Slashdot Mirror
Working Half-Time for Half-Salary?
St-Timothy asks: "A lot of software developers are young, make a great salary, and work a lot of hours. I've begun asking myself 'Why?' I'm considering asking my employer if I can work part time for half salary, which is still twice what social workers and teachers make. I am simply no longer motivated to work full time anymore, and the money does nothing for me except buy me gadgets. I'm curious if there are any other people out there that are considering or are actually doing something like this, and what the Slashdot readers think about this." I can understand the lack of motivation, but hard work now may mean less trouble later on in your life, especially if you start saving now. However, in the interest of exploring a alternatives to the norm, do any of you find this idea, appealing? Would any of the employers out there care to comment?
The cost of your office space, support personel, assorted types of liability insurance, etc are still a constant. For most workers, salary is less than half the cost of keeping them on board.
Why not ask about working as a consultant for your company instead? You don't even need to pitch the half-hours angle. Work out of your home, and work efficiently, and you can get what you need done and spend the hours you'd have spent on office antics any way you like.
Been there, done that! I ended up with very little use for W-2 employement after years of being pushed at 60-70-80-100hr/wk. Twice was sharply criticized for "slacking off" after dropping to 70 hrs/wk from 100+. While I clearly helped the founders of the startups make their millions, and I got a lot of excellent experience! The less than minimum wage (after adjusting for required overtime of a non-exempt position), the total lack of appreciation for pulling a dead project from the grave in 1/10th the time it would have taken a 6-10 person team, the stress and failed relationships were in the long run simply not worth it. Nor were the stock options, which after taxes were worth less than $1.50/hr.
... which if you work W-2 for a temp agency, they will still carry - but if you are truely a self-employed 1099 contractor the extra 8% comes out of you gross earnings. Lastly, there is the fractor, when self-employed as a contractor or consultant on a 1099 basis - you will spend about 20-30% of your time over the year looking for work (submitting proposals and interviewing), billing, or doing pre or post contract support off the clock. So a 1099 contractor working at $52/hr makes about the same real dollars as someone working W-2 salaried at $52K/yr - and has substantially more risk for that wage. Most contractors/consultants accept the freedom they gain, lower job stress, and access to better/broader professional experience as the tradeoff. It also makes going back to school much easier since you can generally pick when you work and for how long to match class schedules. Especially if you have a good grasp of your personal productivity and bid mostly flat rate projects.
Consulting/Contract work pays less than full-time work for most people, and you can push to finish a project and take several months off between. Requires setting aside money for the time off, and having a nest egg in case the business cycle slows down and you are out of work for an extra 3-6 months.
A lot of people are attracted to the relatively high face value of contract/temp work, mostly by not realizing what their real salary is on a per hour worked basis. Doing the math is interesting. If you are currently working for $52K/yr you might be tempted to figure that you are making about $1K per week or $25/hr. But really you are being paid between $28-30/hr worked after adjusting for Vacation, holidays and Sick time which drops the weeks worked in a year from 52 to 46-47. The health benitfits your employer pays for you, wife, and two kids cost about $800/mo self employed and is a transparent $5.25/hr in your pay which brings your effect pay rate to about $35/hr assuming working a full 40hrs/wk. Then there is the issue of Social Security taxes, which the employer pays half of
You can also look at projects a client needs, but are too far down on the priority list to be done at this time. If you can go off and do the project on the side, and come back with a short delivery low ball bid - you probably have a sale. Something that probably pays less per hour, but you do completely on your own schedule without a lot of wasted time in meetings and proposals. "Speculative" projects like this can be a real bonus.
I've done this most of my life now, and after 30 years in the trade working hard 6 months a year and backing off the rest of the year is the only way I'm being able to really enjoy my late life kids (was too into the game when I was young to have kids).