<p>I’d love to work part-time too. I’ve been looking for I haven’t found anything decent. The work is lousy or the pay is too low…I’m a cpa and I don’t feel like doing A/P. I’ll keep looking. Maybe when the economy gets better, I’ll find something good.</p>
<p>We use a bookkeeper to help keep our books for our smallish non-profit. That is her specialty & she runs our balance sheets, does our payroll, cuts checks, balances the checkbook, reconciles the credit card, sends out tax forms & does the things that we would have an office manager do. You can either pay hourly or monthly (we pay monthly). It works for us. She has several of us non-profit clients. We may not pay all that well, but it works for her & for us. We’ll need to find someone (probably a CPA) to help do our tax filing with the IRS, since our income this year was over the minimum to just file the 990EZ :(</p>
<p>There is also those folks who do financial planning, if you’re interested in that. Non-profits generally scrape by and don’t pay very well, but still it’s some income while helping make this a better world. I have been able do some travelling for my non-profit, which helps me keep in touch with others in the field. I really like that aspect of my work.</p>
<p>I was home for many years, so I am now enjoying being “non-retired”, but a close friend who always worked (in a very high pressure career) retired a few years ago when her kids were in their teens. She loves having time to do the things she couldn’t do before.</p>
<p>^^
alias - I am also a CPA and I work part time as an AP Accountant. I actually enjoy it (most days:) ) and my job has expanded to include other duties. It helps that I work for a really good company.</p>
<p>Himom, working for several non-profits on a p/t basis sounds interesting. A long time ago, I worked for a nonprofit, and it was a more relax environment with flex working hours.</p>
<p>fallgirl, oh no, the a/p jobs that I’ve found are very entry level since they as for an AA degree only. Your A/P job is a complex one.</p>
<p>Most of us non-profits are very small and can’t afford (and don’t need) a full-time bookkeeper but do need someone to help manage our books (some of us aren’t good at balancing them. The cool thing is that many of your clients are doing amazing things to help make the world a better place. The stresses are different and the people are generally very good-hearted. It’s definitely a different vibe from the “business” or corporate world. </p>
<p>Originally, we tried to hire a bookkeeper on an hourly basis but she decided she didn’t want to take on yet another non-profit & stuck with the employers she was working part-time hourly with. We are enjoying our “office manager,” who does our “back office” stuff and helps us be sure we file the right things with worker’s comp, social security, etc. It has worked pretty well and she’s been doing this for non-profits for over a dozen years. She is doing so well, she only takes referrals and only works for the NPs she likes. She’s been able to hire her husband and two of her daughters to help her with her firm. I drop by her office a few times a month or can e-mail, phone or fax her. It has worked well for me–got her name from the insurance agent who helped us evaluate our insurance needs.</p>
<p>Jealous… I would love to quit and find a half-time job, but if I can just hang in there for another 6 years, I can retire with a modest pension and find work that is less stressful and more enjoyable and worse paid. Six years seems like an eternity right now! :eek:</p>
<p>I am on the verge of quitting… we have an all-staff meeting on Tuesday morning when they’re supposed to roll out some new business practices. If what I’m hearing is true, I will leave on the spot and may be joining the ranks of you who are unemployed and loving it.</p>
<p>I would love a pension and benefits, but really would have a tough time adjusting to having to be at an office after so many years of being able to set my own schedule and hours. I will just have to be satisfied piggybacking on H’s benefits. 
