Hello, all. I am currently working as an engineer at a small-ish defense contractor in California. All in all it's one of the best jobs I could ask for in this field, but I've ended up feeling dissatisfied. I'm sure everyone feels that to some degree, but lately I've had multiple minor health issues that have turned out to be due to stress, and that has caused me to start rethinking my current and future employment.
In my head, the best case scenario would be to continue to work this job in a manner where I work half of the hours that I worked before, and take home half the pay. I've never known anyone who's done something like this, so it feels like I'm being foolish to even entertain the idea of asking management about it. Does anyone here have any relevant knowledge or experience? Any advice is appreciated.
For further information, here's my current pros/cons of this wild hare idea:
Pros:
- Less work = less stress. Won't have to worry about dropping dead from a heart attack, won't have to deal with stress-induced blind spots in my vision anymore.
- I have two hobbies that I truly love to do, screenwriting and indie game development. Currently I have to squeeze these into the mornings and weekends, but if I had two more days free per week, I could put them into these hobbies, which would give me so much joy. Heck, I could even entertain the idea of making money off of them, which is notoriously difficult in either field.
- I would likely be more productive with the work that I do. I've found that I get the most done on 3-day holiday weeks and Fridays when I don't have to worry about the next day anyway.
Cons:
- I make good money at this job, $120k + 5% bonus currently, expecting to raise by $5k in March. That said, this is more money than I ever expected to see in my life, I tend to live well within my means, and most of this surplus goes into maxing out retirement accounts. If I were to make $60k I would still easily be able to maintain my lifestyle.
- If I were to propose this non-standard schedule, and my employer says no, would I be at major risk of being fired? I feel like that would be painting a target on my back that says "this guy doesn't want to be here", which is true but I tend to keep to myself.
- I have only been in this industry for about 5 years. I do think that my role & skills at my current job are unique within my department, but is that enough to give me any sort of clout?
How misguided is this idea, and what things should I start thinking about ahead of time? Thanks for any input.
Submitted January 09, 2021 at 07:04PM by Sholloway https://ift.tt/35mX74Q
