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Would You Forfeit a Raise to Work From Home?
harryk asks: "There seems to have been a fair amount of talk about new jobs, telecommuting, and fair pay recently, so I pose this question: Would you forfeit some or all of a potential raise to work from home? My company is notoroisly bad about giving decent raises so I have been contemplating offering an alternative to receiving a raise, or a reduced raise with an expense reimbursement for telecommuting? What are your thoughts?"
Not only would I, I have.
I currently work about 60/40 (60% at work, 40% at home). I also live about 5 minutes away from my work. My current employer also allows me to get up and leave in a moments notice (barring anything nasty or important going on at the time).
I've been offered (by another lab) up to twice what I currently make to move out of state and I've also been offered significantly more by other local businesses -- but would require more 'face time' and more than an hour commute. (Yeah, one hour drives (or more) are LOCAL in LA).
Frankly, I'm not in it for the money. Well, that's not entirely true. I'm in it to be able to comfortably be able to take care of my family and myself. I earn enough to pay for a home, put my kids in a private school, buy myself or my wife the occational "toy" or "trinket" and save for our retirement.
Between my wife and myself, my kids have never been picked up from school by ANYONE other than us. Other than medzmama (grandmother), they've never had a baby-sitter. I CAN work crazy hours, but I also get to spend a lot of time with my children. I actually get to RAISE my kids! You can't pay me enough to lose that.
An extra benefit has been the ability to aid my sister (who recently had a stroke) in her recovery. I'm able to take a half-day off once a week and help her read her mail, fill out her bills and make what ever calls she needs to make. So, would I give up a raise for this ability? In a New York minute.
Hell, it's been almost zero anyway. They don't even need to give me a raise for 2 more if I could work from home. Damn sluggish economy.
There are jobs out there that offer decent raises along with the ability to telecommute. If you current employer doesn't see the value in keeping his employees happy, then that's his tough luck.
BTW: no one is going to give you anything. You have to negotiate it. If you don't have good negotiating skills, well, maybe that's what you need to work on.
Yeah, right.
I'd go nuts without cow-orkers to talk too, different scenery and the social aspects of the office. I did work out of my house for a couple of years so I do have something to compare it to.
Remember that you're going to have to have your books, files, and possibly more computers at home, running up the power bill, causing wear and tear and taking up space. Think hard before you do this.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Your creative thinking is a good start. I'm not sure that working from home equals fair compensation...but this comes down to how much it's really worth to you.
It does cut down on certain costs (commuting can really add up) and you can get your phone and broadband expensed, however, it may increment your electric bill slightly (almost a non-issue). The nice thing about it is that it usually saves your employer some money. Many municipalities offer tax breaks for companies who allow you to WaH. Furthermore, they can save on real estate costs.
Have you worked from home before? Many people I've worked with have found that it's more difficult to work from home (especially when it comes down to motivation). Furthermore, the same people generally found working at home depressing, since they're rarely able to get out of the house at all.
FWIW, other creative compensation packages that I've heard of (where an employeer doesn't have sufficient cash) involve stock options, or dividing salary into market rate and taking the remainder and putting it into extra vacation time.
-Turkey
Just ask any working man or woman with a family to support... Now, family comes first, always. It doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing, even if you are in an office many miles away.
Working from home simply means family comes first more often.
and quite like it, but I don't believe that you should take a pay cut (or less of a raise which is the same thing) for lowering thier office costs. heck they should be giving you more money, That's what happens if you use your own mobile phone for business, why not have it with your house.
If you ask me, the notion of "working from home" is basically a half-way approach towards separating yourself from your employer/employment in the traditional sense. While there are some who do this for practical/logistical reasons, many more people seem to be enamoured with the idea of being their own boss, and working from home is another step in that direction.
If you're thinking like that, then working from home is a good test to see if you have the discipline needed to run your own business without taking much of the risk.
But be aware that not everyone is capable of running their own venture, nor working productively when they're not supervised. You may or may not be one of these types of people that can benefit from such an environment.
