And I'm so much happier!
For about three years, I was working a union job at a major global news organization. The caveat was that for those three years I was a “per diem” employee. What this meant was I had no set schedule, I had no guaranteed number of days I would work, and I had zero days of PTO. However, because it was a union job the pay was amazing. And if I worked holidays, I would get double pay or triple pay depending on the holiday. If I worked overnight hours, I got extra fees for that too. And depending on some tasks I performed in the newsroom, I might get extra fees on top of that too.
But again — my schedule was inconsistent. Some weeks I worked 3 days. Other times it was 4, 5, or even 6 days in the summer. I worked weeknights, weekends, overnights, holidays.
And the union provided free health coverage as long as you met a certain threshold of income in a given year (it was around $40,000 or so). Because I was fortunate enough to usually get 4or 5 day weeks, plus work holidays and overnights I met that threshold easily. And it was REALLY good health coverage too.
In 2020 and 2021, I made $100,000.
But the schedule sucked. I hated the inconsistency, I hated that I had to work weeknights and couldn't spend time with my wife, I hated that if I took “vacation” it meant not getting paid. I hated that I was working weekends. And just generally speaking I am a morning person. I used to work jobs where I had to get up at 4am and honestly I LOVED those. I don't mind getting up early and I like being asleep by 10pm. So working at night really was a bummer for me and I never got used to it.
In March of this year, I took a $27,000 paycut. I now make $73,000. I work for a nonprofit but it's a really cool and fun nonprofit and I love going to work every single day. At my union job, since the pandemic we were mostly remote. My new job is fully onsite but it's worth it. Plus my new job pays for my transportation to work which would cost me over $2,000 a year in monthly train passes if they didn't. So that's more money in my pocket.
We work with students so our vacation calendar follows the school calendar rather than the regular yearly calendar. So vacation days had to be used by the end of this month. I had taken a week off. But then my boss was like you have 3 days you need to take before the month ends so please take those. So now I am finally on a paid vacation and it's 8 days off not including the weekends! What a major change!
Also when I started my new job, on literally my fourth day, my boss said “you can set your own hours. You know when you need to be here and what you have to do.” I had been working there less than a week!
Anytime I need to leave early or come in late or even run an errand during the day, when I ask my boss he looks at me like “why are you even asking? I don't care. Do what you have to do.”
Although I am not making as much money as I was, the laid back stress free work environment, the normal working hours, and the fact that I get PTO, makes the pay cut so worth it. Work/life balance is everything.
I am very much pro union. It was because of the previous union I was in that I was making six figures. But if the difference is good paying union job with terrible work/life balance over lower paying non union with good work/life balance, I am taking the latter every single time.
I am fortunate to be in a situation where taking that pay cut still allows me enough money to get by (I had turned down previous job offers in the 50k and 60k range. That would be too steep of a decline. But 73k is enough to work for me especially since I don't have to spend any of that on transportation to the job).
Money is important and obviously it is a necessity to live. But work/life balance and having a good boss is truly everything. I'm so happy I made the switch.
And the worst part about the previous job is that the pay was so good and the holiday pay was so enticing, that it would make me WANT to work holidays. I and others I worked with would ask our boss to work on major holidays simply because it paid so well. Which is kind of messed up looking back on it. I would SO MUCH rather be off on the holiday and be able to go away for a quick three day weekend to go hiking or to the beach or whatever. I previously couldn't do it because I would work weekends and request to work the holiday for the extra money. But what good is extra money if I can't spend it?
Since i got the new job, I went away for a three day weekend Memorial Day, I am going away on Labor Day, and I made plans to go away for Columbus (Indigenous Peoples) Day. Give me mini weekend getaways over triple pay (even if that means $138/hr for an 8 hour shift) every single time. I even booked a trip for Martin Luther King Day already too.
Work/life balance > money in my opinion. I just wanted to share my story.