caloso

Skiing/boarding in the rain is the worst. I'm too old to put up with it anymore.

big john

Sometimes I hate my job so much I can't imagine how I will come back here tomorrow.

carpediemracing 

Nowadays I'm typically working 8-8 or thereabouts during the week, one weekday off, and maybe a short day (out at 3 pm?) if I have a short week, plus 9-6 Sunday. The expectation is a 48 hour week.

I'm not exempt so the longer weeks can be rewarding. The overtime/hours is like training. I want a heavy week, then recover with a few light weeks, then a heavy week, etc. This way I don't miss too much time with Junior, who seems significantly affected when I'm not there in the evening (he is asleep by 6:30-7:00). I did a 6 day stint, 8-8 5 of the days, I think I missed his bedtime on my alleged 6 pm day. Junior was crying for me at bedtime by the 5th day.

On the heavy weeks the Missus comments that I made more money than her. But they're tough on me, on Junior, on the Missus.

carpediemracing 

I have to think that you'd love working in the shop where I work. The manager there is so good. He built his shop to his philosophy (he got the location when they built a new store so he's managed it from day 1) and it shows.

I've flat out turned down two promotions (maybe 15-20% effective raise?) to stay in the store. I want to enjoy working.

aplcr0331

That sucks man, hang in there. I took a $25K a year pay cut from a high profile high stress job. I’m down a lot of prestige, basically a nobody. Never been happier.

Hope it works out.

Flatballer

Were you made aware of the expectation of the hours before you started?

I feel like companies should be required to tell prospective employees what the median and top 10% of people at the company in similar positions actually work weekly.

Might help slow the growth in hours. Everyone is working more and more for the same pay.

Ttoc6

I've become a morning pereson since I graduated college. Up by 5ish, to work by 6 and out of there by 4. I work 4x10 normally, but with overtime on the weekends I'm pretty busy. I find it much nicer to work over time on a 10hour days schedule because when you have to come in, the days just feel so short!

Luckily I get paid overtime it's **** (time + 6.50) but i'm doing better than my buddies working for the high profile tech companies that work long weeks, are always on call and don't see jack for overtime pay.
The techs where I work get the good overtime. Time and half first day, double time for second day and if they end up working more than 6 days in a row they keep the double time for the extent of the week. That would be sweet right now.

carpediemracing 

I'm non-exempt (is that right?) so I get overtime.

The Missus budgeted me at 48 hours a week, so that's what I'd like to work. A short week for me is anything under 45. A long week is over 52-53.

I typically manage to get two bedtimes per week of weekdays (so two bedtimes with Junior Mon-Fri), my Saturday is always off (Missus needs this so I can look after Junior during tax season), and I work almost every Sunday because the expectation is to work one of the two days.

I'll ask for particular Sundays off to race, but limit it to just a couple per year. I race on Tuesdays, one Saturday (state champs are typically on Saturday) and the Fri Night Kermis (a real race, if you will, on Fri night).

Now, in my old IT job, I'd typically be involved in work in someway from 6:30 AM - midnight Sun-Fri. I'd log in early on, start dealing with stuff, drive to work at around 10 AM (about 80-90 minutes commute) M-F, work until 7pm, drive home, then log in and help with night stuff until about midnight. So it'd be somewhat accurate to say that I was on duty about 100-105 hours a week, meaning I really needed to be near a phone and, if not driving, near a computer.

The reality is that although I might have been on the phone/computer, I had more time to do other things than I do now. I had a set up where it was okay to be on Bike Forums the entire time I was at work. I'd have a second or third computer/laptop at home with fun stuff. At work I'd dedicate one screen to "not work" stuff like BF, cyclingnews, etc. So I actually had more time to do stuff like deal with promoting races, posting to BF, writing blog posts, etc. At home I'd also get on the bike and ride, usually on the trainer, and I'd deal with calls if I had to. I did have one disappointing night where I was all psyched to do some big sprints downtown with traffic, got my primitive "camcorder in my jersey pocket" rig all set, I got on the 2 mile loop, got warmed up, then got a cry for help from my counterpart that looked after the Far East. I spent about 45 minutes on the phone walking them through stuff over the phone, finally gave up, got in the car, drove home, and logged in for real. All the talking/etc was captured on my helmet cam.

