As it stands, I’m pretty close to the salaried ideal, with a nominally 8 hour job Monday through Friday with more or less honor system come and go times (I tend to work roughly 7:45-4:45), and very liberal work from home policies, and haven’t been turned down for personal time off yet.
So I do have it good in that regard. It’s nice to be able to run an errand in the morning and get to work at 9:30 without having to get approval, make the time up, etc… Or… if my wife has something, to be able to just fire off an email to boss & co-workers saying I’m going to WFH because my wife has something to do and I need to keep an eye on the boys. Or, if for whatever reason, I end up taking a 2 hour lunch break, nobody cares so long as I don’t skip meetings or fail to do my job.
That said, I can’t just decide not to work on some random day without logging it as personal time off, and it would be nice to just be able to rearrange the schedule to account for wanting to have 3 day weekends, etc…
I think I’d take a pay cut, but not a huge one (lifestyle couldn’t support it) for the privilege of doing so. Maybe 5k or at most 10k, but that’s it.
For my work, access to colleagues is pretty important. If the nature of my work were to change, I’d consider it. Thing is, though, as I’m getting older the flexibility is somewhat less critical - fewer childcare emergencies etc. for example.
That said, I’ve effectively done so. Raises and bonuses appear to be a thing of the past at my company (I lie: I got a 1% raise this year. First raise in 3 years. Thanks ever so much, bosses). BUT, I’ve been on a project now for over 18 months, where I am 100% telecommuting except for rare meetings at the client site, so that’s a several hunded dollar a month savings. Not enough to make up for the lack of raises or bonuses, mind you.
No way. My current schedule doesn’t cramp my style. I don’t have anything special to do on a weekday that I can’t do on the weekend. I’m not disciplined enough to work from home, and even if I were, I wouldn’t like it. I like having ready access to my coworkers and my boss. I also like knowing that if a problem occurs in the office, I don’t have to worry about hearing about it after the fact, after it’s already been “solved.” Engaging in those intense brain-storming, problem-solving sessions with your team is how you show your importance and value. I also don’t want to be in a situation where I find out a key decision has been made without my input and I’m told: “We stopped by your office to ask you, and you weren’t there. But So-and-so said it was okay!” In my experience, So-and-so is usually wrong.
I’d much rather be given the option to raise my pay by working more hours. Or more accurately, getting paid for the extra hours I already put in.
I once had a job where I worked 9 hour days and had every 2nd Friday off. It was fantastic. The Fridays off, not the job. I probably stayed an extra year due to the schedual.
So even a little change fom 9-5 is worth a lot. 20% at least.
I did it. I “quit my day job,” to devote myself to my art. My income is a fraction of what it was, but I get to work at home. I actually work about 60-80 hours per week, whenever I can, without any benefits, but I have no regrets.
Yeesh. I wouldn’t call it a raise, which has a different connotation; it’d call that at best an awful cost of living adjustment. Given what you evidently do, seems like the employer may be taking advantage (though we can’t know what you make and how it stacks up to other folks within a reasonable distance). Technically, in terms of spending power accounting for inflation, you’re making less than you started, so that would temper any satisfaction/benefit from the ability to telecommute (which is somewhat common when it comes to IT-related jobs, no?).