What's Your Job Like?

FormerHangie

FormerHangie

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FormerHangie
What's your job like? Not so much what is your job, but what is a typical day like? Are you in an office most of the time, or on the road? Steady hours or variable? Anything you particularly like or dislike? Any cool perks like sports tickets or free travel?

I'll start. Ostensibly, I'm a software developer, but when I last asked what my job description is, I was told "everything else". Today was a good example. I got in around 8:30, and faced a stack of helpdesk tickets, left to me by a former employee who had resigned. I was sorry to see him go, but he was offered a position for a little more money with better growth potential than we could offer him, and I encouraged him to take it. He was doing a lot of reporting, something I'm not that practiced at, so I'm having to force feed myself the reporting tool while i try to fix some of the issues. I spent the early afternoon dealing with some data quality issues, and then had to go over to our warehouse to do an update on a computer that will be running UPS WorldShip, which is used to integrate our internal shipping process with UPS. So, I spent zero time actually developing software today.

I'm an office dweller, I've been there for 18 years and have never had to travel. That's fine with me, business travel isn't usually much fun, particularly if you do an IT function, it mostly means very long days, but it would be nice to get out sometimes, and that hardly ever happens.

What's good about my job? Software development is a creative process, and it's satisfying to see something you create doing thing that are important to the company's success. What's not to like? If you're the kind of person who likes to feel that he's done at the end of the day, you wouldn't do well in this position. I could work 10 hours a day six days a week and still not be caught up. The worst part of my job is trying to keep on schedule, which really is impossible since I have lots of troubleshooting of issues that pop up during the course of any substantial project. I really hate being asked to give a "rough guess" as to how long something will take without being given time to plan the task at hand. That's kind of like asking a builder how much it will cost to build a three bedroom house, he'll want to see the plans first. In our case, we have to write the plan, but many times management wants some idea how big a project is. Fair enough, as long as they don't ask me to stick to the rough guess if the actual plan shows much of a difference.

Perks? Well, I stayed employed during the Great Recession, and that counts for a lot. Our project is an educational one, and we are allowed to take a certain number of courses per year. Unfortunately, most of our product line is aimed at people who have struggled with the traditional education system, and are looking to get an entry level certification in an industry, or to finish their high school program, so it's not of any value to most of us. It's nice to be home every night as well.

I typically arrive around 8:15 and leave at 5:30 or so. Today I was there until 6:45 because I needed to work on something that our shipping department uses, and had to wait Every third week we have a release, which starts at 11 PM and usually ends a little after midnight, and every quarter our servers are patched, which means a few hours on Sunday morning.

What bothers me the most? Every few years I get handed the project from Hell, that requires very long hours with little extra compensation. There was one year where I put in more than 400 hours of overtime and lost vacation, and got all of $2500 (gross) for it. There was one January where I worked the entire 31 days. Yuck. Also, we're a pretty small department trying to cover a business that's open 7A -11P five days and 8A - 7P on Saturday, so sometimes you get called in on what's supposed to be your time. Also, it's tough to keep up with the professional development needs, We're supposed to get one hour a week for self study (we get a subscription to Pluralsight), but it's not enough, and quite often we are too busy to take it. Having to pick up a new tool on the fly isn't much fun either.

I would say my situation is better than most people's.
 
I get up at ten, go to the gym for a couple hours, service my clients, buy them roses and chocolate and stuff, read poetry to them, compliment them on their hair and corporate achievements, study for my GED, go to bed, and repeat the next day.
 
What's a "JOB"? Is that something where you have to go a place each day and be told what to do, how to do it, where to do it, why to do it, when to do it, and are constantly reminded what will happen to you if you don't do it? :dunno:
 
My typical day is a night. I show up in the hospital at 8pm, sit down at a bank of monitors, dictate reports and call referring medical providers with results until its 8am and I go home. My hours are steady from here to retirement.
The weeks I am not on my night job, I do administrative work, take care of my kids and go on the occasional fire call.
 
