My least-favorite job ever was working at the glass factory, right after high school. Great salary, for its time and for my age. But it was hotter than the hinges of Hades (thanks, glassmaking furnace!). Loud music (mostly country and western) blared nonstop. We stood on concrete floors throughout our eight-hour shifts.
Well, eight hours for some people. That summer I did a lot of double shifts. Here’s how my regular schedule looked:
Work from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for five days, then get a day off.
Go in at 3 p.m. the next day and work from 3 to 11 p.m. for five days, then get two days off.
Go in at 11 p.m. and work until 7 a.m. for the next five days, then get two days off and go in at 7 a.m. the next day.
Labor, rinse, repeat.
Except, as noted, I worked a lot of double shifts. Normally I might have grossed anywhere from $163 to $171 per week, depending on the shift. In two months of work, I grossed a little over $1,800.
While the job stank on ice, it was a good example of what I didn’t want to do for a living. It wasn’t that I was too good for the work, but rather that I wanted something different. Some people got married, bought homes and raised families on glass-factory salaries (which increased as you gained seniority). That was fine for them. It just wasn’t a good fit for me.
Lately I’ve been wondering whether I’d say “yes” if Company X asked me to return to the world of full-time work. After all, I’ve still got some years left before retirement and wouldn’t mind goosing my Social Security check a bit. Thus I decided that if the mythical Company X offered me a job, I might take it – provided there were an obscenely large paycheck attached to the gig.
How large? Not sure. But certainly more than the $77,000 annual salary cited in a recent study from the fintech company Self Lender.
It would have to be a really decent amount in order to get me to give up my life as it stands now. The flexibility of freelance writing works quite well with my having escaped an abusive marriage and found love in late midlife. I love the malleability of my days. (Most of the time.)
Could I use more money? Technically. But what am I willing to give up to get it?
Salary + plan = freedom
One of my daughter’s former classmates practices what he calls “soulless corporate law” in order to provide for his family. He has a plan in mind to get them set up financially, at which point he can do the kind of work he prefers. (Hint: It’s not soulless corporate law.)
I admire that. He could probably find work that paid less and suited him more. But he has a goal in mind. In the meantime, he’s chosen to do less-than-pleasant work in order to bring home giant paychecks that move him and his loved ones toward that goal.
In his case, “less than pleasant” doesn’t mean delivering portapotties, or scraping up roadkill in Arkansas in July, or emptying garbage cans during fishing season. He’s fortunate enough to have a job where he wears suits and gets sent home in a private car if he works late.
I, too, am operating from a position of relative privilege. No need for me to work full-time unless I really want to do so. In part that’s because I’ve built up enough connections in the personal finance world to keep getting paid as a freelancer. But it’s also due to my not needing much to be happy. This is a choice I am glad to make because it lets me live the way I want.
There’s dignity in doing work that doesn’t feed the soul but which does feed the family. Would I want to be back in the glass factory? Good heavens, no. Hated that job. But if I were hungry, or if someone I loved were hungry, I’d head over to fill out an application.
(In theory, anyway: That factory closed several decades ago.)
Sometimes salary trumps distaste
In some cases, just being able to find a job – any job – is so miraculous and so welcome that you can ignore the downsides. (Although I do wonder how garbage collectors can stand it when they’re emptying those trashcans during fishing season. Guess they just keep thinking, “Payday is coming, and fishing season will end.”)
Overall I’m inclined to agree with my daughter’s post, “Doing what you love is overrated”:
“It’s okay to find fulfillment in something other than work. Maybe it’s more important to find it in life outside your job. Maybe it’s healthier to be able to delineate between your work and regular identities. Maybe instead of fueling our lives, our jobs could just fund them.”
Also agree with Maurie Backman, who in this Motley Fool article reminisces about a job she had right out of college. While she hated it, the pay was better than anything else she could get and it looked great on her resume. So she stuck with it and took care of some financial goals before moving on.
Besides, having to do something she wasn’t thrilled about doing was a hallmark of maturity:
“In every bad job lies an opportunity to get something out of it. Maybe that something is money. Maybe it’s experience and skills. If you take a job you can’t stand but it helps you learn things you never would’ve grown adept at otherwise, it could lead you on a more fruitful career path. Furthermore, working a job you hate might teach you to get better at overcoming challenges, and that’s a skill that applies to any job.
“And let’s not dismiss the value of earning a solid living. If taking a job you know you’ll hate means making more money, it may be worth the short-term sacrifice if it improves your long-term financial outlook.”
Well said, Ms. Backman.
So if you’re out there, Mythical Company X, come at me. But only if you’re willing to pay pretty handsomely.
Okay, readers: Maybe you’re already doing work you’re not nuts about. But what would they have to pay you to get you to do a job you truly loathed?
Related reading:
- What do we want to be? A few thoughts about labor
- Average salaries haven’t gone up (much) in 40 years
- Labor Day musings
I love what I currently do (I’m a medical librarian) but I worked a lot of jobs that I did not like before I got to where I am. I’ve been a waitress, a telephone operator, warehouse worker (two different warehouses). The job I truly loathed, tho, was working as a customer service rep for a credit card company. 8-12 hours a day on the phone talking with people about their accounts. Most were nice, but the occasional not nice person was enough to make me cry. And I drove 90 minutes each way to the job. I got written up bcs I didn’t do “voluntary” over time on my days off. I don’t think there’s enough money in the world to make me go back to that situation.
“Voluntary” overtime? And on your day off? Yikes. You are well out of that one.
