What do you do?

I'm finishing my first week at my new (work from home) job. I can see how working from home can lead to a slide into neckbeard hermit status, so I've been forcing myself to go out and get lunch for an hour each day just to experience human interaction.

In other news, my former company just laid off 3 people, one of whom was in my department. So it looks like I got out at just the right time! They also sent me a stern reminder of the NDA I signed, as I expected, and told me to write to them reaffirming that I won't share any of their information. I have no intention of responding so I just forwarded it to my new company's legal and HR people.

Technology strategy for one of the bigger financial institutions in Canada. That said, I just gave them my notice. Moving out of the city (house already sold) and using the equity to spend a month in Hawaii and take a year off. From there, no idea but nothing fucking corporate or in a major urban center that much I am sure of!

I'm a French police officer in Paris, France. My english title would be "Sergeant Detective" as I'm a unit chief and I work in plain clothes. I mostly operate in railroad stations, catching pickpockets, robbers and muggers in the act, and then investigating them (we met Bob Arno !).

I earn ?30k per year, 17 years in the force. I have bonuses like 13th month salary and some other bonuses for overtime and top notch cases. We also have money to buy uniform / plain clothes.

I have benefits like I don't pay most of train travels. I'm also an union rep so I rent an apartment in Paris at 25% of market price. I also have an unmarked car but I have to share it with other fellows.

I have same benefits than most public servants in France, free top notch healthcare, nice mortgage fees and some other social stuff for kids and families, like discount vacation and cinema / other stuff.

As a public servant pay isn't great but we work 35h/week and overtime is good money if you want it. We also have job security, you can't really get fired unless you become a mass murderer or you publicly speak English. Police work in great if you're not an asshole and don't care too much about society as you'll see a lot of fucked up shit during work.

One of the bad perks is working 3/8 shifts. One week you're doing 1pm-9pm, next week 9pm-5am and then 5am-1pm. It's smooth when you're 22yo, not much when you're older. Also when shit happens, you won't go home until it's settled. It wrecks marriages A LOT (most of +35yo people here are divorced).

The other bad perk depends of people. Police work will sometimes put you in front of a lot of bad shit. People losing their mind, assholes, petty thieves, convicted felons, hardcore criminals ; you're basically dealing with bottom of the bucket's mankind. It can get under some people's skin. I've seen a lot of fellow officers doing down the drain because they just can't deal with it.

I'm quite satisfied right now since I like most of police work and caring about other police officers through union.

Bondurant_sl said:

I'm a French police officer in Paris, France. My english title would be "Sergeant Detective" as I'm a unit chief and I work in plain clothes. I mostly operate in railroad stations, catching pickpockets, robbers and muggers in the act, and then investigating them (we met Bob Arno !).

I earn ?30k per year, 17 years in the force. I have bonuses like 13th month salary and some other bonuses for overtime and top notch cases. We also have money to buy uniform / plain clothes.

....

become a mass murderer or you publicly speak English

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Those 30k Euros before or after tax and social security? If before, it sounds low for the risk involved. If it's cash in hand, it sounds decent.

Also, the French are pretty serious about their language it seems. I was in the Avignon area in 1992 and english got usnowhereon the street. Four years of school French had to make do. Would have preferred to use the 8 years of school English but they wouldn't let me.

In-House Counsel

I'm a professional data miner on internet forums. Thanks for this thread.

I'm trying to decide whether I should start looking around or not. I'm in a good place at work right now, have a ton of freedom and perks (today I just decided to work from home because fuck it), but I feel like I'm sitting still a little bit.

There are a few things around town I've found online that would be an interesting fit. Probably better money, definitely more work and less flexibility. I guess it depends how much I value a salary increase.

I just took a job in an entirely different field for a little more money + overtime potential + bonuses. The flexibility is going to be remarkably less, going from a medium sized non-profit where I can sit online all day, essentially work from home whenever I want (weather lol), and leave early/come in late if I have a doctors appointment or babysitter issues... to a Fortune 100 company with all that comes with corporate life.

