Three-day weekend

[flexagon]

Things happen that I haven't been talking about.

I watched RBG with norwoodbridge last weekend and found it both interesting and touching. So many victories she won in the 70s, before I was conceived (and when I was a toddler). Then the tide turned and there weren't so many victories, but there were dissents that caused laws to be created. There were ovations, there was adulation, just for fighting. In the end, as we know, she got stuck -- she was old, tired, and a widow, but couldn't retire because she didn't want her successor to be appointed by Trump. She knew she was still doing some good. And that's how it went, all the way to the end. Her story makes me feel pretty conflicted about my own retire-early plans, but I also kind of think she might have approved. She wanted women to be able to do whatever the hell they wanted.

Also on the topic of remarkable women, How To Fail with Elizabeth Day did a podcast episode with Tara Westover and that was a pretty great listen.

I got through last week, possibly aided by bingeing YA reading late into the night, and took a three-day weekend. I slept a LOT, like almost until noon the last two days. I voted, and made tamales for a whole afternoon (that's when I listened to the podcast, and more Evolution of Everything), and worked out. Got a flu shot -- my doctor was all set up with open doors and a one-way flow through their lobby. Listened to the new Fleet Foxes album. For social, there were two walks and some outdoor juggling, where the bug qualified his 5-ball cascade pattern and caught it on video (impressive!). Worked on my quilt a little, and even played with material for my circus act a little.

It's so easy to have a nice life when I actually disconnect from work. But it's not like, if I went to 80% part-time, I would actually disconnect for three days every weekend. It feels easier to flat-out quit than to go part-time. I wrote out part of my goodbye letter when I was logged in briefly on Sunday night (I did do one work-task)... it may be two years early but it kind of helped me think through my actions anyway.

I'm thinking a lot about a term from my evolution book, the "adjacent possible". What is adjacent? What is possible?

Comments

[elbren]

"But it's not like, if I went to 80% part-time, I would actually disconnect for three days every weekend." why not? when i was working 80%, i had real 3-day weekends. it wasn't the same kind of job as you have, so i believe you, i'm just wondering why? like, is it because of how you work or how your employer works?
(e.g. at my current employer, i couldn't because part-time people don't get the same kind of respect. that was true at former employer, too, it's just that i was earlier in my career and didn't care as much.)

[elbren]

p.s. rbg could've totally retired under obama if she wanted to, she just wanted to work until she died.

[flexagon]

My current manager is super suspicious of part-time work even for more junior levels where it's a more straightforward endeavor, and it's hard to find anything else to switch to at this point (as I've been finding). But, beyond the issues of finding a group -- it's much more that my job now is "stay on top of this area, and take care of these people". And I've switched to the job ladder such that this will always be my job.

Staying on top of things (both those things) burns a huge amount of time just on, basically, situational awareness, and the amount of time that takes wouldn't change if I only gave myself 4 days/week in which to do it instead of 5.5. In other words I'd spend almost all of my time reading email and treading water, or it would be very hard to resist that, and the time I'd naturally lose would be the time I spend doing things to make situations better or push my own agenda forward. That, of course, is usually the fun part. So there's probably little to be gained by cutting to part-time unless I somehow wiggle my way back to an individual contributor role.

There's another way to almost get there while still getting the respect and pay of a full-timer, which is to take all my vacation (5 weeks) and also take a month of unpaid leave somewhere in the year. That's still worth considering, on a year-by-year basis. Taking big chunks of time works better than taking small chunks, since people don't wait for me to solve their problems if they know I'll be out for weeks.

[elbren]

interesting, thanks.
i'm similarly expecting an all-or-nothing "retirement" trajectory, and i don't like it, so this helps think through what i might be able to do in the meantime.

[melebeth]

I theoretically work 4 days a week, but... yeah.

[flexagon]

hahaha! you work your tail off.