Take back your time Day

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Thread on multi millionaires who don’t feel rich inspired me to start this.
While I don’t live in CA and so don’t have quite that level of inflation- in the Puget Sound area we have seen homes that are worth ( especially to someone coming from CA) ;), ** eight times** what they were worth 25 years ago- even with minimal maintainance( or without). Taxes have risen even faster, although for many wages have not.</p>

<p>There are some who have disposable income- but I see workers who used to make median income or even above, now making less than median income- even though late in their career they should be at the top of their pay scale.</p>

<p>To use my H as an example. He works for a large, fairly successful company and belongs to a union. He likes his work, but he has been at the top of his job description for about 10 years, he doesn’t want to switch, but he makes less per hour than a teacher or someone in a different dept. but that does similar work at his same company.</p>

<p>Im not complaining, Im just stating the info to get to my point, Im very happy that he likes his work- that is really more important than what he is paid.
But my point is, that because the company is so busy, he has had forced over time of working three weekends a month almost all this year.
Even though his job is physically and mentally stressful & even though he is 52 years old- he gets two days off a month.</p>

<p>So that means no family time- no vacations, not even time to mow the lawn or work around the house. We can’t afford to hire someone to do the work- as they would charge more per hour than he gets paid, but we need things done I can’t do by myself, like wiring and plumbing. Id like to be able to do things as a family or even as a couple but we can’t, because he is either getting ready for work or recovering from it.</p>

<p>When he took a mental health day a few weeks ago- because he was going to implode from all the pressure- even though he has lots of vacation built up, they gave him a hard time.</p>

<p>It really isn’t good for our workforce- to be overworked- I think it costs us more in productivity in the long run and it will cost us in health care expenditures.</p>

<p>I am not impressed when I see stats quoted on pay for certain fields- who cares if you make six figures if you have zero free time?
Are you really working just so you can pay your mortgage?</p>

<p>What we do every day- is how we spend our lives.
[Do we really need more money? or would we be better off with more time?](<a href=“http://www.timeday.org/default.asp”>http://www.timeday.org/default.asp&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

2

<p>EK–I’m with you completely on this one. My H and I have been wrestling with this for quite a while–it’s one of the reasons he changed careers.</p>

<p>About ten years ago, we read this book:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.yourmoneyoryourlife.org/[/url]”>http://www.yourmoneyoryourlife.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>and it has changed the way we look at money, lifestyle, choices, etc. We don’t follow its plan completely, but the general philosophy of looking at everything you buy as a chunk of your time has really resonated for us.</p>

3

<p>EK,</p>

<p>Several years ago I declined moving cross county to keep my job with a large corporation. I was severed. I had a choice: start a national job search to find a job with the equivalent managerial role pre-severance or find something in my area that was more of an individual contributor role.</p>

<p>The W and I decided to look locally, and only look nationally as a last resort.</p>

<p>I found something local with decent pay, although less than I made previously, and minimal travel. I have a healthy work/life balance now and would not trade it for title/presige/pay.</p>

<p>All the best to you and your family.</p>

4

<p>EK:</p>

<p>You’re right on. People need to strike a balance between work life and home life. Of course, there’ll be times one has to compromise a bit with work depending on their job but they need to make up for it at some point. To not do so might cause stress not only for the worker but also at home and even for fellow workers. It’s also counter-productive to the company if the worker gets to the point where they start to have health problems as a result.</p>

<p>My company doesn’t allow vacation time to be traded for ‘pay’ (they used to) and has a cap on the vacation accural so that people will need to either take the time off or lose it. The company actively encourages people to take their vacation time off and this is in a dynamic high-tech field. I’ve always told the people in my group that it’s ‘dumb’ to get to where they’re losing vacation (although admittedly I’ve done this myself multiple times). I’ve always supported people in my group taking vacations although depending on projects, sometimes taking it a month later or earlier works out better.</p>

5

<p>I know it will slow down soon for H ( he is @ Boeing working on the 787- he does experimental work & composites- so as soon as production is really up and running it will be someone elses baby)</p>

<p>but it is just that this is the last summer that the youngest will be home- and while older D in Portland has a fairly flexible schedule now ( she is freelance tech editor/writer), who knows how long that will last. :(</p>

<p>It especially sux to be working so many hours in the summer- we have really nice summers- not too muggy- bugs arent the size of a 767- and everything is still green.
And not only did I not get to go to the Vic- I didn’t get to go Lollapoolza and we haven’t gone camping yet! eek!
( however- we can do that after school starts when all the tourists leave :D)</p>

<p>At least- even though Microsoft is one of Ds clients she isn’t working * at * Microsoft- and she does have other projects- she seems to be very happy and relaxed whenever I talk to her- so that is pretty nice.</p>

<p>Boeing also combines all their holidays except for Thanksgiving/4th of July & Labor Day, with a break at Xmas, so we go out of town for that- because no matter how busy they get- if we are already out of town- they can’t call him in to work ;)</p>

6

<p>The 787 looks like it’s going to be a great plane thanks in part to your H.</p>

<p>The problem, as you point out, is that at this stage of life when the kids are moving on to college and out of the house the family vacations are likely numbered. Even if they want to go on a family vacation still, the scheduling can get very difficult. Now’s the time to maximize it as much as possible. </p>

<p>Boeing will somehow survive if your H takes a couple weeks off this summer. I know he’s contributing a lot and the schedule of the 787 is very important but so is the sanity of your H and family. Boeing’s a big company and can likely substitute for or work around your H taking a could of weeks off. Besides, I’ll bet plenty of his management and executives are managing to take their vacations this summer.</p>