Work.

[balthazar]

I'm working 2 jobs for the first time in my life. Today I left the house at 9AM, got back home about 5:30, left again at 8:30 and got home at 12:30 (including drive time). That's 11.5 hrs. Did nearly the same yesterday and have nearly the same penciled in for tomorrow. Off-limit weekends are now fair game for work. I seem to have some sort of inhuman energy recently in this department.... yet my '59 sits gathering dust out in the shop- a 1000 hours left in the restification. Perhaps the ideal that you 'stop working, you die' is taking root. Or conversly; I'm trying to kill myself.

The actual reality is I'm simply trying to amass more cash.

Longest hours I ever did was 120 hrs / week, but the work wasn't hard. Money was fantastic: time & a half after 8, doubletime on the weekend. Yes; I was milking it, but it was for a non-profit corporation: they have to get rid of their money.

I actually have a strong old school work ethic, from my ethnic roots I believe, so I enjoy it for the most part. But I wonder how long I can keep this up.

Anyone need to bitch / co-miserate about work?

[Flybrian]

Dear Balthazar,

The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated.

Signed...

[FAPTurbo]

Dear Balthazar,

The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated.

Signed...

187304[/snapback]

[Satty]

I've been on vacation for since 8/14 and I'm not sure when I'm going back. I got a great deal when I moved from the store to the corporate office, I got to keep the vacation time I had accumulated at the store plus I received two weeks paid from the new gig. So yes, I need to vent, whenever I decide to go back I'm not going to remember how to do my (mindless) job.

[razoredge]

Im back on approx, 60 hr weeks again, and I hate it already. 12.5 yesterday, 11 today, I think were even gonna work this Sat. Thats what I really hate............for years I always said "dont say Saturday" on Saturday I work at my home. Construction ! Its the only kind of work I can get a job doing so Im just gonna have to learn to live with it. For me 5 - 10 hours days is perfect. A 50 hour week, all done and over with by 4:30 on Friday.............but Noooooooooooooooo we cant have that, you gotta work Saturdays so that you dont get any sence of responsibility outside of "what we want you to do". Screw your family, your projects, your house, your lawn, your cars, screw any time to just stop and enjoy life.

there needs to be a law that jobs can not have deadlines. What happens is all these projects are promised to be done in an unreasonable amount of time and it leads to all the workforce involved having absolutely no quality of life. Then society hates us because we are noisy, dirty and dont dress right.............................f@#kers !

take that

[trinacriabob]

Yes; I was milking it, but it was for a non-profit corporation: they have to get rid of their money.

I actually have a strong old school work ethic, from my ethnic roots I believe, so I enjoy it for the most part. But I wonder how long I can keep this up.

187302[/snapback]

We all hit those "lucky" spells where work seems to rain on us...and money...but they always come and go.

You can't keep it up. Don't even kid yourself. Heck, even in my 20s, if I worked beaucoup hours and hit any type of caffeine, I would eventually get the shakes and start making mistakes. Then I would need a major sleep cycle to get back on track.

Since I've been on this job, I think I hit 58 and 62 hours per week WITHOUT overtime... since I'm salaried. Now, we are so short on people, we get our straight time salary once we go 10% over the base # of hours in a pay period. So, if the pay period is 80 hours and we work at least 88 hours, then we get straight time for anything above 80 hours. Not bad.

What is your ethnic background that gives you this work ethic? I mean, I know you live in Jersey.

[mustang84]

I worked 61 hours one week this summer during my internship, and most weeks were above 50. Luckily, I got paid overtime and I didn't really mind it since there wasn't much to do at night where I was staying...but I'm sure once you have a family and a house, it sucks to work that many hours.

[capriceman]

right now at around 40 i have one normaly 56 hour a week full time job. and one half ass part time job. and i do side jobs on my spare time. its not bad when you sleep 1/2 hour a day.

[knightfan26917]

Anyone need to bitch / co-miserate about work?

Yes.

I need a new job ... hate the call center environment.

Cort, "Mr MC" / "Mr Road Trip", 32swm/pig valve/pacemaker

MC:family.IL.guide.future = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/

Models.HO = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/trainroom.html

"You better not try to stand in my way" ... J Paycheck ... 'Take This Job & Shove It'

[balthazar]

Just got back from my 2nd job; worked 9PM to 1:15AM. I wouldn't be into working past 5PM normally, but the pay on this one is much better than the daily grind, it's a sort of caffeine for me apparently.

Bob- the ethnic comment is just an idle muse. I'm half Polish... but the paternal side where that line runs is full of hard workers. My grandfather put a 3-story addition on his house by himself at age 70.

[zhawk]

I can definately understand where you are coming from.

