Layout:
Home > Archive: June, 2022

Archive for June, 2022

Jobs...they come and they go

June 16th, 2022 at 10:05 pm

So, nearly five years ago I began working a contract job of unknown duration. I expected it to last a few months, but nearly five years later, I was still there. Until June 1, when I was laid off, along with a few others, due to a work slowdown.

This was not at all expected. I had come to consider this my "cruise to retirement" job and believed it just could be the last job I ever held. My goal was to continue working there as an editor/proofreader until I hit 65, in just a few more years, and could get on Medicare.

So yeah, I was working for affordable health insurance. I met my retiement savings goal a while back, so i really just needed to make enough money to pay my ongoing bills. No need to save further for retirement, the mortgage was paid off back in 2012 and so I did not want to work full-time, just enough to pay the bills.

That job worked out perfectly: I found the work easy, and working from home since the pandemic meant I could do plenty of other things while being "on call" 3 days a week. Then I would have those nice, 4-day weekends.

I thought it would be hard to replicate that kind of work scenario, meaning pretty decent pay for not a lot of work or responsiblity. I busted my butt for many, many years, and now I'm downshifting into a less demanding lifestyle that lets me pursue other interests.

I applied for a slew of jobs online in that 1st week of unemployment (last week). Most of the jobs were remote; wow, what a sea change in the work world. I only wish it happened 20 years ago.  But most of the jobs were full-time. I admit to being a little anxious about weathering a high inflation recession like what we're experiencing now, the exact last thing you'd want to happen right as you were about to retire!

I've had 3 interviews this week, with 1 more tomorrow and another 1 on Monday, but today I verbally accepted a job offer from one of the few p/t jobs I applied for with an India-based company that provides custom continuing education training for employees in the IT space. It's very similar to the job I just had except that my old job trained pharmaceutical sales reps. Again, my goal was to find remote p/t work that allowed me to maintain my current, quasi-retired lifestyle, pay ongoing expenses, and enable affordable health insurance, not make maximum money.

They asked me to do a test assignment after the job interview; they said to complete it ASAP, definitely same day, so not really knowing how quickly they expected it, I did kind of rush through it (it had tons of changes needed) and finished it in 2 hours. The hiring manager had emphasized to me that they had very tight deadlines so i didn't want to dawdle. I do also know from the Linked In job posting that they had over 200 applicants for this job (!) so I'm kind of amazed I got the offer.

Because of the time difference, the hours are a little wonky: 4 hours from 6 to 10 pm Mon-Thurs and then 4 hours Saturday morning. At first I wasn't sure I was crazy about those hours, but they actually would allow me to have every day free to do my own thing until early evening. Being single, working a half-day on Saturday doesn't really bother me as I prefer to run errands, etc on a weekday, when the stores are less crowded. 10 pm IS a bit late for me; i just hope I won't get sleepy.  I start on Monday.

I guess I will need to have an accountant do my taxes this year (?) Not sure how to handle foreign earned income. They will treat me as a W-2 with direct deposit of pay.

In other news, I have been active on dating websites and have had some interesting encounters. In a few weeks I will return to one of my favorite places from my youth, the Cape, to meet a man I met online with whom I've been talking to nightly for a while now. I haven't been back to the Cape in probably 20 years. I lived there in my 20s.

I can't stay long as my elderly cat is on meds.

He worked on the railroad for many years, and his schedule there allowed him to pursue another career at the same time, so he also built houses on the Cape.  He did very well. He's been talking about buying an electric van and the 2 of us traveling throughout New England in it. Sounds good to me!

He did 2 tours of duty in Vietnam and did have PTSD issues in the past, but as a result, he cannot tolerate screaming kids, noisy restaurants and the like.

Patient Saver has always been a little late to the party, so when other people my age were getting married and raising families, I was still flying solo, focusing on my career as a journalist and marketing writer, but having fun along the way. But now I feel ready to settle down; maybe not marriage so much, but perhaps living together with the right person. It would be a huge, late life change for a perennial bachelorette.

I'm not sure how exactly that all would work with this new job if we hit it off, plus he has extreme cat allergies, so he couldn't visit here right now. Luther is 16 though.

In home improvement news, I'm currently having a contractor install board and batten on my interior walls downstairs. The walls in this old house have always been in very poor shape, mainly due to people painting over old layers of wallpaper from the 40s or 50s. No wonder the paint kept coming up! He expects the job to be mostly done by last week of June, but the painter will then take another 4 days or so. And in the meantime, the downstairs is a total mess as I had to move most of the living room furniture into the family room, and the dining room is next. The contractor is exceptionally neat, though, works solo and very methodically, not fast.  He's also quiet and so far hasn't damaged anything. He lives right here in town.