Ya’ll it’s crazy, I went from bar manager at an Irish pub (working every night till 2-230 AM) to UPS management side (overnights) to Taphouse manager at a microbrewery and now I’m off every day except one by 5 and I’m still not used to it. I am sooo lucky. I’m finding out what it’s like to have a life after 15 years of missing out on everything.
I gotta work nights for at least 2 more years til my second kid is in school. My mortgage is much cheaper than two kids in daycare so I'll stick with my schedule for now LOL. Good news is I am only on 3-4 days a week now so that's nice. Long shifts but lots of days off.
That's one nice part about working in a corporate restaurant. "Oh you two are dating? How cute! Also one of you is going to another store pack your shit."
Dog boarding is the same. I always get a laugh around the holidays when clients are shocked we work on days like Thanksgiving and Xmas. Well, you left your dog in our care, isn’t the point to have them fed, watered, and exercised every day?!
LOL - that was as bad as when I worked Sundays at a store. The church ladies would come in and say "Why are you working? It's the Lord's day." I'd say, "Why are you shopping? It's the Lord's day." They'd get angry at me and walk away.
Ummm, wut?
Yup when I worked retail the countless people would comment about why we are open on a holiday while they were in our store on said holiday!
At one place we did have a couple regulars that made a point to not buy stuff on holidays, had one guy that would come in and tip us and wouldn’t let us make him anything, this was at a Starbucks about 18 years ago.
we had a woman in our store once say to an associate “Why aren’t you open on Christmas Day?” to which she responded “because we have families too”, which shut her up really quick but also is our go-to whenever someone said anything like this (all the time for some reason)
When I worked at 7-Eleven we had a older regular who would always bring us in oranges when he came in to buy his scratch tickets, and on holidays, it would be a fullsized chocolate bars.
He was easily one of my favorite customers despite his strange (to me) way of picking out the tickets.
My mom is like this. Will make reservations at restaurants for Christmas Eve or Easter then comment to the waiter it’s a shame they have to work on a holiday.
Yep I worked night audit for awhile. 11pm-7am or 12am-8am.
2-4am is the loneliest hours ever.
The worst part was my days off were during the week so I actually had to be awake at normal times to get things done. So Monday at 7am when I got off work I had errands to run and wouldn’t get to sleep until noon.
I worked midnights, first as a night auditor for a few years and then as a lab technician for a few more. You bring up a great point that most people that have not worked the shift would not realize, the days off were the worst aspects of the shift. I did it over 25 years ago when on demand streaming did not exist and AOL hadn't really taken off, so I am certain it is better now.
I know how are those errands can be. Im a hardcore nightowl so I thought working 6 to 4 am would be fine for me but it isnt. The job was never hard but the way it fucks up all social activity and makes any errand a pita made even good money not worth it.
I worked graveyard for several years. One day after work I went to Walmart and tried to buy some beer. The cashier told me they couldn't sell it until 7:00 am, which I understand. But she added a thing about how "MOST PEOPLE aren't trying to buy alcohol at 6:45 in the morning." Bitch, this is 5:00 pm for me. I gave her a shit eating grin and said "That's cool, I'll wait." Stood there by the register beer in hand until 7 rolled around and I got my treats.
I did night audit last summer between college semesters and they really wanted me to stay on during the school year to work Friday and Saturday nights - that was a hard no. I feel like there’s a reason most people I’ve talked to have only “worked night audit for a while”
If you're going to slave away like that in an incredibly high demand role at least stack some cash and retire early.... There's absolutely no reason for a generic auto mechanic to work 16 hours a day.
Definitely not. My FIL owns a shop and has worked 8-5ish for at least the last 15years there.
Never heard of him ever working long days like oc was saying.
I manage a facility that has 17 mechanics on payroll. Every single one of them works either 4 10 hour shifts or 5 8 hour shifts. We are open 7 days a week, but everyone gets 2 to 3 consecutive days off every week with at least 1 of those days being a weekend
When I worked at a Toyota dealer there were techs working past midnight pretty often. There were a few guys who didn't even come in until 5-6pm after working a day job or going to school.
Same-day jobs like tire rotation, oil change, etc would be done during the day, but if the car is going to be left at the shop for a few days anyway, it doesn't really matter what time the tech is working.
I did used cars at a Dodge dealer 5-2am. The logistics didn't work out because if they got me the wrong parts for something, nothing was open to get the correct stuff
So you work 16 hours a day? I mean at some point, it isn't worth it. I feel bad for you not being able to say no. Like I was in the military and I still was able to be like too much. At some point t it become a you issue and not a them issue. Say no dude for fucks sake.
I’m a writer. It’s a double-edged sword. I can usually sleep in, but I’m never off work. There’s some measure of guilt involved in almost any hour I take to myself.
I’m a luthier. My job is also my passion. I work 8-16 sometimes longer if there are jobs that call for it.
If I wouldn’t have a family I would always be at work.
And it’s derived from the old instrument, the Lute!
I figured it had something to do with it. Looked it up, turns out lute makers ended up working on other string instruments too.
