Working Half-Time for Half-Salary? 24
St-Timothy asks: "A lot of software developers are young, make a great salary, and work a lot of hours. I've begun asking myself 'Why?' I'm considering asking my employer if I can work part time for half salary, which is still twice what social workers and teachers make. I am simply no longer motivated to work full time anymore, and the money does nothing for me except buy me gadgets. I'm curious if there are any other people out there that are considering or are actually doing something like this, and what the Slashdot readers think about this." I can understand the lack of motivation, but hard work now may mean less trouble later on in your life, especially if you start saving now. However, in the interest of exploring a alternatives to the norm, do any of you find this idea, appealing? Would any of the employers out there care to comment?
With the Right Boss (Score:1)
While my b-friend is not saving as much as he could if he was working full time, he still saves. He is not as grouchy as he was before and I get to see him more. -Which I actually like. I say do it, you can always move back to full time later.
Maybe (Score:2)
Some companies will go for this, some will not. A lot of it depends on how good you are and what you are giving up.
All the half time people live with the fact that their advancement oppertunoities are limited compared to us 40/hr people have. (Note I said 40 hr/week, not 70. 40 hr/week is the norm here, and I've refused jobs where it wasn't)
Before you do this though, figgure out what you will do with your time. I love playing my mandolin, but I wouldn't want to play it 4 extra hours a day. I love fishing, but fishing every day gets boring. Card games are fun, but everyone else will be at work, so who to play with... That said, there is plenty to do just remember you won't have money. If what you want to do really will take up 4 more hours a day without getting boring or costing more money then do it.
Re:I tried this.. (Score:2)
Re:Hard Work Now (Score:1)
I think the common thread here is that all of these activities (the contracts and the "free-time activity") are things I feel passionate about, or at least enjoy doing mostly, and they are varied enough that I don't feel stuck in a rut.
It's convenient that all three of these activities when I'm not "working" may also result in more billable projects. The science museum has made me interesting educational software contacts (though no contracts yet), open-source programmers are wonderful contacts as well, and my own projects, well, some of the stuff on my website has lead to contracts.
On the flip side, the uncertainty can be a problem; there was a few years when I was living on 10k a year (not in a big city, thankfully). It's not gonna go far if you're not internally motivated, most of the repercussions from my mistakes happen long after I mess up and spend 5 hours reading pr0n instead of working...
--
Q: What do you get when a Postmodernist joins the Mafia?
Half-time (Score:1)
The nice part is having all the extra time off during the day. It is great to get out of work at noon and not be overly tired.
Some of the drawbacks are:
some people don't seem to realize that I'm only part time, and expect me to be working 40+
sometimes things just have to get done one way or another, so whether it's overtime(unpaid) or not, I have to fix things.
(BTW--I'm a sysadmin--supporting a few more users than is really good for half-time--and a few more PITA's.)
Ahh well.
For now, (I'm also a student--sometimes) it's nice. The benefits are nice, I make enough to live on fairly comfortably...not great, but I haven't spent next week's paycheck yet, at least. I guess it's the kind of thing that if you can do it, and not go nuts/work too much for free/get bored, it's pretty nice... Oh yea, other thing I noticed:
The more time you have, the more you spend money, whether you should or not:)
Get Motivated (Score:3)
Take some time off, put your email on auto-reply and don't look at a screen for a few weeks (2 minimum). No pager, no mobile phone, nothing. Read some good books (ex: "Organizing Genius" by: Warren Bennis), travel, whatever. As long as you re-engage your brain and come back motivated.
Repeat this every 3-4 months and you'll be golden.
Sure, I've done it (Score:1)
The key to all this is of course having a sane boss. I was working for a friend, and someone who I deeply respect, so it was never a problem (and he never doubted my commitment to turning in a professional showing). This was in Australia, BTW, so it may be harder in countries more deeply effected by work-ethic, career and income neuroses.
Half time? unlikely. (Score:5)
The cost of your office space, support personel, assorted types of liability insurance, etc are still a constant. For most workers, salary is less than half the cost of keeping them on board.
