Hours I work/PTO
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Now things sucked at a prior job. There I was the lone IT guy. required to work 8-5 M-F and 8-12 Sat. Place sucked.
On April 25, 2008 at 10:18am I am in the f[moderated]ing delivery room with my wife when the phone rings (because i was slightly too distracted to silence it). I glanced at the caller ID and rejected the call then silenced the phone. It was the company.
4 minutes later my first child was born.
You know who called? The owner. The same person I was required to call whenever I was not going to be in. He damned well knew where I was.
You know what he wanted? His email was down. Turned out to be a RAID 5 disk failure. You know how I know? I went back to the f[moderateding office as soon as my wife fell asleep.
I can relate a shit ton more issues with that place. Suffice it to say, it was not my problem, but I still had to work almost the whole week. Instead of the vacation time I had been approved for.
TL;DR Screw the 8-5 job mentality.
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@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
That's cool man - you do you.
I am going to leave it right there.
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@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
Right, I don't want to take it on vacation, I don't want a vacation from it. I would define loving a job as being one you would desire not to take a vacation from. If you want to take a vacation, then I totally understand why you'd not want to take the job with you. It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
So you never want to take a vacation?
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@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
Right, I don't want to take it on vacation, I don't want a vacation from it. I would define loving a job as being one you would desire not to take a vacation from. If you want to take a vacation, then I totally understand why you'd not want to take the job with you. It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
So you never want to take a vacation?
Define vacation? You want to go someplace and enjoy something? If so, he does that.
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@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
That's cool man - you do you.
I am going to leave it right there.
My whole point was... find work that you love so much that you don't want a vacation from it. Not just work that you love enough to put up with.
I don't feel a need to take a vacation from my hobbies, either. I do them because I like doing them. I don't look forward to not doing my hobbies. Or like playing video games. I realize that those things I naturally vacation from by simply not doing them from time to time, but that's only because I get busy, not because I'm vacationing from them.
I think vacations are a bad concept... the idea that work sucks so much that we need time away from it. Yeah... when work sucks you absolutely do. But wouldn't it be better to fix the problem rather than to bandaid it?
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@JaredBusch said in Hours I work/PTO:
@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
Right, I don't want to take it on vacation, I don't want a vacation from it. I would define loving a job as being one you would desire not to take a vacation from. If you want to take a vacation, then I totally understand why you'd not want to take the job with you. It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
So you never want to take a vacation?
Define vacation? You want to go someplace and enjoy something? If so, he does that.
That is exactly where we are differing. Also exactly the correct answer.
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@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
Right, I don't want to take it on vacation, I don't want a vacation from it. I would define loving a job as being one you would desire not to take a vacation from. If you want to take a vacation, then I totally understand why you'd not want to take the job with you. It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
So you never want to take a vacation?
I travel, I do fun stuff. I never vacation unless I'm working a less than loveable job and even then, I've taken a total of two vacations in my adult life... one was my honeymoon and one was the backpacking trip around Europe... and that last one was only sort of a vacation, as @Minion-Queen I was still around, just lightly.
So no, I never vacation.
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@JaredBusch said in Hours I work/PTO:
@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
Right, I don't want to take it on vacation, I don't want a vacation from it. I would define loving a job as being one you would desire not to take a vacation from. If you want to take a vacation, then I totally understand why you'd not want to take the job with you. It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
So you never want to take a vacation?
Define vacation? You want to go someplace and enjoy something? If so, he does that.
Yes, I do that all the time. But I never stop working (for any serious length of time) nor would I want to. I dislike not getting to work, because I do what I love doing. It's not the only thing that I love doing, hence why I travel. I love getting to work from those places, too.
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Scott doesn't want to take a vacation from his job, yet him and the fam - well wait, nevermind... Even though Scott does some side work for NTG, we all have to remember, he's more or less retired now. working when he wants to (granted that's still a lot of the time doing tasks for NTG).
I really can't imagine any job that any person wouldn't want to have a change of scenery for a bit. Of course one of the very first things you must have to have Scott's type of setup for is a team of support personal - it's can't be a one man shop like JB mentioned, or many of us here on ML have today.
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@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
Scott doesn't want to take a vacation from his job, yet him and the fam - well wait, nevermind... Even though Scott does some side work for NTG, we all have to remember, he's more or less retired now. working when he wants to (granted that's still a lot of the time doing tasks for NTG).
I really can't imagine any job that any person wouldn't want to have a change of scenery for a bit. Of course one of the very first things you must have to have Scott's type of setup for is a team of support personal - it's can't be a one man shop like JB mentioned, or many of us here on ML have today.