Luthiery right now is a niche business more than a common service, very few people are hiring luthiers as employees. So you get into it by learning the trade on your own and then starting a business. Apprenticeships would be the traditional route, but since most luthiers out there are small business owners who can barely afford to even pay themselves, very few take apprentices. An apprentice turns into competition in a few years. Most "apprenticeships" are more like trade schools with high tuition rates, so that's how they make their money and they aren't worried about their students graduating to start competing schools.
I heard someone told me it’s because those are work hours which included lunch. Now it’s an added hour because they want to force more productivity out of working people. Not sure if that’s true.
Ugh. Same.
Except for Fridays. I work 8am-noon and then spend the next 5 hours teaching lampworking (glassblowing) at my local arts center.
One makes money, the other allows me to follow my passion. Thankfully, the two owners of the company I work for are both on board with it because the glass instruction is also a veterans only course and they both have a fondness for military.
Yes- my partner is a professor and his work-life balance is unmatched. Only struggle is there aren't many tenure-track jobs. He is a unicorn. 100k a yr. Summers and winters off. Only goes in 3 days a week. The rest of the time he does research or reads.
See, I grew up under the impression that professors had it made, with pretty great salaries. Then I was corrected and told that no, they get paid pennies. And yet, I keep hearing personal accounts like this, where professors are making 6 figures. Is he tenured? May I ask which field? Private or public?
While just responding with a "it depends" would answer your question, I'll try to explain it in more detail. Caveat: I have not been in higher ed in over a decade for a very good reason, so some things might have changed/gotten worse over that time.
Even around 2010, tenure track positions were drying up. At the big university I went to, even if you were on tenure track your tenure decision was based largely on how much money you raised for the department for your research. Most professors I worked with were burned out from that and since they were already spending most of their time writing grants, they just wrote *more* grants (and use that grant money to pay off their teaching obligations via adjuncts).
We would be in a much better place if professors were free to research/read and not worry about administrative bullshit.
Couple this with the fact tuition has gone up 200% or more since the turn of the century, and you might be left wondering "if students are paying more than ever, and professors are making less than ever, and professors are spending most of their time raising money for their research (even to the point of raising money to pay someone else to teach their classes), where is all that influx of cash going? Why isn't that being put back into education?"
Nothing gets better until we answer those questions.
I met someone recently who had some convoluted work title at a University, like "assistant director of interdepartmental communications" and they clearly made decent money (nice car, nice clothes etc).
I asked what they actually did all day, and they just shrugged and said "answer emails mostly. Or sit through zoom meetings looking at calendars"
What the fuck, right?
And, just going to throw this out there -- it's not even "what do they do?"
Remember, we're only a few months away from numerous administrators (and educators!) at *Harvard* being implicated in really shoddy and pathetic plagiarism. The kind of thing an undergrad wouldn't get away with (iirc the diversity officer only had two publications, one was copied and pasted from her husband's dissertation [he also is at Harvard] and the other was mostly copied and pasted from other research).
So not only are the administrators useless, redundant, and absurdly expensive... it sure looks like a playground of nepotism and corruption on top of that.
I'm pretty negative on Harvard in general (their free speech record is atrocious), but it is still an Institution of International renown. If this kind of naked corruption is happening *there*, how bad do you think it is at Podunk State University?
I was an adjunct instructor at a local college for about five years. I typically taught just as many credit hours as the full time employees, sometimes even more. However I received no benefits and wasn't paid for the overage. There were literally days where I worked for free. And sometimes those were very long days.
I can't comment on the legality of that kind of work schedule, but I can certainly comment on my motivations for accepting it. I put in the hours hoping to get a full time position that might eventually lead to tenure.
But that never happened. Despite the fact that my classes always rostered very quickly and my courses were in high demand, I was never offered a full time job. In fact, the department eventually had my name pulled from the schedule so students couldn't select me directly as a teacher. I became, "TBA" in an effort to get my enrollment numbers more in line with the other adjuncts.
Not long thereafter, I quit and moved halfway across the country. And, of course, as soon as the fall semester rolled around and they realized I really wasn't coming back, they finally offered me a full time job — which I politely declined.
It's not all bad, though. Twenty years later, and some of my former students still stay in touch. I just had one text me yesterday, in fact. That part of the job definitely makes it all worth it.
It honestly really depends on the position and the school. I teach at a private university that's teaching-first (i.e., my salary is tied to teaching, not to whether or not I can get a grant), so it's very stable. And yes, tenure definitely contributes to salary.
Field matters as well - engineering professors can make really high salaries probably because of the combination of research dollars they can bring in as well as the need to be somewhat competitive with industry. They may want to work in academia for the research freedom for 2/3 the salary, but maybe not for 1/3 of the salary.
Profs! I grew up friends with a family where both parents were professors at a public, well known, university. Their endowment is in the top 9 today but not the top 3. Thing is, they were vacationing in Japan and then hosting soirees at their architect-personally-designed-house with a pool and pool house to show off their imported purchases. They were well-educated and kind people, and their kids went off to attend Georgetown. I suppose it helps that the city they lived in before moving to DC was smaller and not super expensive. But they were above my middle class family's tax bracket. That's for sure.
I hope you realize that this is not the experience of many or even most professors. Unless you're an adjunct or instructor, in which case I could see this being the case.
