Workaholic?

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Hi, my name is Grant and I'm a workaholic.
<background reply> Hi Grant

I started working when I was 15 , the minimum age requirement to obtain a work permit. In a few days I'll be 60 and I'm still working. I got a day job that fills in 40 hours a week not counting the 2.5 hour daily commute. Every other week I'm on call 24/7 for emergency computer related issues, there goes that weekend. I also work at home building and maintaining web sites, kinda like this one. I'm not sure if I'm forced to work so much just to survive or do I just love to work? I can say that for the most part I enjoy what I do to get a paycheck. It's not like I'm "digging ditches" like my pop used to say. When I was a kid watching TV, people would work at one place for 20 years and retire with a gold watch. I've already doubled that work time! 45 years... dayum.

I don't see me being able to retire anytime in the near future and at times I feel like I'm a slave to the economy. I'm not wealthy by any means, but after driving through skid row in downtown Los Angeles everyday for work and my visit to Nicaragua, I feel like I have a very nice life.

After 45 years I think I'm starting to see a pattern here. I know that even though I'm pouring out my soul to y'all and I really do want to stop this addiction to work, I know I'll be weak and back at it tomorrow. But I'll keep coming back.

Thank you for letting me share.
 
Hard work is good for the spirit. I always try to remember that I am lucky to have the health of mind and body to face the challenges a day of work presents. I have only seen about 15 days without legal work in the last 6 years or so and I have no plans to let up. Rock on brother!
 
I appreciate people who work into old age as they pay tax and keep the pressure off me ;-)
Honestly from before I started work I had one ambition and that was to set myself up to retire as early as possible. Now I have 11 work free years behind me and have one regret and that is I stayed at work a full year too long, should have gone earlier!
I can't comment on the US situation but I watch a lot of my friends here in Australia still working and continually moving the get out target further into the future. They don't really require the accumulated wealth they're shooting for, actually they're afraid to leave the rat race.
 
I've been working full time for 18 years, and was working part time and during holidays as a student. While I definitely enjoy my work, it is still that; work. I definitely work to live, I don't live to work. But like Ray, I consider myself lucky to have the health to actually work and contribute to society. I'm proud of the beer I make at the brewery, but what I am most proud of is that the beer I make provides the livelihood for no less than 10 other people besides myself. And being able to provide (together with the wife, of course) for my family is also important. I'm a proud taxpayer as well. Seeing all the good things I get back from my taxes makes me happy. Honestly.

Economically my life is decent. We don't struggle paying our bills, and at the moment we are usually able to save a little each month (not always, though). Al businesses are required to provide pension schemes for their employees, and I'm putting money into a private pension as well. I reckon I'll have a reasonably comfortable old age, if nothing dramatic happens.

However, like gasket I want to retire as soon as I can afford to. Which probably means I'll have to work until I'm 70. The retirement age is currently 67 here, but depending on the situation and line of work it varies. My dad was able to retire when he was 64, and if I'm really lucky I hope to be able to myself. If the caustic fumes at work don't kill me before that...
 
Im with you Grant---

5 am to 8 pm every day --- my last vacation (for 1 week) was 2008--- a week off is too much free time I would end up arrested or decide I am NEVER GOING BACK --- lol
 
I hear ya Grant and all. Been working full time since getting out of HS way back in 1972..... except for that stint starting in 2009 when that recession finally bit me. Unfortunately, I ended up being one of those that got to “enjoy” an extended vacation. Couldn’t buy an interview. After a couple misses that didn’t work out, when out of the blue I got a call from the Marina I’m now working. Selling boat parts for Lake Michigan boaters.

My oldest will be 40 this year, my youngest 35. Got four grandkids and when we all get together there’s four dogs. The smallest being ours at about 40lbs. The biggest about 90. It’s a house full. But we love it.

Didn’t have a lot when we were younger. We made the decision that Mrs. IbLive would be a work at home mom and raise the kids rather than go back to work and let a stranger do it. Once both kids were in school she did get part time work and eventually college to get her Special Education teachers degree and has been teaching since 1992.

Took us till about two years ago when financially things took a turn for the much better. Eliminated most of our short term debt. Started putting good money into savings.

For the most part. No regrets. My job let me be at my kids functions. Summer baseball. Coached a couple summers. School sports. Band and choral concerts. Family vacations. All good.

As for retiring. I have about three years before I can think about collecting SS. What my time off told me while laid off is that I discovered free time isn’t so bad.
I’m ready to be done. Not that I won’t have to have something do. Be a Walmart greeter. Part time at Home Depot. But the daily grind. Can’t wait.
 