I work in IT Management. Due to commute and business operations, I’m awake at 5:00 AM, out the door by 5:30 or 6:00 AM for a 2-2.5 hour commute. I have meetings all day long, leaving afternoons and evenings to get work done. I leave between 8:00-9:00 in the evening most days (where traffic has mostly died down) and get home around 10:00-10:30 PM...just in time to say goodnight to my son and wife.

Corporate America loves to squeeze every ounce of productivity from its employees. Sigh...

BTW, I am writing this from my car as it warms up for my commute home. Seriously.
 
Well I strap on a backpack sprayer and spray weeds. Use a 200 gallon tank to spray lawns, and do that till dark.
Anybody want one of those killer green lawns without paying me. Q4, Blindside, sedgehammer(if you have nutsedge), pylex for bermuda, roundup spot spray for dallisgrass. Spray a mix(q4, blindside) every 6 weeks, put down a pre emergent in the spring do about 6 rounds a year replace two of the rounds with a micro nutrient. Overseed in the fall.
 
Will never forget what my brother told me when he was working at the Pentagon and I said him that... "I push papers around a desk all day, it's real boring, you wouldn't want to hear about it."
 
I'm an air traffic controller. I retired from the Air Force in 2006 and got hired by the Department of Defense as a civilian 2 months later and I've been doing it ever since. I work revolving shifts which alternated each week Sunday through Thursday either day shift (7-3) or swing shift (3-11) with the occasional mid shift (11 pm - 7 am) thrown in to screw up my sleep. A typical day shift for me is to arrive around 0615 to relieve the mid shift so he can go to bed. Then I wait for the millennials to arrive at 0645. We will have a crew brief consisting of what is broken on the airfield, the tower and when flying starts. Then I sit on a raised platform and listen to everyone else on 4 different channels talk to airplanes and make sure they don't screw anything up. Sometimes I get to work by myself and sometimes I have to monitor a trainee and write down everything they do right and or wrong so a weekly pass/fail report can be generated. Every once in a while I will plug in with a new controller and evaluate them for certification. Most of them have been in training for a year or more and I get to be the final say if they get their ATC cert. I'm sort of a DPE for ATC. At least it is air conditioned and the view is the best of any office I've ever been in.

I like the satisfaction of a job well done. I like days when nobody says anything over the radio of phone line that would make all of us look like idiots. When I go home, there is nothing undone that I have to do tomorrow. I dislike kids who never realize how important their job is and think that they can simply hit reset and play the ATC game again if something goes sideways. I dislike chief controllers who make decisions based on how far they can get in their career regardless of how it effects the people who work for them.

Cool perks...I take every new controller for a ride in my airplane to show them the other side of ATC and that it isn't always easy to pick out traffic two o'clock, four miles, opposite direction and same altitude. I used to fly PAR approaches for certification of new controllers but since we installed the ILS to both runways, the PAR has been decommissioned.
 
Get to work at 0650, deal with other peoples problems for 10-12 hours, then go home. Some days are better than others...I may save a life, I may make a positive difference in someones live. But those days are rare. People call 911 when things are ****ty. I get yelled at, cussed at, blamed for all the stupid mistakes callers have made in their lives. And I have to smile and take it. Normal work days are week 1: M-W, F-Sun off. Week 2: Sat -Wed, Th-Fr off. 0700-1700. repeat. Occasionally, someone on evening shift will call out sick, so I'll stay until 1900. Numerous opportunities to work OT on my days off as well. Perks....good health insurance, I work indoors and I make a decent salary. 230 hours of gauranteed vacation every year. 11 paid holidays as well. We don't get holidays off, but we bank them to take another time. We can also opt for comp time instead of pay. Being high enough on the food chain allows me to take the vacation days I want. Leaving next week for two months in SE Asia. Downsides: Hmm... I'm not allowed to speak ill of my employer or fellow employees. So, I'm not able to comment on what I don't like. :)
 
I write SciFi novels.