The tradeoff is that the upside potential is enormous if I excel, and I think I can even though its a new field for me. They must believe it as well because they hired me! What it boiled down to was that I was stuck here and bored with no chance at promotion or more responsibility until my boss retired in the next 3 years. That and turning 30 made me think it was now or never.

Yeah, I just turned 32. I'm actually doing well at work, relatively speaking. My boss moved to another job and basically left me in charge of all his former projects. He's still on them as an adviser, but draws no salary and has no regular impact. I'm up for promotion this year, and will see a small salary increase though nothing commensurate with the level of increased responsibility.

Really, my fear is more about funding. Research dollars are *incredibly tight* right now, and I don't have 30 years experience to help push through applications. It is scary to think that when this cycle is up, I'll be responsible for my own funding. There is a ton of opportunity there, but if things fall through... It's hard to think about.

Eyashusa_sl said:

I just took a job in an entirely different field for a little more money + overtime potential + bonuses. The flexibility is going to be remarkably less, going from a medium sized non-profit where I can sit online all day, essentially work from home whenever I want (weather lol), and leave early/come in late if I have a doctors appointment or babysitter issues... to a Fortune 100 company with all that comes with corporate life.

The tradeoff is that the upside potential is enormous if I excel, and I think I can even though its a new field for me. They must believe it as well because they hired me! What it boiled down to was that I was stuck here and bored with no chance at promotion or more responsibility until my boss retired in the next 3 years. That and turning 30 made me think it was now or never.

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Hope that works out for you. I did something similar (at exactly the same age) and frankly it has been hell. It has given me the latitude financially that I can now semi-retire at 40 and honestly I still would not make the same decision again. The cost on your life, your family and you can be pretty horrible even if just for 10 years. That said, if there is only one piece of advice you take in your life make it be this: Everything in moderation, work to live and not live to work - you can still go far and you will be a lot happier you did!

Talked to my boss earlier this week about a new position opening up within our group. I've been extremely bored at work lately because I am the new guy and basically have low volume business units.

I think he sort of understood my frustration and now I am loaded up with work. Sometimes it helps to talk. Feels good man.

You're happy about having more work to do? Does not compute.

Some days I will come in and have nothing to do all day, literally from 8AM to 5PM with the exception of a few emails. I'd rather be doing work than sitting on reddit all day.

Well of course, it's all in the plan

Raign_sl said:

Hope that works out for you. I did something similar (at exactly the same age) and frankly it has been hell. It has given me the latitude financially that I can now semi-retire at 40 and honestly I still would not make the same decision again. The cost on your life, your family and you can be pretty horrible even if just for 10 years. That said, if there is only one piece of advice you take in your life make it be this: Everything in moderation, work to live and not work to live - you can still go far and you will be a lot happier you did!

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Thanks for the perspective. We will see what happens and I'm sure I'll keep this place posted if my life spirals out of control.

Noodleface_sl said:

Some days I will come in and have nothing to do all day, literally from 8AM to 5PM with the exception of a few emails. I'd rather be doing work than sitting on reddit all day.

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Sorry, I sometimes forget that not everyone is incredibly lazy like myself. I used to have those days all the time and it was pretty great. I miss my 2.5 hour lunch breaks.

McCheese_sl said:

Sorry, I sometimes forget that not everyone is incredibly lazy like myself. I used to have those days all the time and it was pretty great. I miss my 2.5 hour lunch breaks.

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I am lazy, it's mostly guilt. People walk by my office all day and they probably think "Fuck, this guy is on reddit again?"

panzerfaust_sl said:

late 20s
germany
military
40k
benefits: not much! haha.

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I know this is an old thread, but...
Bundeswehr soldiers have access to some of the better doctors and medical equipment here, and the doctors are actually listening to you because they're not burned out from having treated a dozen old people complaining about their failing bodies before you walked in their office.

I don't know how you'd put it in US terms, I think "Everything you can possibly imagine" should come pretty close to the level of benefits though. And you pay absolutely nothing yourself. I have first hand experience of this because I managed to hurt myself really well during my active service, and even though it didn't happen on duty or even in the barracks, they stopped short of nothing to fix it.