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Hey Dakka, it's that time again. I ask a question that may influence my life dramatically and you help me roll the dice of fate.

I'm going to school part time getting my LPN and work 24 hours a week doing Home Health (I go to old people's houses and take care of them) as a CNA. I'm about to be off of school for the summer and a job opportunity has come to me. I have the option of picking up another client for 30 hours a week from the hours of 5 pm to 10 pm Monday through Caturday in addition to my 24 hours with my other client from 10am to 4pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Have any of you worked 54 hours a week? I will be getting paid awesome fething money for this making over 2000 a month like this. I have no actual expenses in life as I currently live with my family. All I buy for myself is food and gasoline.

Should I do it? Or will this fry me after the first few weeks?

I may be looking at similar hours in my career in the health care field in the future. Might help toughen me up.

Or this will totally backfire in my face and I'll have to keep doing these hours until they find a replacement for me (which might not occur until I have to quit to get my License with my full time courses).

If it helps any, I'm told this new client has the deadliest type of terminal brain cancer and has only 12 months to live if that. My other client is a stroke victim.

Money good. Hours easy.

Bringing home $2K a month isn't worth 54 hours a week. That's actually a pretty bad salary for that many hours of work. Under $10 an hour if you bring home $2k. If you are only grossing that much, it's even worse.

I would say no. Between school and a job for a while, a break is more necessary than you might believe right now. After all, extra time off means more minis painted!

dude, you're crying over a measily 54 hrs away? I've hit 72 hrs a week for a month long period before AND had to put up with my wife nagging me when I got home. Go make some money, live the American Dream. you know.. supporting welfare cases..

Mattlov wrote:Bringing home $2K a month isn't worth 54 hours a week. That's actually a pretty bad salary for that many hours of work. Under $10 an hour if you bring home $2k. If you are only grossing that much, it's even worse.

I would say no. Between school and a job for a while, a break is more necessary than you might believe right now. After all, extra time off means more minis painted!

It might help to mention I'm only 19. I think a little over 2k a month at 19 is pretty good.

But yeah, just actually relaxing and taking a break would be good for me. But also money...

It'd only be for three months until I have to go to school full time for 40+ hours a week.

If it's only 1-3 months, I don't think it'd be that bad.

The only time I've worked more than 40 hours a week was either washing dishes or janitorial, so I say you should only do it if you are really dedicated to what you're doing. I worked 12-14 hours a day washing dishes for 68 days in a row, and it made me into a zombie. It took me nearly a year to completely recover my social skills. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that I ate nothing but their crappy food the whole time. And, 2K a month really isn't much for that many hours, especially for anything that requires more than day-laborer skills.

In this economy, you should, in my opinion, take all the work you can handle.
For the hours you're putting in the pay SUCKS BIG TIME, but... at your age and with your expenses, it could be worse.

Here's the important thing... Don't spend the extra money. Use it as a cushion. Same goes for the money you're making now, too, actually.

Every other paycheck or so, go to your bank & tell them you want to open a CD (Certificate of Deposit). Put as much money into it as you can afford to.
You can vary the maturity dates to be anything from 1 month to 5 years. I suggest about 1 to 6 months for you. You'll earn a little interest, and you'll get to "feel out" what it's like to save that money and not have it available to you for immediate withdrawal. Since you will have <$250,000 in the bank, you'll be FDIC insured. So, even if you have a crappy bank on the verge of dying, your money is safe.
(Alternatively, you could just use U.S. Bank if they're local, as they're currently the strongest bank in credit rating right now... by far)

Since you're young you, like most teen-agers, are probably prone to mindless spending at the worst of times. My son's 20 and engaged... but he's still guilty of it on occasion, too. A CD will earn you a little interest but, most importantly, it'll protect you fron those reckless decisions and cause you to contemplate your purchases and plan accordingly.

Then, when you're in school and times are tough, with no job or incoming paychecks, you'll send me a PM and thank me for giving you the advice that helped you have some spending money available while not working. ; )

I'm in banking. This is what I've done for years.
Trust me.

