get into gov't contracting...it's fun, i swear.

 

My job used to be simple.

I mean, it wasn't in that it involved designing and testing extremely complex ****, where faults everyone assumed were in software wound up existing way down in the component level in hardware, and faults everyone assumed were hardware had to be rooted out down at the machine-language level in software, and so on...

But it was simple in that I knew what I was doing. Here's a problem: solve it. And once it was solved, you could say "I did this thing."

Now I don't get that gratification anymore.

 

Start making stuff. Not for any purpose, or for financial gain, or for anyone else. Just for you, because you want to. A small lathe or mill or hell, just hand carving. Maybe some electronic gizmos.

You need a hobby.

 

So, stop being the boss and take a lower position.

However, I suspect you don't want to give up the cushy perks/salary to do so.

Like has been said, get a challenging hobby or start building stuff on the side.

 

Like marriage and children.

 

OK let me rephrase to "an enjoyable hobby."

 

I can't really sympathize with you because i only manage 2 people (at the moment unfortunately). But i can assure you this, you would not want the pay cut.
I envy you and the job you get to do, even if you glorify it with awesome pictures.

 

​​​​​​​I mean all the time you have to spend "making" the baby is enjoyable. Once that child pops out though is another story.

 

Tough to do given my present living situation. There's not really any place to put / use machine tools inside a ritzy high-rise condo.


I keep considering it. But as you've astutely pointed out, I like money.


Life was less stressful and more enjoyable before it got all upscale and professional...

 

Work has completely consumed my life. Its one of the main reasons relationships don't work for more than a few years at a time for me...

I'm happy to be the boss, but for me it's more of a duty that I needed to fill. Prior to taking over, the company was failing and weeks away from closing due to the financial partner letting it collapse behind closed doors. Now, we are not only back on our feet, but doing well. It was by no means an easy street to take but it was my only option. Now I can keep my father's salary going for the rest of his life and hopefully support myself from here on out as well. I say this knowing that I'd never make the money somewhere else to do both, let alone work for someone else ever again.

Boss means lots of stress and responsibility, but someone has to do it. Why not? Worst that can happen is you fail, but what if you don't. I'm living proof every day and wouldn't change a thing.

How do you enjoy this position? Spend the money! By that I mean dump almost everything you can back into the company and watch it grow. In 5 years I've remodeled everything and spent a little over $200k just on vehicles. None of those with company money for myself. It's nice to give and see how happy it makes someone to upgrade their life.

You need to enjoy whatever it is you do or why even do it. Anything is possible with a little motivation and drive.

 

Bah. Excuses. You can build Metal Earth models at a desk with little more than a good pair of tweezers.

 

Joe, delegate the day to day crap but pick out complex, multi level improvement projects to devote your mind to. Say, "You know what would be really cool, if we could upgrade/eliminate this tiresome old technology component with some better system," and then do it. Do something that twenty years from now people will be saying "The guy who came up with this solution was a ******* genius. Look at the way he replaced all of the 1980s and 1990s crap with this bespoke elegant solution." Or some such bullshit.

 

5S that biotch!

 

That's why I envy guys like you.

When I do amazing ****, it's for someone else. For the past three years, that's been Tribune Broadcasting. Before that it was Harris Corp. I own none of it.

My oldest uncle, for whom I'm named, always pushed me to follow in his footsteps. He's the one that rebuilt the family business after the exile from Cuba, just as his father did after the exile from Spain. But try as I might to come up with an idea- I just don't have the entrepreneurial spirit in me. I kind of wish that I'd have been born and raised in PR like the rest of the family, rather than on the mainland. Perez Brothers Inc. would have been mine to run after the uncles retired, but no... my father had to be the renegade who left the rest of the family and emigrated to the states.



