If my wife had her way, I would be working at any of a number of jobs. Within the last month alone she has suggested I look into working for:
Amazon
The Post Office
UPS
Any State of Oregon government position
Any local or county government position
A bank
or working as a/an:
Accountant
Plumber
IT Specialist
Computers (basically anything since I know everything about them)
School Bus Driver
The jobs she will tell me about have little to do with my knowledge, skills, experience, education or desire to do the work, but rather is solely based in what she thinks I'm capable of doing.
I should be flattered that she basically thinks I can pick up and do virtually anything.
Except, that's not really the case. To some degree it is, but mostly she bases things off the fact that:
I speak English
I know how to use a computer
These jobs probably pay more than I'm making now
These jobs probably have health insurance and investment opportunities
Get The Picture?
Now, for those who might not know, I do already have a job. I'm what they call a service tech for coin and bill operated machines, ranging from jukeboxes to pool tables, arcade games, and candy or sticker dispensers. We also deploy, fill and service ATMs.
I've been working there now (including the two periods I was laid off) for 20 months. Mid-June is my second year anniversary with the company. I don't have health insurance or a 401k through work, two things my wife does have as a housekeeper for the local hospital group.
Admittedly, it's a pain. My hourly wage isn't that great, either. On its own, it wouldn't be enough to pay all our bills. At some point, my wife wants to retire and stay home again. I can't blame her. Her going to work in the first place wasn't my idea. If anyone's, it was hers, but essentially circumstances demanded it, and she was the one who was able to get the steady job the fastest. I ended up going back to school and getting an Associates of Applied Science Degree in Social Media Marketing.
The Good Ol' Days
A little over eight years ago, I shuttered the doors on a newspaper business that allowed me to pay my employees pretty well (especially for the size of the company), and afforded the lowest six figure income possible for myself. That salary happened for a year or two, if I remember right, and came towards the end of the time I owned the business.
We paid quite a bit of money each month for health insurance, but it was some of the best available.
While I was in charge of everything, my main contribution to the cause was layout or page production. Because I got efficient at it over time, figuring out what worked best, I was able to put two weekly newspapers together in 12 hours over a two day period. The rest of the week was largely my own, providing there weren't business errands to run, an upset community member to meet with and determine how to make things right, or fill in for someone who was on vacation.
I also got to take vacations, though I still had to work wherever I went if I was gone for a week or more.
That Set The Gold Standard
It wasn't quite like being retired and living off a pension or dividends or what have you, but it was a far sight better than working a 30-40 hour week for someone else for about a third of the wages (if I actually worked every week in a year).
I was hoping to take the next step in the process. For me, that was writing Kindle novels and living off the proceeds. I managed to write and publish two before the rug was pulled out from under me. Meaning, the revenue for the newspaper business dried up within a three month period of time, thanks to a change in State law regarding the publishing of legal notices, to wit, the ones pertaining to foreclosure notices.
For the better part of two years between the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2012, I had my salary from the business coming in while I pounded out the pages for the books. Before I could get to the third, the business was gone and I was on unemployment looking for something primarily related to journalism. While the UC helped, we lived mainly off of our savings, which were substantial.
Fortunately, our house and two cars were paid off at the time so our main expenses were food and monthly utilities.
However, it wasn't enough to keep us going to the end of our lives. My wife got her job in December of 2014, and I started school in January of 2015.
Over My Dead Body
There really isn't a single thing that I can say I hate with a passion. That's just too much effort. There are some things that I greatly dislike and borderline loathe, though, and at the top of the list is any form of government.
As far as I'm concerned, government is wasteful—corrupt in most cases, inept in the rest—and I feel that the farther I am away from its governing body, the less it benefits me. I get little of any value out of county, state or federal governments. The best of it on any of those levels are the roads. They are pretty good in Oregon.
After that, it's city government that provides me with conveniences such as water/sewer and garbage pickup. All of that, however, I could probably provide myself and have actually thought about it quite a bit, along with getting off the power grid.
Even if there is a benefit, I don't believe I get the value out if versus what I have to pay.
So, given what government has done to my business and my personal feelings about it otherwise, why in the world would I ever want to work for government again?
I say again, because I was employed on both the county and state levels early on in our marriage. Even though our business provided us with much more than those jobs ever would, my wife looks at what those jobs did have that the business ultimately did not: job security. Because of the unions associated with both jobs, the likelihood of me ever being laid off or fired was pretty low. Essentially, I could be horrible at the job, as long as I wasn't being fraudulent or found guilty of some other illegal activity.
