Friday, December 9, 2022

I Got Nothing ...


My head is empty, without thought, without ideas, without content ...

A void ...

It feels like what it must have been like before Creation occurred.

The end of the year approaches, time off looms upon the horizon, much needed time off I might add.

I'm tired of politics, tired of war, tired of people bitching about shit on Facebook, just plain tired.

Today is the end of the last long week of my career. I have been working what's called a 9/80 schedule for the better part of a decade. Nine hours on Monday through Thursday, then eight hours every other Friday. Basically you work nine days for a total of 80 hours, hence the "9/80" designation. The more traditional forty hour week is referred to (at least where I work) as 5/40.

Beginning in 2023 I have elected to become a "part-timer," or, as I like to think of it, "semi-retired." I will no longer work Fridays, unless I want to or need to make up time. I have elected to work 36 hours a week, four 9-hour days, Monday through Thursday. Kinda like 9/80 but without the 9, or the 80,

A 36 hour work week will be a ten percent cut in pay, which will still mean more filthy lucre in my pocket than if I out and out retired. Though on paper it is also a ten percent cut in Paid Time Off (a topic I was going to write about but quickly got sick of) from 200 hours a year to 180 hours per year. (200 / 10 = 20, 200 - 20 = 180. Didn't want to make you do the math in your head.) Now I've always looked at that 200 hours in terms of how many days off does that give me?

If you're working a 9/80 schedule, a week off might be 44 hours of PTO needed, or 36, depending on which of your two weeks you want to take off. But in real terms I always viewed that 200 hours as being the rough equivalent of 25 working days off, or five weeks, if you will.

Now do the math for 180 hours of PTO based on a nine-hour day. That's the equivalent of 20 days. "Wait, what? Sarge, you're losing an entire week off!"

Nope, because my weeks are now four days long, 20 / 4 = 5. Yup, I still get the rough equivalent of five weeks off. Plus I don't have to work Friday, ever, unless I want to.

I envision 2023 being a more relaxed year compared to those in the past.

Which probably means World War III will kick off, or Xiden finally hands the keys to the Red Chinese. On the bright side, I'll have more time to learn the language of our new overlords ...

And I'm an optimist.

Maybe I'll be inspired to write something better for Saturday. Who knows?

Be seeing you.




26 comments:

  1. Well as David Bowie once sang "CH CH CH CH CHANGES"......As far as next year being more relaxed that's a hope you can toast for come New Year's Eve Sarge, let's hope the Big Guy is listening.

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    1. Praying for better times in the world can't hurt!

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  2. Trading time for money... wasn't hard when I was 19, lot's to do when I had the money. Now 50 years later I realize that time is the real thing, you only have so much of that but you do need some money..
    BUT! If you are doing something (work) that you really love then you're spending your time the way you want to, the money is a bonus!

    It's Friday & I needed to add something to this conversation so I can get the comments as email all day long :-)
    Merry Christmas everyone!

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    1. Good points, I do enjoy what I'm doing, but five days a week is officially one day too many!

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  3. Sarge, I have never worked a "modified" schedule other than 5/40, although I have had acquaintances that work more of the version you are describing: 4 x 10 per week, or alternating schedules (3 x 12, 4 x 12.5, that sort of thing). On the whole they have said they found that having more time off strung together was more enjoyable. I do get that; one barely gets started disengaging from work on the weekends and suddenly it is time to return.

    PTO is not what it used to be - at my current employer, no-one will be allowed to roll over more than the set amount of PTO to next year. This has created a real problem as, due to The Plague, some people had a great deal of PTO that was rolled from 2020 to 2021 and then 2022 to use up or lose (your humble commenter included). The result is that just when year end projects are due, people are out because they do not want to lose their PTO.

    The news - this has been a particularly hard week, not for any one thing in particular, but from what (from my somewhat trying to be objective eye) seems like an acceleration of trends which no-one will be happy to arrive at, but so many have been clamoring for.

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    1. The unwind from work then have to go back straight away (it seems) is how I view the traditional two day weekend. I need the three day weekend all the time. Every other week was fine when I was younger, not so much any more. One reason I haven't retired yet (other than the expense of a bathroom remodel) is that I'm still useful and can contribute. As long as I'm useful, I can keep going. But on a reduced schedule!

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  4. I totally quit at age 61 and wish I had sooner. Been full time rving since then with no regrets on the quitting.

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    1. I quit (retired) cold in 2018. Would turn 66 in June (full ss) and would retire June 30 (end of Univ fiscal year). Gave my notice to my boss in Jan. After 36 years, it was time to turn things over to the youngsters (some are very good) rather than hang on like an old politician.

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  5. You do what you need to do. If you can handle and like your job and cow-orkers and evil bosses, go for it. As as you aren't waking up dreading the drive to work, dreading dealing with cow-orkers, dreading seeing their ugly faces and hearing their ugly voices, dreading the bosses' offices like the final boss of a bad video game, work is fine.

    Plus, as you said, pays the bills. You gots a new lap top, Blue and a drum set. So, like you said, bathroom renovations and whatever else you need to do to settle the abode down for retirement-level payments.

    As to poly-tics, well, buy more ammo... Buy some long-term storage food supplies (like that 50lb bag of rice from Sams for $19.00 (which is a veeery good price on rice, by the way.)) Secure your domicile for potential brown and blackouts caused by natural or unnatural forces.

