Over the past couple of weeks I have been pondering and finally decided to act upon throwing my hat back into the job hunting ring. I am currently gainfully employed but have been suffering a bit from the stress of the job as well as the isolation that I live in while at work. Since I work remotely for a company nearly 2,000 miles away I sit in an office and work via email and phone all day. Some days it is nice and I enjoy the quiet but others I kind of miss having an actual office environment.
Overall I have enjoyed working for my company for the past three years or so but some events as of late have transpired that prompted me to start browsing around again. I suppose that if I was to sum up the reasons I have for wanting to move on I would say:
The stress is getting to me: My job is pretty stressful and the effects of having to deal with the stress are rubbing off on my family. I come home tired and grumpy at the end of the day. I want to enjoy the time with my family.
I am a bit burnt out: I suppose this goes along with the stress but I just feel burnt out with this job. I have not got much left to offer and need a rest or a change.
I do not have a clear job description: I am at a loss to know exactly what is expected from me or how my performance is being monitored. I have raised this issue with my boss and was told that a job description did exist – which he could not produce.
Extra responsibilities, less money: Need I say more? I am being assigned more tasks on a regular basis and being told that I am now “in charge of X” and actually end up making less money! I also get frustrated as “X” changes on a weekly basis at least.
Broken commitments: It seems my boss blows me off a lot. My requests are not responded to and when he does respond the result is normally problematic. The requests that I do make are generally fairly simple requests for the benefits I was told I am entitled to. Examples include: Health insurance – it took me a long time to get this started up, my HSA account still is not working properly despite having set it up two months ago, requests for information on the company simple IRA plan have gone unanswered, business cards were never printed despite asking several times (clients had requested I provide a card).
A lack of proactive HR: As I just noted – getting benefits is like pulling teeth. I am not sure if everyone else had this much trouble or had to ask 52 times to get health insurance working but it is tiring. Other companies I have worked for actually had a procedure and would provide you all the forms on the day you were eligible for a benefit.
I think the real awakening came on my last full day in Denver during my last business trip out. I was having lunch with another manager I work with and he said something to the tune of “What we really should do is hire a few junior guys, pay them between $XX,XXX and $YY,YYY a year and just run them all around to handle the reactive work. You know – like make them our run around guys“. It really sounded like a great idea when he said it but then I realized that I make $YY,YYY per year! Not to sound petty but if we are talking about bringing “junior technicians” in and paying them basically what I make then something sounds off to me. I have a proven track record with the company and am frequently turned to when other (some more senior) people either need relief, to hand something off or are unable to resolve an issue on their own. So the casual conversation with a coworker lead me to believe that not only am I stressed and burnt out but I am probably under paid for it as well.
So I have decied to move forward with seeing what else is out there. What I am hoping to find is a position that will provide a good compnay culture, some structure, to know my job definition, recieve the promised benefits without a fight and to make at least as much as I currently make now (and have my salary tied to my level of responsibility level somehow). I suppose it may sound like a lot but at this point in time I am really wanting to simplify my life, reduce stress and spend better quality time with my family. I suppose we will see where it goes from here.
Back in the beginning of the year I posted on some of the things I am looking forward to in2009 and considering that we are now about half way through the year I figured I would post an update of where I stand. The past few months have been pretty interesting and quite a bit has happened so I will get right down to it.
Getting back in shape: I have been going to the gym for 5 months or so now. Lately I have been getting up early in the morning and going to work out four or five days a week. My gym is closed on Sundays thorough the summer so I am really only missing one or two days per week that the gym is available. Since the gym closed for Sundays a couple weeks ago I have been working to get outside and do something on Sundays as well. Overall I now: get a pretty good amount of exercise, have quite smoking for over a year and do not drink. My diet is still a bit unhealthy and I tend to overeat and have a sweet tooth but I am making progress.
No more car payments: Next month will be my final full payment followed by a half payment in August and that will be done. I am very much looking forward to not owing money to my ex-girlfriend any more and am looking even more forward to having the extra cash every month!
Giving my site a new look: I have changed my theme twice and am thinking I will settle with this one for a little bit. So far so good I think.
Paying off my credit card: I no longer carry a balance on my credit card from month to month! I am still getting to a point where I do not spend at all on it but my balance of nearly $2,000 that was carrying over and accruing interest fees is now gone!
Rebuilding my savings account: I am getting there. I have my own little emergency fund challenge for 2009 running to give myself some public incentive and accountability to get my savings account back in shape. Right now I am up to $250 in the emergency fund and am aiming to reach $1,000 before the end of the year.
So far 2009 has been a pretty productive year and I am really looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up. I am hopeful that my personal financial situation will continue to improve. My girlfriend has also been taking some pretty impressive steps to improve her financial fitness as well and has impressed me with her ability to reach her goals as well. I think that right now she has more in savings than I do and was telling me the other day that now that she has the money in savings she does not want to touch it. Needless to say – I am proud of her and am awed by her ability to accomplish her goals.