Personally, I think that working from home should basically be phased into sub-contracting, because that's basically the direction in which people are going, and it makes more sense. If you employ someone, you need to be able to control them and regulate their time and productivity. Telecommuting is more like sub-contracting, where people are paid for their productivity and not the amount of time they're punched in. The half-way idea of employees "telecommuting" in my opinion is a bad idea for the employer. It's better for them to just cut the person loose and subcontract with them. In these cases the employee can usually have his cake and eat it too.. make more money, be autonomous, and have more control over his time. However, it may not be as "secure", but in reality, job security is a farce anyway.
I haven't got a raise for 5 years.
If I could NOT get another raise, AND work at home, that would be great. Someone let my boss know.
I've considered the process of actually getting to work: getting ready to go out, get coffee, park, get settled into work, get my laptop running, and some of the same in reverse at the end of the day. Luckily I have a short commute, but it still averages 2 hours/day. That would be roughly 500 hours/year of my personal time back.
On top of that, when I do work from home I am much more efficient and can get a lot more done. At home I'm also more likely to work late occasionally (which I typically don't mind since I like the company I work for). Unfortunately, as a software engineer with difficult to measure project tasks, these types of benefits to the company are difficult to quantify, and as a result we're not officially allowed to work from home.
_______
2B1ASK1
Not saying that every telecommuting situation is like this - like I said, I spend four years in a situation much like you describe. But don't assume that telecommuting implies anything relaxed about the work environment.
(BTW, if anyone needs a top-flight, alpha geek UNIX geek with programming and network skills and over 10 years UNIX and linux experience, who HAS to telecommute because he lives in the middle of nowhere, send me an email. :)
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
I would give up a raise for it, but my time not commuting and the ability to work in my own space are more important to me than money. And I'm an introvert, so while I do miss interacting directly with a few people in an office, I definitely don't miss the watercooler moments, endless meetings, office politics, people invading your space, and the other things that go with a shared work space. Your mileage will vary, depending on the relative importance of time and money to you.
And you need to decide if working at home is right for you. It is for me, but as some other posters have mentioned, some people have a hard time with motivation, distractions or whatever if they're not in an office environment. It can be very easy to slide back and forth between 'home' and 'work' if you're at home, but you need to need to keep the two separated. I've heard of some work at home people doing things like walking around the block to start work, and walking back around the block to interrupt work, so that there's a distinct line between the two.
All that said, keep in mind that it's probably a wash or even cheaper for your company to have you work at home. There's additional telephone and 'net costs (be sure they pay for those), but that's one less office space they need, too.
What's this raise thing you keep talking about?
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
If you can work your job from home there is a very good chance that someone from another country can do your job. I'm thinking about working from home but only for one day a week.
-- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
If your boss works from home she/he already know how to guage the quality and quantity of your work...so it's no different for them...
If they aren't working from home, they will most likely consider you a "slacker" and whenever there's a problem in your division, you will be blamed for it...
Of course I hadn't had a raise in the three years before I started working from home (the downside of working for a struggling software development shop), but I would have definately given up a raise to do it. I actually did get a raise, since I spend a lot less on gas and wear and tear on my vehicle.
As for the reimbursement part, I would expect the company to pay for anything reasonable. That said I use the laptop they supplied, my Internet connection gets used much more for personal use than for work, and the office is in this area code (no long distance calls), so I really don't have any reasonable expenses to charge them for.
Next year my wife and I are going one step beyond working at home, we are going "mobile", buying a motorhome and traveling the country. Many RV parks have Internet access of some sort, or satelite is an option (not a great one).
We know a couple of consultant friends that do this currently, they look for contracts nationally and when they find one, "pull up stakes" and move to the next town. Work six months in a southern climate and six months in a northern climate.
If it's a pretty substantial raise, I would forfeit *some* of it if possible... like any of us will be getting a raise THAT big anytime soon :) Working at home saves money in so many ways (discussed in other threads, examples being less $ spent on dress code, transportation, etc.). So a raise would *definitely* be worth it as a tradeoff.
Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
I thought about going to such an arrangement with my employer, but it has one huge drawback. When layoff time comes, you are the guy that no one ever sees and therefore no one will ever miss. No matter how much work you do, face time counts for a lot.
www.linux-skunkworks.com
Not only would I not suggest that I not receive as much of a pay increase, I would fight telecommuting with every argument I could muster. 'Cause, after all, if they are comfortable with you working 30 miles away and only contacting you by phone/email/internet presence, why not do the same thing with someone 4000 miles away? And, oh yeah, they'd save a lot of money too.