My wife got a call from our kids school district offering her more hours as a custodian. The poor woman on the other end of the phone was frantic to find extra help, including some permanent positions.

Guess what, now I am listed as a substitute for them and may soon have a permanent 4 hour a day job. That goes along with my 8-9 hour days fixing airplanes and my Air Force Reserve commitment. I would start at the school at 6PM and work until 10, then drive to Tacoma to work on base from 11 to 9AM on most days (I have one 8 hour day every two weeks). After that come home and sleep. Weekends are going to be family time. And we'll have to see if I can continue going to martial arts (Tang Soo Do) with the wife and kids.

I guess after working a lot of 12 hour shifts over my time I was activated last year, the shorter work days don't seem like much. And heck, I can deal with lots of long days as long as I get to come home, rather than back to a tent or a room in ANY deployed location.

[Sixty8panther]

Yeah... my parent's have that ridiculous work ethic. They don't

EVER stop. My dad has been working saturday & sunday

mornings, on top of his mon-fri 40 hours as of late & his job is

wicked stressfull. Mom works two jobs and they still take Sofia

on the weekends as well as fixing/renovating their house three

times a month.

Don't burn yourself out Balthazar... and definatelly don't forget

you have just about 2 years to get that WQ59B on the road for

the Anniversary of the '59s introduction. I think that's my new

deadline to buy one BTW.

September of 1958 they would have been tearing down the

brown paper off the windows of Buick dealers all over the USA

and the public would have gotten their first glance at one of

the most gorgeous & elegant cars in all human history as well

as the most radical redesign in Buick's history.

On the 50th anniversary of that event you should be making

people in Camrys, Scions & Acuras nervous as you pilot your

455 powered Delta wing down the road in a rumble of high

compression & true duals.

Just a friendly reminder. :wink:

[ShadowDog]

That's a pretty heavy pace, for sure. Still, the rewards can be worth it.

After working 60 hour weeks for the past 6 months during the course of our renovations, I don't even remember what a 40 hour work week is like. Managing this operation will be far easier once this $h!-bucket is fixed up; and to think that before this all started, I was entertaining the thought of picking up a weekend job to save up some extra vacation trip funds. It would certainly cut into the one day my wife and I get to spend together. So if I did that, my wife would kill me.

[razoredge]

Your all stupid..................the whole damn country...................you cant buy back your life..............the more we do this the less they can pay us because we will just pick up more hours or more jobs, send the wifes to work two jobs. For what , I mean really, for what ?

You know how many couples are divorced or drivin apart because they have no life together ? Or because the man was never home and the wife never got the attention or affection she needed. How many men are single because they just dont have time. Sorry theres more to life than trying to impress your employer, he better give some damn good head, cook an excellent diner and use fabric softner in the laundry or your highly underpaid....................

I worked like that for over twenty years when I had my own business. The longest straight run of productive work days was 36. I always said it wasnt a job, it was a way of life. "Someday it will all come around and pay off and Ill have a chance to breath." In the meantime I missed so much of my daughter growing up, now shes almost gone. My "wife" and I had the strangest damn relationship, we simply coexisted, internally life was barron for both of us. I worked till dark everynight, which got me home as late as 10:00 in June. 9:00 in May/July, ect. ect. ect. If I did come home early it was because I needed to fix this and that down in the shop. Same on Sundays, always something that needed fixin in the shop. No vacations, no trips, no nothing. I could just scream now when I think back to seeing my little daughters face on Sundays when she would ask me "Daddy, Mommy and I are going to ___________can you come with us ? No Honey, I cant, I have to _____________ " I have shed hard tears on this very subject, at times when Im alone, for the past 5 years as she became more grown up and I knew that little girl was gone and not comming back.

I was too busy for my Father, I was too busy for my Grandfather, now their both gone, same year - 96'...............way to go. I really worked hard after that, it was the only way I could keep my mind of the fact that I wasted the last of their years "No, sorry I cant because I have to __________"

So now what ? I'll tell you all right now, in the end, none of this bull$h! matters. When your dead, its not going to matter that you made your boss rich and gave him lenghty vacations with his family and Weds afternoon golf games. It is going to matter that you didnt spend the time when you had it with the people that mattered most. The people that are an extension of yourself. You will sit with your heart broke, that those times are gone and not comming back. You will once again ponder the meaning of life, same as you did as a child. Then you will realize the meaning of life is not W O R K !

The cats in the cradle and the silver spoon

little boy blue and the man in the moon

when you commin home son ?

"I dont know when, but well get together then Dad

We're gonna have a good time then"

[balthazar]

Well said & true, razor. BTW- what sort of construction are you doing?

In a perfect world, I would not work at anything but my hobbies, art & house. It would not be going to 'work', but going to 'create'.