Although I didn't get paid overtime I was getting some solid pay, at least to me. That work burned me out on IT stuff (I really don't ever want to do IT stuff ever again) but it also allowed me to work in a lower-end-position at a hardware store for almost 5 years and still take another 4 years off from work to raise Junior. To me that was the huge payoff, being able to take time off for Junior. The hardware store was nice (they also allowed me to work on the races and post to BF frequently) but definitely demanded more actual focused attention than IT stuff. For example it's very hard to post to BF if I'm loading 1600 pounds worth of 80 lbs bags into a truck.

big john

My problems aren't because of the manager per se. I don't want to work hard anymore and I'm working harder than I have in years. I get frustrated by cars that I have trouble with and most of what I do involves diagnosis and many of them are problem cars. Back hurts, feet hurt, etc. etc. Yesterday I went home with diesel fuel all over me and I was exhausted.
My riding has suffered, last year was my lowest mileage total in decades. I want to retire but I'm not quite 64 so no Medicare.
Mrs. John was out of work for a year in 2016-2017 and I tried to convince her to move someplace cheap but she kept trying until she got her job back so that killed that escape attempt.
OK, end of job whinge. I think I'll go buy a new mountain bike this weekend to console myself.

furiousferret

Speaking of work, I've been asked to work this Saturday. I have a race that day, and its on a short technical course where an trash rider (i.e. me) can get a result if he knows the tricks. You can only corner at 25mph so if you gun the start and get a gap with 2-3 riders, you're probably gone. Still may get to sneak it in but I doubt it.

I'm on OT, On Call, and get to work at home half the time. I do have to skip a lot of races because of on call. The OT is kind of ironic, because it rewards admins and developers that have screwed up.


My coworker was super excited to retire at 60. At 59 and 9 months he was being belligerent and had short timers syndrome. Then he went to a retirement meeting and found out medical is so expensive he has to wait another 4 years.

Its got to be hard to have a physical job in the 60's. The one thing that really helps me feel younger (besides diet) is yoga.

robbyville

I spent 20+ years in the hospitality business (mostly ski areas and restaurants). Although I loved it overall and allowed for a lot of mountain time talking to guests, visiting locations, etc it was pretty tough on the family life. I did the math and realized that I had not had a single holiday off (Easter, christmas, new year's, etc) since 1992. My last job in VA we opened on Christmas day a little later so I had until 9am or so to hang. When my son was born in 2007 we started to look at other opportunities. VA was nice in that once he was school age, he could jump off the school bus in our resort parking lot, come up to my office and we'd go skiing for a couple of hours if I had the time. If I couldn't go then he was allowed to use the carpet lifts, or ski with a patroller. We were a very small resort where everyone knew each other so that was really nice, then my wife could pick him up and I would work until about 8pm.

We left in 2015 for CA and a change, thankfully my wife still works for a company in VA so we get up pretty early, I can drive our son to school and she can pick him up since she works from home and is generally done by 2pm anyway. I got a job in a different industry and have had the major holidays off which was nice but being a more 9-5 style job I probably get less time with my son than I did in VA. Less stress though.

Now I'm twiddling my thumbs. Company that I worked for sold off and I had a retention agreement whereby if I was not offered a similar position by the purchasing group that I would receive a substantial payout which was really fortunate since I was the only company GM with multiple locations (California/Nevada). Now I'm back on the job hunt, and the small nature of the valley where I live is starting to work against me, probably going back to the hospitality industry which to be fair I miss greatly, it's in the blood!

Ygduf

haha - they told me yesterday, on my birthday, that I was not selected to move forward in hiring for a job that I am totally overqualified for. I feel you.

robbyville

Yeah, when I first moved out West in '92 and started to work for Whistler Mountain, it was have fun rain or shine. Got well over 60 days of boarding/skiing in. Over the years, being able to jump up and go skiing lost its novelty. By the time I got out to Colorado, I was probably skiing/boarding for pleasure (not skiing in uniform) less than 20 days. Essentially if it was windy, snowy, rainy, cloudy, or looked like any of the above, I wasn't going out

topflightpro

Maybe you're too qualified, and they worried you'd be bored if they gave you the job?

I got a new manager back in October. When my boss mentioned creating this new manager position, I told her I would be interested in applying. Then my current boss was hired into that position without me getting a chance to apply or interview.

When I mentioned I would have liked to have applied, I was told the position was posted and I could have applied. I said really? They said, yeah. They had posted a lateral position in another department I could have applied for, because they decided to make that the manager position.

I was a bit peeved.

Then I got pulled in to a meeting in November to be told that they did a compensation review and determined I was being underpaid and had been since I moved into my new position in May. As a result, they were going to do a compensation adjustment but after I get my annual performance raise, which essentially negated that raise. Come early December, I was told that they were going to implement the adjustment in January. Then in late December, I was told they weren't sure if they were going to do it at all because the VP was worried about budgets.

