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.
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