Work life balance

[Henry Kloss]

After 17 years working for a large pharmaceutical company that promotes work life balance as a core company value. I have been informed that at 60 years old I will no longer be working Monday to Friday as I have for the last 17 years. No, my new shift will be Thursday to Monday with Tuesday and Wednesday as my weekend. This will become effective in a couple of weeks.
This move affects several of my co-workers as well as myself. A few of them have chosen to take afternoon or midnight shifts to keep their weekends. These guys have as much as 24 years with the company.
I will be ok, but it's not way I envisioned spending my last 5 years of employment.

 

[JediDude]

Well, isn't that special <Church Lady Mode off>.Nice of your employer to show some appreciation for your experience.....

BTW, did some supervisor's favorite end up with weekends off?

I've been there done that (sort of) when I was working shiftwork in the steel industry. One useful thing the union did was to ensure that seniority gave you first choice at everything (days off and vacation scheduling anyway).
Days off during the week can be helpful, but it wreaks havoc on your social life, unless your social group also has the same days off.

Hang in there, 5 years will fly by PDQ.

 

[timofred]

I hope they are paying better for sat and sun.

 

[Sharpstik]

Yeah, I have one year to go, but I am not in the frame of mind to finish it full time anymore.
Sorry to hear of the displacement.

 

[Yamaki]

My balance recently shifted from all work and no life to all life with no work.

It's about damn time...

 

[KingBubba]

Non-weekend days off is actually of some benefit. It worked for me. Let us know how you adjust. Good luck.

 

[Tim64]

I have seen this tactic before, and I could be wrong but... I have seen employers do this to try to get employee's to leave before they can get there full retirement. A company my father had worked for made his last few years miserable with them. He had put in 16 years with this particular employer and this was there reward for him being a good employee.

 

[usedto]

My business has been 50 feet from my house since 1986, dealing mostly with the local farmers. That means 24/7 during harvest.

Escrow closed last week, and we will be moving soon. Don't know exactly how I'll handle it.

 

[2011etec]

35 years working shift work.Days nights and afternoons 8 hr shifts.Last 10 or so we went to 12hr shifts ,2 days and 2 nights .Then 4 off .Loved it ,had tons of time on my hands ,10 to 13 days off for 1 week holidays and at the end I had 8 weeks baby.Worked in steelmaking so shifts were hard not cushy.Now retired so my shifts are 365 days off till I take the big dirt nap.KingBubba is right I preferred my days off in the middle of the week as fishing and other leisure stuff was less crowded .

 

[onwardjames]

I'm Monday thru Friday wide-ass open. My weekends are sacred, but honestly, I'd love a couple days off during the week. And my weekend.

Come to think of it, why do we have to slave our lives away?

Good luck, OP. I hope things level off.

 

[Judas Priest]

Come to think of it, why do we have to slave our lives away?

.

That´s the way I look at it, too. You work to live, and live to work.

The day just has too few hours (of free time) and a day or two more off work each week would be nice, too.

And then you retire with very little money and wait for death.

Kind of depressing, isn´t it?

 

[Oerets]

Having two days in row off at least. A positive, one way of looking at things.

I also was thinking it was a move by the company to help those along towards the door.
If so then this will just be the opening salvo.

 

[KingBubba]

I retired at sixty-two. I am not waiting for anything. I saved and now have a comfortable amount of money. I won't be taking trips to Monte Carlo, but day and week trips around Florida is a blast. My work often ran 18 to 20 hours a day for weeks at a time. Work dried up in the Summer; so a Summer spent boating and fishing made up for the cruelty of the work hours. Being in theater meant I never had any weekends off.