Do you like your Job.....???

I quite like my job. Money is not great but its extremly varied, with very little arse on seat time and there is plenty of holiday.

I joined my firm 20 years ago from school. And I am still there!

Cool. So what do you guys do.....if you don't mind me asking...??

I like my job (well, multiple jobs really) just fine, but because I'm self employed I have the world's worst boss.

Cheers

Harry

Nice one Harry.

Question - being your own boss, do you have a work/life balance that both you and your wife find works (no pun intended, honest!)....??

My wife's boss was sleeping/living at their industrial unit while the new company was getting on its feet....for a few months!!!

Cheers,
Ali

Ali,

I imagine you must be thankful you weren't based on one of those huge oil rigs that were hit by Hurricane Katrina, and were promptly flattened!

I didn't like my job much when I worked for the bank, but that situation got resolved in the end....they made me redundant!

Am currently temping for a local authority. Money not great and I finish at the end of this month but the trade-off has been, much easier to get to (and I travel by car rather than by bus or train, which has been nice!), good people to work with and appreciative management.

Am keeping positive though - let's see what the future brings.

Cheers,

Jon

Like Harry I am classified as self-employed too.

Sometimes I work too many hours, but then when something needs doing it needs to be done. The other side of the coin is being able to take time off when I want to.

And it is a balance. One thing (with very few exceptions), I ensure that I am home at least an hour or two before my children go to bed. When my first came into this world a good client/friend of mine told me to spend time with my children as they grow up. Time has a habit of passing very quickly. He was rueing the fact that he missed his children growing up. Something I have not forgotten nor will I forget.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by HTK:
but because I'm self employed I have the world's worst boss.

..and the world's best job cuz, you can fire yourself!

Whenever I moan about work, saying it stresses me, or I've got too much on, or it's shite, etc, my wife tells me to stop moaning - 'that's why it's called 'work', and not leisure'. Which is true, when you think about it...

Im also self employed. I love my job as it is whats put my hi fi in my rack!!!

Ali. I thought that we had a great opening to this thread. The balance between home life and time away seems to really work in your case.
Out of curiosity how many weeks annual leave to you have and are you employed on an individual work contract, or through one negotiated by a union?

Ali

I've spent nearly all my working life on the water as well, but in a somewhat different capacity, as a fisheries compliance officer. For the last 39 years in fact. Much of it on my own, tearing around in small to medium size boats in coastal waterways, but also some accompanied by armed-to-the-teeth Navy types boarding large foreign fishing vessels at sea.

A simply fabulous job, which certainly has its interesting moments, and one a bit out of the mainstream I suppose.

These days I teach others to do it, along with other, less interesting things. I retire in a year or so and one of the best things about this sort of job is the pension fund.
Fraim, XPS2 here I come!

Lomo,
work/life balance is important no matter what job you do, and it's nice to see companies actually realising this, eventually....

I personally, unlike some of the folk that have come and gone out here, work to live not live to work!

It's quite sad when you see people working themselves into the ground when all the company does is take take take. We have a supervisor who is off on long term sick at the moment due to stress/anxiety and it's a real shame, he's a decent bloke.

But to answer your questions....

- I am lucky enough to be employed as staff for the company and we have no union to negotiate with or be represented by....whether this is a good or bad thing I'm not too sure... I'm not old enough to remember the days when there were strikes off-shore in the 80's oil crash, and have no experience of any other 'system' but I do count myself lucky having a staff contract.

- as far as the work cycle goes I didn't really go into the full details....as I didn't want to make you all totally sick with jealousy.... We work a fixed rota of two weeks on two off every month, but, every four months we miss a trip, having six weeks off, instead of annual leave or holidays.....there, I've gone and said it..... So it works out we are actually off-shore at work roughly 20 weeks a year....
Although this year I think it's 19....
Other companies operate different shift patterns, 2 on 3 off, 2 on 2 off 2 on 4 off, Norwegians work 2 on 4 off I believe!!
If you work for a contract company out here, maintenance/drilling/catering etc you are straight two on two off with holidays, three weeks a year I think....and they do have unions.
But, bear in mind we are working 12 hour shifts out here, 6 'till 6 (days or nights), so it roughly works out as the same hours to a 'normal' job over the year....although this probably won't help my cause.....