Eric
(PM me if you have questions or want more info)

when i 1st left school i was doing a 60 - 70 hour week plumbing, its not as bad as it sounds.
and if it pays well, go for it, might aswell work a few more hours than most for more money.

working 54 hours a week is fine, especially for such a short period. Especially since it's never more than 11 hours in any individual day. Not sure how demanding the work is though - I've had some physically and/or mentally demanding jobs that I couldn't work 40 hours a week much less 54, and others where I could have done 80 and been fine if the money was right.

Not sure it's worth it for so little money, but at 19 it's decent I guess. Not sure where you live which obviously helps determine how good the money is. You'd know better than I would.

AHHH NO!!

For 1-3 months, you can do it. When I was doing my phd, I regularly had 48 hours done by wednesday, and up to 70 hours by the end of the week. That's not really sustainable for longer than a month, but 54 seems okay.
Sounds like it might be more emotionally intensive than anything else, but if you think you could take it, go for it.

Do it if the benefits will be longterm.

Do it if it extends your career or opens opportunities.

Do it if you can make yourself save the money rather than blow it all "because you deserve it."

Do it, because a little bit of money in this economy is worth it.
Also, its a summer job, so it shouldn't overflow into your free time, because all your time is free time!

If you like the work (it is very low paying) then go for it, what else would you be doing?

I've worked 80+ hours in 6 day working weeks before including a 32 hours stint with half an hour sleep. That was pretty awful.

Worse is when you work full time (50+ hours regular work) and are on call. You can't go anywhere, do anything, drink alcohol and some days you get called in heaps, others not at all. I did that for 4 and a half weeks last year as a doctor in 3 small towns and even though I watched alot of DVDs and painted a hell of alot of minis I was shattered at the end of it.

just a note for that kind of work, when you are working with people like that then its best not to get too attatched to them, otherwise you end up bringing your work life home with you.
however, it is quite a nice job to be doing, alot of satisfaction in knowing that your helping people out to that extent.

Not that I'm a very responsible person when it comes to money, but to me this seems like a pretty good deal for a 19-year old.
In Germany we still have "Wehrpflicht", meaing that after school, as long as you're not unable tom you have to serve in either the military or work in a civil organisation for 9 months. Back then I worked 40 hours a week for about 400 bucks per month and I spend most of it on gaming related stuff and DVDs.

It might sound like a lot of work right now, but if you put at least a big part of your money in bank like MM suggested (and I should have done ) I think this might really be worth it in the long run.

Do it. If you are going into healthcare (further into helathcare, it sounds like) then youwill need to get used to working gak shifts for your first few years. Brekaing out in any industry requires a bit of paying your dues. 54 is NOT that much. I regularly do 6-8 week trips working minimum 84 hours/week. And that's when everythign is working smooth as silk, which only happens on the Seventh of Never. The pay is evidently good relative to your situation (lack of overhead changes things around quite a bit), even if some of us could not consider working for that amount. Really, without further details regarding the pay, we can't say a lot. Frankly, it looked for a second to me that you were gonna cop 2k/month for JUST the new watchjob. If that's gross, that puts you closer to 15.50/hour. Not terrible considering the economy.

I say do it just to get the experience and a handle of what that kind of workload entails. And also as a reminder of why you are educating yourself in the first place: to get better jobs in the future.

It's not too bad. You get used to it. I do 84 hours most weeks and I find I only need about 4 hours sleep a day. I say go for it.

To elaborate on things a little bit,

The work is incredibly low impact. I basically come in and do something relevant that needs me to have some kind of training or personal mental state (Like bathing someone, I'm trained to do it and it doesn't bother me touching old people's genitals in the least, with gloves on that is). After I do my relevant things I usually watch television or read books. None of my clients in so far have had the mental wherewithal to hold conversation with me. I suppose it's why I'm not paid a lot, I don't really do that much but make sure you don't die unless your hospice, which all my clients are and this one I'm thinking of picking up is.

Really, only you can evaluate the remuneration. However, I think that that is not the reason you came here. It sounded to me that you were more concerned about the workload.
The workload is very doable, high impact job or low. A 54 hour workweek is not uncommonly high in these United States. It's not ideal, but truat me when I get my winning lottery ticket I won't be doing it either.

Typeline wrote:it doesn't bother me touching old people's genitals in the least

I wouldn't run around telling people that.. you might get some strange looks.. kinda like the one I'm giving my monitor after reading that..

Hey, come on. Have some self-respect. Such easy shots are beneath the dignity of Dakka.

