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Working Life: The Eternal Grind (2 Viewers)

You can fit motorcycles in a minivan, too.
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I know a guy from my town that is a semi-local cop in an adjoining small town. One evening he saw a mini van on the side of the road parked illegally in a park. He walked up shined his flashlight and saw a couple having some mini van romance. Turns out they were a married couple just trying to get away from their kids for a few minutes. He said he let them go WITHOUT a warning!

So here is yet another good use for a mini van!
 
mike32 said:
I know a guy from my town that is a semi-local cop in an adjoining small town. One evening he saw a mini van on the side of the road parked illegally in a park. He walked up shined his flashlight and saw a couple having some mini van romance. Turns out they were a married couple just trying to get away from their kids for a few minutes. He said he let them go WITHOUT a warning!

So here is yet another good use for a mini van!
Click to expand...
He was like…

Ill Allow It GIF
 
krafticus said:
I'm an hourly employee. So far in 2024, I've "taken" 3 personal days off and 3 holidays. I usually have to make up the hours of weeks in which I wish to take a "day off" .. so it's not really a day off. I'm limited to 40 hours per week, per my contact, and I plan on billing just under 2000 hours this year. By my math, there are 4 holidays I have to take and one I am not sure if I can work through (Columbus Day). I might take a day off around Christmas time.

For meetups in which I get there on Thursdays, I usually work 12 hour days M-W, and 4 hours before leaving Thursday. While my hourly rate is higher than a salaried employee, at this pace, I will burn out REALLY quickly.
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This sucks. I know that you're compensated for not having vacation days, but this isn't for me. How do you stay sane?
 
mike32 said:
I know a guy from my town that is a semi-local cop in an adjoining small town. One evening he saw a mini van on the side of the road parked illegally in a park. He walked up shined his flashlight and saw a couple having some mini van romance. Turns out they were a married couple just trying to get away from their kids for a few minutes. He said he let them go WITHOUT a warning!

So here is yet another good use for a mini van!
Click to expand...
Watching Tv Isabelle GIF by Gogglebox Australia
 
krafticus said:
I get 40 hours of paid sick leave, which is required by the county in which my owner opened her business. Outside of that, correct, I get 0 PTO.

In theory, it all balances out. Lets say I were to make 100,000 / year, but get 4 weeks PTO and 10 G. Holidays. that equates to 30 days off. Remember that my company still has to pay for all of that leave. it equates to 1840 hours.. but you still calculate salary based on 2080 hours, so you get an hourly rate of about $48/hr. Now, as an hourly employee with no PTO, they calculate the rate based on me taking time off, even though I might not. for this same job, they may pay me based on that 1840 hours I will bill .. so they increase my hourly rate to say $55/hr .. or even $60/hr. now, if at $60/hr, I can bill 2000 hours, I can now make $120,000..

Whether or not you work as much as I am right now to maximize income, or take the needed time off (banking the excess $ from earlier weeks to cover the days/weeks you get $0) is up to an individual. At this point in my life, I want to get some things taken care off, so I'm in the work more camp. It helps that I like my job and the people I work with..
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I've worked in salaried positions for most of my career, but last year I moved to an hourly role. My hourly is higher, I still get full benefits including PTO, but now I get paid for those extra 5-20 hours per week!

I will admit that I'm a little more hesitant to take PTO now, but mainly it's because I'm trying to max out my bank with the new company.
 
CraigT78 said:
This sucks. I know that you're compensated for not having vacation days, but this isn't for me. How do you stay sane?
Click to expand...
Ha. Yeah… I’m thinking of switching to the salaried method. Not sure if I want that 15-25% pay cut though. It would be nice to just take time off and be off though.

Add in umpiring 3-10 games per week right after work and weekends… and yeah. I’m toast.
 
krafticus said:
Ha. Yeah… I’m thinking of switching to the salaried method. Not sure if I want that 15-25% pay cut though. It would be nice to just take time off and be off though.

