To afford farm life you first need a W-2 job typically. If you know otherwise please let me know.
We are going to go through my journey today.
Let’s start out with a little history on how I got where I am now workwise. I first went to community college for 2 years and got an associates in science because I had no clue what I wanted to do.
Somehow I actually don’t remember how I got signed up for physics and calculus and through these classes I just kept going. Finally when I transferred to a 4 year university my physics teacher told me I should be an engineer and all my friends I was in classes with were doing it so that’s what I did too.
Hence how I am a mechanical engineer. So anyway these stories will apply no matter what role you are in if you are in an office setting I am quite sure.
I started out working in a small manufacturing plant and have stayed in manufacturing.
Pros of manufacturing- higher pay scale
Cons – it usually is equally less fun for the increase in pay
So pick your poison
Don’t believe the line that small businesses say that “we’re a family oriented company” unless you have a really, really, really good gut feeling.
ALL of the smaller companies I worked for had mid insurance benefits, zero family leave and I felt so guilty for trying to take time off of work to go to the dentist, doctor, etc.
The culture was that of work is your role in life. And I really fell into that trap for too long.
Now, working at a large company (8,500 employees at my location) there are still pros and cons. BUT they have a 20 week leave policy for moms and a 12 week leave policy for dads when you have a kid. Now within the company there are many sub cultures. But the benefit is most teams are fairly large and the managers have too much to do to micromanage your comings and goings. The general culture at a larger company includes more diversity and therefore more tolerance.
Much more parents who have drop offs, pickups and sick kids sometimes.
At a large company, there is typically more leeway to change job functions and try other areas out!
The cons of a large company are obviously much much more paperwork and bureaucracy to get things done. Here I probably do a ratio of 2x the paperwork vs actual project work to get things done. There are also stupid policies that large companies have and much more groupthink compliance.
At small companies, the VPs and Presidents are so much closer to the workforce and feel the pressure of stupid policies far more effectively than a president leading a company so large he has no real feel on the pulse.
Typically larger companies also have other benefits such as a walking path, gym and events space/events to do during the day. A fantastic perk especially for working parents.
So anyways I guess my take is work for the big companies , sure it's annoying sometimes but overall better.
I can’t do this forever, but for now it’s easy enough, it pays the bills and allows me to furnish the horse lifestyle and I don’t get the Sunday scaries so it’s working for me now.
Cheers/.
-A
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