In all seriousness, those shots are just TOO easy.

A year or so ago I took a contract position in the country, and I was charging a good rate by the hour. I was also stuck in the country Monday through Friday. As a result I worked 10 or 12 hours days, and save almost all the money I made.

I can tell you that extra money has made a huge differenc, got me the equity needed to buy my house and allowed me to furnish it without borrowing. So yeah, it's really worth it if you manage to save the money you make.

But it's saving the extra money that's the big test. Plenty of other young folk found themselves in similar positions to me (well, much better positions actually) and you would see them at the casino or the pub spending thousands. All that money, all that work, and it was absolutely wasted. So I'd say do it, but make sure you save it.

Typeline wrote:Hey Dakka, it's that time again.
Have any of you worked 54 hours a week?

I have yet to work 54 hours this year. However, I can unequivocally recommend 70 hours of sleep per week.

themandudeperson wrote:

Typeline wrote:it doesn't bother me touching old people's genitals in the least

I wouldn't run around telling people that.. you might get some strange looks.. kinda like the one I'm giving my monitor after reading that..

Oh, I see what kind of job this REALLY is....

Again, I say do it. If its easy as you're saying, you should do it. MONEY IS GOOD!!

sebster wrote:A year or so ago I took a contract position in the country, and I was charging a good rate by the hour. I was also stuck in the country Monday through Friday. As a result I worked 10 or 12 hours days, and save almost all the money I made.

I can tell you that extra money has made a huge differenc, got me the equity needed to buy my house and allowed me to furnish it without borrowing. So yeah, it's really worth it if you manage to save the money you make.

But it's saving the extra money that's the big test. Plenty of other young folk found themselves in similar positions to me (well, much better positions actually) and you would see them at the casino or the pub spending thousands. All that money, all that work, and it was absolutely wasted. So I'd say do it, but make sure you save it.

MagickalMemories wrote:In this economy, you should, in my opinion, take all the work you can handle.
For the hours you're putting in the pay SUCKS BIG TIME, but... at your age and with your expenses, it could be worse.

Here's the important thing... Don't spend the extra money. Use it as a cushion. Same goes for the money you're making now, too, actually.

Every other paycheck or so, go to your bank & tell them you want to open a CD (Certificate of Deposit). Put as much money into it as you can afford to.
You can vary the maturity dates to be anything from 1 month to 5 years. I suggest about 1 to 6 months for you. You'll earn a little interest, and you'll get to "feel out" what it's like to save that money and not have it available to you for immediate withdrawal. Since you will have <$250,000 in the bank, you'll be FDIC insured. So, even if you have a crappy bank on the verge of dying, your money is safe.
(Alternatively, you could just use U.S. Bank if they're local, as they're currently the strongest bank in credit rating right now... by far)

Since you're young you, like most teen-agers, are probably prone to mindless spending at the worst of times. My son's 20 and engaged... but he's still guilty of it on occasion, too. A CD will earn you a little interest but, most importantly, it'll protect you fron those reckless decisions and cause you to contemplate your purchases and plan accordingly.

Then, when you're in school and times are tough, with no job or incoming paychecks, you'll send me a PM and thank me for giving you the advice that helped you have some spending money available while not working. ; )

I'm in banking. This is what I've done for years.
Trust me.

Eric
(PM me if you have questions or want more info)

After considering and reading I think I'm going to take the job and save the money. I live on a little under 200 a week now. I can get one check to spend and one to get a 500$ CD every other week for as many months until he dies or I go back to school full time which might be more than three months. If I really can't do it I'll just tell my supervisor.

I have to be the sinister chaos marine here..

Get in good with the old fogies and get into there will, then collect when they croak and the 'invest' in as much GW product as you can. I will be laughing from the warp..

Seriously though, 54 hours a week for such easy work is a cakewalk. Just be sure to save some as mentioned above. You ideally want to save up 6 months of your expendatures before you start spending money on luxuries, like warhammer.

Thalor

grizgrin wrote:Hey, come on. Have some self-respect. Such easy shots are beneath the dignity of Dakka.

In all seriousness, those shots are just TOO easy.

Sorry, it's like when the wife leaves a cake on the kitchen counter.. I just can't help but do what I know I shouldn't..