Add in umpiring 3-10 games per week right after work and weekends… and yeah. I’m toast.
Click to expand...
Work-life balance…I get 7 weeks off a year. Maybe I hate money (that’s why I’m here), but I’d much rather get paid less and get some solid vacation.
 
LowerBama1714 said:
Work-life balance…I get 7 weeks off a year. Maybe I hate money (that’s why I’m here), but I’d much rather get paid less and get some solid vacation.
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We just don’t vacation much. Being married to a teacher (who also teaches summer school) only gives us a few weeks per year, and those are always high demand weeks . Add in 3 kids (21/17/14).. and it gets very $$$$. Taking time off just to take time off hasn’t really been a thing
 
krafticus said:
We just don’t vacation much. Being married to a teacher (who also teaches summer school) only gives us a few weeks per year, and those are always high demand weeks . Add in 3 kids (21/17/14).. and it gets very $$$$. Taking time off just to take time off hasn’t really been a thing
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We don’t vacation, but live next to the beach…we go there and just spend time doing house stuff. I lose vacation I don’t use, and almost always miss out on a week (7 weeks is honestly too much).
 
krafticus said:
I get 40 hours of paid sick leave, which is required by the county in which my owner opened her business. Outside of that, correct, I get 0 PTO.

In theory, it all balances out. Lets say I were to make 100,000 / year, but get 4 weeks PTO and 10 G. Holidays. that equates to 30 days off. Remember that my company still has to pay for all of that leave. it equates to 1840 hours.. but you still calculate salary based on 2080 hours, so you get an hourly rate of about $48/hr. Now, as an hourly employee with no PTO, they calculate the rate based on me taking time off, even though I might not. for this same job, they may pay me based on that 1840 hours I will bill .. so they increase my hourly rate to say $55/hr .. or even $60/hr. now, if at $60/hr, I can bill 2000 hours, I can now make $120,000..

Whether or not you work as much as I am right now to maximize income, or take the needed time off (banking the excess $ from earlier weeks to cover the days/weeks you get $0) is up to an individual. At this point in my life, I want to get some things taken care off, so I'm in the work more camp. It helps that I like my job and the people I work with..
Click to expand...


No PTO for me would be an absolute deal breaker. Doesn't matter how much they are paying.

LowerBama1714 said:
Work-life balance…I get 7 weeks off a year. Maybe I hate money (that’s why I’m here), but I’d much rather get paid less and get some solid vacation.
Click to expand...

I switched to 12 month vs. 10.5 month a while back and the only reason I did so was because my direct supervior is a rare gem. She values me and goes out of her way to make sure I get time away with my family with working from home, or like I'm doing now, I can get some working from abroad options at certain times of the year. I get 14 paid holiday, and 3 weeks of vacation right now, but I'm not using almost any of the vacation days due to the flexibility she offers and therefore have been able to bank a bunch of days toward the max rollover (7 weeks).

The downside is that the rest of the year my days are very inflexible and often are 10-12 hour days which I don't have a problem with knowing I get the comp time and flexibility at other times. Without this flexibility I'd still be 10.5 months making a lot less $ and wouldn't care in the least bit. I love to travel and be at home with the family and that's the most important thing for me as it also helps keep me sane.
 
Payback said:
No PTO for me would be an absolute deal breaker. Doesn't matter how much they are paying.



I switched to 12 month vs. 10.5 month a while back and the only reason I did so was because my direct supervior is a rare gem. She values me and goes out of her way to make sure I get time away with my family with working from home, or like I'm doing now, I can get some working from abroad options at certain times of the year. I get 14 paid holiday, and 3 weeks of vacation right now, but I'm not using almost any of the vacation days due to the flexibility she offers and therefore have been able to bank a bunch of days toward the max rollover (7 weeks).

