Was Your Final Job "Sustainable"

[Coolius]

When I was doing part time consulting in 2005-2006, after being laid off by MegaCorp, I joined a Non Profit called SCORE. This stands for Service Corps Of Retired Executives, and is a national nonprofit funded by the SBA.

I used to volunteer about 8 hours a week, giving advice and consulting to aspiring business owner wannabees. Also taught courses for startup marketing, incorporation, and the like. All voluntary. Lots of weird folks among the rational ones that came to us - but's that another story altogether.

SCORE had its facility in the local building of the EDD, so we went there to do our work. I see almost daily the laziness and poor attitude of the front office staff when dealing with the poor folks who come in looking for a job or training opportunities. Often there would be 2-3 clerks, and because the place was not crowded they didn't have much to do, so they spent their time talking or doing their own thing. When the occasionally citizen walks in, they took a little time before one of them would walk over to the person and say " what do you want? "

Yes, I was upset. We volunteers had to pay our own gas and even materials we created for our classes, the government could not even provide that. And I see those clerks enjoying life every time I showed up.

 

[nun]

s/he's DARPA, seconded to the NSA. Nobody else has $$. Gotta be a spook.

This is no joke. As an physicist/optical engineer 90% of the jobs available to me require a security clearance. There is very little money or jobs for physical scientists and engineers outside of homeland security, military or the defence industry. I worry about the massive imbalance in the economy and when Govt defence spending is reduced there will be a lot of highly qualified PhDs with no where to go.

 

[Alan]

I work directly for a nonspecific federal, state, or local government, government agency, or political subdivision. I do work for the government directly as a direct government employee. I just don't care to get into specifics or details of the terms of my employment, but I am not a consultant or contractor if that is what you are hinting at. The terms of my employment (and all of my small group) is different than what most would consider traditional government employment but it is a full time permanent w-2 job as a direct government employee.

As such, my eyes are open.

Can you at least show us a photo of your black helicopter?

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

....when Govt defence spending is reduced there will be a lot of highly qualified PhDs with no where to go.

Better start to hunker down. DoD cuts are coming very, very soon.

 

[sn2792]

No, mine wasn't sustainable anymore. They kept cutting heads but none of the work ever went away. The good thing was I was able to work from home, so no commute or getting dressed for work, but I rarely left my desk at home and put in a lot of hours.

I couldn't take the stress anymore, so retired at 57.

 

[Trex]

My last full time job was with The US Forest Service as a Battalion Chief... but over a 30 year period, I served as a Firefighter, Fire Prevention Tech, Hotshot crewperson, Helicopter rappeller/crewperson, Fire Apparatus Engineer, Engine Captain, and and finally... Battalion Chief. I also worked on Incident Management Teams as a Division Supervisor, Branch Director, and Incident Commander...I also worked in the Plans Section.

During my 30 years of fighting Fire, and going on Hurricanes, I met a lot of good, hard working people who happen to be employees with the federal, state, and Local governments. Like myself, most where "Married" to there job, and would work 16 hour days, for weeks-on-end to get the job done...

The point I wanted to make, is... there are many hard working "government" employees out there, who are willing give up their private time with their families, for the good of this country...and they are not all in the armed forces .

Not sure where some of these "other" government employees worked, but I can tell you... where I worked, it was "A days work, for a days pay."

 

[Texas Proud]

My last full time job was with The US Forest Service as a Battalion Chief... but over a 30 year period, I served as a Firefighter, Fire Prevention Tech, Hotshot crewperson, Helicopter rappeller/crewperson, Fire Apparatus Engineer, Engine Captain, and and finally... Battalion Chief. I also worked on Incident Management Teams as a Division Supervisor, Branch Director, and Incident Commander...I also worked in the Plans Section.

During my 30 years of fighting Fire, and going on Hurricanes, I met a lot of good, hard working people who happen to be employees with the federal, state, and Local governments. Like myself, most where "Married" to there job, and would work 16 hour days, for weeks-on-end to get the job done...