Hire @Bundy-Associates to handle it for you. Screw those NTG people...
errr......
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@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
That's cool man - you do you.
I am going to leave it right there.
My whole point was... find work that you love so much that you don't want a vacation from it. Not just work that you love enough to put up with.
I don't feel a need to take a vacation from my hobbies, either. I do them because I like doing them. I don't look forward to not doing my hobbies. Or like playing video games. I realize that those things I naturally vacation from by simply not doing them from time to time, but that's only because I get busy, not because I'm vacationing from them.
I think vacations are a bad concept... the idea that work sucks so much that we need time away from it. Yeah... when work sucks you absolutely do. But wouldn't it be better to fix the problem rather than to bandaid it?
Do you think this is a reasonable expectation for more than 1-5% of the working population? I sure don't.
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@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
I really can't imagine any job that any person wouldn't want to have a change of scenery for a bit. Of course one of the very first things you must have to have Scott's type of setup for is a team of support personal - it's can't be a one man shop like JB mentioned, or many of us here on ML have today.
And I think that few people would agree with you more than me. Which is why I think nearly all really great jobs provide for a change of scenery and any good IT job has to either be just a part of the IT puzzle and/or has to involve a lot of other people.
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@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
That's cool man - you do you.
I am going to leave it right there.
My whole point was... find work that you love so much that you don't want a vacation from it. Not just work that you love enough to put up with.
I don't feel a need to take a vacation from my hobbies, either. I do them because I like doing them. I don't look forward to not doing my hobbies. Or like playing video games. I realize that those things I naturally vacation from by simply not doing them from time to time, but that's only because I get busy, not because I'm vacationing from them.
I think vacations are a bad concept... the idea that work sucks so much that we need time away from it. Yeah... when work sucks you absolutely do. But wouldn't it be better to fix the problem rather than to bandaid it?
Do you think this is a reasonable expectation for more than 1-5% of the working population? I sure don't.
Yes, I think that it surely is. I also don't think that most people care enough to pursue it, they just don't prioritize life happiness like they could. Many prioritize "following societal rules" or "doing what their parents did" or "following the path of least resistance."
It's like eating healthy. Will more than 1-5% of the population ever do it? No, they just don't care enough. Is it realistic for most people to do it? Yup.
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@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
Scott doesn't want to take a vacation from his job, yet him and the fam - well wait, nevermind... Even though Scott does some side work for NTG, we all have to remember, he's more or less retired now. working when he wants to (granted that's still a lot of the time doing tasks for NTG).
Well, that is how my employment works as mentioned in the other thread. So it is not like @scottalanmiller's situation is unique. And I am certainly not retired.
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@JaredBusch said in Hours I work/PTO:
@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
Scott doesn't want to take a vacation from his job, yet him and the fam - well wait, nevermind... Even though Scott does some side work for NTG, we all have to remember, he's more or less retired now. working when he wants to (granted that's still a lot of the time doing tasks for NTG).
Well, that is how my employment works as mentioned in the other thread. So it is not like @scottalanmiller's situation is unique. And I am certainly not retired.
And I worked this way prior to retirement, and not solely at NTG, either.
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@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
That's cool man - you do you.
I am going to leave it right there.
My whole point was... find work that you love so much that you don't want a vacation from it. Not just work that you love enough to put up with.
I don't feel a need to take a vacation from my hobbies, either. I do them because I like doing them. I don't look forward to not doing my hobbies. Or like playing video games. I realize that those things I naturally vacation from by simply not doing them from time to time, but that's only because I get busy, not because I'm vacationing from them.
I think vacations are a bad concept... the idea that work sucks so much that we need time away from it. Yeah... when work sucks you absolutely do. But wouldn't it be better to fix the problem rather than to bandaid it?
Do you think this is a reasonable expectation for more than 1-5% of the working population? I sure don't.
Agreed
I find humanity exhausting in all its forms. This especially includes bringing work into my home/sanctuary.
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@JaredBusch said in Hours I work/PTO:
@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
Scott doesn't want to take a vacation from his job, yet him and the fam - well wait, nevermind... Even though Scott does some side work for NTG, we all have to remember, he's more or less retired now. working when he wants to (granted that's still a lot of the time doing tasks for NTG).
I really can't imagine any job that any person wouldn't want to have a change of scenery for a bit. Of course one of the very first things you must have to have Scott's type of setup for is a team of support personal - it's can't be a one man shop like JB mentioned, or many of us here on ML have today.