I'm 68 and working 40 hours a week. I do it because it is who I am. I love the constant challenge. I don't take time off sick. When I got hepatitis A in Afghanistan I carried on with 14 hour days. My view is that you can be sick while working just as easily as when you sit at home and mope. I have no time for whiners.
 
Good perspective, Grant...

I started working in Mom's recording studio and Dad's custom car shop at around 12, and during the spring and summer, I worked for a neighbor picking grapes near Ducor, California for 13 cents a box.

I got a work permit at 15 also. Most of my life was spent feeding a classic car addiction.

I became a police officer in 1992 and left the profession in 2012. During that time, I also served 8 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve - 1 year of full time active duty.

I lost a new home to foreclosure in 2011, went through a divorce, literally saw every dime I had saved for retirement given to the other party - the same person who tried to obtain rights to my music too - and woke up one morning at 47 on a freind's couch in Palm Springs California with absolutely nothing - literally starting over from scratch.

Since "retiring" I have become busier than ever before in my life. Some of what I do is out of necessity, but I also drive myself pretty hard because that was instilled in me from a young age.

I am so grateful for my health. For 20 years I wore and carried nearly 30 pounds of gear and I am shocked that I don't have issues from that.

Seems like I am always busy with something. Someone calls and needs a guitar or bass player...or needs a guitar repaired.

Right now, I'm working with a 4 piece rock group, Mom and I are compiling material for a country album and I'm trying to learn music theory.

We have a beautiful hillside home in a splendid neighborhood, cars are paid off, kids are healthy and my parent's and oldest Son just left after a long visit.

Life is good - if not busier than I would like it to be....
 
Gahr said:
I've been working full time for 18 years, and was working part time and during holidays as a student. While I definitely enjoy my work, it is still that; work. I definitely work to live, I don't live to work. But like Ray, I consider myself lucky to have the health to actually work and contribute to society. I'm proud of the beer I make at the brewery, but what I am most proud of is that the beer I make provides the livelihood for no less than 10 other people besides myself. And being able to provide (together with the wife, of course) for my family is also important. I'm a proud taxpayer as well. Seeing all the good things I get back from my taxes makes me happy. Honestly.

Economically my life is decent. We don't struggle paying our bills, and at the moment we are usually able to save a little each month (not always, though). Al businesses are required to provide pension schemes for their employees, and I'm putting money into a private pension as well. I reckon I'll have a reasonably comfortable old age, if nothing dramatic happens.

However, like gasket I want to retire as soon as I can afford to. Which probably means I'll have to work until I'm 70. The retirement age is currently 67 here, but depending on the situation and line of work it varies. My dad was able to retire when he was 64, and if I'm really lucky I hope to be able to myself. If the caustic fumes at work don't kill me before that...
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Are the fermentation fumes really dangerous???? I never noticed real.bad fumes making and distilling whiskey????
 
Never been out of full time work since 1984: I regrettably did not continue and finish college after 1 year engineering school.
I meant to but life just got me in its sway, and I was very good at the maths and sciences.
Been out several times for work related injuries and surgeries.
Most times I've worked 45-55 hours per week. Last few years the company has us on a tight 40, and my commute is only about 1/2 hour.

I make the most of my "Life time" - the time not working to survive while making others wealthy.
Dont get me wrong I believe in capitalism but the exploitation of labor for the greed of those at the top is too common.
But - these are the decisions and choices I made, no blame game.

Things are ok, we get by. I'd like more than that but we are happy and healthy.

We are not here to pay bills and die; I would retire now if I could before becoming too old to do and enjoy things.
Like play guitar.

I would still work part time, but there would be time to keep up with things and do the things I mention here at TTR I never have time for.

There is a time to work even if you dont feel well, but also a time to stay home, rest, and not be contagious at work.
 
Last weekend I was on call. On Saturday morning before noon, I had 10 calls from dumb sales people that could not remember their password, not really an emergency. I also had calls from 2 clients that had their server go down, this is why I'm on emergency after hours support. Also during the weekend I had switched one of my web clients to a new web server and separate mail server. I spent Saturday tearing my car dashboard apart and Sunday putting it together. Three big accomplishments in two days. Most of my life is like this, working on multiple projects simultaneously. Oops, there's that 4 letter word again... work. Speaking of which, that's where I'm at now. Content at my desk where I spend most of my waking hours. Got my headphones on listening to blues. Got my car in the parking lot with a new engine and touch screen navigation/entertainment/diagnostic system. I can step out the front door of the building where I work and see the Pacific ocean. Yup, sure beats digging ditches.
 
