Should I get a 2nd Job?
Part of the reactionary planning I’ve done since finding out about my pending SBA loan maturing is considering whether or not to get a second job. I realized I had been slipping on my debt repayment plan. I had to bring it up a notch to stay on track and handle paying off as much as I could before the deadline comes. My options are to either reduce expenses and/or increase income. That’s really the bottom line.
I don’t have all the fat trimmed from my budget. I could get rid of my personal cellphone (I also have one for work that I can use personally). I could cut netflix. I could cut the gym membership which to be honest, I don’t use all that often right now. I could eat more ramen. But I’m not quite ready to cut any of those, at least right now. So that leaves increasing my income. I can’t really increase my hours or pick up shifts (it’s an office job). If I’m not willing to cut expenses and I can’t increase my current salary, that leaves other work.
I’ve had a second job before. About 3 years ago I decided to get a weekend waitress job working brunch. I pulled in almost nothing for salary but averaged about $100/day in tips. That’s about $900/month. This was right after I landed my current job, so I was working 7 days a week. I was really money hungry at the time, after being unemployed for a few months. See, I’m not afraid of hard work!
What I remember most about that time is trying to deal with the complete lack of free time. I also was dealing with a very sick, old, blind dog (hey, he was 17). I was also single at the time. I also had a full-time 40+ hr a week job. I remember never getting enough sleep, not having a social life to speak of, and after several months, going crazy from not being able to get away from it all!
I love my down time. I love my privacy. I like to sit and read a book for an entire day on occasion, and I just couldn’t do that. Fast forward to now. I’ve been thinking quite hard about the trade-offs. Making a few hundred extra a month vs. the loss in quality of life. I think I’ve decided for the moment that a second job is not maintainable, or valuable enough to have. So I’ve become used to the idea of my journey being more maintainable, but longer than it could otherwise be.
I’m not completely closed to the idea, of course, but for now, it is the right decision for me.
Slowdown at work
This week saw some big economic changes to our department. First some background:
The months following New Years are typically slow. Add in the economic slowdown this particular year, and we have been super-slow. I have 11 employees that I manage (which doesn’t include the 4 project managers that I don’t, so there are 15 crew that I can send out on jobs, depending on client requests). Once day this week I told 6 permanent, “full-time” employees not to come in (Tuesday), and again on Thursday, I had another 4 not work. This coming monday is a similar story. The unfortunate fact is, there are more days without work than with.
Well our company, which is small, and about 50-60 employees, has been struggling with how to cope. The other departments are all fine, their work hasn’t slowed down or isn’t affected. It’s been a stressful few weeks, having to deal with employees upset on not having regular work and the impact on their paychecks, understandably.
Well, we finally announced that starting this coming week, all employees in this department, other than the office staff, will be (temporarily) going down to a mandatory 4-day work week (if we even have that much). Two weeks ago I had client after client yelling at me about their bills and how they didn’t want to pay nor did they feel they should. Last week was all about my employees being upset on the lack of work, plus my first employee discipline (I’m new to being a manager and absolutely can’t handle confrontation). So I was expecting this week to have a lot of fallout after the announcement.
It went over surprisingly well - I think they were all expecting something to happen. One of them, who has been here years, is very experienced, and has the second highest seniority out of the group, mentioned that he was glad we said something. Every day he was wondering if he’d come in and find out he was layed off.
There is a bit of good news: my hours will not be affected – I have to answer phones and be at my desk no matter what, even if the crews under me don’t have work. I don’t have anyone else to share my work with, so I can’t not work. Either way, the recession has come calling and it sucks.
I’m not sure it will be enough. I was also asked to draft a temporary layoff letter, “just in case.” I hope we don’t need to, but we may not have a choice. If we do lay someone off, they will at least have the benefit of getting unemployment money, which is better than nothing, with no work available. 0
Keep your spirits up all, it’s depressing out there!
