Kind of boring right now, but I'm well paid and I've never been unemployed except by choice for almost my entire working life so I feel pretty fortunate.
How is your job?
- Thread starter RoJoHen
- Start date
I'm more or less semi-retired these days, or you could call it a part-time portfolio career. I quit being a full-time salaried employee last year (best thing I ever did; the resignation letter was a joy to write). Nowadays I do what could be termed part-time freelance work (it's a bit complicated to explain exactly), as well as running a couple of businesses. I've never been happier with my work-life balance; I work maybe a third or a quarter of the hours I used to, yet am more or less making the same income as a result of being more fairly rewarded (eye of the beholder, of course) for the time I do work.
So I'd say I'm very, very happy indeed with how work and life are treating me. Long may it continue.
In 2-3 years I'll probably step things down a bit more, which will lead to a significant income drop from the freelance work, but hopefully by then some other more passive income streams I've arranged should be coming online to mitigate that partially, fingers crossed.
I could easily earn what I would term a very substantial annual income within 10 years if I'd opted to return to being full-time salaried employee, but I can't really see any incentive to do so.
So I'd say I'm very, very happy indeed with how work and life are treating me. Long may it continue.
In 2-3 years I'll probably step things down a bit more, which will lead to a significant income drop from the freelance work, but hopefully by then some other more passive income streams I've arranged should be coming online to mitigate that partially, fingers crossed.
I could easily earn what I would term a very substantial annual income within 10 years if I'd opted to return to being full-time salaried employee, but I can't really see any incentive to do so.
Not two chicks at the same time?
Just two?
Wow. I knew the US was bad for that, but 5 days?!?! I've had more than that off this tax year to date. I've heard that sick days count as holiday in some US employers too?
Statutory minimum here is 5.6 weeks (consisting of whatever your normal week is). They can be sneaky and count bank (public) holidays in that, but even so, that's at least 21 additional days for a full timer.
The law changed on holidays a few years ago: 20 paid holidays which cannot include bank holidays, so a total of 28 per year. My employer only recognises four bank holidays (Xmas, Boxing Day, New Years and Hogmanay - Scottish employer) and the rest float so I get 24 or 25 - I can't remember which.
In the States it's usual to have a fixed number of sick days (unlike here, where I only had one employer that did that) so to stop people from using them like holidays some employers combined them giving you three weeks which could be sick leave or holiday. This is commonly known as PTO: Pooled Time Off.
There are some crappy employers that do indeed only give five days, and unlike here where you get your holiday up-front many American employers will require you to "earn" your holiday before you can take it meaning you need to work a full year without holiday to get your measly 5-10 days off.
This and healthcare are why I would never consider living in America again - really fucked-up priorities.
Once I've worked at this company for a year, I will get 2 weeks paid vacation.
Wow. I knew the US was bad for that, but 5 days?!?! I've had more than that off this tax year to date. I've heard that sick days count as holiday in some US employers too?
Statutory minimum here is 5.6 weeks (consisting of whatever your normal week is). They can be sneaky and count bank (public) holidays in that, but even so, that's at least 21 additional days for a full timer.
I can also take off more than my 5 days, but I won't get paid for them.
I also get 13 national holidays.
My dad has been working for the same company for 30 years and only gets 3 weeks vacation per year.
Not all US employers are total shit about this stuff. The nonprofit sector tends to be a bit better than the corporate sector (one of the ways they make up for lower salaries).
For instance, I have to "earn" my days, but I accrue 16 vacation (1.25 days a month + one freebie floating day) and 12 sick days a year, but those do not "expire", so I can bank up to 30 vacation days and an unlimited number of sick days (currently sitting at about 60 of those). Folks at the level above me earn 25 vacation days a year (2 days a month + the freebie), with a 60-day limit. Those are in addition to 11 annual public/university holidays (Xmas eve, Xmas day, NY eve, NY day, MLK, University commencement, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, and 2 days for Thanksgiving).
For instance, I have to "earn" my days, but I accrue 16 vacation (1.25 days a month + one freebie floating day) and 12 sick days a year, but those do not "expire", so I can bank up to 30 vacation days and an unlimited number of sick days (currently sitting at about 60 of those). Folks at the level above me earn 25 vacation days a year (2 days a month + the freebie), with a 60-day limit. Those are in addition to 11 annual public/university holidays (Xmas eve, Xmas day, NY eve, NY day, MLK, University commencement, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, and 2 days for Thanksgiving).
I love the industry I'm in (destination marketing), and I love doing destination marketing for my city (Madison, Wisconsin), and I really love what I do (Web development, email marketing and social media initiatives), but I'm just not so hot on my current office. I only work 20 hours per week, and while $20/hour is pretty nice on the surface, it doesn't make it so easy to pay the bills. And there's a bit of an upward mobility limit ... basically, your job is your job, and don't expect to turn it into anything more.
