My DH has about 20 years experience in his current position. He got offered top pay for his current job. His last job had around the same pay. He’s gotten other job offers because they want his experience, but they pay a lot less. The position he wants, he doesn’t have experience on paper and he knows this. So he doing a certification right now to help out. But he also knows how much that position pays. He’s applied for places offering a lot less pay, just trying to break into the position, but they still say he doesn’t have enough experience. We’ve still seen some of those jobs posted as looking for applicants.
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I think you’re right about experiences coloring perspective. You and your husband value compensation, and are willing to sacrifice time and mental energy to get that. That’s fine. That doesn’t mean that everyone else does, even in a commission based field. Doesn’t make either choice right or wrong.
I personally would much rather have a simpler more humble lifestyle (economically) than have to sacrifice more time and energy to earn more. I’m sure many others feel the same.
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Work/life balance is becoming a big thing, even bigger since the pandemic. I’ve worked in my job for 19 years. I’ve chosen a job where I can set up my boundaries and I only work 40 hours during the hours that I want. I’m one of the best in my job, so I’m told. But I’m not looking to work my way up any ladders. My DH doesn’t like to work a lot of overtime and is looking for a job and position that he feels will work. In our world, our family comes first and we prefer to live more economically, but comfortable, so we can enjoy our kids and our time as a family. Work is work.
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I absolutely agree. I have lived with both. My dad turned down many a promotion during his career because he valued less stress in his work and more time with his family over higher pay.
My husband has a much difference perspective and it’s taken me a long time to be ok with that. He was the second child born to teen parents (his mom had his older brother at 17, him at 19 and a third child by the time she was 22) who spent the years they should have been raising their sons dealing drugs and coming home too drunk to be able to open the front door. He not only doesn’t want that life for our kids he wants to be able to provide enough for generations of our family to avoid a life like that. I know that’s not guaranteed and he does too but he works relentlessly to provide a life for our kids he never had. He started out in the car business as an 18 year old salesman and is now a 33 year old partner in 5 stores. Only because he worked his ass off. He worked the day of our wedding rehearsal, a week after our babies were born….you get the picture.
It’s taken me a long time to accept his work ethic and his goals. Honestly, it’s still a struggle some days. But I’m really proud of him and what he’s accomplished, as I’m sure you are of your DH.
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I wonder which way I’d fall if I still worked. Lol. I’m a CPA by trade and still hold my license but I haven’t worked since our oldest was born almost 11 years ago. I was in public accounting when I quit working but I think I would’ve opted for a less-stress, lower-on-the-totem-pole job in the end over a partner in a public firm. My DH simply does not understand viewing work through this lens. He’d be bored out of his gourd and miserable to be around.
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Work/life bal
Listened to an interesting discussion on NPR this past week about companies moving to a 4 day 32 hour work week (3 day weekends). The data looks great with productivity and employee happiness. Reminds me of a joke I heard when I lived in Hawaii in the 80s: A local was asked what they thought about moving to a 4 day work week. Pause… b4 responding, “I guess we could work an extra day”. At the time, don’t know if it’s true anymore, but there were lots of parades and extra days off for celebrations.
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I work in case management. The pay stinks. (The benefits and time off is great for those of us who have been there a long time). We are seeing a definite impact on hiring. Why work in a stressful job when you only make a few dollars more an hour than at Target?
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We have our fun outside of work. I mean, our jobs aren’t horrible or anything. My DH is doing something he is good at. And my job is typically not boring. Sometimes I yearn for boring.
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I’m so sorry if I’m putting my foot in my mouth and being insulting. Not my intention. Just painting a picture to frame my perspective I guess.
It seems like you guys have figured out what works for you. Work is so personal and household dynamics so unique. And forgive me my ignorance but is case management social work?
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Sort of. I’m not a social worker, but I do some things like it. I work for Early Intervention. So I oversee whether a child qualifies for our program and then oversee the case as a child receives therapy services. But if a family has a crisis, we either provide a social worker or we connect them to agencies that can assist them. Dealing with people is never boring.
And yes, we have figured out what works for us. Every family is different. But I do see work/life balance becoming more important to a lot of people.