I think it's clear that America has become a service economy--which means you need to provide a service, not a good, to your employers. That means as much face time as you can manage, because, frankly, the good you produce can be done cheaper elsewhere. You need to keep your employer aware of how indispensable and irreplaceable you are, and that's easier to do in person than over the phone.
--
$tar -xvf
According to AAA, the average cost per mile to operate an automobile is 56.2 cents.
I personally commute round trip 90 miles per day, so the auto costs for me EVERY DAY are (in theory) on the order of $50. Now I drive an inexpensive, efficient and reliable four cylinder Honda Accord, so my costs are probably a lot less than average. For example I typically average nearly 35 miles/gallon. But it's safe to say I spend $25 every day I commute.
So right of the bat if given a choice of a $50 per week or telecommuting three days, I'd be better off telecommuting three days.
Next, consider my time. I work about eight to nine hours per day and spend two hours commuting. That means 11 hours of my day are devoted to work, nearly 20% of which are spent in the car. So looked at hourly, each day I telecommute, the cost to me (hour wise) is 20% less, which is like an hourly raise of 25%.
So again, for me with my long commute and a hypothetical three day a week arrangement, I save six hours out of 55 devoted to work, which is a 11% reduction in hour. Per hour, this is the equivalent of 12% raise, plus at least $75 per week for cost savings.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
If you can justify yourself working for home, and you have to decide weather to let go the higher paycheque agaist the comfort of working from home? Do the math. If the parking money you spend at work, or the transit money you spend at work (plus the travel time you spend to go to work multiply by the per hour pay) is greater than the raise at work, then work from home otherwise take the raise and work from work.
Ra.. aise?
Must be a compliment.
You're pretty 'raised' yourself, dude!
My wife works 12 hour shifts on rotating days. I would love to work from home if I could do it alone, but there is no way that my wife would leave me alone for 8 hours every day. She already calls me around six times a day when she is off. I even go into the office when I am sick when she is off. She CANNOT be in the house with me and leave me by myself. It is nice, I guess, that she likes spending time with me. But, I am a geek with the requisite history of long periods of isolation. I am not used to being around people 24 hours a day. At least at work I can wear headphones and tune everyone out while I work.
Angleyne: You can't bend that girder - it's unbendable! Bender: Well I don't know anything about lifting, so that ju
My current employer has no real dress code. We rarely see clients, so shorts, shirt and sandals are the dress code for the developers. Goals are more important than hours, and working from home is not an issue as long as the work gets done.
Now that the economy is picking up I am getting contacted by recruiters for jobs paying 150% to 200% of what I am making now but I am staying right where I am at. I have even received a couple of soft offers based on phone interviews, but I am not leaving.
I would say that you should not take less pay. When you tell an employer you will take a pay cut it is like telling them that you are worth less. I might make the "no raise, work from home" deal, but I don't think I would take the pay cut deal. HR managers (and many managers in general) just are not that insightful.
If you do end up getting to work from home, make sure to actual work from home. I know a guy who got fired when he started working from home. At the office he was getting work done. As soon as he went home he didn't get anything done. If you have anyone else at home I would recommend making sure you have an office (spare bedroom, etc) where you are physically seperated. Especially if you have kids at home!
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
I currently live and work in ultra-expensive-housing Silicon Valley. I would gladly work for half my salary at the same job if I were allowed to telecommute from Idaho.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
I'd take the option to work at home and forfeit the raise. My best time is from about 6:00 am - 10:00 am, so it's good for me to do my "energetic" things then - work on a coding issue, hit the gym, and so forth. Then during the day I like to be outside, especially if it's nice out. Mid-afternoon until dinner, I can do routine coding, documentation, and so forth. After dinner might be a bit of the same. I still put in the time, but it's on my terms.
If it were possible, I'd forefit the 36 mile commute each way across the "Valley of the Sun" and a comparable raise if said raise would be the difference in fuel costs.
Then again, I drive a hybrid, and only spend $75/mo on gas. However, the 1.5-2+ hours spent driving each day, compared to spending it w/ my kids doesn't (or shouldn't) have a price.
