Downshifting jobs

mellowsun

I've been working in a few high pressure but well paid roles recently and decided  I need a change. Commuting on top of a 10-12 hour work day is making me unhappy and I never get to play guitar any more.

Trouble is what to do instead? I work in a very specialised  IT discipline and all roles are long hours and part time is rarely an option.

Fortunately the mortgage is paid off but I still need an income.

ideas welcome!

richardhomer

I've gone freelance and do work for a couple of companies. A 'heavy' day is 7 hours - a 'heavy' week is 4 days.

I'm much poorer - but much less stressed. And free time is priceless as you get older....

octatonic

Downsize the house and use what is left over to buy a flat.
Either do it up and sell it. or rent it out.

mynamesnotbob

If you have a very specialised skill set, just contract. I either work flat out and get called a capitalist pig dog for whoring myself out in a money focused year, or take every other month of, or six months off and still take home more than I would as a perm.

That buys you the ability to have time off, which in itself might be enough - or might give you the focus to work out what you do want.

If your skill are genuinely in demand, use it to your advantage, don't become a slave to them. Lifes too short

CabbageCat

Do something fun that needs no qualifications for pocket money. Bar work or wedding DJ.

goldtop

Or completely reinvent yourself.

I dated a woman who did IT for 20 years, then chucked it in, She went off to learn pargeting from one of the best in Suffolk, does that for half the year and then sails the world as crew on posh-blokes' yachts when the weather here is rubbish. Admired her greatly.

Good luck.

thomasross20

LOL this post if you think I am the sexiest forumite.

mellowsun

Thanks all, yes freelancing is an option although those I know that contract have to travel a lot to wherever the work is.

giving it a lot of thought over Xmas anyway

thomasross20

Wow, thanks, folks!

dindude

thomasross20 said:

(semiconductors is brutal). 

I'm having that for my sig

thomasross20

It's true! Especially if you've got a customer like Apple - nightmare!

Snap

wtf the is downshifting??

That is not a word. Surely it isn't.

do people who downshift, also "reach out" via email

each time I have typed downshift I have inadvertantly typed downshit.

mellowsun

'Downshifting' on the house isn't really an option as it is a small terrace (about 900 sq ft)

BigMonka

At least if you go back as a contractor then you'll get paid for all of the long hours you're currently doing, or have the option of doing a full-time 40hour week in just 4days - 3 day weekends would be great.

Myranda

What specialism are you in? Could you do that same thing closer to home? Telecommute?

I mean if you're specialised enough maybe you could force your employer to let you work from home - after all, who would they replace you with?

Or move house closer
Or move jobs
Or move speciality - hopefully you're not so specialised that you can do literally nothing else - so you can commute less

If you're doing 12 hour days regularly then they need extra staff, talk to them about this and maybe you can get just 8 hour days and a commute?

mellowsun

Snap said:

do people who downshift, also "reach out" via email

Only when they have the bandwidth.

ToneControl

mellowsun said:

I've been working in a few high pressure but well paid roles recently and decided  I need a change. Commuting on top of a 10-12 hour work day is making me unhappy and I never get to play guitar any more.

Trouble is what to do instead? I work in a very specialised  IT discipline and all roles are long hours and part time is rarely an option.

Fortunately the mortgage is paid off but I still need an income.

ideas welcome!

give me an idea of what your skillset is, and where you are

mellowsun

ToneControl said:

give me an idea of what your skillset is, and where you are

knowledge engineering, natural language processing and machine learning, North London

ToneControl

mellowsun said:

ToneControl said:

give me an idea of what your skillset is, and where you are

knowledge engineering, natural language processing and machine learning, North London

hmm,  I was in a similar position a long time ago. Niche skills  have pros and cons
I chose to move to more generic "commodity" skills,  then  was able to  do freelance work,  which far more rarely runs to overtime
then it's worth finding out what companies are most comfortable with  working from home.  Some places are perfectly OK with going in once a week, or even tolerate once a month without comment. Others it's only 2 days a month you can  WFH

p90fool

I spent years in management, then prototyping for a meteorological instruments company, now I play in a band, occasionally build PCBs for a pedal company and work in Tesco for a few hours a week as a bit of a social life. I've never been so poor or so contented. 

I sometimes top it up by fixing someone's motorbike if it's an interesting one, but I don't really need to so I turn down the shite jobs. 

Life is quite incredibly short, even if you're as lucky as I've been so far. 

IvanMC

I'm in a similar position myself. It's really tough to strike a balance. I'm a secondary school teacher but music is both my priority and my goal. I just can't believe I muddled through and went to a college of music some years back. I'd suggest you try to be well-organised and get proper sleep. At times I feel like giving up the job but then I go like 'that's f... impossible'. I've become full aware of how short life is and that's a massive problem. I'll be following this thread since I also need some advice here. Cheers.