Help! Return to Work - am I looking for a unicorn?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since you don’t need the money, I would see if you can find a volunteer position that interests you. That will get you the hours you want, and the rewarding part.

I already volunteer in many capacities. I don’t need the money, but I’d like the money. I would like some paid work experience as I may want to go back to something full time when the kids are older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since you don’t need the money, I would see if you can find a volunteer position that interests you. That will get you the hours you want, and the rewarding part.

I already volunteer in many capacities. I don’t need the money, but I’d like the money. I would like some paid work experience as I may want to go back to something full time when the kids are older.

Since you already have the relationship/experience/credibility, I would talk to the EDs at the organizations where you volunteer about transitioning to PT paid work. What hard skills do you have?

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm not sure why everyone is being pissy with you.

What you're looking for does exist.

I work PT for a couple NPOs. Mostly WAH, a few meetings / events here & there, occasional travel. I bring home about what I did before with FT work, but I have much more flexibility. I have no benefits, but it's a trade-off to be home with my LO at 3:30 90% of the time.

Also, when you're PT, you have more leverage in some ways than FT--it's much easier to say, "I'll be gone that week" or "no, I can't do a 7pm call." On the other hand, if you miss two days, you've missed the whole week, and the FT world keeps spinning without you, so it's sometimes hard to keep up--especially if you have high expectations for your work and want to set firm boundaries about availability.

I have to hustle, because some of my work is contract work with definite end dates. Sometimes I do extra consulting.

I never had a real work gap, though, since I switched to this shortly after DS was born.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - check out Flex Professionals -- https://www.flexprofessionalsllc.com/

Three women started this company to get back into the workforce.

Thanks for this, PP! Looks interesting. I'll report back if it works, though!

[Anonymous]

Telework jobs exist that pay well, OP. You have to look around for them. DH had an interview with a division of a company that's 100% telework. The woman he interviewed with was in Australia. He didn't take the job, but it was an interesting company. All the workers in the department were in different parts of the country and world. They have face to face meetings every few months, but otherwise work out of their homes.

It's out there, not a unicorn, OP. Keep looking and you'll find it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Telework jobs exist that pay well, OP. You have to look around for them. DH had an interview with a division of a company that's 100% telework. The woman he interviewed with was in Australia. He didn't take the job, but it was an interesting company. All the workers in the department were in different parts of the country and world. They have face to face meetings every few months, but otherwise work out of their homes.

It's out there, not a unicorn, OP. Keep looking and you'll find it.

Was your DH looking for flexible, “rewarding” PT work that paid a good salary, after taking 10 years off?

Telework isn’t a unicorn. PT isn’t a unicorn. Decent salary isn’t a unicorn. Rewarding isn’t a unicorn. But these things combined are hard to find, especially after a ten year gap, and with a skill set/credentials that aren’t exactly rare in this town. Otherwise, we would all just quit our jobs when we had kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm not sure why everyone is being pissy with you.

What you're looking for does exist.

I work PT for a couple NPOs. Mostly WAH, a few meetings / events here & there, occasional travel. I bring home about what I did before with FT work, but I have much more flexibility. I have no benefits, but it's a trade-off to be home with my LO at 3:30 90% of the time.

Also, when you're PT, you have more leverage in some ways than FT--it's much easier to say, "I'll be gone that week" or "no, I can't do a 7pm call." On the other hand, if you miss two days, you've missed the whole week, and the FT world keeps spinning without you, so it's sometimes hard to keep up--especially if you have high expectations for your work and want to set firm boundaries about availability.

I have to hustle, because some of my work is contract work with definite end dates. Sometimes I do extra consulting.

I never had a real work gap, though, since I switched to this shortly after DS was born.

I think op's focus on what she wants from the job, in terms of flexibility, low hours, relatively high pay, no commute, interesting work, without any mention of her particular skill sets or what she brings to the table, is rubbing people the wrong way.

