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> "I'd recommend anyone dissatisfied with their work/life situation do attempt this" I agree wholeheartedly. Taking 6 months off to build a project was one of

by ux-app 13y ago

> "I'd recommend anyone dissatisfied with their work/life situation do attempt this" I agree wholeheartedly. Taking 6 months off to build a project was one of the best things I've ever done. My advice for others is simply to consider asking for leave instead of handing in a resignation. If your boss accepts then great you've got your 6 months off with the added security of a job to come back to, if they say no then that's OK too because you were ready to hand in your resignation anyway. Hedging your bets is never a bad thing. > "What is the worst that can happen?" speaking from personal experience, you can end up in a deep financial hole very quickly. Some expenses just cant be postponed.

moron4hire 13y ago
Heh, well, I guess I haven't ever really left places on the best of terms. Usually, I'd get to a point that I was so depressed that I had no intention of ever stepping foot back in that place. The pattern was simple and happened frequently: work hard, do great work, see my work go unrewarded, slack off, get in trouble for slacking off, redouble my efforts, do even better work, get dinged for something petty, quit out of spite. Part of that was my own fault for not picking better places to work and not managing my work-life balance better. But part of that is that common management culture thrives on exploiting people who have difficulty managing their work-life balance. But a "deep financial hole" isn't the worst of problems. The first time I did an extended time of intentional unemployment, I made the huge mistake of using credit cards. But after racking up my own 10k in credit card debt, my net worth was still significantly better than when I graduated from college. Our assessments of the dire nature of such things is all in our heads. What was the worst that would happen? My car would get repossessed? That's bad, but is it "I'm never going to recover" bad? I always thought I needed that car, but it turns out that when it was finally taken from me (by a flood, not a bill collector), it was the first step to my own, much longer-lasting independence. It felt awful at the time, but that was all in my head. Credit card debt is a problem of spending, not a problem of income. Oh, so I had a 17% interest rate that meant I was going to spend a lot more on the interest than I ever spent on the original goods. I sucked it up and took my lumps. I eventually got out of it by making my income much, much less reliable (I got rid of direct deposit and got lazy about depositing my paper checks). When bill-pay is automated, you always think you have money. When it's manual and you know you're unreliable, you never think you have money. So then you don't spend it on movies and bar tabs. You can actually force yourself into a healthier lifestyle by making other aspects of your life much harder on yourself. But that's a story for another day, I'm kind of getting off topic here.

by ux-app 13y ago

moron4hire 13y ago

Heh, well, I guess I haven't ever really left places on the best of terms. Usually, I'd get to a point that I was so depressed that I had no intention of ever stepping foot back in that place. The pattern was simple and happened frequently: work hard, do great work, see my work go unrewarded, slack off, get in trouble for slacking off, redouble my efforts, do even better work, get dinged for something petty, quit out of spite. Part of that was my own fault for not picking better places to work and not managing my work-life balance better. But part of that is that common management culture thrives on exploiting people who have difficulty managing their work-life balance. But a "deep financial hole" isn't the worst of problems. The first time I did an extended time of intentional unemployment, I made the huge mistake of using credit cards. But after racking up my own 10k in credit card debt, my net worth was still significantly better than when I graduated from college. Our assessments of the dire nature of such things is all in our heads. What was the worst that would happen? My car would get repossessed? That's bad, but is it "I'm never going to recover" bad? I always thought I needed that car, but it turns out that when it was finally taken from me (by a flood, not a bill collector), it was the first step to my own, much longer-lasting independence. It felt awful at the time, but that was all in my head. Credit card debt is a problem of spending, not a problem of income. Oh, so I had a 17% interest rate that meant I was going to spend a lot more on the interest than I ever spent on the original goods. I sucked it up and took my lumps. I eventually got out of it by making my income much, much less reliable (I got rid of direct deposit and got lazy about depositing my paper checks). When bill-pay is automated, you always think you have money. When it's manual and you know you're unreliable, you never think you have money. So then you don't spend it on movies and bar tabs. You can actually force yourself into a healthier lifestyle by making other aspects of your life much harder on yourself. But that's a story for another day, I'm kind of getting off topic here.