So yeah, work/life balance does work in my case.....
Although it takes some getting used to....
Coming off of night shift after two weeks is a pain for me and my gorgeous other half! Wandering around for the first few days home like a zombie, and I've got that to look forward to in just over a week....

But also, and to make comment on Mike's point too, we don't have any kids at present but I reckon I'd find it difficult leaving them behind every month to hear I missed their first crawl, word, walk etc etc, it's hard enough leaving my wife behind..... But, at least she has actually been off-shore in previous jobs so can understand the conditions....I'm quite lucky that way too. Many other partners think we come out here for a picnic apparently.....

So, you probably won't want to talk to me now....but hey, I can't help where I work, and I know nothing else...

Cheers,
Ali

quote:

Originally posted by JonR:
Ali,

I imagine you must be thankful you weren't based on one of those huge oil rigs that were hit by Hurricane Katrina, and were promptly flattened!

I didn't like my job much when I worked for the bank, but that situation got resolved in the end....they made me redundant!

Am currently temping for a local authority. Money not great and I finish at the end of this month but the trade-off has been, much easier to get to (and I travel by car rather than by bus or train, which has been nice!), good people to work with and appreciative management.

Am keeping positive though - let's see what the future brings.

Cheers,

Jon

Jon - very thankful, we've been talking about this a lot at home and we're thankful, full stop, that we live in relatively 'safe' Britain.... no hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes.....although I watched the horizon prog on ch4 before coming out here and apparently we are the tornado capital of the world, by land mass area...
Nothing on the scale of the USA though, but then they do everything big over there...

Sorry to hear about your redundancy, and I hope the future brings you some good fortune....

My father worked for the Bank of Scotland for nearly forty years, and towards the end, after the merger/take over with the Halifax, he was dreading going into work each day which was sad to see. The final nail in the coffin for him was a change of staff number that he'd had since he first started with the bank into something that worked with the Halifax system..... Maybe it's just a number, but for him I think it was more than that....
He's retired now, and couldn't be happier!

Cheers,
Ali

bazz - sounds like you've had some fun during your working career, nice one!
I'm sure you'll have a great retirement when it comes, XPS2 and Fraim sounds better than bowls....

Anyhoo.....I suppose I'd better get on with some work......

Cheers,
Ali

quote:

I actually like the work cycle

When I first read this I thought it read - I like to cycle to work.

quote:

Originally posted by arf005:
Nice one Harry.

Question - being your own boss, do you have a work/life balance that both you and your wife find works (no pun intended, honest!)....??

My wife's boss was sleeping/living at their industrial unit while the new company was getting on its feet....for a few months!!!

Cheers,
Ali

Eek indeed! I sleep where I work because I'm home based. At least that's the theory. I can sometimes be away for a week - but at least it's all in the interests of income. Plus it's often followed by long periods of working at home where I'm never more than a few feet away from my wife, my music, the kettle, a dog walk and all those things that keep you sane. And I have a very short trip home when I knock off!

Although based in the West Country, I used to work all over the place and frequently popped home for week ends. It’s amazing what you get used to. It’s like living some sort of double life. Not that we minded. We made the most of it but the work/life balance was often tipped on its side. I know people who work on Rigs. They too seem to have two lives.

The work leisure balance is now increasingly important to us, as is continuing to live in our present location. Income is volatile and hours vary tremendously. There’s no doubt that it’s a grind but a happy one. For the most part I’m being paid for pursuing my hobbies. When the work is piled high as it is now, the leisure time suffers but it never lasts, so over the course of a year I get plenty of down time – much more than when I was ‘working for the man’.

When if full time, paid employment I had a very good 15 year run before I went independent, doing a variety of challenging and interesting jobs for good money. But it was a tread mill and there was no flexibility for increasing earnings, avoiding the really shitty work that I hated doing and planning down time to suit us 100%. I was also getting taxed to a level that felt like a monthly mugging. Because of the nature of the business I was in and because in the last couple of years the company (which changed hands three times during my time with them) was run ‘hands on’ from Chicago, working until midnight and all through week ends was not uncommon – all for the same wage – albeit a good wage. At least now when I work unsociable hours I’m getting paid extra for every hour.

Being on the other side of the fence I get to see the workings of a lot of different companies and this gives me a much better strategic picture of the industry (that I service) as a whole, which is invaluable for business planning. But the biggest bonus of all is that I’m happy. I’m in control. I get to keep a higher proportion of my earnings and (providing the work doesn’t dry up) I can go for the projects that really interest me.

