work life balance
 

so as the year comes to a end i find that i have not had a chance to get into my Porsche project as much as I would have liked. looking at my pay stub I realized that I have worked 2.5 hours of overtime for every 1 hour of PTO I took. my question to the rest of you--

what is your ratio of paid time off / overtime worked?

I avoid OT like the plague and always use up my 3 weeks of vacation a month or two before Christmas.... I still feel like I don't have enough time to work on projects at home.

No idea, I'm salaried so they don't track overtime. I would guess I work around 50-55 hours per week on average, so assuming a 40 hour week and my vacation plus holidays...

5 hours of time over 40 hours per week to 1 of time off?

tl;dr 4-5:1

I have more vacation than I can use. My clients don't care if I'm on vacation and my revenue goals don't change either. I have four days left this year and would still feel very obligated to pick up my phone if it rang while I was off. I shouldn't have taken three weeks off in China at the end of the year. Nov. and Dec. are very tough months for my business. I was at 100% of goal in Oct. and it's going to be tough to finish out the year at that level, having taken most of Nov. off.

What is this OT you speak of?

I completely understand. I changed jobs the end of Jun. I'm in an unusual situation for me. Normally, I'm salaried and also have to be on call which means plenty of OT without pay, but since the end of Jun, I've been in a new position where I'm contract and therefore get paid by the hour. I've been working an average of 62hrs per week since July. Even getting paid for the OT, it gets very old. I'm getting ready to go perm, which means salaried, but even once salaried, I'll still get paid OT for anything over 40 hours a week which is unusual and fantastic. I also won't ever be on call. I'm going to continue working the rate that I have been for as long as I can. I do VERY LITTLE on my days off, especially since every other week I work 6 days. I'm just not interested in doing much when I'm home.

It's not uncommon for me to think that it would suck if something weird happened and I die tomorrow or next week or next month having worked so much the last 6 months of my life. I still try to enjoy myself and spend time with my wife when I'm not working, and this pace is not going to keep up forever. The benefit of this pace is going to be huge when it's finally over. I guess I'm gambling that I'll not be dying in the next year. If that hold true, then things will be much better when I finally slack off a bit.

I wanna know what this work thing is. Every year up until this year I've had a rustoration project going to carry me thru Dec/Jan. Nothing this year.

Time off? People get that?!?!

Where?!?!

OT was cut a while ago for me, moved to comp time.

The key for me is the quality of time off so I try to make the most of the time I'm not working. Sometimes I pull it off, other times I'm lazy and feel I'm wasting time.

I had all the time off I could have ever wanted (involuntarily) in 2009. I don't really care about time off anymore. Maybe that's why I'm here 50+ hours a week...

what is frusterating is the amount of "stuff" that has to occure on days off. shopping and erands eat up days off. the list of things i would like to get to, much less the list that is nesacary has less time available. god forbid a comrade shows up at the house unanounced for conversation or brings beer.

this year i am going to make a effort to bring this ratio closer. life was meant to live,a porsche was meant to drive-

is "here" in your office or on the interwebs pellicaning-

7 months on at 40hrs per week, 5 months off.

Gotta have balance!

No way to tell. It all runs together and it's hard to separate life from work.

No OT figured as I'm salaried. I have a lot of flexibility as long as I bring in projects ($$$) and deliver on-time and under-budget. We max out at 48 days of vacation accrual. As of today I have...48 days accrued. I'll actually take a few days around the holidays this month but really need a substantial decompression as I've been grinding away solid for a long time and end up taking care of work stuff late nights and weekends.

Then factor in 120+ gigs this year. A friend said, "dude, that's more than most touring schedules." No wonder I'm tired. While that feeds my soul, it does sap a lot of energy...

"pay stub"? None since '84. I can dip into the till anytime I want though.
Jim

I'm salaried. I try to travel on weekdays if i can. Last month I was in Istanbul and Prague. I was gone three weeks and worked six days a week. I came home and took a few days of comp time which is off the books, meaning not tracked. I'm very happy with the arrangements.

Both. Coming on here is really the only way I have to break up my day. I don't go out for lunch and don't take coffee breaks or stand around and BS at the water cooler. Some people get their mental break those ways - this is mine. Different strokes...

I work out of a home office or I am in the US somewhere. Salaried + Except for shows, I can schedule travel wherever/whenever which lets me live a home life. I keep reasonable office hours but I do dick around (like PPOT) a wee bit. ;)

Shows (10 this year!) usually mean a weekend away - which I don't really get back. I've never been told (or have I asked) about holidays. I take what feels right. About 5 weeks last year. But if we don't physically leave the continent, I still answer email . . . That's life in the audio trenches.

Ian

I work exactly 40 hours a week at my full time job and take ~30 days vacation every year.

It's a Millennial Generation thing...work to live - not live to work.