I've already been headhunted by a few other organizations, but I really had no desire to move to central Michigan or Richmond, VA.
I'll keep doing what I'm doing as long as my wife and I can afford for me to only work part-time. As I said, it's an amazing industry with some really great people, both in the office and at other DMOs. I can't complain about the quality of the work. I get paid to promote my home. Nothing better than that. 
It's really rather inaccurate to make a blanket statement like this. I don't know how they're doing things in Plainfield, but I know that the Dubuque, IA, East Dubuque, IL, Madison, WI, Des Moines, IA, and Waterloo, IA, districts cap their employees' banked sick days at 30, and anything beyond that is lost if unused.
I've already been headhunted by a few other organizations, but I really had no desire to move to central Michigan or Richmond, VA.
I'll keep doing what I'm doing as long as my wife and I can afford for me to only work part-time. As I said, it's an amazing industry with some really great people, both in the office and at other DMOs. I can't complain about the quality of the work. I get paid to promote my home. Nothing better than that. It's really rather inaccurate to make a blanket statement like this. I don't know how they're doing things in Plainfield, but I know that the Dubuque, IA, East Dubuque, IL, Madison, WI, Des Moines, IA, and Waterloo, IA, districts cap their employees' banked sick days at 30, and anything beyond that is lost if unused.
Well, my mom is a teacher in Plainfield, and she has no cap on sick days. My aunt was a teacher in Champaign/Urbana, and she retired a year early because she had accumulated 200+ sick days. My uncle was a teacher in some other town in central IL, and he was also able to retire a year early because he had accumulated so many sick days. My Biology teacher in high school did the same thing.
Of all the teachers that I know, every single one of them has this option, so I don't think my statement was inaccurate at all.
I also said "many teachers," not "all teachers." Hardly a blanket statement.
It's decent enough, but on the two occasions I've been there, it's just felt so ... compressed, as though double the city has been squeezed into an area half the size it needs to be. So many short streets and odd alignments.
There's also a personal stigma regarding the city; one of my closest friends got marked by her college roommate at VCU and then mugged and had her head caved in with a baseball bat. Most of her left frontal lobe was removed, and there isn't a whole lot left of her anymore. Not a huge fan of the city after that.
I thought your mom was an assistant superintendent. (So she probably worked with the current super of Dubuque, Dr. Larie Godinez.)
In any event, you're using examples from one of the more affluent suburbs of Chicago (completely owned by the union), a college town (where teachers are generally treated better than other areas) and "some other town in central IL," and saying "many teachers" can bank unlimited sick days. That seems a bit ... off to me.
Actually, a quick check of Illinois' TRS shows that the state mandates the unlimited banking of sick days. State-wide thing, so the documentation my wife received when teaching in East Dubuque must have been outdated. Odd.
Eh, it's just old and fairly well preserved.
There's also a personal stigma regarding the city; one of my closest friends got marked by her college roommate at VCU and then mugged and had her head caved in with a baseball bat. Most of her left frontal lobe was removed, and there isn't a whole lot left of her anymore. Not a huge fan of the city after that.
Holy crap, that's terrible. I can certainly see why you would want to avoid it.
This has never been true.
I'm using examples from all the teachers that I've known that have retired or plan to retire in the state of Illinois. Of my sample size, 100% of them have the opportunity to bank unlimited sick days. I don't think saying "many teachers" is all that big of a stretch. There are thousands of teachers in Illinois. I think thousands of people qualify as "many."In any event, you're using examples from one of the more affluent suburbs of Chicago (completely owned by the union), a college town (where teachers are generally treated better than other areas) and "some other town in central IL," and saying "many teachers" can bank unlimited sick days. That seems a bit ... off to me.
Yeah, take that!
Seriously, my mom and aunt were discussing this like two weeks ago when I was back home. I'm not just making shit up.
Sometimes I feel like you go out of your way to prove me wrong.
Holy crap, that's terrible. I can certainly see why you would want to avoid it.There's also a personal stigma regarding the city; one of my closest friends got marked by her college roommate at VCU and then mugged and had her head caved in with a baseball bat. Most of her left frontal lobe was removed, and there isn't a whole lot left of her anymore. Not a huge fan of the city after that.
It happened quite some time ago (five years ago last week, as a matter of fact), but it still sucks -- she went from being a promising young artist and writer to barely being able to walk in a straight line, and her family (in a rural area, near Emporia) had to sell their farm to pay her medical bills. Just a shitty thing all around.
But the folks at the Richmond CVB are awesome!
Great folks with some really good ideas about email marketing. And they bought me a steak dinner at a DMO summit earlier this month. Can't complain about that.Good grief, I spoke out of turn and admitted that I was wrong after checking state documentation. Settle down.
Good grief, I spoke out of turn and admitted that I was wrong after checking state documentation. Settle down.
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