Jobs

[GardenSkater77]

You don’t take a new job you don’t want for the same pay. You would need at least a 10% increase to even care and you wouldn’t last in an office after being on the road. I fail to see an upside.

[IUTSM]

I’m turning to the Slap brain trust on this one…

I work for a company doing installs.  It’s currently me, another guy, and a new guy.  The other guy’s body is fucked and his install days are numbered.  He thinks he’ll be transitioning to an office role.. which he might.. but I suspect the company doesn’t want him to.. for a variety of superficial and non-superficial reasons.

Today, my boss asked if I had any interest in it.  I said I’m all for new opportunities, learning new skills, and career advancement.  He then implied that it wouldn’t necessarily be advancing, but maybe more of a lateral move.

I love working on the road.  It keeps me active, I’m always doing different stuff and seeing different places.  The freedom I have is ludicrous, to the point where I’m basically running a side hustle during work hours.

I absolutely do not want an office job unless it comes with a hefty raise… BUT, I feel like turning it down would be idiotic of me, as I could learn a lot of things that make me more employable.  The installing I do is very niche, and my company is pretty much the only gig in town.

Does it ever make sense to take a shittier job that pays the same as part of a long game?  I’m ADHD as hell and not sure I could handle the confines of an office, and office politics, if no financial benefit is guaranteed.  Thoughts?


TLDR: Take an office gig that pays the same even though I prefer field work?  In hopes that it leads to more lucrative roles down the road?

Working indoors, esp in an office w artificial light, stale air, and very apparent rules, social expectations, and a boss who, even if they’re alright for a boss, is still your boss, after having been outdoors or on the road is hard as fuck. At least it’s been that way for me. I’ve done something similar to what you’re describing for similar reasons and it sucked ass. I learned what I don’t want to do anyways.

[LUGR]

Tell them to laterally shove it where the sun don’t shine.

[50mm]

I worked in an office for a decade, pretty much my entire 20's. Took ~20% pay cut at the end of 2020 to work outdoors in my pretty much dream job. We actually were doing the Slap Zoom meetups at that time and all you homies getting on there were supportive and making me feel good which I still remember. I get to be outdoors all day, talk to a lot of interesting people, teach kids about nature, and get to work with my hands, and recently I've been one half of our two man in-house video production team we are getting going and have gotten a chance to travel around socal for a day shooting videos, getting paid to hangout on the beach in HB. I love teaching people, I always wanted to learn about tools and now have a small but solid collection of hand/power tools and can work on a lot of stuff at home or for fun, and I have been doing video editing for fun half my life. I originally wanted to do video production when I was younger but never wanted to edit a tv show or something, so it's been a dream job within a dream job. On top of that I've had a lot of really exciting moments like search and rescues.

I would be making significantly more at my office job if I was still there but I hated it for all that time and would never ever go back. If I ever transition to an office role in my current job I would still be in an outdoor setting so that is a cool option in the future. I have a great team of people I work with and the two other guys that share the same role as me are really good people and the only real friends I've had outside a job since I was like 18. It really feels like me and some buddies all got a job together, no ego, no slacking, no competing.

All that is to say money isn't everything if you hate your job. I'm officially middle aged in about a week and it took me almost as long to figure this shit out even though I knew it in the back of my head all these years. Work takes up the majority of our time and my life satisfaction has improved so much from changing jobs that no amount of money could really make a difference unless it was so little I couldn't survive.

[ScooterKid]

After mom drops me off at the skate park I stand in front of the best ledge and look into the sky with all my best friends.  Why are all these older guys on skateboards so mad at us?  Scooter is future.

[Coastal Fever]

Appreciate the feedback guys.  I emailed him and (very professionally) stated that moving into the office would strip away everything I like about working there, and it would take either my body giving out or an unrealistic salary increase for me to do so.  He was super cool and understood, and said it could always be an option in the future.

[LUGR]

I worked in an office for a decade, pretty much my entire 20's. Took ~20% pay cut at the end of 2020 to work outdoors in my pretty much dream job. We actually were doing the Slap Zoom meetups at that time and all you homies getting on there were supportive and making me feel good which I still remember. I get to be outdoors all day, talk to a lot of interesting people, teach kids about nature, and get to work with my hands, and recently I've been one half of our two man in-house video production team we are getting going and have gotten a chance to travel around socal for a day shooting videos, getting paid to hangout on the beach in HB. I love teaching people, I always wanted to learn about tools and now have a small but solid collection of hand/power tools and can work on a lot of stuff at home or for fun, and I have been doing video editing for fun half my life. I originally wanted to do video production when I was younger but never wanted to edit a tv show or something, so it's been a dream job within a dream job. On top of that I've had a lot of really exciting moments like search and rescues.

I would be making significantly more at my office job if I was still there but I hated it for all that time and would never ever go back. If I ever transition to an office role in my current job I would still be in an outdoor setting so that is a cool option in the future. I have a great team of people I work with and the two other guys that share the same role as me are really good people and the only real friends I've had outside a job since I was like 18. It really feels like me and some buddies all got a job together, no ego, no slacking, no competing.

All that is to say money isn't everything if you hate your job. I'm officially middle aged in about a week and it took me almost as long to figure this shit out even though I knew it in the back of my head all these years. Work takes up the majority of our time and my life satisfaction has improved so much from changing jobs that no amount of money could really make a difference unless it was so little I couldn't survive.

I think I vaguely remember that. Didn’t you take a job with the park service or something similar? Awesome to hear you are still out there enjoying it.

[IUTSM]

Appreciate the feedback guys.  I emailed him and (very professionally) stated that moving into the office would strip away everything I like about working there, and it would take either my body giving out or an unrealistic salary increase for me to do so.  He was super cool and understood, and said it could always be an option in the future.

And, dude, in many ways, working in a office destroys the body. Low back and neck, sciatica etc from sitting all day