However, given the hands on nature of server builds and that the data center's proximity to our office, telecommuting 5 days a week would be impractical. The raise would have to be pretty small to make up for it I suppose.
$ man woman *
-bash:
Working from home takes a lot more discipline than working in an office.
My home is very distracting, containing such diversions as books, music, a girlfriend, a well-stocked fridge, and three cats.
Work, on the other hand, has several things in its favor. If someone finds a bug, I can quickly walk over and look at the screen. If someone mentions something I'm involved in, I can chime in over the cubicle walls. Not to mention, the internet connection is faster.
I'm glad that I'm able to work from home on occasion, like when my car breaks down or my girlfriend is sick. But I wouldn't want to make it a regular practice.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
The above story does not ring true. Instead I offer the following, much more likely, substitutes.
1) Wife is imaginary.
2) Poster is not real geek.
3) Wife is uglier than sin itself.
4) "Wife" is homosexual male.
You decide.
2) Leave work at work, and have a dedicated room for work. When I'm at work I stay there...just like a "regular" job. I "come home" at lunch, and again at dinner. If I want to check my email late, I do so from my couch, but I am respectful of my time with my family.
As for taking the pay cut...why? I am at least as effective as an in office worker...more so sometimes because I get distracted or dragged away less. It is easier to find an employeer that is openminded about telecommuting if A) they are a technology company, and B) they have employees spread all over the globe.
Always value the individual over the system. --Bruce Lee "I don't need a Sig - I have a custom 191" - me
I telecommuted for over 4.5 years and have now gone back to the grind. Financial pluses to telecommuting include:
- Almost zero miles per day on your car, so no bills
- Ability to wear shorts and old tshirt, so no clothing gets old/worn out and needs replacing
- HUGE tax write-off. Essentially you write off the percentage of floor space you dedicate to your home office. I saved about 2,000+ per year from this.
- The ability to write off every single thing you buy that's remotely related to computing since it's for your home office....
- Don't have to buy lunch when you're too lazy to make it or just forget. You're already next to the fridge.
"Soft" factors:
- Almost no stress bc no traffic.
- Co-worker chatter consists of pets.
- If you have down-time you can play a video game instead of pretending to be busy (don't abuse this or it will end).
- You can shop for food or work out or something productive with the 2+ hours/day you're likely saving by not having to commute.
- When Friday rolls around you aren't sick of being out and just want to sit around the house. In fact you probably have cabin fever and want to go out.
- Loud thumping industrial doesn't bother your cube mates.
To get the tax break you have to be working at home for the *employer's* convenience, not yours, so get that cleared up. Overall you may take an upfront hit on pay, but it's worth a lot on the backend. Your health may improve due to quiet solitude and no commute also.
bladesjester raises a good point. As an answer, I'll point to my own current job, where I and everyone else telecommutes. Including the boss.
This raises its own unique problems of visibility and communications. (We're comfortable with our solutions, which I won't yammer about here. But these problems did need to be addressed, and they won't go away on their own; if your company tries something like this, you will need to actively tackle them.) If solved, though, telecommuting makes for a very nice visibility levelling field.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I'm getting ready to take on a better position that will require me and my family to move about 7 hours to the south.
So, in a manner of speaking, I'm forfiting my home for a raise.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Working from home interferes with work-life balance. There is nothing about my job that would keep me from working out of the house but I do believe that I would greatly miss the social interaction that I have at work. I am also afraid that is I was a work-at-home person it would be too easy for my family to assume it would be okat for me to do this and that around the house. In my book that would not be okay!
Finally, there would be no easy to enforce "quitting time" - I'd find myself working much too late into the evening.
No, If you want me to work from home, I better get a good raise!
If I were financially secure and didn't like going in to the office (i.e. my last job), I'd do it in a heartbeat.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Just ask to work from home two days a week, with no reduction. Depending on your home environment, you might even be more productive working at home, with fewer distractions from coworkers. Maybe they'll say no to two days, and give you one day. That would be a good start.
I've been telecommuting for a while now. Overall, Its been really really great.
Pluses:
1) I get to have my development environment exactly the way I want it. All my servers and linuxy bits just the way I want without having to get permission from some winders-usin' corporate admin.