[Anonymous]

The previous post nails it. OP you'll have to relax one or maybe more of your criteria at least at first while you are reestablishing your credentials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Telework jobs exist that pay well, OP. You have to look around for them. DH had an interview with a division of a company that's 100% telework. The woman he interviewed with was in Australia. He didn't take the job, but it was an interesting company. All the workers in the department were in different parts of the country and world. They have face to face meetings every few months, but otherwise work out of their homes.

It's out there, not a unicorn, OP. Keep looking and you'll find it.

Was your DH looking for flexible, “rewarding” PT work that paid a good salary, after taking 10 years off?

Telework isn’t a unicorn. PT isn’t a unicorn. Decent salary isn’t a unicorn. Rewarding isn’t a unicorn. But these things combined are hard to find, especially after a ten year gap, and with a skill set/credentials that aren’t exactly rare in this town. Otherwise, we would all just quit our jobs when we had kids.

I’m sorry you’re so angry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Telework jobs exist that pay well, OP. You have to look around for them. DH had an interview with a division of a company that's 100% telework. The woman he interviewed with was in Australia. He didn't take the job, but it was an interesting company. All the workers in the department were in different parts of the country and world. They have face to face meetings every few months, but otherwise work out of their homes.

It's out there, not a unicorn, OP. Keep looking and you'll find it.

Thank you. I don’t expect it to be easy, but I don’t think it’s impossible either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have kids in elementary school and I have that schedule now and like it. The rub is that I didn't take time off and get that job to start. I stayed working and eventually was able to chip back my hours after I was a known entity who they could trust at work, if that makes sense.

+1. This is how I did it too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm not sure why everyone is being pissy with you.

What you're looking for does exist.

I work PT for a couple NPOs. Mostly WAH, a few meetings / events here & there, occasional travel. I bring home about what I did before with FT work, but I have much more flexibility. I have no benefits, but it's a trade-off to be home with my LO at 3:30 90% of the time.

Also, when you're PT, you have more leverage in some ways than FT--it's much easier to say, "I'll be gone that week" or "no, I can't do a 7pm call." On the other hand, if you miss two days, you've missed the whole week, and the FT world keeps spinning without you, so it's sometimes hard to keep up--especially if you have high expectations for your work and want to set firm boundaries about availability.

I have to hustle, because some of my work is contract work with definite end dates. Sometimes I do extra consulting.

I never had a real work gap, though, since I switched to this shortly after DS was born.

Thank you. Definitely easier without the gap! Sounds like a great work life balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20 hours a week, working from home to net $3000 per month when you've been out of work for 10 years?

Yeah, that kind of sounds unreasonable.

+1. Be Real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The previous post nails it. OP you'll have to relax one or maybe more of your criteria at least at first while you are reestablishing your credentials.

To be clear, while looking around for prospective opportunities, I do not plan to make a list of demands and not try to sell myself. My goodness. I know what my ideal gig would be and there is nothing wrong with that. The purpose of my post was to get a sense of whether what I think it reasonable (not automatic, easy or guaranteed) is in fact realistic. I did receive some helpful, insightful responses and appreciate those. As expected on DCUM, I also got some snark and bitterness, but you always get those!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Telework jobs exist that pay well, OP. You have to look around for them. DH had an interview with a division of a company that's 100% telework. The woman he interviewed with was in Australia. He didn't take the job, but it was an interesting company. All the workers in the department were in different parts of the country and world. They have face to face meetings every few months, but otherwise work out of their homes.

It's out there, not a unicorn, OP. Keep looking and you'll find it.

Was your DH looking for flexible, “rewarding” PT work that paid a good salary, after taking 10 years off?

Telework isn’t a unicorn. PT isn’t a unicorn. Decent salary isn’t a unicorn. Rewarding isn’t a unicorn. But these things combined are hard to find, especially after a ten year gap, and with a skill set/credentials that aren’t exactly rare in this town. Otherwise, we would all just quit our jobs when we had kids.

I’m sorry you’re so angry.

NP. I don’t read this as angry at all!