I get up when I want, usually around 8 or 9. Coffee, breakfast, then sit in a recliner for for 3-4 hrs (taking a ten minute break every hour) and write. In the afternoons, I play golf, or I fly, or I play ice hockey. After dinner, I go for a walk with my wife, or play hockey, or watch hockey. Sometimes I write in the evenings as well, if something interfered with my morning session.

Sometimes I blow work off all together and go shopping, or fly someplace with my wife. (This usually happens in between projects, when I "let me mind rest".) As long as I put a book out every 2-3 months, it doesn't really matter what I do, or when I do it.

It's a hard life.
 
I manage a team of 5 people. I get to work around 8 or 8:30 and leave around 6pm on most days. The day is spent putting out corporate fires and playing politics for about 90% of the time. The other 10% is figuring out what the next step is going to be.

And making sure my employees stay focused and working and not socializing all day. Fun.

Sometimes I miss IT. But I don’t miss the 24 hour days and constant on call rotations.
 
Retired and pretty much do what I want when I want. Never let anyone tell you that you'll get bored being retired. I have too many hobbies and projects and not enough time to enjoy them all! Be sure that you plan for retirement or they will someday be carrying you out of the workplace boots first, not a good way to go.
 
I'm a salaried IT consultant working for a consulting firm who pays me and handles my assignments. If I'm working for a customer I spend 25-50% of the time on-site with them staying in a hotel near their office and the rest working from home. Hours are usually 8-5 and almost never any overtime or on-call since they don't want to pay for it. Sometimes I design stuff, sometimes I implement, sometimes I curse at the broken stuff they bought and expect me and my company to make work for them. When I don't have a customer, I'm still paid, and I catch up on my reading of new tech, play in my home lab and try and make sure I'm ready for whatever comes next. The nice thing is when I'm working from home I can go hit the tile in the shower at lunch to continue the removal or attack the shed with a saw, also removing it.
 
Love my job, practically every day is different.

I work four ten hour days with every Thurs, Fri, and Sat off.

Road trips and overtime are frequently available, but not mandatory.

I'm an aircraft inspector for a 121 operator. I primarily work in a very large heated hangar but our maintenance base also has considerable line activity which we support.

It's feast or famine. At times we are like the fire department, waiting for a call, other times we are swamped. We accomplish primary inspections on aircraft in heavy check. We do the engine borescope inspections. We perform NDT inspections (eddy current, ultrasonic, mag particle and fluorescent prnetrant) on aircraft as required, could be a routine or non routine inspection. We oversee critical maintenance tasks, and sign off, along with the mechanic on items of maintenance deemed RII, Required Inspection Items. We weigh aircraft, audit paperwork.

Love this job and know that I have an impact on the safety and reliability of our fleet.
 
  • Wake up. Check TAFs
  • Drive to work in rush hour wishing my car had a TO/GA button.
  • Check email. Play a game of "Who sounds like a NOTAM". Reply "Roger" to each one before hitting backspace.
  • Play around with SkyVector to see which destinations might be good this time of year while eating breakfast. Plot best VFR route. Repeat IFR.
  • Check PoA to see if @SixPapaCharlie has posted a new video.
  • Clean coffee spit from screen and keyboard.
  • Pretend to do work while really thinking about which airplane I'd like to fly next.
  • Gawk at @Lowflynjack 's latest air to air pictures.
  • Go out for lunch to check if the TAF was right.
  • Go back to work. Check AvWeb.
  • Pretend to do more work. Wonder where the direct-to button is on the monitor.
  • Go to bathroom. Practice flow checks on the toilet.
  • Back at desk, scroll through PoA for @Sac Arrow 's latest rant.
  • Get some actual work done. When finished, yank a red pen like it's a BRS handle.
  • Drive home in rush hour wishing my car had a GFC700.
  • Cook and eat some dinner. Count how much avgas I've saved by not going out.
  • Read a few of @denverpilot 's posts to help me fall asleep.
 