[knightfan26917]

The cats in the cradle and the silver spoon

little boy blue and the man in the moon

when you commin home son ?

"I dont know when, but well get together then Dad

We're gonna have a good time then"

DARN good song .

*sighs*

If only companies were more generous with vacation time......

[razoredge]

Well said & true, razor. BTW- what sort of construction are you doing?

In a perfect world, I would not work at anything but my hobbies, art & house. It would not be going to 'work', but going to 'create'.

188111[/snapback]

Ive done nearly everything in the past 6 years since I quit "the woods" which in itself was a sector of construction. But currently and hopefully I can endure for years, Im simply delievering "rock". Its a local quarry, only a 6 mile drive from home. So that helps eliminate over an hour of my day wasted due to work and with 12 hour days that means alot. This outfit does alot of developement site prep, thats how the guy began actually, excavation. He got a few large jobs 6 years ago. Tearing down and regrading two large shopping malls built in the 60's. THen he just boomed, bought a small local field lime quarry and turned it into a full aggregate quarry. Its actually a fairly impressive operation, Ive worked for larger but that was the largest in NY. Our area is limestone rich and there are 3 quarrys within 12 miles. So I guess we are a "rock town" In fact one town is called Cobleskill and I dont know the history but Im kinda suspect where the name came from...............

I worked 7 hours today.................and I have Monday off.........imagine that.

Perfect world for me would be 40 hour 5 day weeks, like our ancestors fought for. Decent enough wages so one could make decent living on straight time. Mothers raising their children not hauling off to work and let the rugrats do as they please. But most cant do that and survive today. Then we are far to busy selling off America piece by piece in the name of economic prosperity. Slower would not hurt a thing if we had never gone too fast in the first place. Now stopping it would be like stoping rush hour traffic with a huge boulder in the road.....................C R A S H !

Ah, gee Fred, I just dont understand it...................

[balthazar]

Interesting: I quit the 'boards' 6 years ago too, tho my board was a drafting table(/computer screen). Since then I've also done everything from (steadily more primary) excavation to demo, grading, trenching, pouring concrete, stonework, framing, drywall, finish work (trim, cabinet building/installation), electrical, plumbing, roofing, windows & doors, welding & steel fabrication and a good dozen other areas.

[razoredge]

yep, Ive done a bunch of those myself. Just finished restoreing much of an old farm house before this job. wood floors, bath remodel, kitchen, foundation work.

Now if only I had some skills.........................

Ive found I much rather work for someone else now, without the complications. After the burn I took for devoteing 20 of my most vital years to an industry moved south of the border and also manipulated by state employed foresters (well protected, blanketed, clueless & careless about the reality of making profit for ones investment ), Ive found myself unfaithful that these kinds of efforts can possibly pay off. I guess you could call it gun shy.

speaking of guns...................still have a few bugs to work out on the Vaporizer...........

[capriceman]

Well said & true, razor. BTW- what sort of construction are you doing?

In a perfect world, I would not work at anything but my hobbies, art & house. It would not be going to 'work', but going to 'create'.

188111[/snapback]

If you win the lotto you could do that. so start betting away at the lotto. :AH-HA_wink:

[ShadowDog]

So now what ? I'll tell you all right now, in the end, none of this bull$h! matters.  You will once again ponder the meaning of life, same as you did as a child. Then you will realize the meaning of life is not W O R K !

188037[/snapback]

Oh, I agree completely. Still, it's different for many people. Some work extra because they have a complex that tells them the workplace would fall apart without them. Sometimes, it would...but that's the fault of poor management when reliance is on one, or themselves, to get the job done. Then there's the people with self-superiority, believing that their jobs are so important that they really need to devote all their efforts into ensuring utmost efficiency. Some just want the extra cash for a project or hobby. In a way, like a job in highschool. The regular job is like classes, earning what you want to pay the bills and tuck some money away for the future; and after class is time for some extra money to goof off with, or spend on hobbies. For many, this is temporary just to get the funds; for instance, my buddy working a couple months at another job to fund another bank account to get enough money together for a trip with his girlfriend and an engagement ring to give her. Others just do it to reduce debt quicker.

[Camino LS6]

It all sounds so familiar *sigh*

"rich man in the graveyard, working like a slave. In the end what's your reward, how much did you save?"

[razoredge]

I know Shadowdog, thats what I did for 20 years, I just loved it.

I should have, BTW, said "We're all stupid" not "your all stupid" cause Ive done the same thing and actually get a bit annoyed if I dont get some OT because the paycheck sucks otherwise.

Anybody remember the song Brother Jacob ? I bet Camino does ?

One of my favorites, from one of my favorite records

Head East / Flat as a Pancake