May to December: Oak's professional positioning.

[oak]

While I wish this was about a May to December romance (sigh), I'd like to post here about my professional and financial maneuverings in 2022. To wit: for the rest of this year, I have three goals of:

1. Sleep apnea (above all)
2. Feminine energy
3. Professional and financial sorrow-fixing

While I've posted extensively about the first two, in the next eight months I'd like to post in this thread about fixing the sorrow caused by inching back towards working poverty.

My activity will be "U" shaped, rather than "bell" shaped: lots of activity this spring, with a ramping up of action as fall turns to winter, especially during the all-important annual review the first week of November.

My preliminary plan:

May: Face difficult truths (I am, or am nearly, working poor).

I'll also post here about my initial efforts

June-August: Build skills of those determined to be missing (above). Get certified if indicated.

Also, enjoy summer

Sept-Oct: Apply for any remote positions I'm qualified for.

Nov: annual review. When I am (inevitably) disappointed, (1) begin full job search and (2) consider a tech bootcamp.

Edit to add: this would be an all-out job search. I will also, at any time, immediately effect an all-out job search if I experienced any serious financial trouble (eg missing rent or car payment, no food, or electricity threatened to be shut off).

Thanks for listening. I'll post more soon.

[Mental Fairy]

I have to say oak you really do make me think a lot more in depth. Admire your plan. Thought about making a goal plan but after today I’m terrified! Got my first parking ticket ever! Felt bad so paid it immediately and donated to local animal shelter to make me feel better!!!

[oak]

Thought about making a goal plan but after today I’m terrified!

You are in the Contemplation Stage. A good start!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transtheoretical_model

Got my first parking ticket ever!

Most tickets, distressing and expensive as they are, are caused by either (1) staying in the wrong place or (2) staying in the right place too long.

Much like your ticket, our dear MentalFairy, my professional/financial life is indicative of one or both of the above.

Good luck with your plan! Let us know if we can be of any assistance.

[oak]

Friends!

I am dusting off this thread, since there has been some movement lately. I have anger.

Having descended from paycheck-to-paycheck to working poverty, the following outcomes are possible (50-50?) this summer:

1. I face eviction.
2. My electricity is turned off.
3. I cannot afford gas to drive into work (hundreds of dollars a month).

My current employer could fix all of this by giving us WFH.

While I continue to wind down my main 2022 goal of sleep apnea, which could have gone much faster (see below), I increase my efforts to find WFH work.

I am furious that the hundreds of dollars a month I waste on a commute could be spent saving my life (please, Google "sleep apnea outcomes" if you doubt my life is in danger). I do not exaggerate:

1. CPAP machine.
2. New and more varied ingredients (healthy food) and methods (cooking implements) to effect better nutrition.
3. Instead of hours a week sitting in a car (extremely risky by itself!), I could be frequenting local yoga/martial arts/gyms/one-off fitness events.

I could accomplish all of those, completely, with what I waste propping up a bankrupt idea. I am furious.

Friends, I am enraged.

I am risking my life for some CEO's failed dream of serfs (yes, I use that word intentionally) in the office.

Text on a computer screen cannot convey it, but I am furious.

If I had $5,000 in the bank and a WFH job offer, I'd give my two week's notice in the next five minutes.

I want to save my own life.

Edit to add: I have no anger towards my two supervisors. Besides being good people, they hired me at a fine wage (which has not kept up with inflation) in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Respect.

[Mental Fairy]

Hi Oak
Thank you for posting, I wish we could help.

Becoming resourceful and making ends meet at such times as this is difficult.
Budgets only work if there is money in the bank.
Getting a second income is difficult and I don’t know the ins and outs of it in the United States.

I fear what will come in the future even on this side of the planet is grim. We are going back in time it feels with law and amendments.

Over here there is jobs open all over the show as there is many companies that got rid of staff that were not vaccinated. Most places now will only hire people whom are vaccinated.

Many people have started a side income and produced some incredible things. Sadly I’m not arty farty, nor do I have the confidence. What brings us challenges only makes us stronger.

[oak]

Budgets only work if there is money in the bank.

Word, Mental Fairy. I've always wondered how the "avocado toast and iPhones and bootstraps and In My Day" boomers would survive if they lost everything.

Update

1. Besides being "too much month not enough check" since October, for the first time I have no means to pay my electric bill. This is enormous precarity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precarity). This can't continue.

2. I had a heart-to-heart with my supervisor late last week, to the effect that the day may come in the coming weeks where I can't afford to commute. Also, my car is having trouble starting. This can't continue.

3. My job search is humming along: I'm at the point where I copy and paste coverletters for applications for remote positions.

4. I had a Zoom interview a week ago today. This position is remote. My supervisor is "looking into" "requesting" I WFH permanently at my current position.

5. While I wait to hear from either of the above (#4), I continue to apply for all remote positions I'm qualified for.

6. This may be a "nothing happens until all sorts of things happen" situation, either good (job offer for a remote position) or bad (car won't start, electricity gets shut off).

Summary

I have excellent reasons for wholly rational anxiety.

I realize I am in increasingly precarity territory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precarity). That is, not much is separating me from ruin; mostly luck, which I don't want to rely on any longer than I need to.

I've also done everything I can, each day for the last two weeks, to find a better situation.

I have inchoate plans to avoid this happening again in the future, including building my skills when I escape this current mess.

[Mental Fairy]

I believe in you Oak. Please let me know how we can help. I’m so sorry your are going through this.

[manuel_moe_g]

Wishing you all blessings, Oak. I admire what you are doing for yourself during this difficult time.

[oak]

Thank you, Mental Fairy and Manuel Moe. I am touched by the support I received here in the forum.

Well friends, I have survived a very difficult several weeks. August has been as grim of a time as I've ever seen, and I've seen some stuff in my 46 years.

Happily, I made it to payday: the electric balance is zero (thank heaven), have plenty of food, and can afford my Buspar. My supervisor renegotiated my position to make real improvements: not perfect, but much better than where I was previously.

I'll have few luxuries during the rest of 2022, and I'll need to improve my professional skills if I want to have a serious job search in 2023.

But for now I can stay cool, fed, and medicated: it is easier to see a viable future when you're a little higher in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

While I'm still in precarious place, if we stick together I can fashion a happier 2023 and easier 2022.

[rivergirl]

I'm so glad you've had this financial reprieve and chance to regroup, Oak.