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Read stuff on POA.
Laugh at the intentional jokes.
Laugh at non-joke posts that I still find funny.
Read some well thought out questions.
Read some stupid questions.
Read some very intelligent replies.
Read replies from self proclaimed experts.
Read some bad advice.
Laugh some more.
Post stuff on POA.
Laugh at my own silliness.
Try to poke fun at Mark at least once.
Laugh at his reply.
Ignore a few others.
Go to lunch.
Repeat POA cycle.
Go home.
 
Retired

Have been the EAA Chapter President for the last four years which kept me plenty busy. Will be the treasurer for the next two years at least.
Weekdays are generally laid back. Saturday is spent at the airport with an EAA activity, pancake breakfast, young eagles or youth build.
 
I didn't know you flew one of the Erlanger birds! I can see your rooftop landing pad and beacon from my front porch, and you've probably passed right over the house. Calhoun or Blueridge base?
 
Bill Jennings said:
I didn't know you flew one of the Erlanger birds! I can see your rooftop landing pad and beacon from my front porch, and you've probably passed right over the house. Calhoun or Blueridge base?
Click to expand...

BR. Life Force 4. You on top of Missionary Ridge?
 
I never have two days that are alike. If we are flying nights I don't go to work till 11am so I get to have coffee and play on the computer for a while after my wife and dogs get me up at 0530; then hit the gym and go into work. If we are on a normal schedule I'm usually there by 0730 and work 11.5-12 hours. If I'm on alert we gather our classified and flying gear to be at the alert facility no later than 0900 and stay there for a 24 hour shift (sometimes I do 48 hours but I try not to get scheduled for more than 72 hours in a row).

At work? Totally depends - I have an office job in addition to all the fighter pilot instructor stuff. So meetings, performance reports, discipline, trip planning, logistics, job movements of the people in my squadron, about 500 emails a day, recruiting new pilots, constantly juggling the full time vs part time positions between guys, monitoring the status of our training and flying hour program against where we should be for the FY or training cycle, reporting our deployment status via classified networks and checking for short notice taskings, oversee daily flying ops if I'm not flying to make sure we are being smart with weather issues, training requirements and desired learning objectives and who knows how many more little things.