Hire @Bundy-Associates to handle it for you. Screw those NTG people...
errr......
LOL - I have a local who's my backup when I'm out, the boss wants face time, no matter how meaningless it might be.
On this last vacation - which I guess Scott wouldn't call a vacation because I did check my email everyday, even during the con (just not as often) and even answered a few of them.
Now to be like Scott said, and actually full out work, nah, my boss won't handle that. If I could take 3 months and work remotely during the summer and have a person in the city who can turn a screw driver because I'm gone, otherwise I'm doing all the tech work, that would be awesome, but she's just not having that.
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@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
That's cool man - you do you.
I am going to leave it right there.
My whole point was... find work that you love so much that you don't want a vacation from it. Not just work that you love enough to put up with.
I don't feel a need to take a vacation from my hobbies, either. I do them because I like doing them. I don't look forward to not doing my hobbies. Or like playing video games. I realize that those things I naturally vacation from by simply not doing them from time to time, but that's only because I get busy, not because I'm vacationing from them.
I think vacations are a bad concept... the idea that work sucks so much that we need time away from it. Yeah... when work sucks you absolutely do. But wouldn't it be better to fix the problem rather than to bandaid it?
Do you think this is a reasonable expectation for more than 1-5% of the working population? I sure don't.
Agreed
I find humanity exhausting in all its forms. This especially includes bringing work into my home/sanctuary.
Work doesn't always involve humanity, though. What if you were a painter, work might allow you to escape people, for example.
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@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@Dashrender said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@scottalanmiller said in Hours I work/PTO:
@MattSpeller said in Hours I work/PTO:
Why on earth you'd want to take it with you on vacation is absolutely beyond my understanding. That is the f'ing DEFINITION of vacation!
It's wanting to take a vacation that confuses me.
That's cool man - you do you.
I am going to leave it right there.
My whole point was... find work that you love so much that you don't want a vacation from it. Not just work that you love enough to put up with.
I don't feel a need to take a vacation from my hobbies, either. I do them because I like doing them. I don't look forward to not doing my hobbies. Or like playing video games. I realize that those things I naturally vacation from by simply not doing them from time to time, but that's only because I get busy, not because I'm vacationing from them.
I think vacations are a bad concept... the idea that work sucks so much that we need time away from it. Yeah... when work sucks you absolutely do. But wouldn't it be better to fix the problem rather than to bandaid it?
Do you think this is a reasonable expectation for more than 1-5% of the working population? I sure don't.
Yes, I think that it surely is. I also don't think that most people care enough to pursue it, they just don't prioritize life happiness like they could. Many prioritize "following societal rules" or "doing what their parents did" or "following the path of least resistance."
It's like eating healthy. Will more than 1-5% of the population ever do it? No, they just don't care enough. Is it realistic for most people to do it? Yup.
I think these two things come at great personal costs differences.
I'd really like to have @Minion-Queen say that she loves her job so much that she would like to never (or almost never) take a vacation from it. Short of you Scott, I know of no one who loves their job so much as to say that don't want a vacation from it. Not one single person. Now maybe JB is close, because he gets to work like you do, the hours he wants to work from nearly anywhere he wants to work it. So goes to Japan every few years, does he take time off work? Nope, he works from Japan.
But I don't think that most people want to work that kind of chaotic schedule. Most people, yeah sure they are not as potentially good for the company, like knowing that they will be off work to attend their kids recital that evening at 7 PM.
I also wonder, how much of the population is working blue collar jobs that just can't afford flexibility. The pharmacist at Target can't just decide that they want to take 3 hours off in the middle of the day, they need to be at the store filling prescriptions from a to b time so people know things will be ready for them. Frankly I have no idea how many jobs of the total jobs are like that vs ones that can be time shifted as needed.
Just look at me here, My boss would say that I can't time shift my job either. When someone's PC/printer/network is down, they need it fixed now. Luckily my office is only open 6 AM to 6 PM M-F. I work 7-5 M-T and 7-11 F, the rest of the time I'm more or less on call. Of course when I need to do server maintenance, I don't get to say, hey I'm not coming in until noon today because I'm staying until 9 or 10 installing updates (maybe I should check on that
). and even if I did, I'd still be on call, just like you say you're on call, only difference is, when they call you and you don't answer, there are more people to call to get help :P. -
Now the eating healthy thing - I don't consider that the same as work at all because often to eat healthier, you have to spend more money on the better food. Which means you have less money for other things that you might want to do, like hobbies.
