What could Megacorp offer to stop you from ER?

[tuixiu]

So do you 2-3 days per week guys find it tolerable? I already telecommute full time and had wondered about proposing a 2-3 day per week gig. Seems like it would still leave you with a week of mostly free time, heck every weekend you have enough time for a nice road trip if you want it especially if there was some flexibility where one could stack the days early one week and end of the following one.

 

[pb4uski]

I worked 80% part time and then 50% part time for the last 5 or so years before I ERd. Also, telecommuted so the only time I had to commute was when traveling for business. IF you have (or want) to work it was a great gig.

The only issue that I had was that our work was highly demanding and time sensitive and I was "on-call" 24/7 and my work would often be small pockets of time (a couple of hours here and there) so I didn't have contiguous time unscheduled to be able to do things like golf (which usually takes 5-6 contiguous hours with travel and all). We couldn't really figure out a sensible way around that so I decided to hang it up.

If the nature of the work was such that I could have had Friday to Mondays "off" and work Tuesday to Thursday I would probably still be working. But if a corporate client had an issue arise on a Thursday evening, an answer that we can't get pb4uski to consult on it until the following Tuesday was not going to be an acceptable response and both my bosses and I knew it.

 

[scrabbler1]

So do you 2-3 days per week guys find it tolerable? I already telecommute full time and had wondered about proposing a 2-3 day per week gig. Seems like it would still leave you with a week of mostly free time, heck every weekend you have enough time for a nice road trip if you want it especially if there was some flexibility where one could stack the days early one week and end of the following one.

The sort answer to your quesiton is NO!

After 2 years of mostly telecommuting (going to the office one day a week), they eliminated it so I was commuting 3 days a week for 3.5 years then reduced it to 2 days a week for 2.5 years. The commute was so bad that even 2 days a week was 2 days too many, so I had to eliminate it. In my exit interview, I told the HR rep that even if they offered my old, mosty telecommute gig I would have turned it down. MAYBE I'd have gone for a once-a-month commute AND eligibility for group health benefits (which went away when I reduced my weekly hours worked to 12 with the 2-days-a-week deal). But both were non-starters so I ERed.

 

[ziggy29]

So do you 2-3 days per week guys find it tolerable?

I'd say it depends on what you are doing and how much it reduces the filling of your BS bucket. Right now I'm working an average of 2 days a week, 4 hours a day, doing something entirely different from the j*b I lost in April. For the most part I'm enjoying it (which is good because I'm certainly not doing it for the pay), and it helps to know that if anyone starts to fill my BS bucket, with even one shovelful, I can walk away without giving it a second thought. Also, to a reasonable extent I can choose which days I'm willing to come in and which days I don't want to. I think that mindset makes it a lot easier to stay engaged, at least a little bit, and maybe give a little bit of spending money on the side.

 

[palomalou]

What could Megacorp offer to stop you from ER?

Not a damn thing!

+1

 

[48Fire]

So do you 2-3 days per week guys find it tolerable?

I tried that, and it did not work for me. There were still things on my mind in between the working days. I was even telecommuting as well. Better, yes, but did not stop me from ER. I may go back to something in some capacity, but maybe it would be better to do a 2 or 3 month gig, and just grind through it.

I'd say it depends on what you are doing and how much it reduces the filling of your BS bucket.

I think it depends on WHO you are as well. When you come back from vacation, are you anxious at all to get back into the challenges? Do you stay engaged during vacation with emails, cell phones, etc.? To me, the part time gig is like eating half the broccoli I don't like. After that first taste, it is just grinding through the rest.

 

[ziggy29]

I think it depends on WHO you are as well. When you come back from vacation, are you anxious at all to get back into the challenges? Do you stay engaged during vacation with emails, cell phones, etc.? To me, the part time gig is like eating half the broccoli I don't like. After that first taste, it is just grinding through the rest.

It helps to have the type of work where you don't have long-term deadlines and where days off don't translate to stuff piling up in your "inbox" -- or bosses and coworkers needing to keep you on electronic leashes with e-mail and cell phones. That makes it a lot easier to really feel "off" when you aren't on the job.

That was one of the things that really sucked about my Megacorp gig. Sure, you could take a week off... but when I first started working in the Megacorp world, your work was parceled out to other team members to do, so when you came back you weren't overwhelmed. These days, with the skeleton crews in place and everyone already having 50-60 hours worth of work themselves, a week's worth of backlogged work waits for you when you return.... so you have to work twice as long/hard in your first week back in order to catch up. It's a lot harder to really feel "off" and not have job angst while you are on vacation in such an environment.

 

[48Fire]

It helps to have the type of work where you don't have long-term deadlines and where days off don't translate to stuff piling up in your "inbox" -- or bosses and coworkers needing to keep you on electronic leashes with e-mail and cell phones. That makes it a lot easier to really feel "off" when you aren't on the job.

That was one of the things that really sucked about my Megacorp gig. Sure, you could take a week off... but when I first started working in the Megacorp world, your work was parceled out to other team members to do, so when you came back you weren't overwhelmed. These days, with the skeleton crews in place and everyone already having 50-60 hours worth of work themselves, a week's worth of backlogged work waits for you when you return.... so you have to work twice as long/hard in your first week back in order to catch up. It's a lot harder to really feel "off" and not have job angst while you are on vacation in such an environment.

Well said!! That was my problem exactly! And there was also some added resentment, either real or perceived, that was directed at the part-timer/telecommuter.

 

[Ronstar]

So do you 2-3 days per week guys find it tolerable? I already telecommute full time and had wondered about proposing a 2-3 day per week gig. Seems like it would still leave you with a week of mostly free time, heck every weekend you have enough time for a nice road trip if you want it especially if there was some flexibility where one could stack the days early one week and end of the following one.

It's tolerable the 5 off days and sometimes tolerable the 2 work days. I have an assistant that handles everything on my off days with maybe 10 emails a week, and then we get enough work done with the guy I'm transitioning to in my 2 work days to keep things progressing.