For the past two years I’ve worked what the FAA calls an “Alternative Work Schedule.” The schedule I’ve been working is called “4-5-9’s.” On the 4-5-9 schedule you work 9 hours a day instead of 8. The first week of a two-week pay period you work all five days (45 hours). On the second week, you only work four (36 hours). By doing this, you get every other Friday off, so every other weekend becomes a three-day weekend. I started this shift before Morgan was born, but I’m ready for a break. Starting this week I’m moving back to a normal eight-hour workday.
Even though Susan and I live together (duh) and work in the same building, we’ve been driving to work separately for the past two years. Just by carpooling, I just figured up that I’ll be saving over $800/year (125 miles per week / 16mpg * $2 per gallon * 52 weeks = $812.50). I’ll also be saving 6,500 miles a year on my truck. Neither of those are the real reasons I’m making the switch. After doing some soul searching last week, I came up with three main reasons to switch:
The first reason is, instead of going to work at 7am, now I’ll be going in at 8:45am. To be honest, I haven’t been to work on time more than a dozen times in the past two years. It’s unfair to my co-workers and to my company to constantly be late. Arriving at 7am means leaving home by 6:30am, which means getting up no later than 6am if I want to rush or 5:30am if I want to eat breakfast. But now, getting to work by 8:45am is a breeze. Either the kids or Susan wake me up around 7am — I’m don’t even need an alarm any more! Our goal is to leave the house by 8am, take Mason to school, and drop Morgan off at daycare (also at the FAA) before reporting to work. My mornings are way less stressful and hectic now. Waking up naturally instead of to the WEH-WEH-WEH of an alarm clock is so much nicer. And, moving to a shift that I can actually conform to is better for everyone at work. It’s already eliminated a lot of work-related guilt, and I just started.
The second reason is, I like spending times with my family in the morning. Before, I had to leave for work before anyone else was up and around. Now, not only do I get to see and spend time with everyone in the morning, but we all get to ride to school/work together. Heck, I think it’ll be nice to have my own driver for a while.
The third and main reason I made the switch is, other than having lunch with my dad, I rarely do anything special on my days off. Most of the time I end up sitting around the house, watching a movie, or half-heartedly starting a project that I could be doing any other time. The time off has become a burdon instead of something enjoyable. My job is flexible enough that I can still have lunch with my dad any day of the week, so I won’t be cutting that out of my life.
If I can get up and around early enough, I will still have 30-45 minutes of time to write or work on projects each morning. Plus, getting to ride to and from work with the kids and Susan is a lot more fun than doing the drive solo every day. I’m looking forward to the change. And, in a year or so, I’m sure I’ll be looking forward to switching back.