Norcal Spotted and BS Thread

i think a lot of my decision was personality differences. I cant come to work, sit in my chair and stare at a monitor all day doing the same repetitive thing day after day for 8+ hours a day and have it not affect my personality and mood. I need interaction and to bounce between different things or i get sleepy and cranky.

 

This is why 4 years ago I was always on TW and in every thread. Now that I have a job where I actually work, I only stick to the NorCal threads and a few of the other useful threads.

 

Fuck her. That is all.

 

Having all those breaks would be awesome! April to December is our busiest time so if I want to take any time off its Jan - March. It gets kinda old only being able to vacation during the cold months.

 

I took a job I knew I would hate. Kept it for two years so that I could pay off debt, buy a house. Quit after two years and took a job I liked and a 10 thousand a year pay cut. It definitely will extend my life span, and I'm a lot happier. But a sacrifice had to be made at the time.

 

same here. my busy time is summer when schools are out and modifications need to be done before school goes back.

 

That's the truth right there. It's all about living within your means

 

Fixed it for you...

 

My husband and I made the decision to leave incredible paying jobs and take huge pay cuts in order to have the jobs we wanted, loved, and put us where we really wanted to be.

Best decision we ever made!

 

LOL @Mademan925 Now I'm starting to realize why your username is mademan

 

Haha. pretty much sums it up

 

I had to make the decision to pass up my dream job for a job I hate. 5 year ago I was offered an assistant teacher job at a school I had been working at since I was 17. Went to college to become a teacher and pretty much had my career planned out since the school was doing everything they could to get me in the school as a teacher. Well along comes my daughter and I had to make the big boy decision to take a job at law firm because it was steady and paid the bills. 8 months after working at the law firm and knowing I hated it I was offered a job at the school, but I would be taking a 16k pay cut (keep in mind I was only making 40k at my law firm). Basically I would be tapping out my medical and all benefits at the school just to achieve the 26k a year, so being a single income family and having a 8 month old I had to make the hardest decision and turn it down. Keep in mind I live in Santa Cruz, which is right up there with the Bay Area as one of the most expensive places to live.

There was other factors like I would have had to leave 4 summers in a row (to either Atlanta, Milwaukee or Baltimore suburbs) to get my credentials to become a head teacher at the school, which wasn't isn't an easy thing to do with a family. It wasn't a matter or losing "fun" money or not taking a vacation every year, it was not being able to pay all my day to day expenses. So now I'm stuck at a desk job that has become almost unbearable in the last few months with all the layoffs we have had, but I can go home each night knowing my family won't have to worry if we will pay all the bills and live more comfortable than I had to at times in my youth. It's all a compromise and it all depends on what you want in life.

 

Decisions like these are never easy. Sounds like you weighed the pros and cons and did what you had to do at that time.
If circumstances change and present themselves again, weigh it out again.

On a side note, a few months away each year is nothing. My husband was 20 years Navy. Want to know how many YEARS I spent alone of those 20? I didn't like it. But we dealt with it. It was a decision we had to make at that point in our lives.

 

Agreed. I've been on the ragged edge for a few years now. I'm in consulting, which is by definition crazy train. To make matters even more crazy train, I am in the publishing and documentation area. My job generally entails unfucking shit that I didn't even know existed yesterday, or I did know about it, but everyone else involved shit the bed and didn't follow the plan. Sometimes I wonder how these "adults" dress themselves and arrive at work every ay without killing themselves.

Daily frustrations can be balanced by how well you get along with your boss. With my last boss, I felt like we were joined at the brain. We achieved visionary stuff no one had ever had the nuts to try in this firm. That has been all I had at times to stop me from bailing. A couple years ago, even that was starting to unravel, and I thought, holy shit, this is it, time for the exit strategy. That's when I bothered to make a Linked in account. But it has righted itself sort of for the time being. New boss was a former peer, who I was joined at the brain with even more strongly. Boss can be 50% or even more of the equation. If someone in control of my compensation does not think I shit gold eggs every day and is willing to support that and pay for it, I'm out.

Three years ago before we bought the current house, my wife and I laid out a plan that involved scenarios of what if one of us got laid off or willingly took a 50% cut in pay. This is what we based our housing affordability and budgeting on. We both make about the same. She knows I am running on the edge, and fully supports me maintaining mental and physical health over anything else.

I'm looking into becoming an old Japanese gardener at the moment.

 

DONT MOCK ME!

 

What kind of consulting?

 

Things and stuff. Related to engineering and planning, generally.