TLDR: I was offered a good bridge job to pay some bills while I go freelance and potentially double my pay. I work 60-90 hours a week at current staff job and am on verge of a breakdown. Is it worth the risk of not finding enough freelance work to switch my jobs? How will my credit be affected if it takes a few months to build my freelance base?
Sorry in advanced if I’m rambling. I think I slept an average of four hours a night the past two weeks.
I’m wondering if I’m doing the right thing I dropping an job where I’m overworked for a part time job where my hourly pay is much higher but overall pay is lower.
My situation: I currently am a salaried (60k/year) employee with no overtime. My minimum work week is fifty hours, but I regularly end up working sixty to seventy hours because I wear several hats at my company. Freelancers in my industry start at $500/day, but I have a lot of student and credit card debt so I always was afraid to give up the stability of my staff. job.
Well the hours are just going up and my pay is staying the same. This past week, I worked 90 hours, including a 24-hour shift where I had to come back four hours later and work another 12-hour shift. My body and mind are totally spent and it looks like this pace will be kept for at least the next 5-6 months. I’ve spoken with my supervisors, who assure me everyone is overworked and then change nothing. Add to this the high cost of living in the area my job forces me to live in, and I’m not quite making ends meet.
Now I get get a job offer that is way better paid ($36/hour) but only part time for nine months per year. I’d be bringing home about 1200/month after tax for only ten hours of work a week. This would give me a steady income and spare time to pursue a freelance career or a better paid staff job (I’ve confirmed with several people at companies I like that somebody at my level should make at least 90k). Since the job is close to my hometown, I could move in with family (they’ve offered) for a year and every cent after paying for insurance, gas and a phone could go towards debt. I have a lot of contacts and am well-liked by people in my industry, but with only four hours turnaround and some times working 20 days straight, I currently don’t have enough time to network or job search.
Is this a risk worth taking? I’m wouldn’t have enough money for my minimum debt payments (which are around $1500/mo) unless I get freelance work quickly, but I don’t have enough money for them now and this seems like the best chance to potentially make enough money to pay down debt quickly. What are the consequences if it takes a few months of being on a hardship plan with creditors? (A plan I’ll have to go on if I stay at my current job and don’t get a raise). What are the consequences if I end up on those plans (or worse, can’t pay anything) because I’m fired due to my quickly-deteriorating quality of work?
I hope I’m not coming off as flaky/lazy. I’m not afraid of long work weeks when there are big projects. But I feel like I’m going to have a breakdown with the sustained 80-90 hour weeks and that if I don’t change something my situation will just get worse.
Submitted July 15, 2018 at 07:35AM by FKAFigs https://ift.tt/2zPObYD
