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.