The point I wanted to make, is... there are many hard working "government" employees out there, who are willing give up their private time with their families, for the good of this country...and they are not all in the armed forces .

Not sure where some of these "other" government employees worked, but I can tell you... where I worked, it was "A days work, for a days pay."

I do not disagree with you that there are plenty of hard working people out there that work for gvmt... but there are also a lot who just put in their time and are out of there... I have a friend who works for the city and he tells me about a few that would have been fired a LONG time ago if in private enterprise.... but because of unions and the rules you have to go through to fire someone, it is just not done..

And then you get to the part when one of my sisters worked up in Oregon... time in job was the most important thing... not job performance.. and if someone who had a lot of time 'lost' their job, they could 'take' your job... happend to my sister... the guy had 25 years of service and my sister 10 or 12... he lost his job and 'took' my sisters... she had to take another job that paid a lot less even though she was more qualified to do the job she had... (not sure if this rule is still in place, but having it at any time was stupid)...

 

[Leonidas]

Was you pre-retirement job sustainable? That is did it allow your to spend time on the rest of your life. Or did it consume your life?

It was in no way sustainable, enjoyable, or even bearable. Looking back at my old spreadsheet from the last year I see I worked 60-70 hours almost every week. And that wasn't just staying late or coming in early, it was working two jobs at once most of the time. Covering operations at 2 and 3 a.m., and then back in the office by 9 or 10 for a full day. Even decent days started hours earlier because on the nights I didn't work, there was a 30% chance that something happened the night before that would need a response for the politicians. You never wanted to get a call at 0630 with someone screaming, "The mayor wants to know what the hell happened out there!", without having an answer.

Dealing with prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers at night was always more preferable to dealing with their less-than-honest-about-it counterparts - politicians. They stuck me out front of a bunch of goofy crap over which I had zero control. Nobody gave me a free ticket to the Super Bowl, but after Janet Jackson shows her right titty to the world I'm the guy who has to explain why neither she, nor Justin Timberlake, spent the night in jail.

Most of the last year involved a very high profile project that I was in ostensibly in charge of (i.e. I was going to be the fall guy when it went to crap), but was not actually allowed to run it like I thought proper. I got out just before the big lawsuit that was only recently settled.

About two weeks into that job I realized I had been served a big ole #$% sandwich. Later, they decided to take away the bread, and that's when I retired.

 

[FUEGO]

This is no joke. As an physicist/optical engineer 90% of the jobs available to me require a security clearance. There is very little money or jobs for physical scientists and engineers outside of homeland security, military or the defence industry. I worry about the massive imbalance in the economy and when Govt defence spending is reduced there will be a lot of highly qualified PhDs with no where to go.

EPA is always hiring PhDs to wash test tubes and the like...

 

[MichaelB]

The point I wanted to make, is... there are many hard working "government" employees out there, who are willing give up their private time with their families, for the good of this country...and they are not all in the armed forces .

Not sure where some of these "other" government employees worked, but I can tell you... where I worked, it was "A days work, for a days pay."

For sure. Of course, a thread that praises hard working government employees isn't going to get much response, and you'll never read about it in the paper.

 

[Trex]

I do not disagree with you that there are plenty of hard working people out there that work for gvmt... but there are also a lot who just put in their time and are out of there... I have a friend who works for the city and he tells me about a few that would have been fired a LONG time ago if in private enterprise.... but because of unions and the rules you have to go through to fire someone, it is just not done..

And then you get to the part when one of my sisters worked up in Oregon... time in job was the most important thing... not job performance.. and if someone who had a lot of time 'lost' their job, they could 'take' your job... happend to my sister... the guy had 25 years of service and my sister 10 or 12... he lost his job and 'took' my sisters... she had to take another job that paid a lot less even though she was more qualified to do the job she had... (not sure if this rule is still in place, but having it at any time was stupid)...