For flying it depends on the mission and whether I'm leading, following or instructing. Yesterday I was instructing - I sat a 24 hour alert shift the day prior so I had some time to coordinate with our tactical airspace controller and do a bit of mission planning before getting out of alert. After swapout I had to give a mission checkride in the simulator (1.5 hours + brief and debrief) - I cut that a bit short to finish mission planning for the afternoon checkride I was giving. Thankfully it was a pretty standard mission and only took me another hour to prepare the briefing since I've done this ride so often. After that, gather all the pilots that I'm flying with, give a 60 min briefing on what we're going to do today, then break to get all our gear on. After gathering our classified for the mission and receiving a step brief from the supervisor of flying (where he told us the weather was getting bad, carry extra gas, etc) we step out to the jets as it starts to rain. Thankfully it's a short walk to the jets, I look at the forms, do a walk around and talk to my mx guys for a few. The fleet starts up about the time that the skies completely open up. Again we are lucky because we have sun shelters over the jets which also keep our crew chiefs somewhat dry when it's pouring. We stayed in the chocks a bit longer to let the worst of the rain pass by (it was about 1/4 mile vis so we didn't have enough to launch anyway) and keep our mx dudes out of the downpour. As it slacked up we taxied, got armed up and launched. Our airspace is about 85 miles away so after the 12 min transit time we start the fight. Our jets don't have external fuel tanks this month (we like to fly them "clean" sometimes - man what a performance difference when dogfighting!) so our fight would be short - about 20 mins of actual fight time since we had to carry extra gas because of the bad weather. We fight a defensive counter air sortie. Me and my wingman against 4 guys simulating Su-27SM3's; they each get multiple lives so over the 20 min fight, we end up with a 2 vs 10 scenario. With a short fight, we didn't use as much of the airspace as normal - I was no higher than 44k' and no lower than 5k' - airspeeds ranging from 400ktas to upwards of 700ktas and were back and forth between those numbers several times in 20 mins. (side bar discussion about why transiting mil airspace without telling us is a bad idea). As we cease the fight and safe up our systems then head for home. A quick weather check tells us to set up for an ILS recovery where we break out comfortably above minimums at around 600' agl. Dearm, taxi back to the chocks, shut down, debrief my jet so they can fix a few small issues that came up then its back to ops to turn in my time card saying how long I flew, fill out paperwork to log all the events I did, take off my flying gear and go watch my tapes. Again since it was a short flight and I've been doing this so long, it only took me about 45 mins to review my tapes and record what happened to prepare for the debrief. Our "tapes" used to be 8mm tapes, but are now solid state harddrives. They record the radar screen, data link screen, defensive suite, head's up display, JHMCS (helmet) display, engine display and targeting pod (if equipped that day). The jet simulates combat by giving us the same data it would with live missiles being shot so we know how much a target would have to maneuver to defeat a shot before we take it, it also tells us when the missile would hit the target based on where/when we shot and what maneuvers were made during missile time of flight. After the other 5 guys were ready we met in one of our large briefing rooms to watch a "god's-eye" view of what happened. We have GPS trackers on our jets so we can get back and watch where everyone was during the fight. We gather that info from our tapes and meet to "re-create" the fight by watching the GPS trackers to see where we could do things better, things we did right, etc. After about 45 mins we have gotten through all the group debrief for us and the "bad guys". My wingman and I go to a smaller briefing room and spend the next 3 hours watching our tapes. I instruct him on each error we made and how to fix it - radio calls, radar work, formation flying, weaponeering, tactical decision making, defensive timeline execution - the whole kit and kaboodle. We also cover any questions he had on the brief/execution/debrief, any administrative issues for the day and wind it all up with an overview of what happened, whether we achieved our tactical objectives for the day and what he should work on to get better for the next flight. After turning in all the classified, shredding anything we don't need and since we're the last ones in the vault, close and lock it up. I go to my office and write two gradesheets (one for the sim, one for the flight) - that takes another hour. By then I have a chance to check my email to see what my 17 bosses need me to do, work on that till I'm beat or I hit pilot rest issues for the next day, then drive home.

Did I mention I'm looking forward to retirement and going back to Delta? :)
 
Monday morning - usually stroll in around 0900 or so, sit at my desk and stare at a computer, punch some keys, make several trips around the shop during the day for various reasons. Wish I was flying instead.

Tuesday (0700 to 1600ish) - Repeat above.

Wednesday, 0700 to 1400ish - Repeat above.

Thursday - have the first part of the day off, go to the airport at 1530, get on big 737, fly (as a passenger) to somewhere in the country(different every week), land, get dinner, drink beer.

Friday morning, get up early, go to work, punch keys on my computer, listen to loud noises, punch more keys on my computer, continue listening to loud noises, go eat dinner, drink some more beer (or whisky) and go back to the hotel.

Saturday - Same as Friday

Sunday - Get up early, leave hotel, go to work, punch some more keys on computer, walk around and handle some things, try to avoid people, then listen to more loud noises. Get back on big 737, go home, walk in the door somewhere between 2000 and 2300 on a typical week (not west coast).

Then back to Monday, see above.
 
azblackbird said:
What's a "JOB"? Is that something where you have to go a place each day and be told what to do, how to do it, where to do it, why to do it, when to do it, and are constantly reminded what will happen to you if you don't do it? :dunno:
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Your making this statement makes me question if you've ever actually worked.
 
08418CC1-2C7E-46A7-944A-3F055856086A.jpeg 8A9F0B30-6DF0-4DC6-9DD1-16A5D7138415.jpeg

I was retired......for three years. Did an eight month run with a consulting company last year until foot surgery.

