It’s that time of the year again! ♡ ♡ ♡ The first three weeks my wife had holidays as well and we went to Locarno to see the lake and hike in the Verzasca valley, and we went to Nyon, to enjoy French, to see another lake, and to walk along the “toblerone trail” towards the Jura mountains – tank barriers. The locals called these tank barriers “toblerones” because of the chocolate (1909). The barriers were erected in the years leading up to the Second World War. Originally the were erected along the German border from Sargans to Basel, later – in order to claim neutrality vis-à-vis the Germans – also along the French border through the Jura mountains down to lake Geneva, which is where Nyon is. The Jura mountains are much smaller than the Alps, running from the north to the west. What lies between the Jura and the Alps is the “midlands”.
I ended up buying some synthesizers, hoping to dabble in some music: a Moog Matriarch, a Moog Subharmonicon, and a Moog DFAM. I had started looking into this about a month ago, and here we are. My goal is to spend more time making music than programming this summer break. It seems impossible but I really want to make an effort to move away from typing on that keyboard all the time. 😅
The COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, but the numbers have dropped sharply. It’s the vaccinations, it’s working from home, but also summer: friends and family spend more time outside, the ultraviolet light of the sun is destroying the virus… We’re back down to 130 new daily cases in the 7-day average. A while ago I decided that I would have to make a decision ahead of time on when I’d consider it “safe” to be out and about. I mean, I am vaccinated, but we’re still slow: about two million people have a COVID certificate but we have nearly nine million people… I made the arbitrary decision to consider below 100 new daily cases in the 7-day average as “safe”. That’s when I shall consider going back to Aikido after nearly two years of absence.
In other news, the summer is hot after all and the climate news is as devastating as ever, but life seems to continue as always.
In case you are wondering: I have a part-time contract for a 60% position. During work weeks, I don’t work on Fridays (but working four days per week would make for an 80% position), and then I take a long summer break every year with the remaining days.
As you read the rest, remember that I can only talk about the world I see. It pains me to write this because I think it should be obvious, but a number of times I got some pushback from people who felt that what I wrote did not apply to their world and that’s exactly true. I have no clue about your world. I live in Switzerland, in Zürich, in one of the most expensive cities in the world, I work in software development, my wife works for the government. Most importantly, I know nothing about the US except that the situation seems to be pretty bad. I can only write about the world I see. Anyway, with that out of the way, let’s continue this train of thought. Where was I?
Right. Working part-time and summer break! I’m in a privileged position to be able to do this, for sure. But what can I say? The people I know are also well off. This is the world I know. My wife also works. We have no children. We have no car. But then again, many people in a similar position as me are not working part-time.
They tell me, “you have done the right thing, Alex!”
I tell them, “you could be doing the right thing, too!”
I guess the lure of money is always there. And I fear the possibility of losing everything, too! What if I run out of money in old age? I try to tell myself: the possibility of running out of money in old age should not force you to live a that makes it increasingly unpleasant to actually reach old age.
I’m also motivated by the economy and the climate. Yeah. I’m not too optimistic about the climate. But then again, I remember reading ‘Alive In The Land Of The Dead’ and deciding that I’d try to think in public some more. So why is working part-time good for the economy and the climate?
Part-time is good for the economy because there are a ton of people without a job. I’m happy to share my job with them. More jobs! This is great.
I think there’s a particular madness popular around here: the well paid people work long hours and earn a lot of money, where there are many working poor with part time jobs.
Particularly women are badly hit by the wage gap. They are still the primary caregivers for the whole family: ageing parents, children, the sick – whenever somebody has to reduce the work load, couples look at their pay-checks and decide that it’s going to be her who works less. Doing it the other way would be financial foolishness. Also, everybody else doing it this way makes it an easy decision. So men drop all this extra responsibility in the women’s lap and earn all the money, and if the couple separates, she’s poor. Sure, the legal framework has improved a bit, it is now compensating for the injustice in society, but the problems aren’t solved. More well-paying part-time positions is great to bring women back into the workforce, and it’s great to keep women in the workforce.
Perhaps even more importantly, having men in part-time positions makes the trade-off many couples make less lopsided. If men are already working part-time, they can handle household chores, child education, care for the old and the sick.
As for the climate: having more time and less money means that your relaxation doesn’t have to be energy intensive. You won’t be flying to Thailand for a few days, nor to the Canary islands, nor will you be golfing in Scotland or cruising in the arctic circles. You have all the time in the world and you can relax. You can go hiking, you can take the train instead of the plain, you can take the bicycle! You can make music. It takes time but now you have time.
#Life
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For me - living in another well off, privileged country - the problem I have with working 60%, or even 80%, is to find an employer willing to let me do that.
I once asked for a 6 month unpaid sabbatical and was told in no uncertain terms that the company doesn’t do that.
How did you get your agreement set up?
– Adam 2021-06-23 21:15 UTC
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A long time ago, I was offered a 20% teaching gig for a winter semester in “Oracle Performance Tuning” which at the time related to the job, so I asked for a reduction by 20% in order to teach for a semester, and got it. As far as I remember, come summer I said that since the last few months had shown how me working 80% did not have a negative effect on daily business, I’d continue working 80%, and got no pushback. After the second winter semester the school wanted to switch from Oracle to Sybase and that was not related to the job, so I told them that they should find somebody else, and I stayed at 80% with the main employer. A few years later they didn’t want to give me a raise and asked what else they could do for me and I told them I wanted to work less. They didn’t want a 60% week, nor a 60% month, so we agreed on a 60% year, and that was that.
By now, we have multiple people with this kind of setup, but I think these days they make you take a 10% pay cut. 😒
– Alex 2021-06-24 05:42 UTC