That's a pretty low bar.
At the time, wages weren't quite what they were in the private sector for comparable jobs, but the benefits were hard to beat. There was some upward mobility involved, especially between departments, and openings were often made available in house first, and then to the general public. So, once you were in, you were in. At the time, it really wasn't that hard to get in, especially with a secondary language skill that was in demand. In my case, Spanish.
I've Got To Do Something
While there isn't a whole lot on her list of jobs that will really do what we need it to do—
Pay me comparable to what we're both making now
Provide health insurance
Provide investment opportunities
Accrue a generous amount of personal time off
Provide job security
(accounting, plumbing and some formal computer job would—I'd just have to go back to school or get into an apprentice situation somehow)
—it's painfully obvious something needs to happen.
I know that.
The thing is, I want to be on HIVE instead. I get so much more out of it then anything else I've tried or am currently pursuing.
Eventually, I want to get back into novel writing, or even transition to creating comic books/graphic novels. I know I can write. What I can't do is effectively draw. So, that means financing the artwork (along with lettering and coloring), whereas self-publishing novels has less associated costs, even if I'm hiring an editor to go through the manuscripts.
My wife wants me to work for a big company or government so I have a decent wage, benefits and job security.
I still want to be my own person and work only enough to take care of our needs and have enough left over for our wants. Like trips to see the grandkids in South Carolina, or so my wife can visit her family in Mexico and California. Not to mention those castles in Europe she wants to tour (still scratching my head on that one).
I Ain't Getting Any Younger
I turn 55 this year. For some people I know, that was the age they retired at.
Based on personal work experience, the job that gets me the closest to the things we need for my wife to quit working is some mid-level management job. The idea of getting a job like that makes me tired just thinking about it. I can manage people, but not without a lot of effort. It's taxing. I'm just not a people person. I'm largely hands off, don't care how the work gets done as long as it gets done and done well, and I don't care who gets the credit for it.
Office politics is not my forte. I don't want to babysit or placate bruised egos. I'd handle things much differently than what HR or the executives above me would. I'm sure I wouldn't have that much autonomy, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to supply immediate results. My way takes time, because it requires a lot of selflessness and loyalty to one another (not necessarily to me) on the part of the team.
I can't think of a single thing that would make me want to go to work every morning as a mid-level manager. It was grating enough as a small business owner with people who I trusted implicitly. In that case, it wasn't about office politics—I held the fate of their livelihoods, and thus the well being of their families in my hands. If I made a bad business decision, I wasn't the only one who would be affected by it.
Something's Gotta Give
I'm hanging in there. Somehow, someway, I will finally figure this out. It's just not going to be working for the government.
In the past, it's involved plenty of searching, a lot of patience, and then a flurry of activity before an opportunity presented itself.
I've actually missed opportunities, I think, because one or more of those elements were missing. Mainly, I jumped the gun instead of holding fast and sticking to my priorities.
It's easiest to do when there's not someone else involved, with their own thoughts and levels of patience and faith in the process.
Still, one way or another, I feel I can get us to the financial level we need to be. I just need to keep working the problem and let the rest sort itself out.
And somehow manage to keep my wife happy as it all continues to unfold.
Wish me luck.
Images source—Pixabay
So basically you have no idea what you're gonna do. I been there. In fact I'm there right now. lol. Howdy sir Glen! I've been off here for months but decided I'd try to come on at least once a week and stay in touch with people.
I have a question for you regarding not being on here except rarely. I want to delegate some HP so I can keep earning but I don't know who pays a good return. So I said hey I'll ask Glen, he knows everything! lol.
As far as the job thing goes. I thought my wife and I had agreed that I'd stay home and work on the house and property(and take care of the dog) but I recently learned that she wants me to get a real job so that's my next goal as soon as this dang hernia heals up.
Your post does such an excellent job of breaking down all the facts about what you'd like to do and what you would hate doing...you can't have your wife read that so she understands where you're coming from?
I thought the machine servicing job you have now was pretty decent because you're kind of on your own right?