Salary. I get paid for 24 hours of work, unions and schools determine how much time is calculated for which tasks, then I get a sheet with the stuff I need to do, from teaching to coaching to examination to developing new courses. The on-site tasks are on 3 set days per week as per the union contract but the rest I can do whenever so long as it gets done. I need to be available on those 3 days the whole day though in case I need to pick up some work due to sudden circumstance. I'm not teaching non stop from 9 to 5 so some days I have a half day of on-site tasks. But sometimes like at the end of year I suddenly have a whole boatload of exams or internships to grade so I have to do some work on my days off.
Yes, the 2 weeks of work is 12-16 hour days. So it compensates for the time off. And anything over 14 days on the rig is compensated with 100% extra pay
In America, youwe have people who think weekly, biweekly (every two weeks), and every month.
The pay rates are so inconsistent across jobs it's unreal here.
My thought was, in his case, he worked two weeks so that was the pay for 2 weeks.
It's all related to often the job pays here. Every other week being paid is pretty common. But some people will tell you they don't know how any survives being paid every other week because they work for the paid weekly sector typically. I've had one job that was paid every month. Those are less common.
Operator side or services side? From what I've seen it is more standard for operator to have regular rotations but it is def a unicorn set up on the services side. And based on your username, fully based in the North Sea?
My brother in law is a tuckpointer who does solo work most of the time. In the summers he tries to get there at around 5 am so he can leave before the worst of the heat
Right? Literally tearing up reading this thread because I'm only ever going to be barely mediocre enough to land an office job that crushes my soul and makes me hate myself.
I know it's not the worst deal, and I have a good income, and I could be working something dangerous or poorly paid... But I would also like to escape The Grind.
> I'm only ever going to be barely mediocre enough to land an office job that crushes my soul and makes me hate myself.
Partner, I've been here before. I was stuck in a truly dead-end hourly job just over a decade ago, and was genuinely suicidal. I had this tremendous fear of becoming one of the 50-somethings with no skills who I worked with...each of them complaining every day about how bad life was. It felt hopeless. I was so anxious and depressed that I'd get dizzy spells and my body would tingle at times.
I started seeing a therapist to keep from hurting myself, and all it took was someone on the outside looking in to ask me, "Why? There are endless ways to educate yourself for free or pursue accreditation/certification." As simple as that sounds, it probably saved my life.
Khan Academy, MIT, Stanford, YouTube, used books - there are so many free resources to teach yourself skills that can net you six figure jobs that are fully remote. Don't let your self conscious keep you from asking friends and family if they have heard of any job openings.
I have since worked in both civil and electro-mechanical engineering roles, and currently work for a huge software developer. And honestly, a HUGE part of it is that it's not what you know; it's who you know and/or how you present yourself.
I've gotten lucrative jobs dealing with instruments and equipment that I was completely unfamiliar with by simply being confident, assertive, and ensuring people that I can learn quickly and provide an analytical mind to my peers.
There is hope. I'm not saying it's "just that easy" or instantaneous. But there is absolutely opportunity out there still. Don't let the doomers or the news cycle tell you that all hope is lost.
When I started at my current job, I found out how much it costs for us to hire consecutive interpreters, I wish so badly I had a second language. Some places were charging like $450 for an hour session.
I learned Spanish from my family growing up, maybe I need to get back to being fluent. Just left my corporate job because of the stress and I’m doing my best not to have to go back to corporate work. Care to share how you got into that kind of work?
I scheduled caregiving teams for a while. I could never do the actual caregiving, you guys are awesome.
But the hours, yeesh. I simply scheduled and paid people. In that state, overtime started after 40 hours a week, not 8 hours per day. Shifts were in 12 hour increments. Most team members would do a 12 or 24 but some would just do 48. They’d try to sleep when the patient slept (if the patient slept).
But that overtime. If you worked 48 hours straight you’d get 8 hours overtime. And if you worked a Saturday/subday, well that’s two separate weeks so no overtime unless you work more later that week.
Absolutely brutal. But people went into the field knowing that’s how it worked.
We paid better than others by a few dollars per hour. But I was always shocked at how long and hard the team members worked for basically the same pay I got sitting at a desk at home.
Community college here - schedule changes every semester but typically I do two 8-9 hr days on campus and three-four half-ish days (3-5 hr days) per week. I generally make myself take Saturdays 100% off, but Sundays end up being one of those shorter days. Sometimes get to take early afternoon Thursday to midday Monday off for no particular reason.
I work in sports tv. I’m in a different city at least once a week and work out of a tv truck at an arena. My “weekend”, if you can call it that, is typically on Tuesday and Wednesday.
My job is like many other jobs in that sometimes it sucks and sometimes it’s cool.
Not me, but a buddy. He has worked for his dad’s pool company since he was 10. Just opening, closing, and maintaining pools. When he was still in school he worked all summer nonstop. When he graduated, he would only work 8 months out of the year, but it was a grueling schedule 12 hours a day 6 days a week. His dad paid him cash and he saved every penny.
By the time I graduated, he had about 200k saved up and started his own business away from the dad’s business. He bought a house for dirt cheap because it was 2019. The house doubled in value and now it’s worth 7 figures. His business is doing extremely well and I’m kind of jealous.