When Jack Welch was CEO of GE, he would annually fire the bottom 10% of his managers... He felt that he could cut the bottom 10% and it wouldn't effect profits or productivity of his companies. And I think the same could be said about any government agency or any privately owned business...sorry to hear about your sister, hope she found another job.

 

[Nords]

Was you pre-retirement job sustainable? That is did it allow your to spend time on the rest of your life. Or did it consume your life?

My job was to sustain the military, and out every 168-hour workweek I wasted at least 35-40 of them sleeping.

I would have started pissing in my cube trash can as a form of protest.

Well, first I'd try leaving a steaming cup of coffee on a mug warmer next to a spare pair of reading glasses on my desk. "I haven't seen him in a while but that looks like a fresh cup, and he can't get far without his glasses!"

 

[Walt34]

Was your pre-retirement job sustainable? That is did it allow your to spend time on the rest of your life. Or did it consume your life?

Mine was, for the most part. Of course there were days when I wished I'd chosen a career as a ditch-digger as it seemed a lot less work.

DW's job was clearly not sustainable, which is one reason we're so happy to be in a position where we don't need the income. Although a federal employee she was working far beyond the 8-hour days everyone thinks federal workers do and was suffering physically from it.

But we both see younger relatives working themselves to near-exhaustion just to stay afloat.

 

[DeborahB]

Ouch -- financially speaking, this is probably the worst of both worlds, the crappy pay of a non-profit but without the security found in the public sector. Guess you'd have to be pretty passionate about the mission of the non-profit to have satisfaction in a job like that.

Actually the pay wasn't bad. The BS was. And to have my 35 year old manager tell me I wasn't ready to be promoted to the senior level of my current job still pisses me off. That's why I gave them only 2 weeks' notice. Well.... ONE of the reasons.

In IT they pay pretty well because there is demand for experienced people. Or was...

 

[73ss454]

I worked in the Car Biz in a car dealership for 35 years and towards the end I couldn't deal with it any more. Even today, 5 years after retirement I get pains in my stomach just driving by a car dealership. I couldn't have stayed 5 more minutes.

 

[eytonxav]

There is very little money or jobs for physical scientists and engineers outside of homeland security, military or the defence industry. I worry about the massive imbalance in the economy and when Govt defence spending is reduced there will be a lot of highly qualified PhDs with no where to go.

I wish there was more pure research done in both US gov't and private sectors, as I see that as being fertilizer for continued innovation, new product creation and global leadership. These areas typically come under attack especially in austere times, and many fail to see the benefits for funding. What a shame!

 

[haha]

I worked in the Car Biz in a car dealership for 35 years and towards the end I couldn't deal with it any more. Even today, 5 years after retirement I get pains in my stomach just driving by a car dealership. I couldn't have stayed 5 more minutes.

This speaks loudly 73. Stomache, headache or vomiting often send us scurrying toward ER.

 

[FUEGO]

Well, first I'd try leaving a steaming cup of coffee on a mug warmer next to a spare pair of reading glasses on my desk. "I haven't seen him in a while but that looks like a fresh cup, and he can't get far without his glasses!"

They had coffeemakers where you worked? Ours got taken away in the last round of budget cuts.

 

[Texas Proud]

They had coffeemakers where you worked? Ours got taken away in the last round of budget cuts.

LOL... back in 2002 or 3 we moved to a new building at mega.... the company put in a cafeteria and coffee bar (it was standard to have a cafeteria in a building up North)...

But, after about 6 months or so, the coffee was taken away from every floor... seems that not enough people were going downstairs and paying for Starbucks or whatever brand it was... so they were not 'breaking even' which was a requirement....

Now, this was the ONLY building where this occured, so it was not made as a cost saving...

 

[FUEGO]

LOL... back in 2002 or 3 we moved to a new building at mega.... the company put in a cafeteria and coffee bar (it was standard to have a cafeteria in a building up North)...