I'm now told it will be applied starting Feb. 1. We will see. (And no, there is no discussion of any back pay compensation.)

I may have sent out a resume or two after being told big raise may not happen.

Ygduf

nah, I'm bored as **** right now but might be seen as too valuable as I'm basically doing 3 people's jobs and running the entire workgroup, just not being compensated or respected for it. Maybe they just had better candidates, I don't know. But the last two people who filled the roles (multiple of them in different areas) came from positions lower than mine, and I've received "exceeds expectations" reviews for like 5 years running in a place where "exceeds" has to be explained and approved by the director-director.

I'll survive, but I'm bitter today.

I looked at the jobs listings around here and there's nothing that gives me the flexibility/compensation balance I have right now, which kind of leads to me feeling trapped. 21-month twins and bike racing hobby are both time consuming.

I may keep looking and get lucky, though. We're pretty financially solvent right now and that will improve greatly in a year when kids go to daycare instead having a nanny. I'll keep looking and pass the time plotting how to best twist the knife when I give like 1 day notice.

topflightpro

This is how I feel. A lot of other positions will pay more, but also will require a lot more of my time.

big john

I wanted to take all of December off, I have the vacation coming to me, it was slow, and all of my stuff was caught up. I was told by my manager that I could only have one week because the owner said more than one would require owner approval. I saw the owner this morning and asked him about that and he said B.S., it is up to the manager.
This Friday will be my 20 year anniversary here, I think I deserve a little better than that. At least don't lie to me.

big john

Yes, it is. I'm on my feet for most of the day, walking around to get cars, find keys, etc. Sometimes I have to push cars but they don't ask me as often as they did when I was younger.
Then there's getting up and down from the floor, setting the hoist, looking under cars, etc.
Some days I stop to eat lunch for 10 or 15 minutes and the rest of the time is working.

Ygduf

That's like, a huge issue that I'm having here. My manager just set a 1:1 on Friday to talk about why I was eliminated from consideration from this other role. If it's just bull**** platitudes I'm going to lose (more) respect for him.

furiousferret

A big issue at our job is the supervisors get paid less than the employees, so the only people that apply are megalomaniacs that just want to salt the earth. After our last 2 supervisors hires the 3 most talented programmers walked out the door. Losing those 3 was equal to 30 people.

I dunno how this could have happened with Doge and mattm as references.

Flatballer

What kind of place pays supervisors less than their employees? That's a recipe for disaster. Is it because of an exempt non exempt change when you make that switch?

My the branch manager asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to try for the supervisor position vacated by my old boss after I and others complained about him. I was overwhelmed with a project and home life and in a down cycle of my depression so I said thanks but no. I'm regretting it now. It was mine to have and I might have set myself back. But when it's not actually going to pay more, and probably be even more work, it's hard to want that. He said there will be other opportunities, including a group manager role, so that's fine. I think that's something I'd be more interested in since it would be more of an advisory role with only a couple direct reports.

No idea when that will be, but I think probably soon.

Interesting thing is he didn't put me under the new supervisor, but moved me into the other group. So a lateral move, but I'm not sure exactly why.

TMonk

In the aftermath of me riding my bike into a moving car last week I learned that my Giant TCR Advanced ISP is totaled. Major bummer - it's a boutique carbon bike that may be the nicest riding bike that I'll over own and I'm OK with that. I also have a Venge Expert (race bike) that will see all of my miles for a little while.

Currently deciding between repairing the top tube on the TCR or saying **** it, cashing my chips in and going back to steel for my daily driver. I had planned on doing that before I bought the Giant which was admittedly a splurge purchase.

The Giant is a great bike and rides wonderfully but I'm hard on my stuff and always kinda worried about it a little too much in the back of my mind. A steel bike can ride nicely too (with right geometry) and be infinitely more resilient towards chips, dings, dents and the like. So I'm torn...

Advice/Opinions appreciated

furiousferret

Technically they make 7k a year more, but they're on salary and we're on hourly. We get paid every minute we're on call (I think its $4 hr?) and we have lots of overtime. In addition to that supervisors cannot telecommute, which is also a huge bonus. At the end of the year we're probably 10k ahead.

Flatballer

Figured it was an overtime difference. Kind of dumb to structure it like that.

Ygduf

my place got around that by making 8 previously-hourly positions also exempt, but requiring them to be in place 8am-5pm m-f with semi-regular weekend work as well. It's a whole different set of headache.