As the saying goes “time flies when you’re having fun” or in my case “time flies when you’re always working”.
One minute I was glad the school summer holidays were about to start and the next, they are nearly over and 7 weeks has whizzed by.
On the delivery driving front I’ve put my all into getting my route to work after having one village removed (e.g trying to get my hours down) .
It’s meant that I haven’t done a 12hr day for nearly the whole 7 weeks, until this week that is.
After much deliberation I decided to hand my notice in 7 weeks ago. I’d had enough of the managers not listening to me and felt the only way they would take note that my route wasn’t working was for me to leave.
Alas, it worked. I was told that the problem village would be given to another driver, who went past it every day anyway (which I didn’t know) if I was to stay.
And so I did. And since then as I said, I’ve given it my every effort and my route is as good as it gets now, regular 10.5hr days instead of 12 hrs, with the odd 11.5hr day thrown in when it’s mega busy.
Which I can handle and it’s been great getting home 11hrs after leaving rather than 13, I’ve been doing some regular lifting 2/3 times a week and have felt much more at ease with things. Until this week pmsl.
I’ve been thinking about how long we have left to pay off our debt and even though we’re still on track to be debt free by December 2020, I’ve been struggling to think that I could continue this effort for that long.
If I was to take just 2 weeks holiday during the year to try and really relax and recuperate it would end up costing me a full month’s money.
Because I don’t earn if I take holiday and still have to pay for my van lease and insurance etc, it ends up costing me too much to even think about taking a break, let alone paying to go off somewhere too.
So when another driver in the depot took the training course on offer internally to become a manager, it got me thinking.
Is that something I’d like to do?
To start with the pay is about 10-15% less, but it’d still be a good wage and enough to continue paying off our debt at the same rate.
I’d be working about 10-15hrs less per week and on top of that I’d get paid holiday too.
But it would mean I wouldn’t be driving very much if at all, as the managers rarely go out on the road any more as the depot has enough drivers and cover drivers.
And the road or being outdoors is where I’ve been and am at my happiest, so it’s a very tough decision to think about.
I’ve started the ball rolling by enrolling on the manager training, which gets me qualified for the role and then it’s a matter of waiting for a position to arise at the depot, which could be quite soon as one manager might be on his way out.
I’m just really torn between going ahead with it or sticking with being a driver.
Going back 15 years or so I’ve always made job decisions based on what makes me happiest and never based on money.
I spent too long in jobs that were decent money but bored me shit less and took away bits of my soul doing boring shit.
When I made the decision years ago to only have outdoor jobs, it was probably the single best decision I have ever made job wise.
Health wise and mentally I’ve been close to or at my best since making that decision.
Perhaps if I end up back in the office it will be different this time. Seeing as though I’d be in a warehouse for 1/2 the time on my feet at least.
Then the time I would be sat on my arse at a computer it would be organising drivers routes etc so would most likely keep my mind very active and I shouldn’t get bored.
The more I think about it whilst writing this, the more it makes sense to at least give it a go.
I can always go back to being a driver if I don’t like it/can’t do the job. I just most likely wouldn’t be able to get my country route back lol.
But just thinking of actually taking some days off and getting paid for it haha, that’s not happened for a few years and is quite exciting pmsl.
We’ll see what happens in the next month or so I guess.
Until next time…
WeeMike