Mandatory holidays too. It was my first “real” job out of college and in 1996 $19,000 sounded like a LOT of money to this English major. The best thing I learned from that job was be as nice as possible to the person who answers the phone ‘cos I’ve been there and know that it’s not always a nice person you’re going to talk to.
In that factory job there was truly voluntary overtime, i.e., you wouldn’t get in trouble if you didn’t take it. I always took it as long as my sister (who was my ride) was taking it.
And on July 4 that year, I did a double shift (7 a.m. to 11 p.m.) in “repack,” which was where glass batches with issues were sent. We had to unpack all the boxes and examine each piece carefully to see if it had the problem mentioned. This was at least while sitting in a quiet room, but boy, was that a long, long day — even though they let us go about 90 minutes early.
Whenever I call a credit card company I’m always courteous because I know how much that job can stink. Also because why would I be rude? While I can’t prove it was because I was polite, I did have a positive outcome with a credit card this way:
http://donnafreedman.com/adventures-in-good-customer-service/
I’m not sure there is enough money to get me to do something I absolutely loathe? Unless it was something very short lived, with a fixed end date and a LOT of money?
For $77,000 there is not much I would not do. It just cannot involve excel spreadsheets, and/or or money that I cannot tell where it is coming from or going to (because I’m not going to jail). I’m also not driving 1 1/2 – 2 hours, each way, each day. At present, I am enjoying early retirement, but am bored so I can see returning to work. And paying off Parent Plus loans with Navient – the lender from Hell, I would do almost anything.
Sounds as though you’ll be looking for at least part-time work in the near future. Any chance you could offer up your services as an independent contractor at your former job, at a higher rate of pay?
Unlikely. I just cannot see sitting in that traffic for hours any more.
I walked away from a $65K/year teaching job because I hated it. Disrespectful students, no support from parents or administrators, very clique-y. Several co-workers felt I wasn’t a “real” teacher because teaching was my 2nd career. Thank God DH was happy in his work and was reasonably supportive. But it was hard for me to say goodbye to $900+ a week take-home.
I like the work I’m doing now, but there are many changes on the horizon, and there’s a lot of backstabbing going on in the meantime. I would like a shorter commute and possibly fewer hours. Not shelling out $275 a month for a transit pass would put an automatic $60+ a week in my pocket!
I’m honestly not sure what they’d have to pay me to do a job I loathed. If my current job went away and it was the only one I could do from home, I guess not very much. But that goes back to the idea of finding any job being welcome/miraculous in that situation.
I did that slog through toxic workplaces for nearly a decade to get myself in a position where I could have a choice. It was terrible and not well paid at all but they were stepping stones. I *really* don’t want to have to do that again, it doesn’t bear thinking on.
I’m glad you don’t have to do it again. You’ve more than earned your current financial equilibrium.
In my younger years, I had a few waitress jobs. Now when I am super stressed my nightmares are about being a waitress. My younger self thought I could keep going in the restaurant business but in reality that career was short-lived. I would never do that again. Not for any amount of money.
I still want to find a job I enjoy but I have adjusted my perspective. I work in customer service and although it is not my dream job I am good at what I do. I don’t have to take work home or work weekends. My commute is minimal and I actually love my life.
Waitressing is physically and emotionally stressful. That’s why I never leave less than a 20 percent tip, and generally leave more.
My daughter works in customer service, too. The link in this article to her “Doing what you love is overrated” piece explains why although it’s not her dream job, either, she will never leave it, for several reasons.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
I worked as a waitress twice, when I was much younger. Hated it both times, and have never returned.
I’ve worked jobs where I didn’t hate the work per se, but the management and toxic work environment were horrible, and at the time similar to your “soulless corporate law” I could see that this was just a necessary evil to get where I wanted to get.
Right now though – I just got a huge promotion six months ago at work and then a demotion 2 weeks ago. And I’m 41, so I have a hard time seeing this as just a learning experience that will teach me valuable skills in my career like I could when I was 25. I struggle because the environment isn’t as toxic as other places I’ve worked, but as I get older my tolerance for being treated like crap gets lower. But I’m also now responsible for 2 kids and a house as a single mom, so I need my paycheck to be a certain amount.
May I recommend this free chapter of my first book? It contains more than 30 “stealth savings” tactics, i.e., ways to squeeze a few dollars here and there from even the tightest of budgets:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WcyrT1_92_qh6cphpc_kKvwK5O8CLumZa_rPwiFg37c/edit
Its a great article,
actually i would recommend a high salary, because once you are outside in your office or workplace, your feeling will be fine after those toxication hehehe lol
thank you for this post keep sharing
I worked as a freelance writer for 14 years, but burned out during the recession, due to spending so much time hounding editors who owed me money. My husband, a union man, was out of work for five years. I started working as a home health aide. I enjoyed the work, but wasn’t getting anywhere on the pay, even with part time freelance writing. Decided to attend a local community college for nursing. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but the best because I have my pick of jobs. I graduated less than two years ago and have become a traveling nurse near home since I have a granddaughter that I am helping raise now.
Congratulations on your job choice — I’ve heard that those traveling nurses can make very good salaries. (And they ought to!)
And, sad to say, freelancers are still having to hound editors.
Never held a waitressing job but anything on my feet for 8 hours plus and fast food you couldn’t pay me enough unless I was just supervising people and in an office. I don’t want to be slaving in a hot kitchen and just very labor intensive work no matter how much I got paid I don’t think my body would handle it very well. Even at 30 years old being on your feet all day led to varicose veins, swelling, bad ankles even my boyfriend who worked in cement industry for over a decade and made GOOD money says he doesn’t want to go back. Working in 80 degrees plus more because of the hot Hawaii Heat and being treated like crap by his direct boss. Takes a toll on your body.