White-Collar vs Roughneck
So I been contemplated for a while now and I am just as confused as ever.
As some of you already know, I have two jobs…
One of them is a white-collar 9-5 office job, and the other is a graveyard shift roughneck job.
The white-collar work pays ok, must more than my roughneck job… (but the last fact finding by the courts found that our wages lag some 24% behind market rate). It has mediocre health and dental benefits (I have to pay a very small amount into the plan and the coverage is… decent), and a decent pension/retirement plan.
The roughneck job pays crap (although, if I stay around for 10 or so years, I will get paid 20 some-odd bucks an hour). It has GREAT benefits (Health, Dental, Life and everything else all paid for, and the coverage is twice as good as that of the other job), and a great pension/retirement plan.
The white-collar work is seemingly dead-end-ish. There are plenty of opportunities to move around. But for someone without a college education, moving up is highly unlikely.
The roughneck job is dead-end-ish too. But I am in a very short list to be promoted to a position where I use a little more brains and a lot less muscles. Problem is once I get into this position, I will probably be stuck in it, till I quit this job. Unless I become full time or a supervisor…
So here is my dilemma. I am also tired from the lack of sleep, which makes me always grumpy. Coupled that with my short fuse (which is getting longer as I grow older), it is not a pretty picture. Due to this, my relationship with my wife is suffering. I really need to work on that… And I am in the middle of getting my own business off the ground. One, which I am certain, will need some of my attention. Dare I cut in to my 4 hours of daily sleep?
Part of me want to quit the white-collar job. Then I can spend day light talking to my customers, taking care of things that can only be taken care of when the sun is out. And just rely on the roughneck job for benefits.
Part of me want to quit the roughneck job, because what if my business fails? And the service I plan to provide my clients will in the evening. Won’t it make more sense to just go to 9 – 5 job, work as much as I can before I go home and get 8 hours of sleep? But the benefits from the white-collar job is just mediocre…
And when a good friend of mine finish up his auto-mechanics training, we plan to open a shop, and that would have to be in the mornings.. would be great to have to roughneck job to fall back on to provide my family with health insurance.
Or maybe I should just keep both jobs and stop thinking so much… after all, neither one of them pay me enough to think…
As some of you already know, I have two jobs…
One of them is a white-collar 9-5 office job, and the other is a graveyard shift roughneck job.
The white-collar work pays ok, must more than my roughneck job… (but the last fact finding by the courts found that our wages lag some 24% behind market rate). It has mediocre health and dental benefits (I have to pay a very small amount into the plan and the coverage is… decent), and a decent pension/retirement plan.
The roughneck job pays crap (although, if I stay around for 10 or so years, I will get paid 20 some-odd bucks an hour). It has GREAT benefits (Health, Dental, Life and everything else all paid for, and the coverage is twice as good as that of the other job), and a great pension/retirement plan.
The white-collar work is seemingly dead-end-ish. There are plenty of opportunities to move around. But for someone without a college education, moving up is highly unlikely.
The roughneck job is dead-end-ish too. But I am in a very short list to be promoted to a position where I use a little more brains and a lot less muscles. Problem is once I get into this position, I will probably be stuck in it, till I quit this job. Unless I become full time or a supervisor…
So here is my dilemma. I am also tired from the lack of sleep, which makes me always grumpy. Coupled that with my short fuse (which is getting longer as I grow older), it is not a pretty picture. Due to this, my relationship with my wife is suffering. I really need to work on that… And I am in the middle of getting my own business off the ground. One, which I am certain, will need some of my attention. Dare I cut in to my 4 hours of daily sleep?
Part of me want to quit the white-collar job. Then I can spend day light talking to my customers, taking care of things that can only be taken care of when the sun is out. And just rely on the roughneck job for benefits.
Part of me want to quit the roughneck job, because what if my business fails? And the service I plan to provide my clients will in the evening. Won’t it make more sense to just go to 9 – 5 job, work as much as I can before I go home and get 8 hours of sleep? But the benefits from the white-collar job is just mediocre…
And when a good friend of mine finish up his auto-mechanics training, we plan to open a shop, and that would have to be in the mornings.. would be great to have to roughneck job to fall back on to provide my family with health insurance.
Or maybe I should just keep both jobs and stop thinking so much… after all, neither one of them pay me enough to think…
posted by The World Against Me at 2:53 PM
5 Comments:
Stress stinks but coffee helps the sleepiness sometimes.
Quit your day job and make your wife work.
Hmm...i have a similar problem. i work 8 to 5 and HATE my job. excellent bennies excellent pay though however at the expense of my happiness. this country is afraid of it's shadow. who dares venture out in the unknown and leave teh comforts of our mediocre lives and take a chance?
not me...
if i were marreid though and my spouse made money, you can be shit sure i'd quit this ass-munching job and open a sanctuary.
but for now, i'll be fearful and stay in my little cocoon. don't you do the same...
Thanks Tanya..
I think that is the problem.. I have these two jobs.. each with it's own merits... and each has it own faults. But together (and mentally take out the bads, it is a huge upside.
I think I am going to start the business, let it go as far as it can with as little intervention as possible, while still keeping both my jobs. And when it does blow up.. then I will leave.. that way I will have my cocoon's protection... for a while..
You can do it too.. break out ... think outside the box... be a sphere!
If you had to quit one, I'd definitely quit the white-collar job. They suck away your soul. Stay with UPS--you can move and be active, and you have great bennies, and you can potentially make more money--keep that one!
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