Being a skier and corporate life

[Krikaya]

I took a new job 2 1/2 years ago and the owner told me that everyone works spring, summer and fall straight out and takes time off in the winter. Perfect. I've always enjoyed winter sports: skiing, snowshoeing, climbing, winter camping etc. so I figured this could be the perfect job....until I actually asked for time off. The owners demand full availability from the workers, 24/7 365 days a year but guarantee no actual hours. It's like indentured servitude.

Bought a traveller peak pass this year so I get free midweek skiing. I dream of being a midweek-quasi-ski-bum, escaping the urban rat race. No lift lines, no obnoxious teenagers, lower prices, relaxed skiing on uncrowded slopes, groomed trails that are skiable past 10 am.

But the reality is in workaholic America, if you have interests outside of work you are suspect. Workaholics run corporations. A certain president-elect said

"Don't take vacations. What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job." -- Think Like A Billionaire

I would respond, "Take lots of vacations. If you're not enjoying your life, you're the only one to blame"

Figuring out how to get your work/life balance in America is like walking in a minefield. And I'm sure no one ever said, on their deathbed, "My only regret is that I didn't work more"

 

[JimG.]

I work for a global company and it seems a large number of my colleagues in France take off pretty much a month straight in the August time-frame.

In the EU workers get a mandatory month off for vacation in the summer. I used to work for a distribution company that sourced much of what they sold in Europe. We always had to make sure we had plenty of stock when August rolled around because nobody was working during that time period. Run out of stock and you were out until October.

 

[abc]

In the EU workers get a mandatory month off for vacation in the summer. I used to work for a distribution company that sourced much of what they sold in Europe. We always had to make sure we had plenty of stock when August rolled around because nobody was working during that time period. Run out of stock and you were out until October.

That's the worst for skiers! Great for summer activity though.

Way back, I worked in a small company that shuts its door between Christmas and New Year. Great for skiing if you don't mind the crowd and the high price. (I did anyway since I was only paying my own lift ticket, no kids and spouse in the equation)

 

[cdskier]

In the EU workers get a mandatory month off for vacation in the summer. I used to work for a distribution company that sourced much of what they sold in Europe. We always had to make sure we had plenty of stock when August rolled around because nobody was working during that time period. Run out of stock and you were out until October.

Is it the entire EU? I swear my colleagues in Germany and Spain don't seem to take off nearly as much time in the summer as my French colleagues.

 

[Jully]

Is it the entire EU? I swear my colleagues in Germany and Spain don't seem to take off nearly as much time in the summer as my French colleagues.

Might be more in France, but in Germany people still have basically mandated vacation as far as I understand it. Really everywhere in the world but the U.S. has vastly more generous vacation time.

 

[abc]

Really everywhere in the west but the U.S. has vastly more generous vacation time.

...

 

[Jully]

...

Fair. I meant Australia and NZ too though.

 

[benski]

Every other country takes off more than the US.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamo...u-s-compares-to-other-countries/#5627fac7bd8a

 

[SnowRock]

Might be more in France, but in Germany people still have basically mandated vacation as far as I understand it. Really everywhere in the world but the U.S. has vastly more generous vacation time.

I work for a company with offices across much of the world and my wife has worked for both a German and French owned company. Germans and Brits work hard but still value their annual leave a great deal. They disconnect completely and from the top down many of our colleagues have no problem taking two 2 week vacations a year. Even many of our Canadian colleagues do the same. In the US, outside of honeymoons, no one seems to do that.

I have not worked as closely with our Spanish offices lately but they used to be pretty tough to deal with as far as vacations and a more laissez faire approach to getting things done... though on the reverse used to be very demanding of our team. Italians were somewhat similar

France pretty much shuts down for August.

 

[BenedictGomez]

 

[Jully]

I think of this commercial frequently.

 

[dlague]

The tricky part is I actually like my work!

The conscious side of my brain tells me I should be able to find similarly interesting work elsewhere or at least in another industry or company. But past experience points to the opposite!

I've been in jobs where the boss was NOT accommodating. I've been in jobs where the work itself was shiity. The list goes on.

My immediate boss is quite fair and accommodating. But he's got a new boss, who unfortunately sits NEXT TO MY CUBE.

I know this situation is unusual. Still, the general theme has been that Jan-Jun is typically the busier part of the year where there're more projects starting and more deadlines occurring. As I said, I quite enjoy the work part of my job. But when I'm away too much, I also risk missing out on jumping onto some of the more fun projects and end up with crumb work.

It is tough when an organization is chaotic and management is hard to read. I left a good/fun job in NH to pursue Colorado skiing. Luckily, I moved out here with a job secured that relocated me. However, the company I went to work for sounds similar to the description in the OP. After about 6 months I quit without another job, being pretty confident that I could find something quickly. Lucky for me, six weeks later, I found a job working for a similar company as the one I left in NH and even the same title. Even better, they have a 4 day work week. So, Friday's will be ski days for sure.

I hope that you work does not burden your fun! You can either live to work or work to live - I think choosing the latter is the way to go. But I have had jobs where taking time off was OK but somehow frowned up on.

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[cdskier]

France pretty much shuts down for August.

And now that a lot of people in the US are trying to use up our vacation days and wind things down for the year our French colleagues are all gung-ho about getting all this work done. While I'll be taking a lot of days off, I'll still be watching e-mails and jumping on my laptop here and there to deal with urgent issues. In France in August when people are on vacation you don't hear a peep out of them no matter how urgent an issue is.

