[I am just getting back from a two-week vacation.  I go back to work this coming Monday, and I can't help but think what kind of feedback I'm going to get from my boss.  The last time I took an extended vacation, I had an interesting experience with him.  The post below recounts what happened.  This is what working for "the man" is all about.]

My “about me” page makes clear that I work for a big firm.  I blog part-time, and my aim is to catalogue my investing ideas and strategies here, use this blog as a resource, and then apply these ideas and strategies in an effort to get off the paycheck. 

Some people think working for a big company and earning a high salary is a dream job.  That might be true in some rare circumstances, but it often is not.  I want to give you a snapshot of why a big company job–and being an employee in general–isn’t the way to go.  Working for “the man” has serious drawbacks, and the following short story illustrates one of them:

My boss called me into his office last Friday.  He asked me about my work load, and I listed for him the various projects on which I was currently working.  In short, I have been swamped with work, and I painted that picture loud and clear. 

After I finished my explanation, he quickly remarked, “Well good, so you’re not too busy.”

I gave him a quizzical look but said nothing.  He then looked down at a printout on his desk and said, “I was looking at your hours.”

“My hours?” I asked. 

“Yeah,” he responded.  “You’re at 80% of standard for the first two months.”

[Just some quick background information: In my profession, our clients get billed by the hour.  I have to bill a certain number of hours per year.  The partners at this firm track our hours and conveniently let us know if our hours are not up to snuff.  After all, the associates' salaries come from the profits we generate.  After paying our salaries and overhead, the partners keep what's left over.  So if our performance is not up to par, they certainly let us know.]

“What is ’standard’?”  I asked.

He glanced down at the printout and then looked back up at me.  “162,” he remarked.

[The number 162 refers to the number of hours we're required to bill per month.  It averages out to 40 hours per week, which is reasonable.]

“80%?”  I quickly thought about why my hours in January and February of this year were only at 80%.  I was swamped in January and at the beginning of February, and I worked the first three weekends in January.  There was no way I was billing at anything below standard.  If anything, I was overachieving.  I should have been at about 110% of standard.

Then, it hit me!  I was on vacation for a week and a half in February.  No wonder I was at 80% of standard for January and February combined.  I didn’t work for almost one quarter of that time!  By taking into account my absent time, my total hours for January and February were obviously going to be below standard. 

So I mentioned that to my boss.

“Well, I was out for a week and a half in February, so that certainly explains why I’m at 80%–”

“Talk to Stephen about the Colorado case,” he cut me off.  “He needs help on that.  I want you to stay busy.”  He rose from his chair, and he headed for the door. 

I had trouble finding words, and all I could muster was, “Sure . . . yeah . . . I want to . . . stay busy, too.”

He walked down the hallway and disappeared around the corner.

I stood in place.  Frozen.  Trying to make sense of what had just happened. 

He said I was at 80% of standard.  But that sub-standard statistic was directly tied, in part, to my absence for a portion of the time used to create that very statistic.  If anyone were to evaluate my operating level for January and the first two weeks of February–you know, when I was present and working–I would have been at 110% or 120% of standard.  Instead, they cast aside the plain and obvious fact that I was absent, average my total number of hours for the first two months, and then complain that I’m below standard.  Never mind that this calculation violates every law of third-grade mathematics.  Unbelievable.

I walked back to my office with my fists clenched.  I closed the door, and I took a couple of deep breaths to let my anger subside. 

It obviously did not matter to my boss that, based on my track record of having above-standard numbers in January (and December), I would make up for any deficiency in February with above-standard billing in March, April, etc.  It didn’t matter that the only reason I was below standard in February was due to the time I took off.  No.  That wasn’t enough.  His message, instead, was something far different.  And I know, with almost absolute certainty, he was thinking the following two things:

1) You need to bill 162 hours per month whether or not you go on vacation.  Even if you miss a week or two weeks during one particular month, I expect you to hit that magical number of 162 (and, of course, exceed it).  Anything less is unacceptable.

2) Because of your selfish vacationing, I am going to make less money in February.  Instead of taking home over $100,000 in February, I only get to take home around $90,000 because of you and your sub-standard billing.  See, I lose money every minute you don’t work.  I don’t care if you take your precious vacations and average or exceed “standard” for the year.  In my mind, I am imagining what you could bill (and how much I could make) without you taking these unnecessary vacations.  So it’s no harm for me to pester you about making “standard” every month.  My goal is to line my fat pockets and stop your selfish vacationing.

That’s what it’s like working for “the man.”  It exists in many forms and degrees.  You work for money, and you work for someone else. 

That alone should motivate you to find ways to break away from this redundant and, often, miserable experience.  It’s what motivated me to pay off my debt, start this blog, and form an investing plan to develop streams of passive income that will enable me to break away from this world.  You don’t have to be an employee forever.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently. 

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