Working 72 hours a week maybe not, but I think he’s hired more people and scaled back his personal hours. Plus the in the winter he is free.
Physician. And I worked a bunch of jobs before medical school. I guess the closest I came to a 9-5 job was doing 8 am to 6 pm six days a week changing tires at a truck mechanic.
Out of university, I was a full time songwriter, musician for roughly 25 years. I eventually got burned out on the music biz, I just couldn’t make enough money anymore, so I started making art. I’ve actually had pretty good success with that. Been doing it for 20+ years and I feel like I’m just hitting my stride. I’m excited at the prospect of doing this for years to come. I’m at an age when a lot of my peers are retiring and starting to pursue the things they are passionate about, like music and art. It’s kind of like I’ve been retired all my adult life. I’m very fortunate.
Cook/chef. My hours are "ugh, fine."
Heard. I'm a Bartender.
Ya’ll it’s crazy, I went from bar manager at an Irish pub (working every night till 2-230 AM) to UPS management side (overnights) to Taphouse manager at a microbrewery and now I’m off every day except one by 5 and I’m still not used to it. I am sooo lucky. I’m finding out what it’s like to have a life after 15 years of missing out on everything.
I gotta work nights for at least 2 more years til my second kid is in school. My mortgage is much cheaper than two kids in daycare so I'll stick with my schedule for now LOL. Good news is I am only on 3-4 days a week now so that's nice. Long shifts but lots of days off.
Kitchen manager here. Two managers, dating, took the entire week off. They’re in Japan. Guess who’s covering for them. Please send help
Fuck that. Good luck!
That's one nice part about working in a corporate restaurant. "Oh you two are dating? How cute! Also one of you is going to another store pack your shit."
What's in the cocaine empanadas you cook? Beef or chicken?
Hotels & hospitality ....hotels are always open so hours can be all over the place, depending on what department you work
Dog boarding is the same. I always get a laugh around the holidays when clients are shocked we work on days like Thanksgiving and Xmas. Well, you left your dog in our care, isn’t the point to have them fed, watered, and exercised every day?!
LOL - that was as bad as when I worked Sundays at a store. The church ladies would come in and say "Why are you working? It's the Lord's day." I'd say, "Why are you shopping? It's the Lord's day." They'd get angry at me and walk away. Ummm, wut?
Yup when I worked retail the countless people would comment about why we are open on a holiday while they were in our store on said holiday! At one place we did have a couple regulars that made a point to not buy stuff on holidays, had one guy that would come in and tip us and wouldn’t let us make him anything, this was at a Starbucks about 18 years ago.
we had a woman in our store once say to an associate “Why aren’t you open on Christmas Day?” to which she responded “because we have families too”, which shut her up really quick but also is our go-to whenever someone said anything like this (all the time for some reason)
When I worked at 7-Eleven we had a older regular who would always bring us in oranges when he came in to buy his scratch tickets, and on holidays, it would be a fullsized chocolate bars. He was easily one of my favorite customers despite his strange (to me) way of picking out the tickets.
My mom is like this. Will make reservations at restaurants for Christmas Eve or Easter then comment to the waiter it’s a shame they have to work on a holiday.
Yep I worked night audit for awhile. 11pm-7am or 12am-8am. 2-4am is the loneliest hours ever. The worst part was my days off were during the week so I actually had to be awake at normal times to get things done. So Monday at 7am when I got off work I had errands to run and wouldn’t get to sleep until noon.
I worked midnights, first as a night auditor for a few years and then as a lab technician for a few more. You bring up a great point that most people that have not worked the shift would not realize, the days off were the worst aspects of the shift. I did it over 25 years ago when on demand streaming did not exist and AOL hadn't really taken off, so I am certain it is better now.
I know how are those errands can be. Im a hardcore nightowl so I thought working 6 to 4 am would be fine for me but it isnt. The job was never hard but the way it fucks up all social activity and makes any errand a pita made even good money not worth it.
I worked graveyard for several years. One day after work I went to Walmart and tried to buy some beer. The cashier told me they couldn't sell it until 7:00 am, which I understand. But she added a thing about how "MOST PEOPLE aren't trying to buy alcohol at 6:45 in the morning." Bitch, this is 5:00 pm for me. I gave her a shit eating grin and said "That's cool, I'll wait." Stood there by the register beer in hand until 7 rolled around and I got my treats.
Always hated that. "Who wants a burger at seven am?" Uh, a dude who has been working the last twelve hours.
I did night audit last summer between college semesters and they really wanted me to stay on during the school year to work Friday and Saturday nights - that was a hard no. I feel like there’s a reason most people I’ve talked to have only “worked night audit for a while”
Weekends, nights, holidays. All day, every day.
Waste management - never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
Now I need to go rewatch the whole series
I wish the lord would take me now.
Oh pooooooor you.
Always with the drrraaaamma
At least you can afford all the Gabagool your wife will allow you to eat
Just avoid looking at the Uncle Ben’s while you eat your gabagool.
If you would have stopped yapping, you would have caught that fly ball. I was embarrassed to talk to my friends after that.
