Thursday, February 16, 2017

Patience and Overtime.

I really wanted to work an extra week this month, to start saving up a little more scratch for a European grand tour for the fam and I this summer.

 Can't do it... or, more accurately, can't get up the mental muscle to work overtime. I think I'm burnt out on OT.

 I've been working 9-10 months a year the past few years. Done some great stuff with the extra money, too. Helped some people out, developed a taste for some finer things, built up my portfolio, paid down my student loans, things like that. Mundane.

 Well, now it appears I'm about done with OT. I can't drag myself to do it without there being an emergency, it seems. I didn't even ask the powers that be this time. I just told my wife, 'I don't think I can do this and not be a shit when I come home," which was good enough for both of us to say never mind.

 Man, I was one of the overtime kings in my company. Ultimately, time is becoming more precious than money to me, finally. I should have reached that point long before this, but here I am, late to the party, maybe, but here all the same.

 And you know, I'm OK with this.

3 comments:

Andrew said...

Too much OT does tend to burn one out. You became a Japanese Company Man, with all the negatives - long commute, distant family (not emotional, just in distance) and life devoted to working for the company.

It is much nicer to realize, after putting up with all that crap for so long, that a simple vacation down in the Keys or in Tennessee (I just like those mountains) or up in Maine doing some lobstering is worth more than killing yourself to pay for a grand tour of some place that you won't give a damn about once you get there. Can you imagine how much fun you and the Kid could have doing a day on a commercial lobster boat?

And, with your slow-simmering wit (from what I can postulate from reading your blog), avoiding Europe might be a good thing, for them. One of my most level-headed friends went last year and I swear, all he did was swear about Them. Them being all the euro-weenies that truly can drive a good-old boy insane.

Rob said...

Trading your time for dollars is something that can go on for a long time & not be realized what's really being traded. It was for me.

When I realized the true value of my time my outlook changed.

Anonymous said...

Be happy with the choice, Hawsepiper. You can always make more money; you can't make more time. It's also true that too much work makes Budd--I mean, Jack--a pain in the ass to be around, and you can't ever really make that up to loved ones.
Andrew, I love the mountains too. I live along the Highland Rim, but get away to East TN for awhile now & then. Similar motorcycling roads, but they have long views over there you can't get in my hills. They killed the annual Honda Hoot in Knoxville, so now I have to make an excuse to myself to go that way, but that isn't hard.
--Tennessee Budd