The downside is that the rest of the year my days are very inflexible and often are 10-12 hour days which I don't have a problem with knowing I get the comp time and flexibility at other times. Without this flexibility I'd still be 10.5 months making a lot less $ and wouldn't care in the least bit. I love to travel and be at home with the family and that's the most important thing for me as it also helps keep me sane.
Click to expand...
I also have a bad ass lady boss that is ten times smarter than anyone I’ve ever met…it helps.
 
Payback said:
No PTO for me would be an absolute deal breaker. Doesn't matter how much they are paying.



I switched to 12 month vs. 10.5 month a while back and the only reason I did so was because my direct supervior is a rare gem. She values me and goes out of her way to make sure I get time away with my family with working from home, or like I'm doing now, I can get some working from abroad options at certain times of the year. I get 14 paid holiday, and 3 weeks of vacation right now, but I'm not using almost any of the vacation days due to the flexibility she offers and therefore have been able to bank a bunch of days toward the max rollover (7 weeks).

The downside is that the rest of the year my days are very inflexible and often are 10-12 hour days which I don't have a problem with knowing I get the comp time and flexibility at other times. Without this flexibility I'd still be 10.5 months making a lot less $ and wouldn't care in the least bit. I love to travel and be at home with the family and that's the most important thing for me as it also helps keep me sane.
Click to expand...
I mean, I can take off as much time as I want, I just have to budget for it. If I choose to take 6 weeks off, I know I have to have to set $ aside for those days I don’t work.
 
Last edited:
Schmendr1ck said:
I've worked in salaried positions for most of my career, but last year I moved to an hourly role. My hourly is higher, I still get full benefits including PTO, but now I get paid for those extra 5-20 hours per week!

I will admit that I'm a little more hesitant to take PTO now, but mainly it's because I'm trying to max out my bank with the new company.
Click to expand...
I'm true salary, with 7 weeks off a year. Now if only I made enough money to do stuff with it.
 
Josh Kifer said:
I'm true salary, with 7 weeks off a year. Now if only I made enough money to do stuff with it.
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After being salaried for so long, I thought the way this company does PTO was weird. Maybe it's normal for hourly and I'm just not used to it.

I get "up to 7 weeks" of PTO each year by earning PTO for each hour I work. So if I work a full 52 weeks (2080 hours), that earns me 7 weeks of PTO. If I work less (say, to take PTO), I earn less. If I work more, I'm capped at 7 weeks max per year.

Early on I figured out the breakeven point, and it's higher than I thought it would be: work 46 weeks and get 6 weeks PTO.
 
Self-employed folks don't get paid time off or a pension or sick leave. You can take all the time off you want to. But you don't easily get paid. It always made me cranky to take a few weeks for Scout camp and listen to the "regular" folk complain about having to use up their PTO. Somehow thinking the self-employed folks could miss a few weeks of work without missing a nickel.

When you do master the art of not working but still having ample income, then you have successfully retired.
 
Schmendr1ck said:
After being salaried for so long, I thought the way this company does PTO was weird. Maybe it's normal for hourly and I'm just not used to it.

I get "up to 7 weeks" of PTO each year by earning PTO for each hour I work. So if I work a full 52 weeks (2080 hours), that earns me 7 weeks of PTO. If I work less (say, to take PTO), I earn less. If I work more, I'm capped at 7 weeks max per year.

Early on I figured out the breakeven point, and it's higher than I thought it would be: work 46 weeks and get 6 weeks PTO.
Click to expand...
That seems pretty normal actually. That's been nearly the same methodology in my previous jobs.
 
DrStrange said:
Self-employed folks don't get paid time off or a pension or sick leave. You can take all the time off you want to. But you don't easily get paid. It always made me cranky to take a few weeks for Scout camp and listen to the "regular" folk complain about having to use up their PTO. Somehow thinking the self-employed folks could miss a few weeks of work without missing a nickel.
Click to expand...
I thought more than once about starting my own business when I was younger, but this was one of the big reasons I chose not to.

I decided that I preferred the stability of a salary with PTO and retirement to the responsibility of covering my own benefits and spending as much time (if not more) finding work as I spent actually working.
 

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