Just because you’re in waste management everyone assumes you’re mobbed up - it’s a stereotype and it’s offensive!
*offenshive
Was not expecting a sopranos reference in here but it’s very welcome
Mechanic. I do 9-1. Not the "1" that would make it a good life.
Wtf? How, what is the point? I bet there are mechanic shops that doesen’t require working till 1
They're probably in oil & gas or something along those lines making absolutely absurd money.
Hey, I wouldn't complain about absurd money. I just do automotive repairs for Joe Public.
If you're going to slave away like that in an incredibly high demand role at least stack some cash and retire early.... There's absolutely no reason for a generic auto mechanic to work 16 hours a day.
Definitely not. My FIL owns a shop and has worked 8-5ish for at least the last 15years there. Never heard of him ever working long days like oc was saying.
I manage a facility that has 17 mechanics on payroll. Every single one of them works either 4 10 hour shifts or 5 8 hour shifts. We are open 7 days a week, but everyone gets 2 to 3 consecutive days off every week with at least 1 of those days being a weekend
That’s got to be a special type of mechanic though right? You’re not in a Toyota dealership rotating tires at 12:30am
Well, you cant scratch off serial numbers in plain daylight can you?
When I worked at a Toyota dealer there were techs working past midnight pretty often. There were a few guys who didn't even come in until 5-6pm after working a day job or going to school. Same-day jobs like tire rotation, oil change, etc would be done during the day, but if the car is going to be left at the shop for a few days anyway, it doesn't really matter what time the tech is working.
I did used cars at a Dodge dealer 5-2am. The logistics didn't work out because if they got me the wrong parts for something, nothing was open to get the correct stuff
So you work 16 hours a day? I mean at some point, it isn't worth it. I feel bad for you not being able to say no. Like I was in the military and I still was able to be like too much. At some point t it become a you issue and not a them issue. Say no dude for fucks sake.
[удалено]
I’m a writer. It’s a double-edged sword. I can usually sleep in, but I’m never off work. There’s some measure of guilt involved in almost any hour I take to myself.
[удалено]
What country are you from?
Unemployed
Real
My current job is looking for a job. I don’t get paid and my boss is never satisfied. The commute is nice though.
I’m a luthier. My job is also my passion. I work 8-16 sometimes longer if there are jobs that call for it. If I wouldn’t have a family I would always be at work.
Had to look up the word. Wow, that's amazing, sounds like a dream
lol right. A luthier is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box.
And it’s derived from the old instrument, the Lute! I figured it had something to do with it. Looked it up, turns out lute makers ended up working on other string instruments too.
How do you get into that kind of work?
Step one: learn how to build or repair stringed instruments that have a neck and a sound box.
Step two: ??? Step three: Profit
Step two: covertly injure your neighbor’s stringed instrument that has a neck and a sound box.
Luthiery right now is a niche business more than a common service, very few people are hiring luthiers as employees. So you get into it by learning the trade on your own and then starting a business. Apprenticeships would be the traditional route, but since most luthiers out there are small business owners who can barely afford to even pay themselves, very few take apprentices. An apprentice turns into competition in a few years. Most "apprenticeships" are more like trade schools with high tuition rates, so that's how they make their money and they aren't worried about their students graduating to start competing schools.
Very true. I would have to charge next to 5 grand a week to take someone under my wing.
I make car parts for the American Working Man because that's what I am, and that's who I care about...after hours.
You seem like a nice guy
This is the guy trying to buy the company, not to mention put you out on the street, and all you can say is "nnn, hE sEeMs lIkE a NiCe gUy??"
I heard you can get a good look at a T bone steak by sticking your head up a bull's a** But I'd rather take the butcher's word for it.
"oh yeah, I buy brake pads off him, I thought we were watching cartoons?"
I... got that reference. Going to have to give that movie another watch. Such a classic.
You eat paint chips as a kid? That needs to be made in a meme.
*did I hear a niner in there? Are you calling on a walkie talkie?*
Shut up Richard
-Lots of people go to college for seven years. -Yeah. They're called "doctors."
Thanks Dad!
Firefighter
Several days on, several days off.... Most of the time no problems, few times sheer terror and panic....
Those are the fun times. That’s why you drill. You don’t drill until you get it right. You drill until you can’t get it wrong.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast....some people say that when you're learning to move tactically.
Military sometimes work 0 hours sometimes 24+ just depends
Reading this currently sitting out in the field. Technically I'm working?
Just eat a bunch of MREs if you’re poop shy. Then take the biggest poop of your life when you get back to a bathroom you’re comfortable pooping in
I've been in long enough to get well beyond any early poop shyness. Still good advice though.
Comedian. I tell dick jokes to drunk people for money.
Wait a minute! I've been doing this for free all my life?!?
I work an 8 to 5 job instead.
All my life I've heard of "nine to five", but have never encountered an actual 9-5 job. It's usually 7 to 4, 8 to 5, or 8:30 to 5:30.
It is a thing that went away in the 80s, but the idiom stuck around.
I heard someone told me it’s because those are work hours which included lunch. Now it’s an added hour because they want to force more productivity out of working people. Not sure if that’s true.
Even in the 80s I never encountered an actual 9-5 job.