Why not ask about working as a consultant for your company instead? You don't even need to pitch the half-hours angle. Work out of your home, and work efficiently, and you can get what you need done and spend the hours you'd have spent on office antics any way you like.
simple solution.... (Score:1)
rest of your time to doing whatever you like best.
most people get burnt out after working 60-70 hrs/wk and dont realise it. i worked as a CTO
putting in the loong hours required last year until i got fed up and said - STOP. i dumped
my perfectly lucrative job for a slightly less lucrative position with no responsibilities and the change is fantastic. im much happier working 30-40 hrs a week doing nothin very useful but writing open source stuff on the side, doing research and writing papers for academic
journals -- stuff i like doing.
hey..you only live once..you might as well enjoy yourself.
I tried this.. (Score:2)
It wasn't long before i was a critical part of every job they took on, database-driven websites were the order of the day and i was the only one there who could do that stuff.
So pretty soon they were asking me to work fulltime, and i said 'nah, i don't want to', and then i decided to leave because i was expected to put in too much time - i.e. they were yelling at me for not coming in 5 days a week when i was only hired (and paid) to work 3, and they got all pissed off about it.
So don't be surprised if 'half-time, half salary' actually ends up being 'full-time, half-salary', which is no fun at all.
Re:You want to work less and have no motivation!!! (Score:1)
Re:Get Motivated (Score:1)
Hard Work Now (Score:3)
If I am killing myself working now and get hit by a bus tomorrow, then all that hard work doesn't get me jack.
I've always been a 'plan for the future' kind of guy. Work and save now, enjoy it later. Lately I've really been taking the view that you should take all you can out of life all the time.
I haven't thought about asking my employer for less hours and less salary, but I've been thinking about switching from full time to contracting and just working less, period.
Call me crazy, but... (Score:1)
-Rylfaeth
Woah! (Score:1)
8)
Either temp/contract or become self-employed (Score:4)
Consulting/Contract work pays less than full-time work for most people, and you can push to finish a project and take several months off between. Requires setting aside money for the time off, and having a nest egg in case the business cycle slows down and you are out of work for an extra 3-6 months.
A lot of people are attracted to the relatively high face value of contract/temp work, mostly by not realizing what their real salary is on a per hour worked basis. Doing the math is interesting. If you are currently working for $52K/yr you might be tempted to figure that you are making about $1K per week or $25/hr. But really you are being paid between $28-30/hr worked after adjusting for Vacation, holidays and Sick time which drops the weeks worked in a year from 52 to 46-47. The health benitfits your employer pays for you, wife, and two kids cost about $800/mo self employed and is a transparent $5.25/hr in your pay which brings your effect pay rate to about $35/hr assuming working a full 40hrs/wk. Then there is the issue of Social Security taxes, which the employer pays half of
You can also look at projects a client needs, but are too far down on the priority list to be done at this time. If you can go off and do the project on the side, and come back with a short delivery low ball bid - you probably have a sale. Something that probably pays less per hour, but you do completely on your own schedule without a lot of wasted time in meetings and proposals. "Speculative" projects like this can be a real bonus.
I've done this most of my life now, and after 30 years in the trade working hard 6 months a year and backing off the rest of the year is the only way I'm being able to really enjoy my late life kids (was too into the game when I was young to have kids).
When you want to change your career, this is best (Score:1)
After working for a while in support and system administration, I realized that it's not for me, and got excited about building database-driven websites. I couldn't count on a developer's position in a company of the same level and with comparable pay, so I took part-time and started to develop for a non-profit but popular project, doing a lot of learning.
Several months later, as I gained more experience and stuff done, I was able to get another part-time job as a web-developer for a fairly known site, with good pay (from the hr/$ point of view), while keeping my support/sysadming position.
Now I'm planning to finally stop doing support stuff and just do web development for most of my time, which I really enjoy. It seems, migration couldn't go smoother.
Did it, sort off (Score:1)
Talking with colleagues (and learning that they have the same symptoms) and a 4 week holiday to Thailand and Burma showed me that what I really need is time. I didn't drive it to the 50% extreme, but basically demanded:
Working 90% (with a 10% pay cut) in exchange for additional 4 weeks vacation.
Overall 9 weeks of vacation does far more for me then taking half a day off every week.
