Vacation time

[jl9618]

I personally have no beef with a 40 hour work week. In college, I would work 40-60 hours a week while taking a full course load (14-16 units a semester) and for about a year that was 60hrs on the graveyard shift. In the summers I would work 80+. I remeber one week where I put in over 100. 40 hours a week is not that bad.

I hear you on that one. Going to work after getting out of school is no fun. No college for me but while I finished up my last year in high school I worked 40-50 hours. I was living on my own with a tight budget and no car 2nd year senior walking to school, then from school to work and work to home. Man, I do not miss those days.

[GZire]

Originally Posted by Hot Foot

You got me there, who is stevedors

Are they taking job applications

Stevedors are the guys that load/unload cargo off of ships. They typically work a base 35 hour week. In this 35 hour week you are looking at some of the hours of it being considered "OT." They still get paid breaks during this time also. Anything above and beyond the 35 is considered all OT and the dependable people (the ones that show up when scheduled will work several shifts in addition to that).

A standard clerk in the stevedores makes about $60k down here. Crane operators in the stevedores make well in excess of $100k (but they crack their asses......they are definitely working the full time they are on the clock).

Difficult to get it the union. Difficult to get the bozos out of the union. Not uncommon for workers to fly between islands to work because people are "sick."

We are water-locked so we are at the mercy of these guys and so we pay their wages through increases in prices of goods. The union is so strong that if we were to try to buck them down here, their union brothers on the west coast would hold a sympathetic strike. Extremely powerful union.......far too powerful for the good of the public.

[ryno]

I guess I am just not as materialistic as some people on this board. Don't get me wrong, I like money. It just isn't as important to me as my family and free time.

I get two weeks vacation a year and cannot take more paid or unpaid. It's very difficult to travel abroad with only two weeks a year total time off not including holidays which I don't get a lot of.

It's worth more to me to have a couple of extra weeks off than to make a few thousand more a year. I would give a whole year's pay to have another week with my father. You can always make more money but you'll never get that time that you missed back.

[GZire]

I'm with you ryno. I'd gladly give up pay to have more time off.

[Jaylin]

Originally Posted by GZire

Stevedors are the guys that load/unload cargo off of ships. They typically work a base 35 hour week. In this 35 hour week you are looking at some of the hours of it being considered "OT." They still get paid breaks during this time also. Anything above and beyond the 35 is considered all OT and the dependable people (the ones that show up when scheduled will work several shifts in addition to that).

A standard clerk in the stevedores makes about $60k down here. Crane operators in the stevedores make well in excess of $100k (but they crack their asses......they are definitely working the full time they are on the clock).

Difficult to get it the union. Difficult to get the bozos out of the union. Not uncommon for workers to fly between islands to work because people are "sick."

We are water-locked so we are at the mercy of these guys and so we pay their wages through increases in prices of goods. The union is so strong that if we were to try to buck them down here, their union brothers on the west coast would hold a sympathetic strike. Extremely powerful union.......far too powerful for the good of the public.

They're refered to Longshoremen over here. Plus, it is not about getting into the union here, because the jobs are passed down through generations. My grandfather worked the ports but my father did not, therefore it would be very difficult for me to get a job there, but not impossible. They make well over 100k here and some make double that depending on their job.

[Hot Foot]

GZire, thanks for sharing who Stevedors is!

I am assuming the cost of living is higher in the area you are referencing to, which would require a higher wage to balance what other States offer with a lower cost of living. Paying unions dues and having someone looking over your shoulder the whole time at work is not that appealing for most people.

IMO the pay they receive and work load would still balance out the same in most job related areas once you factor in the location and the union bureaucracy rules an employee would encounter in that environment.

[Lardoggy]

Since I'm about to take my first multi-week vacation in 15 years, I felt compelled to comment. It is true that we have what we believe to be the highest standard of living in this country due in no small part to the workload that we all willingly take on. No one forces us to work the hours that we do, but the unfortunate reality is that leaving one job to find a better one is never that simple....let's face it, must of our jobs suck to one degree or another, and the next job will probably suck just as much, but for different reasons.

What I see as the problem is that our culture is so oriented toward collection of material wealth that we've convinced ourselves that harder work is the best path to a better wayof life. That wealth is the only means by which a standard of living should be measured. I would argue that a healthy mind and body are also critical to a "higher standard" standard of living. It is very difficult to acheive these with the workload we all live under. Its a clear trade off: work more, make more, probably live with more stress (as someone else pointed out). work less, make less, and, maybe, live with less stress. I say maybe because many people who are at or near the poverty line certainly have stress in their lives.

I am going to Brazil next week for two weeks and from what I've observed, their's is one culture where the populus generally feels that its more important to enjoy life at the expense of making more money, and it seems to work pretty well down there (although, I admit there still is abject poverty in Brazil, just like any country). The Europeans do their thing because they have more of a socialist mindset. Pay a lot of taxes, but get a lot of benefits in return.

This is an interesting discussing because once you're used to making money, its hard to go back, one of the reaons why its been so long since I've taken a real vacation. But, as a 40 year old, I know that life is WAY too short to be spending so much of it at work.

once man's humble opinion

[AZ-G35]

I get three weeks of vacation. I can accumulate up to 6 weeks with a carry over from one year to the next. After that you either loose time or you need to take time or cash it in.

UNFORTUNATELY......

I can not take them off all in a row. At best I can probably only get a week at a time. Last year I actually cashed in two weeks for my down payment on the G. So I did the opposite by cashing in vacation time for money. In the position that I'm in, I'm the right hand guy to the president of the company, so if I leave for any longer than a couple of days he freaks out. I really can not complain about the job but yes the vacation thing is starting to suck. Today I finally realized that I think I'm at the brink of job burn out.

So I was thinking of quitting, getting a job on some island chopping the tops off of coconuts and making rum drinks for people that can actually take a vacation.

[Hot Foot]

Suggestion:

Before quitting you job, I would recommend giving you boss a heads up on you dilemma. Most bosses will become more flexible when it comes to losing a good employee. Try negotiating a Monday and Friday time off once a month our combining a few vacation days with your normal holiday time off. Take a look at his work calendar and plan your vacations days so they would be less stressful for him if you were gone.

Planning your vacation days for the whole year in advance with your supervisor should help you get most of your time off the books.

[AZ-G35]

I take one here and there. Example this coming Tuesday I'm taking off to go to a motivation seminar, Zig Ziglar, Paul Orfalea, Jerry Lewis, Tom Hopkins, Joe Montana
Honorary Speakers: General Tommy Franks + Rudolph Giuliani

Brother got tickets and thought it would be fun.

Yeah he knows about the situation of taking off, he just flat out told me that he can't afford to have me take off for more than a day or so at a time. Then again he is a workaholic who never takes a day or a half day off. Even if he has a meeting out of the office say at 3 or 4 you can bet he will return after it.

This afternoon I have a meeting at 1. It is about a half hour ride. I'm taking off at about noon, doing the meeting, maybe an hour/hour and a half (2 -2:30) then I'm heading home to get an early work out at the gym and start an early weekend.

If he calls me on the cell wondering if I'm coming back he is going to get "Hel o, I c n bare y hea you....click"

[Hot Foot]

Been to one of Zig Ziglar motivation seminars before, he sure has a lot of energy for a man his age. You should gain a lot of good information from all them speakers for sure.