2) I get to listen to music while I work, and no headphones! In most cube farms I've been in, we had to wear headphones to listen to music. Since there's no one home but me during the day, I can listen to what I want!
3) No time wasted on commute! I can get out of bed, grab some coffee and boot the machines. I'm billin' time and I haven't even had to get dressed yet! My 8 hours are done before the GF gets home!
4) Less money out of pocket: Less wear and tear on car. I'd be payin' for broadband anyway, and my phone is a flat rate as well. Less money spent on dry cleaning and laundering of shirts are other benefits.
Minuses:
1) You can't _really_ get away from your work. After a while, it begins to feel like work is always waiting "right over there" at the workstation. Weekends are more about getting away from the house now.
2) Not as much socializing. If you live for talking shop around the water cooler, then maybe telecommuting ain't the best way to go.
This sig kills fascists.
I've taken a lower paying job for the option to telecommute. I HATE commuting.
But if you can keep the same rate and telecommute, you have in a way gotten a raise to your hourly rate. Take your daily salary and subtract parking, gas, tolls, vehicle wear and tear (or bus/train fare if you live in an area with public transit) then divide by your work hours plus your commute time plus the time it takes you to de-stress from your commute; you'll have a better "real" hourly rate with telecommuting.
For example, if you figure a $50/hour rate, $10/day for parking and mileage expenses, an 8 hour day with a 1/2 hour commute each way, your net rate with time and money wasted driving to work is only $43.33!
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I work from home 3 or 4 days a week and come into the office when I'm needed--typically during planning or integration phases. The thing I've found is that I'm *way* more productive at home. I don't have my friendly co-workers to chat with, I'm harder to interrupt, etc. I get about double the amount of work done at home than work.
I really enjoy working from home--I've learnt how to keep the work/life separation, which took some amount of learning. I'm not sure that I would accept less pay to work at home since my output is significantly better.
1) Telecommuting should not be a replacement for a raise, at least not in my estimation. Yes, you are receiving a benefit from the company, and that may be worth some money to you, but consider for a moment the reduction of costs that a company sees by not having to provide you with an office. Lower space requirements, less power/utility usage, etc. In some cases companies will pay you for power used by business equipment at home, you can save that as a negotiating point knowing that if they don't want to reimburse you for this, in many cases you can write this business expense off on your taxes (IANAA - check with your tax pro first!!).
2) Do not try to do this if you have problems with self-motivation. It is difficult to keep yourself motivated when the lure of all of your toys at home is pulling you to do other things! If you are not strong-willed enough, you will fsck yourself, and any other people at the company that depend on your job getting done.
3) You need to take extra steps to make sure you are not invisible to the power people at your company. Make damn sure that the important people know exactly what you bring to the company, and that your role is not overlooked. You will not have the benefit of being in close proximity to decision makers, and this can screw you up royally. Some tips: Make a regularly scheduled visit to the office (once a week?) where you get some 'face time' with the people that are important. Step up the level of email/phone communication with managers and peers to let them know that you are not on a "Telecommute Vacation".
4) You need to have a defined, out of the way workspace if you have a family or other distractions. Make sure that any family members know that a) office supplies in this are are off-limits, and b) When you are in your 'office' you are unavailable.
I hope it works out for you. Telecommuting has been a wonderful arrangement for me.
\/\/oobie
Why offer to take a pay cut? If you are valuable tell them you want to work from home. Start high and then negotiate down. Never start at what you are willing to do. Start high, with the offer of "I want to work from home", then if they push offer to take a "slightly lower raise, by a few percentage points". Then work em from that point. If you are important to the company you can have your cake and eat it too.
An extra benefit has been the ability to aid my sister (who recently had a stroke) in her recovery.
Sounds from your note like you're maybe 35-ish.
I sincerely hope that you were the youngest and she was the oldest - maybe 15 or 20 years older than you [although, even then, 50-55 would still be waayyy too young to have to experience such a debilitating event].
You could easily build a nice little well-insulated work shack out in the back yard with no more than several thousand dollars worth of supplies from Home Depot or Lowes. Then just run an [buried] power line* out there and you're ready to go.
