Exploited And P****d Off!

Carrera

Advice please! What can I do about my employers exploiting me? These days all my time is consumed by only one thing, work, work, work! The problem is I have no free time either to cycle or hardly ever work on my boat.
True, I'm earning good money but where is the social life (or even a decent night's sleep)?
Tomorrow I have a plan: I'm going to phone in with some excuse such as sickness or maybe a fictitious funeral. In fact, one of the guys I work with tried this tactic and would keep phoning in with news of some fictitious bereavement or other till they figured his great uncle had apparently died on more than one occasion.
Seriously, though, these people are like crocodiles. The more you meet their demands, the more they want and are never satisfied. They dangle a promised day-off on the end of a string and just when you think you've got that rest in front of your nose, it's cancelled.
None of us dares pick up the phone on a day off.
Should I simply pack the job in or should I stay miserable just for the sake of a good wage? I need to be able to ride my bike and for that I need free time!

Carrera

I thought about that too. I wondered maybe I could do some bike mechanics, buying and selling bikes while also hiring out my boat. You know, wheeling and dealing. Do I really need money is what I ask myself.
My present job makes me a lot of money but I have no time. You know, I slept just 2 hours last night as today I have to squeeze in some training and it's killing me.

Eden

My husband quit his last job when they decided to institute mandatory Saturdays and forced him to carry a company issue cell phone. No money is worth giving up your life and companies seem to have no understanding that forcing people to work unreasonable hours does nothing to improve their productivity.
I don't know about the UK, but here most IT workers, the hubby is a programmer, are considered to be "highly compensated workers", sure thats true enough, but what it really means is that you area salaried and therefore not covered by any of the wage laws meant to protect workers. What it should mean is that you have a skill that is in high demand so you are worth more, but no - you get no overtime, there are no limits on the amount of time your employer can expect you to work and no protection from being fired for not working explatoitive hours. The only thing that they cannot do is prevent you from leaving the building to eat if they do not provide meals. The sad thing is that most people put up with this. It was only a few genereations back that our grandfathers and great grandfathers fought to have fair labor laws and our generation is giving it all up again. Its sad really.

roadhog

Hmmm, I've been known to have been made to work for 368 days in a row, non-stop and long hours and often all night (and the next day) and having not seeing "the fam" during the whole duration. And my pay, though comfortable, is certainly nothing to write home about. And I've got 3 degrees and an additional highly technical skill qualification.

Oh well, the cycling is all that much better in the years I actually get to do it! Now if it would only hurry up and warm up a tad more in my present location.

jhuskey

Well life needs balance,however I would not advise making rash decisions. Be patient ,make a plan and execute it in a reasonable time.
Unless you are born very fortunate life is a balance of earning money and having enough time to spend it.
There are lots of windows of opportunity in the world. Just don't jump out one until see look where you are jumping.

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Sobriety is over rated!

Carrera

This is why there are riots in France after the Government announced plans to deprive young people of working rights. And I mean rights - there is bloody murder out there on the streets with clashes between protesters and police. No sign of the French youth giving up either and they mean to fight.
But, sure, this is my situation and there's a power struggle between myself and my female boss who probably needs me as much as I need her money. She herself knows nobody else would put up with the time constrictions the firm imposes and she knows I'm reliable and reasonably hard to replace.
As for me, as I say, the money is useful and I can buy stuff for my bike, afford to run a boat and eat out a lot.
Once somebody told her what I had said to the effect that I had shared work was like feeding crocodiles and no matter how much you did or gave, the company would never be satisfied and would want more. It's true as well. Holidays are a distant mirage used to dangle before you so you foolishly come to believe that holiday will materialise. Then, it's cancelled at the last minute.
I used to night-ride after work but now I can't do that as I'm doing 14 hours a day at work sometimes. Instead I have to do weights for the time being and then cycle every day to work and back.
But to cut a long story short, I'm really seriously thinking of quitting. I yearn to wake up in the morning with nothing else to worry about except where my training run will be and then just work on my boat restoration.

Carrera

I figure I've been avoiding making rash decisions for the last 4 years. True, since I worked for my current firm I've bought a whole load of bikes and my own boat as well as storing up money for a rainy day. But what happens is people get taken over.
We have 2 "A"class mugs in my branch who work all the hours they're asked to work and simply rake in the money. Both smoke like chimneys and hand over their wads of cash to the wives at the end of the week. They do no exercise and, to be frank, it shows.
Gradually I suppose they were sucked into the cycle of long hours and an unhealthy lifestyle.
At any rate, I made a total of how much time I put in myself over the last 7 days and it came to 76 hours away from home! To my shock, I discovered the days directly prior to that I had also been working.
I wouldn't say my empoyers are bad as such but they don't seem to share my particular ethos of work mixed with recreation.

Carrera

Bike mechanics now seem a whole lot easier. I'm now on diesel engines and will have my work cut out for me.

jhuskey

It is difficult to buy those lost days back in later years no matter how much money you make.
Stop and smell the roses philosophy,I guess.

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Sobriety is over rated!

lwedge

You must work to live not live to work.

Here in the U.S., we have a term for people who SNAP! when their bosses work them so much they can't ride their bikes. It's called "Going Postal".

If I were you I would do a 'Ferris Bueller' fairly soon. Pick a nice weather day and go for a long easy paced ride on your bike.

Lw

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If your traveling to the LakeTahoe, Apple Hill, Folsom area ? Then check out Charles Lee's site for some great information on rides, maps and events in this Northern California area. .
http://www.beautifulvista.com
Great wine !
http://www.chevalierwinery.com/

Hypnospin

i feel your pain, and i'm self employed!
waittaminit, so are my riding buds...

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"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...As our case is new, so must we think anew and act anew"
Abraham Lincoln, in his address to congress dec. 1st, 1861

limerickman

........which begs the question - what point have you, made since rejoining here last Tuesday?

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

limerickman

I terminated your account last week - when you were registered as Idaho......

I'll decide when to terminate you in this latest incarnation.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

MountainPro

career advice from a chicken shagging yokel, lovely..

there isnt a great demand for slopping chicken shit into plastic bags all day in Staffordshire, but i am sure Carrera appreciates the advice.

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HARD
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