that I would lose my job. Turns out, it was the best thing that could happen. They actually stress the need for work/life balance and we have tons of resources available to us if we ever feel like we need help. IT leadership there had nothing but disdain for us even though we were a much better run department than them. The majority of my co-workers were let go. They somehow respect the crap out of me and I am now the admin over one of the most important platforms in the company. I went from a one man show under the old employer to a group of 10 now. They recently got me a sidekick for my platform duties and it has been amazing. My first manager under the current regime sat me down one day and asked me why I made so little. I agreed that I did. Few weeks later he calls me and I got an almost $20K raise in my salary. I came down the stairs at home in tears and my wife was freaked out and then I told her what happened.

Much like Stads, I am right where I want to be and have no desire to move up. Leadership is not for me. I'm a builder/fixer. I have too big of a heart to be a boss.

[pg1067]

Walking home from my final interview with a place. First in person interview for over 3 years. Think I did really well. Felt comfortable and confident and told them why Stadler is wrong. Always a crowd pleaser.

I can't tell you how many times Stads has come up in job interviews!   

[Stadler]

Your work is posting on this forum

He's a DTF Influencer.

Check out my TikTok. 

[Spiritus]

Yeah sure, Friday is a great day to be happy, get drunk and stoned and forget about how life is fucked right now.  Thank you...

Just came in cracked a beer and kicked my feet up.   

[TAC]

Your work is posting on this forum

He's a DTF Influencer.

Check out my TikTok. 

Sure, so long as I don't have to check out your Only Fans.

[Stadler]

Walking home from my final interview with a place. First in person interview for over 3 years. Think I did really well. Felt comfortable and confident and told them why Stadler is wrong. Always a crowd pleaser.

I give.  I'm a giver.      

Good luck!!! 

[Adami]

Walking home from my final interview with a place. First in person interview for over 3 years. Think I did really well. Felt comfortable and confident and told them why Stadler is wrong. Always a crowd pleaser.

I give.  I'm a giver.      

Good luck!!!

Thanks! It's a tough call. I've had three places interviewing me. One is an hour away, so last on my list, but the other two are pretty close. The one today is a 30 minute walk from home, so I like that. Con is that it's a 15k pay cut, which I expected cause of the change of work place, but it still hurts a bit. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I'll have some offer and can finally say goodbye to the hospital where Trump was born.

[ProfessorPeart]

Walking home from my final interview with a place. First in person interview for over 3 years. Think I did really well. Felt comfortable and confident and told them why Stadler is wrong. Always a crowd pleaser.

I give.  I'm a giver.      

Good luck!!!

Thanks! It's a tough call. I've had three places interviewing me. One is an hour away, so last on my list, but the other two are pretty close. The one today is a 30 minute walk from home, so I like that. Con is that it's a 15k pay cut, which I expected cause of the change of work place, but it still hurts a bit. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I'll have some offer and can finally say goodbye to the hospital where Trump was born.

Good luck. I mean that bigly.

[Dublagent66]

Yeah sure, Friday is a great day to be happy, get drunk and stoned and forget about how life is fucked right now.  Thank you...

Just came in cracked a beer and kicked my feet up.   

Actually I got a few more hours to go.  I don't start partying until after dinner.  Cheers!