Have the wifie instruct the progeny on the cardinal rule: "Remember, no one interrupts Daddie when he is out back working in his cottage..."
*Your choice of buried CAT6 -vs- 802.11g wireless.
In my case:
Reduction in travel costs ~ $40pw
Reduction in food costs ~ $10 pw
That's an effective rise of a couple of thousand straight off. You may also get a substantial increase in personal time saved from not travelling (approx 10 hours a week in my case) which even at minimum wage is worth thousands, and the actual value of extra free time worth a lot more than that to me.
Try to deliver selected results in person to your manager, especially big or sought after items. If possible, include your manager's manager. It doesn't have to be formal, just in person.
Otherwise, even though their brain knows otherwise, they will be getting your work "from the computer".
Also, find a way to make the managers feel that they can contact you. However, be careful to reward planning, and prevent situations where crises are rewarded.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Make it clear to your family that just because you're at home doesn't mean you're not working.
Being able to work from home is like getting a raise, only better. That's roughly 56 miles per day I don't have to drive, which means about $6 per day in gas alone, at least an hour and a half per day of my unpaid time is reclaimed. Not to mention saving wear and tear, and warranty miles, on the vehicle. Being able to work from home would be the equivalent of a 25% raise for me! And my employers wins, too. He no longer needs to provide working space for me, electricty for my lights or computer, gas for my heat, a cleaning service to keep my cube and toilet clean. Employers save money, employees save money. Seems like a no-brainer! So why is it so rare?
Nothing to see here. Move along.
If working from home saves you 2 hours a day you would otherwise be commuting, then you've automatically given yourself nearly 3 extra weeks of time per year to do whatever you want it.
Absolutely. Are you joking? Working from home is the best thing. Bathroom. Sleep in. Work late. Watch TV while working (if you can do that and still do well). When I work from home I am WAY more productive.
Melbourne AU, commute between 45 minutes and 1hr 15 one way. I felt like I was a life support system for my car (Petrol, insurance, maintenance, etc). Nearly spent more money on the car than rent. (Remember, not every country has Petrol as cheap as the US. Most countries i've been to it has costed been significantly more).
Move city and country. I can walk inside 15 minutes, or if it's snowing I can catch a bus or two in about the same. I don't have a car. My yearly bus ticket (actually covers the whole country) costs less than any ONE of insurance, petrol, renting a car park space.
I keep hearing stories that my coworkers have about thier cars and repair costs. Makes me laugh how much money I'm saving. I'm still ahead if I take occasional taxi or hire car.
The money saved NOT commuting is much better than a pay rise. It's tax free. ($100 saved is still $100 saved. Get a pay rise and out comes the tax, insurance, superannuation, blah, blah, blah).
Remember: If it's got tits or tyres, it means trouble.
Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
If I had a job, I would rather quit it than than commute to work. I like spending all day alone, and telecommuting also reduces the risk of getting into a car accident or other transportation mishap. I don't get much work done at home, but I wouldn't get much work done at an office, either. Instead, I would just end up too miserable to eat properly or do anything other than drag myself in and out the door.
Let me tell you, it is a pleasure.
I also love that organizational politics have little bearing on me, as I can walk away, let them argue out their squabbles as long as my set requirements and tasks/milestones are accomplished.
I work for a small business, doing network admin stuff for non-profit's small business, and remote support administration of various linux boxes, windows boxes, and network gear.
It is fabulous. I make my own schedule, and see my son daily.
It is also very hard trying to bring a business up , however if you do honest good work, and don't screw people it pays off. Most of our clients and referrals have had very bad experiences with IT contractors, to the tune of being asked ridiculous sums such as 80,000 USD for testing of a few phones and voip devices!
The first year or two you are very poor, but word of mouth, good user support, standing behind what you do will net you ridiculous contacts, and opportunities to do various things from webstuff, to 10-15hr per month maintenance contracts on networks, etc.
I like to think most slashdotters are sort of enlightened, and let me reccomend this path to anyone who feels that they should get more career growth, rather than be hemmed in to a company doing what they want(read XP desktop reformats, and 2003 server installs, BORING)
I won't tell anyone it's not hard I spend long nights working and sometimes put in 14hr days, but the career satisfaction, diversity of projects, work and people, and freedom involved is incredible.