I received a call from the same engineering consulting company asking if I wanted to return and run the next phase of the job. I thought about the numbers (pay, mileage, cell phone reimbursement) and said yes.

We are installing a canopy for a bus park and ride. Then construction begins on three buildings; a passenger terminal, driver and office building and finally garages and bus wash facility. I will manage the project, to include; reports, inspections, enforcement, scheduling and whatever else comes my way.

The project should run into 2019, just in time for me to turn 62, collect SS and my state pension. This additional income will add to my current bi-state authority pension and Marys.

I figure it’s easy money to pay for my audio panel upgrade, installed this week. New autopilot, still has to be scheduled and finally more travel for Mary and I.
 
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For about three of you who've replied to this thread - the phrases, "do some work" "hit computer keys" or "walk around the shop" doesn't tell us what you do.
 
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I work a 5/4/9 schedule so technically I work 9 hours a day and get every other Friday off. Usually the days are longer than 9 hours, and often my day off is spent checking email and following up on unfinished business from earlier in the week. I'm in the aviation safety business for a very familiar aviation administration, so many of the programs I work on are probably quite familiar to y'all. My days are similar to many of the rest of you, with plenty of meetings, conference calls, writing, reviewing editing etc. Most of my co-workers (including my boss) are located outside the DC area so occasionally the office can be lonely. I also telework two days a week or so, which helps with QOL. I'm doing the job I've wanted to do for quite some time, and it's actually lived up to my expectations. Certainly there's bureaucracy to deal with there also many ways that I feel like my work makes a difference. Working in my slice of the federal government is nothing like I imagined; I'm surrounded by very dedicated and intelligent people who have passion for their work. Generally when we have to do stupid stuff it can be tracked down to some institutional requirement somewhere that was dreamed up by someone up the chain in the executive branch, or a statutory requirement from Congress, presumeably because they know more about aviation safety than we do.
 
Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late

Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream
 
There was a time I'd have given my left...ahem...arm...to be where Velocity is. The funny thing is I've known a handful of HEMS pilots and none of them were happy, and I could never understand that.

As for my job, I started out in IT at this company almost 30 years ago. Moved to another dept. several years later and never looked back. I come in, do office work, which includes taking 20-30 phone calls a day helping people in the field. I come in around 7, leave at 3:30. No pressure, no stress. The best perk is the flexibility with time off. If I decided right now I wanted the rest of the day off it wouldn't be an issue. As a matter of fact I left 2 hours early yesterday, spur of the moment because it occurred to me it was beautiful outside. It's not an astounding salary, but it's not bad. And the company contributes an additional 15% of my salary to my 401k, in addition to having a pension fund.

For the last 20 years I've run a landcare business on the side. When I leave the office I take care of 57 lawns. Everything from mowing, tree trimming, leaf collection/disposal, decorative mulch, landscaping and hardscaping. That's the job I really enjoy. A hundred thoughts a day go through your mind while working outside. It's incredibly busy in the spring but tapers off most years by late June to a reasonable pace. If it was work, I'd be miserable, because it's 7 days a week. But I've never seen it as work. It's what I do to unwind.

The best part is that's the job where people show their appreciation. At the office job I get a few boxes of chocolates, cookies, gift cards, etc. at Christmas from the people I help. My landcare customers overwhelm me with cards of thanks, heartfelt gifts and some handsome checks. One came yesterday from one of my neighbors on my roster. "Thanks for taking care of our family all these years." And he included two checks. One for mowing and leaf work. Another for $500. That's what makes a person feel good. Not the money. The sincerity.
 
Retired from the Air Force after 20 years as an air traffic controller, and retired from a regional airline after 24 years flying there. Day begins w/ walking the dog at O'dark thirty for 20-30 minutes. Feed the dog, make coffee and a couple pieces of toast, sit and check emails, other stuff, and visit POA. If I'm not traveling typical day is errands, exercise, a lot of reading, yard work and other house repairs I can do. I like to garden so I have a few flower beds to maintain and a small vegetable garden. Sometime during the day I'll practice guitar, still can't play worth a crap nor get a F chord down. Once in awhile do some woodworking projects.