Since I'm running my own business now I can't negotiate such a sweet deal with myself, since it might allienate my customers. (OTOH I sign my own expense claims :>) Nevertheless I do plan for adequate training and vacation time.
If time is more important to you then an ass kicking salary by all means: go for it
It works (Score:1)
I'm a sysadmin for a small nonprofit, and after seven years with them, I went to 60% time (three days a week, or three-fifths time, take your pick) to take care of my son. I earn approximately 60% of my full-time salary, but I keep my full-time benefits.
The upshot of this is that I have fallen into a lower tax bracket, and my paycheck is actually a bit more than 60% of my FT pay. Regardless, not being in an office full-time (and speding all this time with my son) is very rewarding.
Staff at the office have been understanding (and it helps to have a boss who has kids), and I can remote-admin if things go really sour.
If you're not sure your emplyer will go for a reduced-time/salary deal, do a little legwork and try to come up with answers to as many of the questions you'll likely get asked, offload any tasks you think you can someone else can do, and offer to make the plan probationary, with periodic reviews (three months, six months, etc.).
Work Less! (Score:2)
Instead of concocting an unusual strategy involving a 50% pay cut, why not just work less?
I realize this is easier said than done, but but more companies are realizing that encouraging too much overtime leads to burnout and isn't a good long-term strategy.
There will be times, of course, when you'll need/want to make the extra push to get something done, but make this the exception and not the rule. If you're doing a good job and your company fires you simply because you aren't working 70+ hours a week then take it as an omen and work someplace else.
(IANAL, but I don't believe that you can be forced to work more than 40 hours a week on an ongoing basis.)
Re:Umm.. What school is this?? (Score:1)
Certainly, now that I'm only teaching and working on my research (and not taking classes), my schedule is far more flexable than when I started my Masters and was TA'ing and taking 2 or 3 computer science courses and doing study groups, etc...
Finding the right advisor is key too. Mine knows me fairly well and knows how to push and when, and when to back away. He (unlike some of his colleagues) also likes to enjoy life and has many outside interests. He encourages my life outside of research.
To answer your question: Virginia Tech
Go back to school... like me (Score:2)
Once I was vested (stock was crap anyway) after 5 years, I left. I decided to go back and get a Masters in Comp. Sci. and look for a better position with a more forward thinking group.
What I ended up doing was learning that I loved to teach. Thus I'm now working on a PhD. Sure, I'm not making a lot of money, but when I'm done ('03) I will be able to enter a strong market (CS faculty), pick my position (research/ teaching/ both) and do things I like on the site (write books, write code, consult, play bad golf).
As my Master's advisor said (and keeps telling me), "I want his lifestyle". Summers off, a 9 month a year job.... etc.
*Just one option*
I'm doing this now. It works, at least temporarily (Score:1)
I do have to be careful not to work too many hours. Luckily my boss agreed that if I work more than 20 hours one week, I can work less the next week. Of course this only works if the job is such that there aren't a lot of important deadlines.
I love having such flexibility - somehow I always manage to miss the most boring meetings ;-) Being able to sleep as late as I want is such a luxury - worth more to me than money. However it leads to my becoming more and more nocturnal, which negates some of the advantages of having time off.
I still get medical insurance, a nice cube, and access to expensive equipment to screw around with in my spare time, which helps with some of the study/research I'm doing. No sick pay, vacation or 401K though.
My boss agreed to this because I have an unusual combination of hardware and software skills. He actually doesn't have all that much work for me to do right now, but he doesn't want me to quit and work for a competitor. Hehe... about a year from now I should be caught up enought to go get a better job someplace else, although not necessarily in this same niche. I may decide to do something completely different.
Not here in india (Score:1)
but the market is saturated, and people dont expect anything better from you.
if you do stand up and offer them better solutions, they just dont understand. why cant you just do it like everyone else ?
where does all the money go ?
i really dont know.
please dont flame this. i know there are many exceptions to this. but this is happening. now.
i've been working at $1/hr for the past six months. i'm at a senior position because of my skillset and 2 yrs experience.
dont work too much if you'll regret it. its your life. but it could be worse. and it could be better.
make it better.