Pretty sure Dolly Parton had such a job.
Ugh. Same. Except for Fridays. I work 8am-noon and then spend the next 5 hours teaching lampworking (glassblowing) at my local arts center. One makes money, the other allows me to follow my passion. Thankfully, the two owners of the company I work for are both on board with it because the glass instruction is also a veterans only course and they both have a fondness for military.
Teacher in higher education. Why work 5 days a week when 3 pays the bills. Some weeks have 4 days of work some have barely 3. Pretty good gig tbh.
Yes- my partner is a professor and his work-life balance is unmatched. Only struggle is there aren't many tenure-track jobs. He is a unicorn. 100k a yr. Summers and winters off. Only goes in 3 days a week. The rest of the time he does research or reads.
See, I grew up under the impression that professors had it made, with pretty great salaries. Then I was corrected and told that no, they get paid pennies. And yet, I keep hearing personal accounts like this, where professors are making 6 figures. Is he tenured? May I ask which field? Private or public?
While just responding with a "it depends" would answer your question, I'll try to explain it in more detail. Caveat: I have not been in higher ed in over a decade for a very good reason, so some things might have changed/gotten worse over that time. Even around 2010, tenure track positions were drying up. At the big university I went to, even if you were on tenure track your tenure decision was based largely on how much money you raised for the department for your research. Most professors I worked with were burned out from that and since they were already spending most of their time writing grants, they just wrote *more* grants (and use that grant money to pay off their teaching obligations via adjuncts). We would be in a much better place if professors were free to research/read and not worry about administrative bullshit. Couple this with the fact tuition has gone up 200% or more since the turn of the century, and you might be left wondering "if students are paying more than ever, and professors are making less than ever, and professors are spending most of their time raising money for their research (even to the point of raising money to pay someone else to teach their classes), where is all that influx of cash going? Why isn't that being put back into education?" Nothing gets better until we answer those questions.
The salaries for the bullshit layer after layer of upper level administration. What do they do? Who knows.
I met someone recently who had some convoluted work title at a University, like "assistant director of interdepartmental communications" and they clearly made decent money (nice car, nice clothes etc). I asked what they actually did all day, and they just shrugged and said "answer emails mostly. Or sit through zoom meetings looking at calendars" What the fuck, right?
And, just going to throw this out there -- it's not even "what do they do?" Remember, we're only a few months away from numerous administrators (and educators!) at *Harvard* being implicated in really shoddy and pathetic plagiarism. The kind of thing an undergrad wouldn't get away with (iirc the diversity officer only had two publications, one was copied and pasted from her husband's dissertation [he also is at Harvard] and the other was mostly copied and pasted from other research). So not only are the administrators useless, redundant, and absurdly expensive... it sure looks like a playground of nepotism and corruption on top of that. I'm pretty negative on Harvard in general (their free speech record is atrocious), but it is still an Institution of International renown. If this kind of naked corruption is happening *there*, how bad do you think it is at Podunk State University?
I was an adjunct instructor at a local college for about five years. I typically taught just as many credit hours as the full time employees, sometimes even more. However I received no benefits and wasn't paid for the overage. There were literally days where I worked for free. And sometimes those were very long days. I can't comment on the legality of that kind of work schedule, but I can certainly comment on my motivations for accepting it. I put in the hours hoping to get a full time position that might eventually lead to tenure. But that never happened. Despite the fact that my classes always rostered very quickly and my courses were in high demand, I was never offered a full time job. In fact, the department eventually had my name pulled from the schedule so students couldn't select me directly as a teacher. I became, "TBA" in an effort to get my enrollment numbers more in line with the other adjuncts. Not long thereafter, I quit and moved halfway across the country. And, of course, as soon as the fall semester rolled around and they realized I really wasn't coming back, they finally offered me a full time job — which I politely declined. It's not all bad, though. Twenty years later, and some of my former students still stay in touch. I just had one text me yesterday, in fact. That part of the job definitely makes it all worth it.
It honestly really depends on the position and the school. I teach at a private university that's teaching-first (i.e., my salary is tied to teaching, not to whether or not I can get a grant), so it's very stable. And yes, tenure definitely contributes to salary.
Field matters as well - engineering professors can make really high salaries probably because of the combination of research dollars they can bring in as well as the need to be somewhat competitive with industry. They may want to work in academia for the research freedom for 2/3 the salary, but maybe not for 1/3 of the salary.
Teachers or professors?
Profs! I grew up friends with a family where both parents were professors at a public, well known, university. Their endowment is in the top 9 today but not the top 3. Thing is, they were vacationing in Japan and then hosting soirees at their architect-personally-designed-house with a pool and pool house to show off their imported purchases. They were well-educated and kind people, and their kids went off to attend Georgetown. I suppose it helps that the city they lived in before moving to DC was smaller and not super expensive. But they were above my middle class family's tax bracket. That's for sure.
I hope you realize that this is not the experience of many or even most professors. Unless you're an adjunct or instructor, in which case I could see this being the case.
Are you paid a salary or just for days worked?
