It sucks having to work on Saturday

[Krooser]

54 years of trucking. Sat/Sun is just another day.

The first ten years I drove I made four Christmases at home.

 

[j-c-c-62]

When you are in the concert business, most of your work is weekends, nights, and holidays, and you can throw in missing a lot of birthdays, anniversaries, and when not working, you are traveling.
One upside is no two days are ever the same or often in the same place.
Staying married is nearly impossible.
The rush can be addicting.

 

[Hey-O]

My last 26 years before I retired, I worked in a climate controlled inspection lab in an auto parts plant. I worked straight days, with occassional Saturday overtime. As a skilled tradesman, I was earning the same as toolmakers, mechanics, etc. It was the best job I ever had. There were only 2 of us in the department. Half of the job was was dimensionally inspecting tooling used in the factory presses to form powdered metal parts. The other half of the work was repairing, maintaining and calibrating all the production gauging in the factory. I preferred the latter, and my co-worker liked the former. It worked out very well. I have been retired almost 13 years, and that is great, too.

In the plant we called it Lay Out Inspection. They'd set up a body in white, bare metal, on a jig and this probe would come down and touch every square inch to check the body for perfect fit off the master. Great job!!

 

[Hey-O]

I help maintain 5 million square feet of a manufacturing plant and the admin building. If I had a weekend off it was spent with the family. I would turn wrenches, slowly, just for fun. Cars, boats and houses, were my drug. My family was my mission. I worked till I was 52, retired and started a business with my brother. On the job by 9, business lunch, and home by 3 to 4, 2 to 5 days a week till I totally retired at 57. It was funny how many people made fun of me for working all the time in the early years. Then they'd ask how I could afford this or that, WTF, are you stupid!! They don't ask anymore. We all pick a road and there's nothing wrong with hard work.

 

[Budnicks]

I retired twice or 3 times now, if we are actually counting
1st general construction, plumbing & framing contractor
then morphed into Facility management for 125 dealerships

I worked many a nights off hrs & weekends, for 2+ decades
so to not have general public around when doing construction jobs

1st American Automotive, I was a subcontractor coordinator,
to them but their inhouse go-to contractor, honey do lister for the owners wives

& then started another business, I'm a golf freak, pretty dang good too
so I opened a golf pro-shop for me
& especially my kids to have a great place to learn to work
earn a lil' cash, did that also as a second job from 1997- 2007

1st time retired, I was 38 y/o 'semiretired', I move from Concord, Bay Area
to Rancho Murieta Country Club, Eastern Sac. Co. 120+ east
then
I worked far more hrs doing.during (semi-retired) doing consulting,
I made a great income
but, I spent far more time with family & their sports or activities, daily
then I ever could prior...
I thought it was going to be far less hrs, it wasn't, just a different kind of work
more brain work, contracts, mechanical drawing, phone calls & arranging meetings
with 80 different owners, going to architects etc.
More then physical work like general construction was,
I still did a lot of physical labor/construction type work too,
just my choices what kind of work, not grunt work,
more installs of equipment, shops maintenance, or office remodels
for big wigs/owners
but;
I didn't have to run a crew, I hired subcontractors,
with their own lic.s & ins.s
that was a gamechanger, my profit margin went up seriously
most my guys I signed off for them to be contractors themselves &
4 or 5 of the 14 did really well too, the others, went on working for someone else
&
But then traveling all over the western US states,
2nd time retired
from the consulting & Pro-shop, sort of freeloaded for a few years Drag Racing
on my sponsors dimes,
I quit that, sort of retired & I still dabble a bit, keep my comp license current...
I sold all my stuff off for the most part to my partners
or friends, downsized bigtime... like $200k

Then my 3rd time, my last hurrah was when I turned 62,
a couple years ago now, I filed for S/S &
I finally fully retied, from having to answer 'to any customers'
or to have to go to an airport or get on 'a damn plane' ever again etc.
no phone calls, no nothing, just a bum now...

I highly recommend it if you can afford it

 

[Krooser]

Yesterday I punched in at 5:15 am and finished my run at 4pm.

Then I was asked if I would jump in a company car and pickup a driver in Chicago and bring him back to our office.

So my day was 5:15 am until 12:07 am.

 

[68BabyBlue]

Yesterday I punched in at 5:15 am and finished my run at 4pm.

Then I was asked if I would jump in a company car and pickup a driver in Chicago and bring him back to our office.

So my day was 5:15 am until 12:07 am.

You are a rare specimen, being able to still do that stuff at your age, about as rare as a true survivor B body Mopar. I'm four years younger than you, and all my co-workers from my early tank truck days are now dead, with a few rare exceptions. Not an easy life, you deserve huge credit for hanging in that long.

Stories like yours are why when I sold my truck, I went cold turkey. No paid work in the trucking industry ever again, turned down all the part time offers. There is really no such thing. Always something that has to be done that will turn a normal day into a 20 plus hour tour. I am fortunate not to need the money, but I was on a mission from day one in the business to be able to exit on my own terms when the time came.

 

[Krooser]

You are a rare specimen, being able to still do that stuff at your age, about as rare as a true survivor B body Mopar. I'm four years younger than you, and all my co-workers from my early tank truck days are now dead, with a few rare exceptions. Not an easy life, you deserve huge credit for hanging in that long.

Stories like yours are why when I sold my truck, I went cold turkey. No paid work in the trucking industry ever again, turned down all the part time offers. There is really no such thing. Always something that has to be done that will turn a normal day into a 20 plus hour tour. I am fortunate not to need the money, but I was on a mission from day one in the business to be able to exit on my own terms when the time came.

I give you credit for walking away and sticking to it.

I was talking about retireing again next fall... but now I have a shot as working as a delivery driver/counterman at a local parts store.

I worked there briefly 10 years ago as the nightime parts driver delivering to their stores in NE WI and one in " da UP dere, hey?" but I couldn't do the deliveries to the store with really crappy docks where I had to carry 20-30 batteries inside every night... too much on my old back...

This new gig would be mucho better... not as much $$$ but only 8 hours per day three days per week.

Gotta think on this...

 

[68BabyBlue]

I give you credit for walking away and sticking to it.

I was talking about retireing again next fall... but now I have a shot as working as a delivery driver/counterman at a local parts store.

I worked there briefly 10 years ago as the nightime parts driver delivering to their stores in NE WI and one in " da UP dere, hey?" but I couldn't do the deliveries to the store with really crappy docks where I had to carry 20-30 batteries inside every night... too much on my old back...

This new gig would be mucho better... not as much $$$ but only 8 hours per day three days per week.

Gotta think on this...

When I was a rookie many decades ago, I had a wise older driver tell me, if you can get a job on the clock, with overtime after 40, you have it made in this crazy business.