Thursday, May 15, 2008
Work has been frustratingly boring recently. I’ve been finding myself at work daydreaming about all the other glamorous careers I could have—journalist, photographer, environmental activist or researcher, writer for HowStuffWorks.com, any work for National Geographic. Then I get even more carried away and start wishing I lived somewhere like France, for example, where I’d only have to work 35 hours a week. The wife of a friend of mine has a job where she’s required to work 50 hours a week, but she’s compensated by a salary that’s 1.25 times what the standard for that position would be. From a standard 40 hours a week perspective, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t take the extra hours for the extra pay. When I turn it around though and think about whether I would take a 25% pay cut to work only 30 hours a week, I’m less sure of my decision. Once you have the money and your lifestyle “inflates”, it would be harder to go back.
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2 comments:
When I was an intern, I actually did that since I was paid by the hour. Every semester my hourly pay increased by $2. First semester, I got $9/hour and I worked 40-45 hours a week. Then $11. By the time I was getting $13, I was working 30-35 hours a week. And I was still pretty productive, because my earlier semesters trained me up for it.
There were some very nice days where I went out to lunch with some friends, and then asked them to drop me off at my apartment since I didn't need or want to go back to work that afternoon. I opened the windows and curled up on the couch with a book.
Ah, life was wonderful.
My supervisors didn't seem to mind. At least, until someone back at the main office did the numbers and realized I wasn't working full-time. That led to the TALK, which was very amiable, pointing out that the company's annual contract with NASA was made with the understanding that I was working full-time. And that now there was a backlog of hours that I needed to catch up on.
I didn't bother trying to argue, since I could understand how my decisions had led to this. So the last few months I was back to working 45-50 hours.
The extra money was nice, but given the trade I'm happy living off of what I need with enough left over to save.
inflatable lifestyles are so hot right now
ojokwpu
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