I need a new job. One that won't make me sick.

[topaz]

I need a new job.

Actually, I don't. I love this job. I just need it to be located somewhere farther west.

When I started working at GameLogic a year ago, the official workday for the engineering department was a 10-hour day. That plus a commute that could get up to 90 minutes kept me out of the house for 12-13 hours a day. Earlier this year they brought the workday down to 9 hours, and I've managed to get the commute to just about an hour and fifteen minutes each way, so I'm usually home in less than 12 hours. But that's still a hell of a long time.

I can't keep it up. I can't keep leaving the house at 8:30 in the morning and getting home at 8pm. I'm barely getting home in time to get dinner for the kids and put them to bed (always late), to say nothing of spending any real time with them or with Ellen. I can't leave earlier without leaving Ellen high and dry about taking the kids to school. Relations between everyone at home are deteriorating. I really don't see it getting any better unless I can find a way to spend less time each day out of the house.

We've gone around and around at work about the number of hours I'm working, but really, given how long the commute is I think I'd have to get down to about a seven-hour workday in order to make it workable, and I don't see that happening.

Tomorrow I'll be having this conversation with my manager. In the meantime, I need to be thinking actively about a new job. Anybody with leads on a position for a Unix software engineer in the Boston metrowest area -- e.g. Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Burlington, Concord, Acton, Westford, etc. -- give me a holler, huh?

Comments

[ghislaine.livejournal.com]

Oof... that's hard. I hear you on the commute+long hours being grueling on you and your family... it's a major factor in our move to Ashland.

I find, for me and Dwight, that I'm less stressed if I have more help at the end of the day than in the morning. Luckily Dwight's a morning person so is at his most productive in the a.m. He typically leaves the house at 6:15 and is home by 6:00-6:30. Still a hell of a long day for him, but we're all glad his work day is shifted toward the earlier side of things.

And btw, if you get any of those leads and they're looking for more.... Dwight's still in the market for something with bennies. (Even though the consulting is going well right now, we're paying out the wazoo for just emergency heatlh insurance.)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I'd actually be delighted to leave at the butt-crack of dawn and get out of work at 5pm. We actually tried that last winter (when I was still doing the 10-hour days) and it didn't work out so well. Sigh.

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

Telecommuting? (sympathy, definitely; my pay sucks but my work day is set at 8 hours and my commute only 20 minutes...do you at least get paid for the hours?)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I'll bring up the telecommuting possibility with my boss, no doubt. We've discussed it before, at a more theoretical level, and he was pretty doubtful the company would ever buy it. (He lives in New Hampshire and would stand to gain at least as much as I do by that option.)

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Well if they are pleased with your work and want to keep you, maybe they'll buy into telecommuting.

It's your boss's job to sell this to idea. When I was a manager I used to always tell my people - think about the idea that I work for you - you have to tell me what I have to do for you to do your job and then I'll do my best to get it done. And I thought of upper management that way. It worked.

IMHO a company that requires people to work "overtime" all the time and obsesses about hours of work and where you are probably isn't a very good one since it doesn't value its people who are its most important asset.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

[hugs and support]

I hope things work out soon...

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Thanks hon. :-) I'm sure everything will work out, even if not the way that I wish they would. Harrumph.

[ckd]

If you weren't already working long days, I'd suggest asking about a 4x10 plan (my mom was working that way for a while before she retired, and loved it); however, it sounds like that's not practical, nor would it really solve your problems.

I hear you, and also hope that you can find a solution somehow.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I was, in fact, working 4-day weeks for a few months last winter and spring. But yeah, it doesn't address my issue: I need to be working more days with fewer hours per day, not the other way around.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

As of a couple of days ago, my company had several positions open that might fit your bill. They don't seem to be externally posted, yet -- I'll check with the hiring managers tomorrow and see what the deal is. Remind me in the afternoon (the morning will be a madhouse).

[lcohen]

well i hear you on the long days (another reason you don't see me getting a dog) but it only bothers me. i wish you a good solution, preferably a flexible response when you talk.

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

Sympathies. Now that Marc is back at work in Cambridge, we've night shifted a bit more so we all see him in the evenings. If you'd like to leave earlier in the mornings (so you can get home earlier in the evenings (something we'd like to try also)) is there any way to work out getting some morning help for getting the kids to school? I'm not sure what your logisitics are so don't know what kind of help would be useful...

There seem to be Unix sw eng jobs listed on the web in Burlington at Sun.

[khedron.livejournal.com]

I'd say "I hear you", except that my mad hours haven't been going on as long, and I'm working from home so I at least overlap with my sweetie occasionally (you know, at lunch and around 4 in the morning). So you win, I'm afraid. =(

Good luck with the telecommuting conversation! I hope that works!

(boston.craiglist.org has a few job postings, but none that involve lisp or bitching about perl, so far as I can tell...)

[catya.livejournal.com]

*hugs!*

check out mitre.org, see if there's anythihng that suits...

[spunkywulf.livejournal.com]

If I hear anything I'll let ya know, too. I'd miss you... but I TOTALLY sympathize with your plight. Have you thought about checking any nips at boston.craigslist.org? Or there's always other joints like monster.com and bostonworks.com and such. I'm sure you've thought of them already but there's usually an opening here or there. If I find anything at all I will let you know privately.

[opadit.livejournal.com]

Another person chiming in with a message of support. Kids are young once. Tom and I kept repeating to ourselves, when Eleanor was a baby, "In a few years, are we going to say, 'Gee, sure do wish we'd gotten that update of wusage out sooner,' or are we going to say, 'Gee, it's too bad we missed Eleanor's first steps because we were working on that update of wusage'?" I mean, I wish I had a more robust bank account, but it's a million percent better that we could choose to work a little less.

[quiet-elegance.livejournal.com]

Hey if ya find a job for a carpenter/cabinetmaker let me know! My current job ended shotly after I bought my new car... Ain't life ironic?

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

Long days are awful. I wish you luck adn a solution. Be well.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

No help, but lots of sympathy. For all of y'all.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

From what little evidence I can see, the marekt seems to be picking up a bit. If I hear of anything, I'll let ou knwo right away.