Ever think of maybe getting a small 3 to 4 people together to do your comic book? Maybe put an ad out in the local paper to find a local comic book or wanna be comic book artist, and or inker or the other part you mentioned. You have managed people in the past. Present it on spec no pay other than a percentage of sales. When the six pages or so are ready to go, see if you can get a 1/4 scale version of the first two pages placed in the local Sunday paper, with an ad where people can go see and buy and get signed copies from the comic book team at the local book store, even if you have to wear a mask. People are getting bored and concerned like you and the young artist type people are always looking for the break to get noticed.
Hey, @bashadow.
I like the idea. I've thought about seeing who I could get based on how sales went. It would be good for them to be local, too, since the few times I've tried getting art via the Internet wasn't the easiest of collaborations even if I liked the results.
What I have in mind is a series. I haven't quite decided how to do it—monthly installments for seven years or maybe seven annual graphic novels. I haven't plotted things out that far, so I'd need to know what I have first.
I started roughing that all out, but got interested in STEEM. Haven't quite tried to go back to it since. :)
If you have a comic book store in your town then there are young adults that might be seriously interested. back in the early days of internet social, 1987-93 time frame, I met a couple of people on line that were doing or trying to do graphic novels from Oregon, but they had no clue how to get started.
You have that get started knowledge from your newspaper works and you kindle works, so finding a few kids, (people in their early 20's or so, or heck even other older people), together to build a comic book team. I don't think Stan Lee had a big group of people to get started.
It would not even be that time consuming for you, or them, a few hours a couple nights a week for the team to meet and discuss the progress and ideas you have laid out.
It's interesting you say about government jobs offering security. They do in the UK too, but here in Australia not so much. They like to do contracts, commonly 3 or 5 years and there is also that 3-6 month probation period, where they can drop you if they decide you don't fit. Once you have the contract you're set for that period, but not for your working life.
My friend's husband is currently an unemployed local government worker. He broke a contract two years early in the country because they wanted to be back near family and in their own home, but he hasn't been able to get anything local. He's not gotten past the probation periods on three jobs since, one of which was three hours away in South Australia and the other two were in Western Australia and a different time zone.
Welcome to the country where nothing is guaranteed and the work environment is full of back stabbers as people panic to try and keep their jobs.
Hey, @minismallholding.
Wow. That's interesting about Australia. Sounds more like a business in many ways. I'd settle for being able to keep my job for as long as I wanted as long as I was meeting a set of agreed upon standards that were high but achievable. That doesn't happen hardly anywhere anymore, at least not on the corporate level from what I can tell.
re: friend's husband
So, is there some kind of unemployment compensation? how are they getting by? Is it that hard to get a job or does he not meet their experience, education and skill sets?
re: probationary period
I've had a couple of those, but I can't remember any of them running past three months.
re: welcome
Not what I would have thought about Australia. The few I've met in person all seemed to be very nice, but they were on vacation and we weren't trying to work together. :)
We have a welfare system, which is actually quite good compared to the US I believe, so yes he has something while not working and his wife has gotten a minimum wage job.
It's really that hard to get work at the moment. It's an employer's market, so they can pick and choose, which is why I think he ends up in such remote areas where there are less people with his skill sets and education. He has a double degree, which seems popular here.
It's not so much the people of Australia, but more the situation they're put in which makes for that kind of behaviour. In fact many are immigrants trying to keep their jobs. The job situation has been deteriorating since the end of 2017 when the car manufacturers pulled out of the country. Now we've got China falling out with us after so many companies have been relying on their consumption for so long and neglected the home market.
We've all got some interesting times ahead of us for sure. This reminds me of the generations conversation you started a few weeks ago. Further resentment that the boomers were the last generation to be able to look forward to early or comfortable retirements, perhaps?
I feel like I was able to provide more for my sons than my parents did for us, for what that might be actually worth. In some ways, it's helpful not to be so worried about making ends meet that you don't have time or the mind to enjoy being with your family. However, it can lead to other problems. I feel fortunate that for the most part we were able to keep those other possibilities at bay.
Well, I'm sorry to hear about what's going on there. I'm sure to some degree things are happening like that in many places, including here, thanks to the restrictions imposed to save us from COVID-19. I'm amazed that there are as many businesses still around after nearly a year of various stages of lockdown, and no real end in sight just yet.
It sounds like Australia is seeing the other side of being a global economy, where some of that begins to unravel for one reason or another and there's not something comparable to fill the void.