Overtime chances have increased
I’m at work now, and it’s 10:45 pm. My job is 8 to 5, normally. I’m in working a 4 hour overtime (partly doubletime) job again! I think I’m the only person that has opening/closing powers for the building that likes to come in during the middle of the night and make extra money.
Our company has recently made some changes in security (we’re a secure facility, and the more secure we are the better clients we get and the better our insurance rates get). Specifically, they are going to reduce the number of people that have access after hours. The pool of people who can do this has now shrunk, which means I have a greater chance of getting these late overtime jobs when they happen.
Good news, though I am going to be tired tomorrow!
Rant: appreciating having a job
I just have to rant a little here about a few of the people I work with. I manage crews for jobs going out to various clients (which change daily). There are a few people who, while I really enjoy them on a personal level, sometimes drive me insane with the amount they complain on the job, incessantly, about the jobs they go on, tasks they have to do back at work, the clients I send them to, you name it. I can’t stand it! I mean, don’t they understand how lucky they are to even HAVE a job in today’s economy? For one of them, do they even remember how bad it was in the food industry (where this one person spent a very long time employed at)? To complain to the degree they do, man, it gets tiresome.
I mean come on! Do they really think that I (as their manager) don’t notice how they complain non-stop about the jobs they get sent on? Do they really think they can pick and choose which jobs to get sent on?
I told one person, when he started whining about not wanting to go on one job, and that it had an early start, that his option was to go, or his other option was to stay home and take the day off. I think in the future, when I get complaints, then I’ll just tell them “you’re right, don’t come in. Stay home tomorrow.” There are plenty of other people I can give the work to.
There are certainly days when we don’t have work for all crew (we are client dependant at least for my department). The way things are going, with so many businesses failing, layoffs happening (it has happened to many of our largest clients!), and the expected continuance of bad news throughout the coming year, I wish they would shut up, stop whining, buck up and just do their darn jobs! Don’t you think I remember their attitudes when I have to choose who gets work, and at the end of the year, who gets raises?
New year, new salary (I got a raise)!
January. The dreaded performance review. I had a crappy night, been recovering from working until 1 am 2 nights ago (the overtime is amazing, but it really screws me up for 1 or 2 days after), didn’t get enough sleep, and felt like crap all day – not just tired, but actually shakey. I had to give several reviews for a few people in my department, as well as have my own. It was not looking to be a good day.
I have a job that’s very eventful, dealing with clients, doing a lot of troubleshooting, and on-the-fly schedule changes. It’s a very fine balancing act. It can have a lot of last minute emergencies, heated emotions (both from crew and clients), and mad scramble dashes to get done by the end of the day. I got promoted to assistant manager this past fall, with a bit of a raise to go with it. Our company has had a bad year (outside of the economy), and next year promises to be even harder, with the economy tanking like I expect it to. We already got the news that our department wasn’t getting a bonus. However, I still expected to get a raise. I had an inside guestimation, since I’ve been giving small raises to some people under me.
I did well, I know I’m valued, and I love my job and the people I work with (most of the time). I got the small raise I expected. Nothing amazing, but hey, nice! Everything helps, right? I had a bunch of my own objectives and had a bunch more added on by my manager. It’s actually a lot to do, but I know I can get it done. Then, at the end of the day, my boss comes in, and tells me he’s been thinking. After looking at my objectives, and all the stuff on my plate, he decided to increase my raise. How unexpected! Whoopie! How great is that?
With all the overtime I have, I think I can turn that into quite a hefty chunk of extra debt payments this year.
I celebrated by buying myself some nice gourmet coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Just a little, and at that price ($12 – I thought it was per pound but it was for 12 ounces. Ouch). So I’ll have it just for weekends. A budget present. Actually, I had already planned on buying some (after smelling in love with some a coworker brought to work), but now I’m turning it into a reward.
Here’s to prosperity in all the places we can find in 2009!