Early last month I was pretty excited to report that I had paid off my credit card balance to Capital One. So I thought I would give everyone a quick update on where I am at this month: the card is still paid off.
The plan that my girlfriend proposed involved paying off the credit card balance and working to curb spending to keep the balance low. The result for me was a pretty empty checking account and we figured that we would use the card for expenses but would keep a closer eye on spending. So far it has worked out. Since my initial pay off of the large balance I have seen two statements.
The second statement was about half of the first for amount due so it appears that we have been gradually easing up on credit card use and easing back onto the checking account and debit card. I did have a couple of decent months at work which lead to higher commissions so the balances were paid in full and so far I have not made any transactions on my new statement period (which began in the middle of last month).
All said and done – the little plan my girlfriend put forward has worked pretty well. The process looks like this:
Pay off the entire balance – do not worry about the low checking account balance.
Use the card and stick to your budget for essentials.
Keep tabs on spending, use the card sparingly.
Pay the card off in full again – this time with a lower balance leaving more in the bank.
Repeat
In addition – the plan plays to my emotional well being as well as I generally do not like having to pay with my credit card. The emotional reaction is enough that I will often forgo additional comfort items for myself (do I really need to go out for a coffee?) and stick with the basics.
Over the weekend I discovered that I have a new favorite television network: Planet Green. I had seen a couple of clips from shows on the network but had not sat and watched for an extended period of time until Sunday afternoon. My girlfriend had hurt her back so we were having a mellow afternoon and she told me about a show called Off the Grid she had seen the night before after I had fallen asleep. She said it was pretty cool and that I would have really liked it.
The show is a documentary starring Les Stroud (also known as Survivorman) and his family as they purchase 150 acres of Canadian wilderness and move off the grid. I was just amazed at the lifestyle the family chose and really just could not stop thinking about how cool their plan was.
The best part – they went green on a budget! Obstacles like not being able to drill through bed rock due to cost constraints were real and they faced the challenges like a regular family. Once completed the family produced their own power and water which left them both living green and free of utility bills.
I personally dream of a day when I can go somewhat off the grid with my family in our own home. I do not think we will be using any self composting toilets but I am open to the idea of a gravity feed from collected rain water (provided my better half agrees). However – I do not want to go totally off the grid at this time. While I strongly believe in trying to live a greener lifestyle I also think that we may be able to give back additional power generated if we were to produce our own energy via solar or wind power. From the setup that Les Stroud and his family had it appeared that once their batteries were charged the system just stopped producing energy. I figure that if the system is producing energy anyway and we have the ability to be wired in then why not give some of it back to the power company? I have also heard that the power companies will also reimburse you for the power provided back but my goal would be more in line with providing a little bit of green power back more than making money. Anyway – at this point it is more or less just a wishful dream of mine but I hope someday that it will be a reality. I suppose when the time comes then my girlfriend and I will talk it out and make decisions based on what we can and can not do.
In the mean time – while digging around on the show a little bit I found it over on YouTube. Here is an embedded clip of the show for anyone that wants a preview. For the rest of the episode just head on over to YouTube and search “Off the Grid Les Stroud”.
As a follow up to our implementation of a chore and allowance system for the kids I thought I would let everyone know how the first pay day last night. Overall it went pretty well and the system seems to be doing well. My girlfriend took the chore charts down from the fridge and we counted out how much each child had made.
Her son neglected to pick up toys all week which lead to a $0.75 deduction from his allowance. To emphasize the point my girlfriend took the approach of “This is how much you would have made, but since you did not pick up the toys you only get this much” and laid the money on the table so he could see how it all worked. We then gave him two jars where he placed 20% of his base amount and 10% of his base amount (so $0.50 and $0.25) for savings and charity respectively. He took the remainder to his room and put it directly into his piggy bank (he wants to save it). The point seemed to hit home that he needs to do all his chores to make his full allowance and he did manage to get everything done last night to start the new week. However in all fairness we are not sure how much of the incentive was financial and how much was fear of losing access to his favorite video game for the rest of the night (he had to finish chores before he could play).
I missed the review with her daughter but know that she had a $1.00 deduction ($0.50 for a missed chore and $0.50 for a poor attitude) for the week. I also noticed a couple of smaller jars on top of the fridge this morning containing her portions for savings and charity containing $2.00 and $1.00 respectively. I also noticed that she did not appear to get any of her chores done last night but she also got home a bit later in the day than usual – I am not sure what the result will be here and will have to talk to my girlfriend about it. She may be granted a waiver or she may have deductions, I am not sure yet.
The kids also went out for ice cream with their uncle last night and I believe that they each brought their own money as well. Overall I think that our little system is working fairly well and I am looking forward to seeing how it works over a longer term.