Wish I could. I've got a team of nine who require constant babysitting. Most of them do quality work but have zero initiative (typical union mindset), and the two that actually do inevitably find the lest efficient, most time-consuming, most obsolete solution to any problem. Meaning that if I want it done right (and efficiently), I have to do it myself. Except that under the terms of the station's contract with IBEW 1220, I can't, because I'm "management," and therefore not permitted to do anything which is directly useful. I can only create documentation and print labels and then instruct other people to go do it. Beyond that, my life consists of budgets, schedules, staff meetings, FCC compliance, all that kind of stuff. They pay me handsomely, but it's dreadfully stifling and distressingly inefficient.





Edit: current events, for Scott:

Upstate woman mauled by pit bull hasN'T arm amputated
POSTED 10:11 AM, DECEMBER 2, 2016, BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Authorities say a Rochester woman mauled by a pit bull earlier in the week has NOT had one of her arms amputated.

Rochester police have confirmed that surgeons DID NOT amputated part of 33-year-old Mariah Schaffer’s arm because of injuries she sustained during the attack early Wednesday morning.

Officers responded to her boyfriend’s home after receiving a report of a woman being attacked by a dog. When officers arrived, they found Schaffer naked and being mauled by a pit bull at the end of the driveway.

Police say three officers shot and killed the dog.

Schaffer remains in critical condition at Strong Memorial Hospital.

Schaffer’s boyfriend, the dog’s owner, was hit by a stray bullet. He remains hospitalized but is expected to recover.

New York woman mauled by pit bull has arm amputated | New York's PIX11 / WPIX-TV

 

That's been all over the news here. The local radio talk show had relatives of the man on the air, and they were much more upset that the man was shot than the woman being mauled.

BTW, she has NOT had her arm amputated. That was retracted this morning,

 

[brain] Well of course. When the police shoot someone, it's always the police's fault. But when a sweet, innocent dog mauls someone, it's always the victim's fault. [/brain]

 

A friend of mine was bitten severely on his arm by a beagle when he was a kid. Surgery and all. He ended up getting a settlement out of it which he blew on an IROC-Z when he was able to get his hands on the money. A beagle!?!



I've had plenty of interaction with pits. I've never found them to be malicious. I can only conclude it's the owners who make them so. But in the off chance that I'm wrong, I'll keep my kid away from them. Like that crazy ******* beagle.

 

[SJW]

STOP BLAMING THE VICTIM!



[/SJW]



In all seriousness, though. Dogs are ******* crazy. My sister back in FL has four- two Boston Terriers, one longhair Chihuahua, and one Maltese-Chihuahua mix. Previously, there were two other Chihuahuas, one longhair, one shorthair.

The previous longhair, Lexi, was my best friend. When I'd fly home at Christmastime, literally as soon as she saw me walk through the door, her brain automatically switched into "this man is the greatest thing ever, and I will ignore all other family members for so long as he is here, for he is a source of infinite belly-rubs and provides warm and wonderful place to sleep on when he is lying on the couch." Seriously, she was the coolest dog in the history of evolution. And it kind of annoyed my sister that she ignored everyone else whenever I was there.





Cedi, her sister from a different litter, was an *******. That dog radiated **** isotropically, barked at everything, bit endlessly (Chihuahua bites, for the record, are harmless), and was just generally unpleasant to be around.






Then the terriers...

Jackie is a sweetheart. She's calm, kind, and cuddly.




Gus, by comparison, is an utter moron. A littermate of Jack, but this one spends most of her time coming up with new and creative ways to inflict harm upon herself and others. She chews everything, draws blood on a regular basis, and is generally just the sort of dog you'd expect to find chained to a concrete block at the bottom of the nearest body of water.



(This dog is a psycho-retard.)


Same litter, same family, same household, couldn't be more different.


You just can't generalize about dogs...

 

No ****. Much like cats. Or people for that matter.

BTW, when the Boston terriers bark, to they pronounce the R? Or do they just baak?

 

The sound they make is basically what you'd expect if you imagine Randy Savage vomiting up a pile of two-cycle lawnmower engines with Slim Jims stuck in the carburetor, while a poorly-maintained 1968 Pontiac LeMans backfires in the distance.


Edit: I was mildly intoxicated when I wrote that. Didn't get the joke until just now.

Nicely played.