 

[4aprice]

Thanks for all who offer practical suggestions. It helped me to clear my mind a lot.

When I started out saying this isn't a rant, I now realize it was a sort after all. And I'm coming around to understand what's bugging me and what I need to do.

The underlying problem, now I realized it, was I'm spoiled by my good experience of last season! Now I need to come around to reality for this season.

Last year, I joined a team of very cool people. I had a very understanding and accommodating boss and his boss was very flexible also. So I got away with skiing a lot and also got a lot of interesting stuff done at work. All in all, a very happy year in the cubical. (is anyone allowed to say that?)

Based on that, I bought the Mountain Collective and started making plans for taking bigger chunk of vacation time off. Last season, I did TWO weekend fly away trip west, which was expensive and exhausting, albeit fun and exciting. I was hoping to have a more relaxed schedule this season by taking longer trips but skip the weekend mad dash.

But with the new boss and the overall uncertainty, I'll probably have to wait and see for a while till the dust settles. And I may just have to accept that I won't get to do all the big plans I initially had in mind and make the best of what I can.

We have an expression around the lake in the summer that "no two seasons are alike". Its true about boating season and its true about ski season as well. People come and people go. the same scenarios never play out. Each year is a new different adventure. A couple of good days here back east and the Rockies won't seem to be so far away anymore. Being a weekend warrior isn't such a bad thing. I'm looking forward to it.

Lower Hudson Valley? I kind of assume Westchester, Rockland? We are in the general area and its not so bad for skiing. We either do the Friday night "Thruway Shuffle" to VT/NH or play around on the local hills (CBK, MC) with a whole assortment of winter friends we never see in the summer. (Usually don't see boating friends in the winter either) Of course maybe one of the best things is having, 3 major airports make to the ultimate escape easy. I always surprised when making plans, how short and quickly the season goes by. I may get as many as 60 days in this year and still not use up my Max Pass. You may not get to do all the big plans but I'm sure you will do well.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[abc]

Anyway, I'm coming around...

I now realized I had already been thinking about scaling back on my 2 big trips. But I was having a hard time choose which one to sacrifice. Or rather, I know what I need to do but hated the idea.

Now that I got the problem off my chest and my head back on my shoulder so to speak. I kind of know in the back of my mind I'll keep the Canadian trip. That is, assuming the US dollar doesn't tank against Canadian post Trump.

So I'll just have to scale back the southwest trip of the Aspen/Taos/Telluride trio.

Last season was fantastic with my 4 trips out west. It was good while it lasted.

And if we have a good season here in the east, it may work out just as good.

 

[abc]

"You can either live to work or work to live"

There was definitely a time where the former was the case for me. And I LOVED it. (My work is mentally stimulating)

Now? Not quite so much any more.

One side being I've had my "fun" and wanted other things besides work, however interesting that maybe. The other is really the corporate environment these days is really much worse now. Often times, my good work gone to waste. That really suck the fun out of the cubical.

 

[Smellytele]

Here where I work the work used to be interesting as well and they seemed to care about their employees. Now they try to produce fun. We used to have family outings at local amusement parks now they have placed cornhole games in the cafe and have other "corny" things to do. They are also catering to the millennials. They help pay back their student loans. Why not help me pay for my kids education? They took our sick time and rolled it into our vaca time. While it seems good the only issue is people (including me) now come in sick because they don't want to waste their vaca time. Also if you schedule it all as vaca time you have no sick time so you have to save some until the end of the year and have to beg to roll it over to next year.
We used to have catered team outings (shrimp, beer, wine, etc.) now we have pizza and have to buy our own drinks. They make changes and try to make you believe they are doing it to benefit you. Flex sitting. "You can sit any where you want when you come in" So no personal items in your cubes. Have to use someone else's gross phone.

 

[Not Sure]

Work ? Why ?

 

[4aprice]

Here where I work the work used to be interesting as well and they seemed to care about their employees. Now they try to produce fun. We used to have family outings at local amusement parks now they have placed cornhole games in the cafe and have other "corny" things to do. They are also catering to the millennials. They help pay back their student loans. Why not help me pay for my kids education? They took our sick time and rolled it into our vaca time. While it seems good the only issue is people (including me) now come in sick because they don't want to waste their vaca time. Also if you schedule it all as vaca time you have no sick time so you have to save some until the end of the year and have to beg to roll it over to next year.
We used to have catered team outings (shrimp, beer, wine, etc.) now we have pizza and have to buy our own drinks. They make changes and try to make you believe they are doing it to benefit you. Flex sitting. "You can sit any where you want when you come in" So no personal items in your cubes. Have to use someone else's gross phone.

I don't thinks its "Millennials" per say, its just cutting back period. My wife used to work at a "Very large corporation" here in NNJ and they used to do all sorts of things like hire 20 buses and go to Yankee Stadium etc: by the time she left it had all been cut out, and that was a while ago. The companies we both work for now are large and we don't see any of that kind of stuff.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[JimG.]

That's the worst for skiers! Great for summer activity though.

Way back, I worked in a small company that shuts its door between Christmas and New Year. Great for skiing if you don't mind the crowd and the high price. (I did anyway since I was only paying my own lift ticket, no kids and spouse in the equation)

When I spent a lot of time dealing with Europe they also got several weeks of "non-mandatory" vacation time as well. Don't know if that is still the case.

Fact is, Americans now work way too much and spend very little time on vacation. No wonder most people are stressed to the max and unhealthy in many other ways as well.