This topic is the anthem of my soul. I love the work that I do. I love the people I work with. I definitely love getting paid and amassing a fortune.
I searched for years for any sort of reasonable compensation model for my type of work that was less than a full-time position or had any kind of flexible scheduling, and just couldn't find it. Not saying it isn't out there, but in ten years of looking I found not even so much as a posting for that work in my field. Despite everyone I talked to about it agreeing it would be nice! Employers acknowledging that they needed a little bit of work from someone like me, but couldn't quite afford a full time position! Like WTF YO! THAT SOLUTION IS SO OBVIOUS! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD!
Several coworkers regularly joke about how we'd be more than happy to do 40 or 50 hours in a straight shot, just to have the rest of the time, work Monday 4am to Wednesday 4am or some shit. I'd happily do 4-12's, give my employer a free extra 8 hours a week, to have that third day off.
It's just a nonstarter. My manager from about 5 years ago put it like this:
We all work for someone else. Someone owns this whole thing. And you fill a slot, same as a truck in a fleet, or a crane, or any other piece of equipment. There's an inherent risk in having more trucks than you need, there's maintenance, there's breakdowns. Just letting you fill the slot is a huge investment, and the only way they're getting a return out of you is if you work as much as you can. Now practically, they've learned that much more than 40 hours your work product starts to break down, so they figure that's fine. But you start talking like 40 is too much, they'll figure you are already broken and replace you. Start talking like five days is too much, they wonder what you're up to on that off time, no good certainly.
I went into the wrong industry to have this particular hangup. Fortunately, I found this MMM place and learned to stash as much cash as possible, so I get to step out of the grind at the end of this month, and dedicate myself full time to figuring out a life that doesn't have to conform to the arbitrary timelines of others.
The 40 hour work week is the single largest reason I'm quitting entirely. I expect the five-day work week to be the biggest hurdle to finding part time work. As in, maybe I could find a job working 20 hours a week, but it's likely still to be 5 four hour shifts.
I don't get it at all. Is the only thing keeping everyone else from injecting heroin the fact that they have to be at work within the next 48 hours? Is there some secret cause of the great depression where in September '29 the country tried a national four day workweek? Was "everyone has Friday off" what actually killed JFK? But for no-work-Mondays Rome would still stand?
In particular it would be more bearable if mgmt recognized how stupid it was and just released you when you were done. As a salaried employee I find it highly offensive to be required to track my time so closely in the first place. I never got paid for the extra hours I worked during crunch time, what the fuck does it matter if I cut out after my last meeting of the day when I literally have fuck all to do until 5?
That was a huge benefit to having so much saved, the past 12 months or so were much more relaxing because I would just sneak out once I finished everything I needed to do. No real fear of getting caught/punished, worst thing it would mean is a slightly leaner retirement.
3 more weeks. So close I can taste it, starting to have trouble sleeping from the excitement.