If my wife had her way, I would be working at any of a number of jobs. Within the last month alone she has suggested I look into working for:
Amazon
The Post Office
UPS
Any State of Oregon government position
Any local or county government position
A bank
or working as a/an:
Accountant
Plumber
IT Specialist
Computers (basically anything since I know everything about them)
School Bus Driver
The jobs she will tell me about have little to do with my knowledge, skills, experience, education or desire to do the work, but rather is solely based in what she thinks I'm capable of doing.
I should be flattered that she basically thinks I can pick up and do virtually anything.
Except, that's not really the case. To some degree it is, but mostly she bases things off the fact that:
I speak English
I know how to use a computer
These jobs probably pay more than I'm making now
These jobs probably have health insurance and investment opportunities
Get The Picture?
Now, for those who might not know, I do already have a job. I'm what they call a service tech for coin and bill operated machines, ranging from jukeboxes to pool tables, arcade games, and candy or sticker dispensers. We also deploy, fill and service ATMs.
I've been working there now (including the two periods I was laid off) for 20 months. Mid-June is my second year anniversary with the company. I don't have health insurance or a 401k through work, two things my wife does have as a housekeeper for the local hospital group.
Admittedly, it's a pain. My hourly wage isn't that great, either. On its own, it wouldn't be enough to pay all our bills. At some point, my wife wants to retire and stay home again. I can't blame her. Her going to work in the first place wasn't my idea. If anyone's, it was hers, but essentially circumstances demanded it, and she was the one who was able to get the steady job the fastest. I ended up going back to school and getting an Associates of Applied Science Degree in Social Media Marketing.
The Good Ol' Days
A little over eight years ago, I shuttered the doors on a newspaper business that allowed me to pay my employees pretty well (especially for the size of the company), and afforded the lowest six figure income possible for myself. That salary happened for a year or two, if I remember right, and came towards the end of the time I owned the business.
We paid quite a bit of money each month for health insurance, but it was some of the best available.
While I was in charge of everything, my main contribution to the cause was layout or page production. Because I got efficient at it over time, figuring out what worked best, I was able to put two weekly newspapers together in 12 hours over a two day period. The rest of the week was largely my own, providing there weren't business errands to run, an upset community member to meet with and determine how to make things right, or fill in for someone who was on vacation.
I also got to take vacations, though I still had to work wherever I went if I was gone for a week or more.
That Set The Gold Standard
It wasn't quite like being retired and living off a pension or dividends or what have you, but it was a far sight better than working a 30-40 hour week for someone else for about a third of the wages (if I actually worked every week in a year).
I was hoping to take the next step in the process. For me, that was writing Kindle novels and living off the proceeds. I managed to write and publish two before the rug was pulled out from under me. Meaning, the revenue for the newspaper business dried up within a three month period of time, thanks to a change in State law regarding the publishing of legal notices, to wit, the ones pertaining to foreclosure notices.
For the better part of two years between the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2012, I had my salary from the business coming in while I pounded out the pages for the books. Before I could get to the third, the business was gone and I was on unemployment looking for something primarily related to journalism. While the UC helped, we lived mainly off of our savings, which were substantial.
Fortunately, our house and two cars were paid off at the time so our main expenses were food and monthly utilities.
However, it wasn't enough to keep us going to the end of our lives. My wife got her job in December of 2014, and I started school in January of 2015.
Over My Dead Body
There really isn't a single thing that I can say I hate with a passion. That's just too much effort. There are some things that I greatly dislike and borderline loathe, though, and at the top of the list is any form of government.
As far as I'm concerned, government is wasteful—corrupt in most cases, inept in the rest—and I feel that the farther I am away from its governing body, the less it benefits me. I get little of any value out of county, state or federal governments. The best of it on any of those levels are the roads. They are pretty good in Oregon.
After that, it's city government that provides me with conveniences such as water/sewer and garbage pickup. All of that, however, I could probably provide myself and have actually thought about it quite a bit, along with getting off the power grid.
Even if there is a benefit, I don't believe I get the value out if versus what I have to pay.
So, given what government has done to my business and my personal feelings about it otherwise, why in the world would I ever want to work for government again?
I say again, because I was employed on both the county and state levels early on in our marriage. Even though our business provided us with much more than those jobs ever would, my wife looks at what those jobs did have that the business ultimately did not: job security. Because of the unions associated with both jobs, the likelihood of me ever being laid off or fired was pretty low. Essentially, I could be horrible at the job, as long as I wasn't being fraudulent or found guilty of some other illegal activity.
That's a pretty low bar.
At the time, wages weren't quite what they were in the private sector for comparable jobs, but the benefits were hard to beat. There was some upward mobility involved, especially between departments, and openings were often made available in house first, and then to the general public. So, once you were in, you were in. At the time, it really wasn't that hard to get in, especially with a secondary language skill that was in demand. In my case, Spanish.
I've Got To Do Something
While there isn't a whole lot on her list of jobs that will really do what we need it to do—
Pay me comparable to what we're both making now
Provide health insurance
Provide investment opportunities
Accrue a generous amount of personal time off
Provide job security
(accounting, plumbing and some formal computer job would—I'd just have to go back to school or get into an apprentice situation somehow)
—it's painfully obvious something needs to happen.
I know that.
The thing is, I want to be on HIVE instead. I get so much more out of it then anything else I've tried or am currently pursuing.
Eventually, I want to get back into novel writing, or even transition to creating comic books/graphic novels. I know I can write. What I can't do is effectively draw. So, that means financing the artwork (along with lettering and coloring), whereas self-publishing novels has less associated costs, even if I'm hiring an editor to go through the manuscripts.
My wife wants me to work for a big company or government so I have a decent wage, benefits and job security.
I still want to be my own person and work only enough to take care of our needs and have enough left over for our wants. Like trips to see the grandkids in South Carolina, or so my wife can visit her family in Mexico and California. Not to mention those castles in Europe she wants to tour (still scratching my head on that one).
I Ain't Getting Any Younger
I turn 55 this year. For some people I know, that was the age they retired at.
Based on personal work experience, the job that gets me the closest to the things we need for my wife to quit working is some mid-level management job. The idea of getting a job like that makes me tired just thinking about it. I can manage people, but not without a lot of effort. It's taxing. I'm just not a people person. I'm largely hands off, don't care how the work gets done as long as it gets done and done well, and I don't care who gets the credit for it.
Office politics is not my forte. I don't want to babysit or placate bruised egos. I'd handle things much differently than what HR or the executives above me would. I'm sure I wouldn't have that much autonomy, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to supply immediate results. My way takes time, because it requires a lot of selflessness and loyalty to one another (not necessarily to me) on the part of the team.
I can't think of a single thing that would make me want to go to work every morning as a mid-level manager. It was grating enough as a small business owner with people who I trusted implicitly. In that case, it wasn't about office politics—I held the fate of their livelihoods, and thus the well being of their families in my hands. If I made a bad business decision, I wasn't the only one who would be affected by it.
Something's Gotta Give
I'm hanging in there. Somehow, someway, I will finally figure this out. It's just not going to be working for the government.
In the past, it's involved plenty of searching, a lot of patience, and then a flurry of activity before an opportunity presented itself.
I've actually missed opportunities, I think, because one or more of those elements were missing. Mainly, I jumped the gun instead of holding fast and sticking to my priorities.
It's easiest to do when there's not someone else involved, with their own thoughts and levels of patience and faith in the process.
Still, one way or another, I feel I can get us to the financial level we need to be. I just need to keep working the problem and let the rest sort itself out.
And somehow manage to keep my wife happy as it all continues to unfold.
Wish me luck.
Images source—Pixabay