But, after about 6 months or so, the coffee was taken away from every floor... seems that not enough people were going downstairs and paying for Starbucks or whatever brand it was... so they were not 'breaking even' which was a requirement....

Now, this was the ONLY building where this occured, so it was not made as a cost saving...

We moved to a new (older) building this summer. Goodbye break room with mini kitchen and running water. Hello to storage closet with fridge and microwave crammed in corner. Our (nasty 50 year old) bathroom is the nearest water source. No hot water (unless you let it run 10 minutes so the hot water can make the arduous journey 9 floors up). However the views are nice. Tonight as I work late the city looks beautiful. First time I have seen the city in the dark from up here.

 

[Koolau]

For some reason this thread reminds me of the last line in each episode of a TV series: "There are 8 million stories in the 'Naked City'. This has been one of them."

I've related elsewhere in these threads that my j*b at megacorp was up and down as far as number of hours required and "worthwhileness" of the w*rk required. I went from enjoying it to hating it and back (and forth) several times. When I had reached all my RE goals, all it took was for one of the cr*p details to rear its ugly rear and, ppphhhfffuuttt! I was gone. As far as I was concerned, that assignment was unsustainable - and I didn't have to do it.

I have to sympathize with the (8 million) stories here. I see little bits and pieces of what I (and I'm sure most of us) had to go through at one time or another. I thank God that it wasn't through out my entire tenure. At it's worst, my j*b was not only unsustainable, I feel certain it would have been the death of me had it continued that way. Thankfully, I had already been planning my escape when the most recent (final) SHTF.

 

[retiredncolorado]

I worked at a health system as the VP in charge of I.S., telecom, biomed, and security systems for over twenty years. I always put a tidy sum away for retirement, but I out into place a well defined ER plan shortly after Y2K. Waking up a 4 am to meet with surgeons at 6 a.m., attending meetings all day and leaving the office at 7 pm, just to read email until bed time(what a life)..... I did this for years, but thankfully I was able to leave when I turned fifty. I know many people that can't leave this environment and I feel for them. Seeing what life has to offer has been an enlightening experience. When I see people that I used to associate with they say I look ten years younger. My past life was not sustainable!

 

[Katsmeow]

Was you pre-retirement job sustainable? That is did it allow your to spend time on the rest of your life. Or did it consume your life?

First, let me talk about my husband's job. It really was sustainable. He worked for a megacorp and had regular hours. He got every other Friday off the last several years and he rarely (but occasionally) had to work beyond the normal work day. Also, he did not have to work extra hours when he came back to make up for the time he missed by taking some of his 7 weeks of paid time off.


Me on the other hand? It is really only now that I realized how stressed I was by my full time working situation. I do still work but am very, very part time. I do get periodically asked to work full time, but the mere thought of it fills me with anxiety and tension. One of the months shortly before I went part time I billed almost 400 hours. That was, indeed, an anomaly but nonetheless it is fair to say that I worked far more hours than my husband. And, so much of it was high stress. And, if I took vacation or was sick then that really just increased the number of hours I needed to work to keep my hours up.

I look back on that time and wonder now how I ever managed my life then. I'm so busy now that I wonder I ever had time to work so much. I do realize that so much of my home life was sacrificed for years. Now that I am working part time and have no pressures to do X amount of work, I realize that the work itself isn't the problem. I enjoy the work that I do. It was the situation of having to work so many hours under so much stress that I hated. I don't think I realized then how much stress I was under. I realize it now when I feel a sense of almost panic at the thought of returning to those days.

 

[Lisa99]

My career in sales support was not sustainable. For 15 years I worked nights/weekends...whatever it took (most weeks was >80 hours).

Switched careers and now run a global program in the IT area. This job is easily sustainable in that I don't work nights or weekends and compared to my sales years is a cakewalk. However, if I hadn't spent those years in the sales pressure cooker I might have a different view of my current job...it's all in the perspective.

 

[obgyn65]

Sometimes only in my case.

Was you pre-retirement job sustainable?