I had been an on call technician for many years as well.
Nothing worse than Moron calls at 2am or overnight period.
I mean when the dispatch service should not have called at all.
Legit calls are the deal - ok, but being roused out of sleep for nothing makes for some pretty interesting phone conversation.
Still work the day shift too, not like we are laying around like the Maytag repair man.
 
jtcnj said:
I had been an on call technician for many years as well.
Nothing worse than Moron calls at 2am or overnight period.
I mean when the dispatch service should not have called at all.
Legit calls are the deal - ok, but being roused out of sleep for nothing makes for some pretty interesting phone conversation.
Still work the day shift too, not like we are laying around like the Maytag repair man.
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We generally do a daily back up of the servers stating around 12 am. I got a call from a user at 2 am stating that the server was running slow and he was trying to do a month end report, so I needed to stop the back up process. Ha! That wasn't gonna happen. His store closed at 9 pm and he should have done his work during normal business hours. East coast is 3 hours ahead of me and they start opening at 8 am their time, 5 am my time. I do receive morning wake up calls at 5 am. We also have locations in Hawaii where they are 3 hours behind me. Their stores close at 9pm their time, midnight my time. So for the most part I can count on being able to sleep from 12 to 5... unless some tweaked out finance manager is up running a month end report during a scheduled back up time. A lack of planning on his part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
 
Good to hear you can sleep most times.
My calls mostly involved getting up getting dressed, driving between a half hour to an hour and a half and going to find and fix things.
Then going to work in the morning.
 
Robert Herndon said:
Are the fermentation fumes really dangerous???? I never noticed real.bad fumes making and distilling whiskey????
Click to expand...

Well, fermentation produces CO2, so technically you could die from breathing it. But the amount of CO2 in a well-ventilated brewery will never be enough to harm you.

But we work with dangerous chemicals every day. The most important factor in producing a beer of stable quality is hygiene (it is often said that being a brewer is just being an advanced cleaner). This means that all equipment coming in contact with the wort/beer after the wort has been boiled must not only be clean, but also properly sanitized. We use different types of alkaline cleaners; caustic agents and also (at times) chlorinated caustic solutions. These give off fumes that can be very dangerous, especially if you are exposed to them over time. We routinely use gas masks to avoid exposure. We also use protective clothing, goggles, gloves, boots etc. to minimize the risk. In addition to caustic stuff for cleaning, we use peracetic acid (a "mix" of acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide) for sanitization/disinfection. It's strong stuff, so breathing it (or skin contact) is not exactly recommended...
 
Yeah, I do everything behind the curtain like the great and powerful Oz. My home office is a NOC. I have 3 screens on one computer and two screens attached to a second computer. If I can't do what I need to do from home, I'll call someone that is closer to the data center so I don't have to drive 35 miles. I can pretty much access anything I need to do from home. We have hundreds of clients, each with their own dedicated server. Each server can have anywhere from just one store to a couple hundred stores on it in all 50 states. I love the challenge of fixing stuff, and love it even more when I'm the hero that gets them up and running. Each customer is a multi-million dollar business and some are billion dollar businesses that you all know as a household name. Tonight on my way home from work I need to stop at a client's location near my home and do some on location diagnostics and trouble shooting.
 
Gahr said:
Well, fermentation produces CO2, so technically you could die from breathing it. But the amount of CO2 in a well-ventilated brewery will never be enough to harm you.

But we work with dangerous chemicals every day. The most important factor in producing a beer of stable quality is hygiene (it is often said that being a brewer is just being an advanced cleaner). This means that all equipment coming in contact with the wort/beer after the wort has been boiled must not only be clean, but also properly sanitized. We use different types of alkaline cleaners; caustic agents and also (at times) chlorinated caustic solutions. These give off fumes that can be very dangerous, especially if you are exposed to them over time. We routinely use gas masks to avoid exposure. We also use protective clothing, goggles, gloves, boots etc. to minimize the risk. In addition to caustic stuff for cleaning, we use peracetic acid (a "mix" of acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide) for sanitization/disinfection. It's strong stuff, so breathing it (or skin contact) is not exactly recommended...
Click to expand...
I had no idea. I think I'll enjoy my beer even more, now... :cheers:

jtcnj said:
upload_2018-6-20_10-53-46-jpeg.16010
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This is awesome! Heisenberg lives!!
 
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