It seems like it's always an employer's market. Only seldom have I heard of there being more jobs than their applicants, and only in certain fields, ones that people don't naturally gravitate to, even if they are higher paying, or because of the amount of education and training one needs.
I believe that most of the western world is heading in the same direction and we're really just along for the ride to see what happens.
We had a better start than my parents and then my girls had a better start again. At one point I believed that things would just continue to improve for each generation, then in these last..maybe 15 years...the reality started to sink in that such continued growth couldn't sustain itself. We soon realised that the retirement age would be much further ahead for us than our parents. I probably wasn't expecting just how hard it would be for my daughters as they move into an adult world which seems to be collapsing around us. In some ways it's a bigger shock for them because they've had such a comfortable start in life. They aren't used to going without or making do.
With regards jobs/applicants balance, I think you've got the nail on the head. My husband has always worked in engineering and manufacturing, which has dwindled away as companies have moved to eastern Europe or China. He was very lucky to get his current job and they are trying to find C++ programmers who can work in a manufacturing and engineering setting. The people they're interviewing have no clue on this side of programming, because we're not a manufacturing country any more. So the jobs are there, but not the people with the skills to do them. Their one programmer is Russian, but he needs help with all the new work coming. I made a joke that they might need to start hiring from Russia.
First off, Best of Luck! I understand your government feelings, I avoid any government body as much as possible.
Best opinion I can offer, Is you are obviously good at writing, You have the experience. Work on a project you have already or do another one in your spare time, and Maybe put together a Partially Illustrated Novel (keeps cost down) and try self publishing with a Ebook, and limited run or print on demand service.
In the meantime do what you gotta do. I know how you feel, I was working as a general contractor here, self employed, 40-50 hour weeks etc. Took me 10 years to get a system and 2 years of creating spare time to get my businesses up and running.
Regardless You just have to believe in what you're going to do, keep your chin up and keep on truckin.
I'm sure loads of people here, Myself included would be happy to give any work you produce a bump online and off.
May you live long and prosper. (and dont eat the yellow snow)
Hey, @rubido.
Well, thank you for the well-wishing. It's been a long road so far. I keep expecting to get to the end of it, but it hasn't happened yet.
I've been spending most of my spare time on HIVE. Even at $0.30, what I make here has been by far the most lucrative of my creative endeavors. Unfortunately, it's not designed to be a living wage, at least not in America, and there is that pesky thing called retirement that I would eventually like to enjoy. :)
re: a system
That sounds about right. I used to refer to us as a lean, mean machine, because we had just enough people to comfortably get the work done, because the people in those positions were good at what they did. Takes a while to find that kind of personnel.
re: chin up
There isn't much else that can be done of any great effect, is there? I've managed to complain and rant against it, but really, that's more self-therapy than anything else. :) Sometimes it leads to a spark of an idea, but mostly, it's the doing and trudging and keep keeping on that gets you where you ultimately need to be. Not necessarily want, but need.
re: live long and prosper
You, too. May we all. (that and avoid the yellow snow. Fortunately, we don't get a lot of snow of any color here, so it's totally avoidable. :)
That's the spirit! Well if you ever decide to do something illustrated I'd happily contribute for free. Could do a compilation, a few panels in a theme with different artists, It worked for a buddy of mine in the 90s, he even got picked up by one of the indie comic book publishers, Think it was Antarctic press But I cant be sure.
See I can DOODLE!
Seriously though With a community project I'm sure a lot of the talented artists here would contribute, Could be fun.
Keep up the good fight!
The simplest, easiest way for me to say it is just say, don't worry, I've already shortened it drastically.
Land A: You'll work mininum 50% of your life and your health is not guaranteed.
Land B: You'll work at least 25% of your life and your health IS guaranteed.
Land A. Where you wrote this from, where I am as I type this. Land B: Everywhere Else.
Hey, @dandays.
When you say guaranteed or not guaranteed, are you talking about actual health or access to medical care?
From what you said, I get the idea I'm working a minimum of half my life, no matter what. Sounds lovely. :)
I gotta think there's more to the equation. Some downside to living anywhere else. I think you've probably chronicled them one more than once in your travel posts. As you say, you'd live there if you'd found the place that was best.
What I'm saying about the health is medical care, the way you made it clear your wife's job provides medical insurance. Imagine living in a place where all you needed to access medical attention is be born. Not anything weird like break your back a minimum 32 hours/week.
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