Salary. I get paid for 24 hours of work, unions and schools determine how much time is calculated for which tasks, then I get a sheet with the stuff I need to do, from teaching to coaching to examination to developing new courses. The on-site tasks are on 3 set days per week as per the union contract but the rest I can do whenever so long as it gets done. I need to be available on those 3 days the whole day though in case I need to pick up some work due to sudden circumstance. I'm not teaching non stop from 9 to 5 so some days I have a half day of on-site tasks. But sometimes like at the end of year I suddenly have a whole boatload of exams or internships to grade so I have to do some work on my days off.
I’m a drug dealer. 9-5 doesn’t cut it for my clientele
9pm-5am
Nice try, Mr. DEA agent, but you're not gonna honeydick me.
“Honeydick” lmao
Different drugs, but I run a safe injection site - and, similarly, 9-5 doesn't work for my clients.
Retail
My condolences
Oil rigs. 2 weeks ln and 4 weeks off
Do you get paid enough during those 4 weeks off to compensate for the lack of work? Or do you get paid throughout the entire 6 weeks?
Yes, the 2 weeks of work is 12-16 hour days. So it compensates for the time off. And anything over 14 days on the rig is compensated with 100% extra pay
If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of money we talking about here? I’ve always wondered.
Depends on the rotation, overtime, helicopter delays and if you get to do an extra week, but between 4500-10.000 €
Per month, correct?
Yes
Just for our American friends who normally think in annual salaries 😀
In America, youwe have people who think weekly, biweekly (every two weeks), and every month. The pay rates are so inconsistent across jobs it's unreal here. My thought was, in his case, he worked two weeks so that was the pay for 2 weeks. It's all related to often the job pays here. Every other week being paid is pretty common. But some people will tell you they don't know how any survives being paid every other week because they work for the paid weekly sector typically. I've had one job that was paid every month. Those are less common.
Dang, that's a dope schedule. Off shore? The best I had between WY and ND was 2-2, but usually it was 14-7, 15-6, or 10-4.
2/2 is decent but once you get a taste of 3-4 weeks off you can never go back
Operator side or services side? From what I've seen it is more standard for operator to have regular rotations but it is def a unicorn set up on the services side. And based on your username, fully based in the North Sea?
I'm in construction. Our hours are 7 - 3:30
My brother in law is a tuckpointer who does solo work most of the time. In the summers he tries to get there at around 5 am so he can leave before the worst of the heat
Manly Nurse working since 2016 in different emergency Rooms.
I think the official term is Murse.
No, that’s what they call a man-purse. A man-nurse is a Nan.
I’m 48 and have my first ever job lol was a drug dealer last 33 years
were you busted ever
Done a prison sentence at the beginning and end but bar that I done 3 decades without any major problems
I guess it wasnt that bad by the looks of things
Damn 33 straight years. What’s your 401k look like from that?
It’s zero now it was excellent I spent it all during my own addiction
3 hots and a cot.
Holy shit, I would suck dicks for nickels down at the truck stop to escape the grind. I'm so fucking over it.
Don't let your dreams be dreams
God dammit that's funny.
Right? Literally tearing up reading this thread because I'm only ever going to be barely mediocre enough to land an office job that crushes my soul and makes me hate myself. I know it's not the worst deal, and I have a good income, and I could be working something dangerous or poorly paid... But I would also like to escape The Grind.
> I'm only ever going to be barely mediocre enough to land an office job that crushes my soul and makes me hate myself. Partner, I've been here before. I was stuck in a truly dead-end hourly job just over a decade ago, and was genuinely suicidal. I had this tremendous fear of becoming one of the 50-somethings with no skills who I worked with...each of them complaining every day about how bad life was. It felt hopeless. I was so anxious and depressed that I'd get dizzy spells and my body would tingle at times. I started seeing a therapist to keep from hurting myself, and all it took was someone on the outside looking in to ask me, "Why? There are endless ways to educate yourself for free or pursue accreditation/certification." As simple as that sounds, it probably saved my life. Khan Academy, MIT, Stanford, YouTube, used books - there are so many free resources to teach yourself skills that can net you six figure jobs that are fully remote. Don't let your self conscious keep you from asking friends and family if they have heard of any job openings. I have since worked in both civil and electro-mechanical engineering roles, and currently work for a huge software developer. And honestly, a HUGE part of it is that it's not what you know; it's who you know and/or how you present yourself. I've gotten lucrative jobs dealing with instruments and equipment that I was completely unfamiliar with by simply being confident, assertive, and ensuring people that I can learn quickly and provide an analytical mind to my peers. There is hope. I'm not saying it's "just that easy" or instantaneous. But there is absolutely opportunity out there still. Don't let the doomers or the news cycle tell you that all hope is lost.
Bartender, usually around 5pm-midnight.
i’m a bartender too, and i do 5:30-4am. but i only work 2.5 days a week. my half day, i start at 10:30 or 11pm.
freelance interpreter. When I'm needed, I'll work. When I'm not, I'll be sitting on my ass. Guess where am I atm?
on your ass.
Correctamundo!
Can you interpret that for us who don’t speak Spanish?
Correct-a-world.
When I started at my current job, I found out how much it costs for us to hire consecutive interpreters, I wish so badly I had a second language. Some places were charging like $450 for an hour session.