Will see if I can continue to work part time and continue to contribute a bit to our household income.</p>
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<p>Actually my A/P job was not complex when I started it, it has evolved that way. In the area where I live (suburban DC) many companies will not hire a person without a 4 year degree even if the work doesn’t actually call for it. My own company is this way. You might try one of those jobs and see where it goes.</p>
<p>My position was eliminated last summer due to a major team reorganization when my boss moved to a different job. I was a 100% virtual employee so lived nowhere near the offices. I had been working over 10 years, got 6 months severance, and was eligible for early retirement (not that I get much). My husband retired after 30 years and started full-time consulting so we both are eligible for retiree benefits, which helps a lot. It also helps that our son is now through college and has a job, and our house is essentially paid for. With the free time, I was able to help our son move across the country and get settled into his new home.</p>
<p>I thought it would be hard to not be working but it’s been much easier than I thought. I’m willing to work again but not just for the sake of working. I’ve already redefined myself several times and don’t want to start from scratch yet again. My first career out of college was with the government and lasted 15 years; I ended in a fairly high position. Then I had the baby and stayed home for a few years, went back to school and studied accounting, started back work part-time and temp with mainly bookkeeping work, and finally got my last job which was technically administrative but turned into quite a bit of analytical which is my strength.</p>
<p>So first I would have to adjust to an office after working from home for so long, then I would have to find a job that utilizes my abilities. I also wouldn’t want to commit to a long term job since we are investigating relocation to a warmer climate and hopefully will move sometime this year. I’ve looked at temp and part-time but everything I’ve found doesn’t seem to pay any better than unemployment and would be very clerical. I feel like I’ve already compromised my abilities and hope not to have to do it again.</p>
<p>I know I’m very lucky to be in my situation. I’ve started exercising much more often and just began volunteering at the local humane society. Once we finally move I intend to investigate the job market, including returning to federal employment.</p>
<p>So to the OP’s query:
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<p>I feel a tiny bit bad about being unemployed but have managed to rationalize myself out of it! I’d already made plenty of compromises and changes as a parent; I feel DH had sacrificed some of our family life for the sake of career and future income and I didn’t want to do the same. So now I can take the time and really consider what I want from this stage of life.</p>
<p>Not to get political but therein lies the problem…jobs that are out there often pay less than unemployment. So we have lots of unemployed people out there and some of them don’t mind being unemployed. In the meantime, small employers like myself continue to see all of our costs skyrocket. We can almost make more money doing less work and having fewer employees. None of this bodes well for the economy.</p>
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<p>That is such crying shame! Given this subject’s importance, it should be recognized as deserving one of the higher pay scales. I know that is almost never the case, but it is still extremely shortsighted.</p>
<p>“Not to get political but therein lies the problem…jobs that are out there often pay less than unemployment. So we have lots of unemployed people out there and some of them don’t mind being unemployed.”</p>
<p>And that is very true if the spouse is fully employed and makes decent income.</p>
<p>They should have coupled unemployment benefits on a sliding scale with household income.</p>
<p>dstark must be having nightmares with the title of the thread.</p>
<p>Xiggii–From your lips to the colleges’ ears! However, I doubt colleges see it the way we computed it. The one i used to teach at actually did throw in a couple hundred extra a semester for comp, but it didn’t begin to make a difference compared to the amount of time it takes to thoroughly go over essays in all their drafts and really work through the enormous issues the students come in with–some are barely literate. I used to watch with envy other instructors running their answer sheets through the machines to get grades.</p>
<p>I still love the work though, and if I can swing the cut in pay and lack of bennies, I may go back to it. (and since my full-time job pays less than the average new college grad, it’s actually not that much of a cut in pay! :)).</p>
<p>Fallgirl, thanks for the heads up. Now that you are mentioning it. I may just apply and try to get an interview to learn more about the positions. Although finding time to interview with a f/t job which doesn’t offer any flex time is kind of hard.</p>
<p>HiMom, your bookkeeper really found a niche withing the nonprofit. I wonder how long does it take to really build a nice the client base.</p>
<p>Well, I think HI has the highest # of non-profits per capita of anywhere. Since there are many of us who are NOT financially savvy, I’m not sure it took all that long for her to build a client base, but I can ask her tomorrow when I see her if you’d like. I need to pick up financial docs for our board meeting that’s coming up. If each firm is paying $395/month for payroll, balancing checkbook, paying some bills & a statement, it can add up pretty nicely, I think.</p>
<p>I know quite a few people who are unemployed and are making no effort to look for a job since unemployment benefits keep getting extended. Yes, some people definitely need the benefits, but I know one family in particular where the husband got laid off, collects the top amount in unemployment, starting a consulting business with his wife as CEO, has all checks made out to her, and double-dips. I’m sure this isn’t a unique situation. Those of us who still have jobs are doing twice as much work without pay raises.</p>
<p>I’ll jump on the soapbox for a minute…Nobody should collect unemployment for anything beyond the original time frame,if you give extensions the person collecting those ‘benefits’ should do something for the money,pick up trash along highways,whatever…Kind of like the WPA of many years ago…Stepping off the soapbox now. ;)</p>
<p>So if you are “unemployed” but enjoying it so much, should you perhaps, instead, use the term “currently retired”?? Seriously. I have to agree that I would be so so grateful for umemployment benefits if I needed them, it is a bit unsettling to hear/see people who (and I’m talking about people I know in RL) who are “soaking up” that opportunity not to work as long as they can. Sorry, it kind of rubs me the wrong way. </p>
<p>Guess I was on the soapbox for a bit too. :)</p>
<p>In my state, the top unemployment benefit is only $625/week. This would barely (and might not) cover COBRA insurance payments + the taxes.</p>
<p>I’m a bit jealous of people who have the luxury of treating unemployment as an extended vacation. If I am unemployed, we starve, are homeless, and the kid has to drop out of college. Ok, a slight exaggeration, we could hold out for a while, but if it went more than 6 months we would be in trouble. The last time I was unemployed for a lengthy time was during the .com bust 8-10 years ago. It was incredibly stressful and not enjoyable at all.</p>