Once in awhile I fly at the local airdrome, and occasionally do Discovery flights for the flight school. Might do some instructing there eventually, kinda have mixed feelings about it though.

So, pretty boring to others but I like being retired and doing pretty much what I want or not want to do.

so-ive-got-that-goin-for-me-whichis-nice-26007944.png
 
I'm an airline pilot based in NYC.

I bid my schedule every month, and my preference is to fly three-day trips out of JFK. I typically fly four trips for 12 days of work, but if I want to make more money for the month I'll fly five trips for 15. So the routine is generally three days at work, then home for three or four days, back at work for three days, home for three or four, and so on. My fiancée gets her monthly schedule after I do, so I just bid how I want and if necessary move/trade trips to be home on her days off.

I live in base, so I don't generally care how my three day trips are built as long as they're efficient (meaning the highest paying - if I'm going to be gone for three days I might as well make as much money as I can). The commuting pilots like the trips that start late and end early, which would be cool except they're not particularly efficient. So I tell the scheduling software to maximize efficiency, not caring when the trip starts or finishes. Sometimes I work morning trips all month, and some months it'll be afternoons/evenings. I do try to keep it consistent across the month - it's tough to go back and forth between working early and working late, especially since JFK flying is generally transcons across all three timezones. Fortunately I'm senior enough to avoid any red-eye flying.

The flying itself is pretty straightforward. I fly narrowbody domestic, with an occasional jaunt into Canada or Mexico. Usually one or two legs per day. A trip might look like JFK-SAN, SAN-DFW-SEA, SEA-JFK*. Yesterday I got back from a two day trip that was JFK-PHX-ONT, ONT-PHX-JFK. So it can be anything, but since I like efficient trips, that translates into longer stage lengths that send me out to the west coast a lot.

*those of you familiar with sitting in coach on a 737 are probably looking at days 1 and 3 in horror. :p :p
 
rtk11 said:
I work in IT Management. Due to commute and business operations, I’m awake at 5:00 AM, out the door by 5:30 or 6:00 AM for a 2-2.5 hour commute. I have meetings all day long, leaving afternoons and evenings to get work done. I leave between 8:00-9:00 in the evening most days (where traffic has mostly died down) and get home around 10:00-10:30 PM...just in time to say goodnight to my son and wife.

Corporate America loves to squeeze every ounce of productivity from its employees. Sigh...

BTW, I am writing this from my car as it warms up for my commute home. Seriously.
Click to expand...
I would move.
 
Brad Z said:
I work a 5/4/9 schedule so technically I work 9 hours a day and get every other Friday off. Usually the days are longer than 9 hours, and often my day off is spent checking email and following up on unfinished business from earlier in the week. I'm in the aviation safety business for a very familiar aviation administration, so many of the programs I work on are probably quite familiar to y'all. My days are similar to many of the rest of you, with plenty of meetings, conference calls, writing, reviewing editing etc. Most of my co-workers (including my boss) are located outside the DC area so occasionally the office can be lonely. I also telework two days a week or so, which helps with QOL. I'm doing the job I've wanted to do for quite some time, and it's actually lived up to my expectations. Certainly there's bureaucracy to deal with there also many ways that I feel like my work makes a difference. Working in my slice of the federal government is nothing like I imagined; I'm surrounded by very dedicated and intelligent people who have passion for their work. Generally when we have to do stupid stuff it can be tracked down to some institutional requirement somewhere that was dreamed up by someone up the chain in the executive branch, or a statutory requirement from Congress, presumeably because they know more about aviation safety than we do.
Click to expand...

Cool, suspected you worked for the FAA. I've done a few of the courses and enjoyed them. Well done and always learn something from them.
 
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