    Other than that, I'll check my email more often to see when you need a break and the Chanters need to be afflicted by my particular brand of weirdness.

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    1. I'm with Beans; "semi-retired" means more time for rifle practice. Use it while you can before things go hot.
      Boat Guy

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    2. It might be time to unleash Puddles, I'm seriously considering going on hiatus for the rest of December. I am that tired and bereft of new material.

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    3. Do what's best for you, we'll be here.

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  6. Speaking as someone who has worked a 4 day a week 7.5 hours a day (officially, reality is it's more like 8-10 hours daily) for many years, I feel confident you will LOVE IT!!!. When I worked in the doctor's offices they ran out of space, so the solution to not having to do expensive remodeling was to put everyone on a 4 day work week, which instantly freed up 2 exam rooms daily in each nursing station.

    About 14 years ago now, I was working full time doing Home care nursing in west MI and it was just brutal. I was driving over 200 miles daily + seeing 6 patients, and going home and doing paperwork for 5-6 hours later. I was getting too old to keep that up for long, so I went to the boss and made a deal that I would become per Diem, instead of full time, I would stay in the on-call rotation, and I would work a steady schedule of Tuesday thru Friday.
    Trust me when I tell you there are many emergencies that can last through the weekend, NONE of which seem to be able to last until Tuesday. Plus, when you work Friday, everyone else is wrapping up their week as well, so there are far fewer things that get shunted to you to do the next day. The one downside is ya miss out on Monday holidays, but it's really no big deal as ya have EVERY Monday off anyway.
    When I moved back to NY, I went exploring on the internet, and there was a per Diem position open in the county I wanted to work in for the agency I wanted to go back to work for. So I applied, and got a job offer on the spot. Probably helped I had worked with the gal who was then the supervisor as she knew me.

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    1. Per diem don't get benefits, except if you work more that 1000 hours in a year, the company does a 401K match of a certain percent, and since Covid, NYS has mandated every employee gets so many hours of sick time a year. Where I'm at, per diems sign a contract stating for x amount of money/hour, we promise to make at least y amount of patient visits per month, and we have to work one assigned holiday a year. No on-call. No health insurance, so I buy my own. No paid time off, but you can tell them that you wont be available certain weeks/days whatever. As long as you see your 15 or 30 visits in a month(!!!) you're good. I usually do 20-24 in a week. If ya want to work weekends, you are golden. I do occasionally work a Monday, or a Saturday for the extra, like when I needed to unexpectedly buy a new set of tires due to a side wall puncture in one. But when everything was on lock-down, and my son and daughter-in-law needed a sitter for the grandkiddo because they had to work from home, I played Grammy on Mondays and Wednesdays, and worked every Saturday to make up for not being available on Wednesday. So there are a lot of pros to 4 day work weeks, provided both you and the employer can be flexible. Plus it is MUCH easier to get an appointment at the car dealer/mechanic for that oil change, or work to be done as everyone wants to get in on Saturday, as that is their day off.
      So I have done a 4 day week at this home care agency for a bit over 3 years now. They just about always have work for me--they have to fill the full time and part timer's schedules first---there are maybe 3-4 days a year when they might not have enough work for me to fill an entire day. But those are pretty rare. And, I can usually make up the dollars by doing a few visits on a weekend. So being flexible, and having a large bag of skills, and not telling them no very much really has worked to my advantage. I am willing to drive just about anyplace to see the patient (after all they are paying the gas mileage)--am I crazy to go to downtown big city, not really, but I do it. I just point out that I live out in the country, so going to those out of the way places (where no one wants to go) is easier. I not only do regular nursing visits, I also do IV visits, as well as admissions if needed. And, for the last year and a half, I have been managing a small case load up in the southern Adirondacks--most per diems don't case manage, but I was asked, and it has really worked in my favor.
      You could double my salary, which is very nice these days, and I would not want to go back to 5 days a week. Time truly is money to me now. Besides, taxes are lower on time then on money!

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    2. Suz #1 - I am really looking forward to it!

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    3. Suz #2 - Sounds like you're doing very well and are content with your work. That makes a big difference in wanting to work!

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  7. You will have more time to relax, ponder, think about things, idly, scritch the cat, ( I am told rubbing a critter behind the ears is scritching it ), watch the world go by, and plotting the plot of your fiction.

    I hope you really enjoy the extra time off!

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  8. The year before I retired, I reduced my hours from 40 to 20. I had big plans for what I was going to do with those extra hours.
    The big plans were still there when I retired. Untouched.

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    1. But you had more time to think about those big plans, right? 🙄

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  9. it can be any number of things that can go wrong at any time...
    Xi launching Taiwan invasion to deflect wrath of the people for zero covid lockdowns
    Kim going for South
    Putin escalating Ukraine into war with NATO, nuclear or otherwise
    Iran going offensive against Saudis or israel to deflect internal turmoil...
    2 or more of those happening at same time
    alternatively, any of those regimes collapsing into civil war (again the lesson of Andor: tyranny is hard but brittle, it takes constant effort to control population and military = Damocles sword parable for those more classically minded)

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    1. Things could go siuth in a big hurry, that's for sure.

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