Quote From: canuckguyHello,
I find myself in a precarious situation. I work as a Pit Manager for a casino, and earn a generous salary. I am very successful in my career, and am very stable in my position. Why then, am I looking for a way out?
I work shift work, and find myself on the midnight shift for 3 month stints at a time. Recently engaged, my fiancee and I see each other for 1 hour a day: between when she gets home from work and when I leave for work. Our days off are completely seperate, and my ability to get time off is almost impossible. As the casino is open 365 days a year, we have never spent a Christmas together. I've never been able to go with her to her parents' for Thanksgiving. We don't see friends and family because of my work schedule.
She works as a pharmacist and makes roughly double my own salary, and enough for us both to live on. A part-time supervisory job opportunity has recently opened up at the pharmacy where she works, and I am a shoe-in for the job. Were I to take the position, we would have the same days off, be off together every major holiday, and it would allieviate every stress associated with my current schedule.
The only catch is that I would be taking an incredible hit to my personal income to the tune of appx $25,000. This new job would be incredibly stable, working in a very friendly community-based pharmacy. The environment in the pharmacy is light and friendly as opposed to the mostly negative and stressful environment I face every day at the casino.
So, I guess my question is: is it better to retain a very well-paying, stable job with that you're unhappy with, or a job that pays much less, but affords me the time to live my life? Quality of life completely steers me in the direction of the new job.. but when I consider the amount of work I've put into developing my career, I'm hesitant to throw it all away..
Do you have any room at your current job to leverage this decision with you current employer? For instance, are you able to use the threat of leaving to get better hours or would that just hurt things? Maybe you can think outside the box on this. Can you set a rotating schedule with the other individuals that do you job that would allow everyone to have a more fair, predictable schedule? I work in a plant that runs 24/7 and they do rotating shifts. If I knew how many employees are talking about, maybe all of you in your situation can come up with an agreeable solution for all.
Otherwise, if you are single and working all the time, you probably can easily cut back on whatever expenses you have tied yourself to to make you think you need the money. Taking a pay cut is only painful if you have too much debt, or you just love you money. Figure out how to get rid of debts or just be OK with trading a life for less money. The high paying jobs, in all cases, are the ones where the company owns your time and your life. If you want a life, you may have to be content with less money. Good luck.