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That’s more like the European model also. They tend to work less and are generally happier. In France, I know there’s laws that employers can’t expect people to answer texts and email off duty bc it’s considered work.
My husbands job isn’t 32 hours a week, but they do operate more like this. For religious reasons (they are Ultra Orthodox Jews, ie, Hasidic) they need to be home by sunset on Fridays, and have a lot of days when work is prohibited. Because of this Fridays are always half days or less, but at full pay. They are closed for a lot of holidays, including almost the whole month of September, and that is paid too. They pay a lump sum to employees when a child is born or gets married. It’s a much more relaxed environment, and people actually feel like the company cares about them.
And, they are still making money hand over fist. They are the premier source for professional audio, video, photo equipment and electronics.
You can make money and treat employees well.
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Unfortunately, this is not the norm. Should be. Yes I’m shoulding on you employers!
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That’s my point - it can be done without adding to consumer costs. Most companies won’t, bc they:
-Don’t care about employee happiness and wellness
-Don’t want to take away from stockholder dividends
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I heard you. Loud and clear. 
I wish it was heard outside the forum. 
An elementary student called into that NPR show about a 4 day work week to ask if schools could do it too . So they brought up data that showed student success in a 4 day week. Some districts have had to do this due to budgetary needs. I’ve been spouting 4 day school weeks for years (I have no pwr or influence) b/c then teachers could work 5 days instead of the 6 they work now. Schools on a 4 day schedule would be T-F to avoid all Monday federal holidays. But since public school doubles as free childcare everything would need to adjust to support it.
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I am all about the 4 day work week and good work/life balance. My husband always says “we work to live, not live to work.” He just started a new job, and I have expressly told him that I do not want him to climb that corporate ladder. My BIL is at the same company, near the top of that office’s ladder, and I see a severe negative impact on his family and work/life balance. I have my concerns about that happening to my husband, but he knows it and we keep that conversation open. Thankfully he is getting skills that can easily translate into another job if he needs to move on at some point.
So many are upset about company pushes to move back into the office full time. After working from home and seeing no changes in productivity and happier employees, it makes no sense to me. But I feel like generally, companies just don’t care about their employees or their happiness. I can’t think of one job I ever held where I genuinely felt heard and cared for by my bosses. I had to fight for what I needed/wanted every time. And this is most people’s experience. It’s some bullshit.
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Technically this is true in the US for non-exempt employees. Not that it’s illegal but it is legally considered work that should be compensated. It is the basis for many a wage and hour claim for OT pay. With covid protocols we were cautioned that asking an employee to evaluate for covid symptoms via an app or website at home could open us up to claims that this action starts the workday and thus the commute should be paid time.
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Years ago I worked a job that was a 10/4 - so 40 hrs but 4 days a week. I loved that schedule.
I work for a medical billing company that’s owned by Orthodox Jews and started in NY. So a lot of the people that work on the East Coast are Jewish and work half day on Fridays. Our company actually has two employee holiday calendars - a Jewish one and a standard one. Regardless of whether we’re Jewish or not we can choose either calendar for our holidays each year. And we get two floating holidays which we choose from the other calendar. One of the best things is they’re generous with the company holidays compared to other companies I’ve worked for.
I’ve been working from home since Covid. We had actually been trying to get management to allow us to work from home before Covid. I used to have a 50 mile commute every day. My work/life balance is so much better and I am never doing an office commute like that again.
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This is so my husband! Well not working the day of our rehearsal dinner, but that’s only because we got married in my hometown that was 6 hours away from his jobsite. Our first child was born on a Saturday, we came home Sunday, he was back to work on Monday. He does have a better work/life balance now, but his work ethic is just who he is, and that will never change.
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These are private school teachers? I looked and found this data from a few years back:
I started by looking at a district (other than mine) in MA.
I picked this regional school district that does not pay more/less than others. Ten years with a masters (required for certification) is 80k.
We can fill these positions (usually). We cannot fill the wines that pay 30k and below.
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Not private school. My friend mentioned that her parents, who are also teachers, but with 35-40 years experience, make around $70,000 a year, and that people coming in now with 2-3 years experience are only making 2-3,000 less a year than she does. It is specifically the teachers with 15-25 years experience who are stuck in this cycle that does not pay well and does not reward for experience.