Yes Kuma – I DID fire myself last week! And I deserved it. But I ‘m a forgiving sort and hired myself again the following Monday.

Cheers

Harry

I like my job - I never khow what i'm going to get lumbered with until I get into work.

I dislike being spat at, bit, assaulted etc but it comes with the job. I don't like not being able to provide proper victim care to those that need it, and providing it to folk that either don't know how to help themselves, or don't want to...

for starters...

andy c!

There's a support group for people who don't like their job. It's called "everyone" and it meets in the pub...

I love my job. Adore it.

After several years of being self-employed, which was as lucrative as it needed to be, but never, ever regular enough really for me to enjoy it, I was headhunted for a job that appealled.

Accepting it meant a return to the ratrace, ironing, commuting, not being able to explore remote European cities on weekdays at the drop of a hat courtesy of Ryanair et al, getting up too early to go for a jog, answering to other people and - probably - somewhat more stress.

Especially since I planned and have been allowed to continue a little of what I had been already doing (writing/teaching).

With some trepidation, therefore, I took the job, mainly because of a good impression of the people (it's a company of only thirty, two of whom I knew). Partly, I shall freely admit, because of a great deal of money (for me, -probably enough to cover lunch for some here). It was more that I knew they had offered me far more than the recruitment agency had proposed originally, suggesting - gratifyingly - that they really wanted me.

It's been a fantastic year so far. There has actually been an enjoyable level of stress and the camaraderie of no longer working alone is priceless. There are some people for whom being self-employed is not a good plan, and for whom working at home is also probably a mistake. I fall into both those categories.

I have to say, however, that the company is the agent for, and owned by, Bollinger Champagne, so the perks are, er, probably up there with Adam Meredith's. I drink superbly and visit vineyards about once a month...
If you're into wine, check http://www.mentzendorff.co.uk to see what I like about my job.

Cheers

Rod

I work in a management job in a large company and . . . I actually like it! Good boss, good colleagues, successful company. We work hard and have fun doing it.

BUT this hasn't always been true for me. Other jobs in other companies I've worked for in my career have been horrible. The two worst ones were in IBM and the Commonwealth Bank (Australia's largest bank). A lot of people don't realise that if a company has a high profile and is commercially successful, it doesn't always mean it's a good place to work.

Steve

quote:

Yes Kuma – I DID fire myself last week! And I deserved it. But I ‘m a forgiving sort and hired myself again the following Monday.

Harry,

That's another good part about self-employed. You can HIRE yourself!

Good on you if can stay as your own boss. i've tried that and was not too successful at it.

I love what I do, but I hated chasing the business down and doing paper work. ( more than I realised )

quote:

There's a support group for people who don't like their job. It's called "everyone" and it meets in the pub...

chiba,

That's called a *slow death*.

LOVE MY JOB. i'm in the RAF as an airframe technician. been in 17 yrs and only been unhappy once when i was posted to aircraft deep strip in south wales. area fantastic-work sucks. i,ve been an instructor on Harrier jets and got great job satisfaction and good qualifications.i,ve worked tornado jets, chinook helicopters and Harriers. All have introduced new learning curves and different places to live. It's good to find a job that gives constant development and such variety over your whole carreer. after seeing most of the world, earning 4 medals and having loads of stories to pass on i am giving it all up for redundancy. the military is getting too small and i am living close to family who can see their grandchild grow up. i now own my 1st house and intend to stay here for the rest of my life. its time to settle down, take my voluntary redundancy and go and get another carreer while i am still young enough and have my RAF background to promote me. If anyones children here are thinking of joining the military, tell them to go for it and don't stand in their way. it's an eye opener and a damn good carreer which not only employs people, but builds people into street wise, respectful adults.

Thanks guys for the comments, some interesting ones in there....

.....soon be Monday morning though, and already is for some!

.....so do you still like your jobs.....???

Cheers,
Ali

Well,
I've had a busy shift!
Messing about in the wellheads - struggling with stiff old v/v's....
Been down one of the legs too, but one of our shallower one's thankfully!
Found the drains collector pump spewing diesel out of its mech seal though....nice!
Sorted that then had a job on at the gas tight floor down the bottom.....

So I'm now stinking of diesel and ready for a shower!!

But hey, it's monday now so almost half way through the trip!!

Hope you all enjoy your monday mornings.....

Cheers,
Ali