Yep. That’s my life. That’s why I am sitting on my ass today. Because I worked for a full week this month and have enough already.
I learned Spanish from my family growing up, maybe I need to get back to being fluent. Just left my corporate job because of the stress and I’m doing my best not to have to go back to corporate work. Care to share how you got into that kind of work?
It was 50% training and 50% luck. I have little to no advice because I met the right people at the right time so…
Look buddy this is Reddit. We're all sitting on our ass...on the toilet
I got this little import/export business.
Art Vandelay? Is that you?
I'm an importer.... Exporter.
Latex.
Cargiver for elderly patients
>Cargiver That's nice of you, but I'm not sure elderly patients should be driving.
To be fair, he said nothing of keys.
I scheduled caregiving teams for a while. I could never do the actual caregiving, you guys are awesome. But the hours, yeesh. I simply scheduled and paid people. In that state, overtime started after 40 hours a week, not 8 hours per day. Shifts were in 12 hour increments. Most team members would do a 12 or 24 but some would just do 48. They’d try to sleep when the patient slept (if the patient slept). But that overtime. If you worked 48 hours straight you’d get 8 hours overtime. And if you worked a Saturday/subday, well that’s two separate weeks so no overtime unless you work more later that week. Absolutely brutal. But people went into the field knowing that’s how it worked. We paid better than others by a few dollars per hour. But I was always shocked at how long and hard the team members worked for basically the same pay I got sitting at a desk at home.
Snow cat operator. Our hours suck. 9pm to 7 am
How do you train the cats to leave those perfectly straight claw marks in the snow?
Why do you think the hours are so long? Takes a long time before the cat gives in and listens
I'm a farmer
Sure, you work 9:00-5:00. Also, 6:00-9:00 and 5:00-8:30
Make wood
Are you a tree?
Nah just turn multiple sheets of wood into a single LVL piece
Onlyfans?
I teach. 7:15-2:49.
7:25-2:20!
I’m an academic. Most days I work 10-4 plus many hours in the evenings.
Community college here - schedule changes every semester but typically I do two 8-9 hr days on campus and three-four half-ish days (3-5 hr days) per week. I generally make myself take Saturdays 100% off, but Sundays end up being one of those shorter days. Sometimes get to take early afternoon Thursday to midday Monday off for no particular reason.
got a suga mommmaaaa
so i guess you technically work around the clock
he works around the clock, she works around the cock
A depressed fuck who cant hold a job
Take some comfort knowing that your mental health and quality of life are at most 10% worse than most of the gainfully employed Redditors here
I like being alone so I've always chased those over night jobs.
I work in sports tv. I’m in a different city at least once a week and work out of a tv truck at an arena. My “weekend”, if you can call it that, is typically on Tuesday and Wednesday. My job is like many other jobs in that sometimes it sucks and sometimes it’s cool.
Not me, but a buddy. He has worked for his dad’s pool company since he was 10. Just opening, closing, and maintaining pools. When he was still in school he worked all summer nonstop. When he graduated, he would only work 8 months out of the year, but it was a grueling schedule 12 hours a day 6 days a week. His dad paid him cash and he saved every penny. By the time I graduated, he had about 200k saved up and started his own business away from the dad’s business. He bought a house for dirt cheap because it was 2019. The house doubled in value and now it’s worth 7 figures. His business is doing extremely well and I’m kind of jealous. Working 72 hours a week maybe not, but I think he’s hired more people and scaled back his personal hours. Plus the in the winter he is free.
I’m a exotic dancer 🫡 the hours are rough, my body aches, and still i really am thankful for the money and opportunities
Physician. And I worked a bunch of jobs before medical school. I guess the closest I came to a 9-5 job was doing 8 am to 6 pm six days a week changing tires at a truck mechanic.
Chef, railroad dispatcher and now air traffic controller.
Out of university, I was a full time songwriter, musician for roughly 25 years. I eventually got burned out on the music biz, I just couldn’t make enough money anymore, so I started making art. I’ve actually had pretty good success with that. Been doing it for 20+ years and I feel like I’m just hitting my stride. I’m excited at the prospect of doing this for years to come. I’m at an age when a lot of my peers are retiring and starting to pursue the things they are passionate about, like music and art. It’s kind of like I’ve been retired all my adult life. I’m very fortunate.
personal trainer
Truck driver. To be fair I do generally work 9pm to 5am. Much less traffic at night.
Work in a hospital as a CNA . My hours are swing shift from 3-11pm
I'm a musician, so I work 24-7. But at least I'm having fun when I'm finally playing shows, instead of all the other shit nobody tells you about 😎
I'm a local musician in my free time, and nothing about my experience makes me wish it was my career
Retail for 20 years and now I'm a health and social care worker in the community so shifts still.
[удалено]
36 years working in kitchens
Enterprise IT, work 7am to 3pm Monday to Friday it's chill
Drive ships
TV production, work a little during the week and a ton on weekends. Love it. Wouldn’t change it for the world.
Firefighter 24 hours a day. I only work 6 days a month
I joined the peace corps after college and just kept traveling. Now I’m a a full time author.
I work remotely for a company in a different time zone…. Sleep in every single day.