It’s hard to believe that it’s true, but it’s been 2 years since I nervously asked my employer if there was any chance I could go down to an 80% work schedule. When they said yes, the next chapter in my working journey began! In today’s post, I’ll be reflecting on these past 2 years, and I’ll also start to talk about what’s next for me in my work journey.
Pretty much since my investing journey began, Fidelity has been my one-stop shop for any money not in my checking/savings account (for that, I use USAA). I recently took a survey that Fidelity sent me, asking all about my workplace retirement plan, and they asked at the end if I was a full-time or part-time worker. The survey defined full-time work as greater than or equal to 35 hours per week, and part-time work as less than 35 hours per week.
This was the first time I had seen full-time vs part-time work defined by hours out in the real world, rather than as defined in a workplace handbook.
For some reason, it hit differently. According to Fidelity, I was a part-time worker, as I was working 30 hours per week. And at the time I took the survey, I realized I had been a part-time worker for almost exactly 2 years!
Back when I started on this slow FI journey, aka my journey to slow down on my way to financial independence, I made it a goal to shift to part-time work.
Nearly 8 years later, I made it happen. You can read all the details of how it actually went down in that linked post, but the short of it is that I asked my at-the-time employer if I could downshift to an 80% work schedule, which meant working 30 hours per week instead of 37.5 (as per my timesheets), and have Fridays off. To my utter amazement (I was ready to leave and go back to freelancing if they said no), they said YES.
A year or so after that, I used that new 80% schedule to negotiate the same conditions in a new position. Same work, different company, higher pay, better benefits, and a better working culture.
That’s the work side of this part-time journey, and honestly, that has been the boring part. Things at work are fine. I set things up in such a way (on purpose) that work could sort of churn by itself in the background, while I focused more on other areas of my life.
So, what has life outside of work looked like these past 2 years? It’s been rich, to say the least. You can probably tell by the fact that my posts have dwindled quite a bit, especially compared with the first 2 years of the blog. And to be honest, the short of it is, I have just been busy living my life. I have been spending less time behind a screen and more time in my community. I have been running experiments. I have been spending more quality time with family. And I have been mostly loving every minute of it.
Hospice volunteering
Some of you may remember that right around the time I first downshifted to an 80% work schedule, I was also taking a hospice volunteer training. This is something that had been on my Financial Freedom List, a list of things I wanted to try/experiment with ahead of downshifting/reaching financial freedom, for some time. So when another opportunity to take the class came up around the same time I was downshifting, I knew it was finally the right time.
Two years in, and this hospice volunteering has become a huge part of my life. A large portion of my Fridays off are spent doing hospice volunteer work. Most Friday mornings, I head to the local nursing home and either help out with their morning activity, lead a sing-a-long, or visit with my matched companion (a resident who requested a volunteer to talk to). Other days, I may be helping facilitate a Death Cafe, where people come to talk about death with no agenda. Sometimes, the chaplain will ask me to lead the weekly church service if he is going to be away. The list goes on, and the possibilities are endless.
I love all of these activities, but one of my favorites is visiting with my matched companion. I really enjoy the 1-on-1 nature of our visits, being able to connect on a deeper level, and practice active listening. Also, the perspective it gives me into multiple aspects of life is unmatched.
The reason this person that I visit is in a nursing home, and will be for the rest of their life, is that at age 65, one week after retirement, they had a stroke and were left completely paralyzed on one side. Two months ago, this person celebrated their 71st birthday. Most days it all takes my breath away. This person was so excited to retire (even though they loved their work), and had all of these plans to travel and be free from daily work. Instead, they ended up in a nursing home, paralyzed on one side. You can do the math…this person has been there for 6 years now, and will be there until the end of their life. Every time I visit, in addition to the wonderful connection and conversation we share, I am reminded why I am on this slow FI journey.
Sigh.
Despite all the sadness, I love this work more than I ever thought possible.
I am very much looking forward to seeing how this hospice volunteer work evolves as my slow FI journey continues. There are so many directions I feel like I could go with it. But for now, I am content with what I’ve got going on currently. I’m a big fan of letting the universe tell me when it has other plans for me, and this hospice volunteer journey is no exception at the moment.
Deepening friendships and relationships
In the past 2 years of part-time work, I have also felt the space I needed to focus even more on my friends and family. Ever since I made this focus on relationships a priority, it has felt relatively effortless. But the downshift at work seemed to open up even more space for me to reach out to friends and family. Even with something as simple as randomly texting here and there, I feel like I have gained the breathing room to reach out more. And it has really made a difference.
I’ve also made leaps and bounds with setting boundaries in my relationships. I have a lot of history with being a people pleaser, and perhaps letting people take advantage of my friendship and kindness to a level that was depleting me, without me even knowing it. Part-time work has given me more space to reflect on my relationships, so that I can 1) prioritize the ones that matter to me and 2) set healthy boundaries, both with relationships I want to be further from and those I want to be closer to.
Getting outside more
One major benefit of having Fridays off, especially last summer, is that we camped A LOT more than usual. It was so nice to have essentially a whole extra day to make camping feel “worth it.” Because of the travel and all the set up and take down that camping entails, we made the most of it with that extra day. Camping is one of our favorite activities that Mr. Dink and I do together, and although we had tried everything to make tent camping work for us, we were looking for more comfort. Although we have always dreamed of converting a school bus (hence the name of this blog), that goal still felt too far away. My very last update on the blog was about how we bought a camper! When Mr. Dink saw the camper with the exact specs/layout he wanted for a price that we felt couldn’t be beat, we pounced (well, after responsibly taking a look and making a pros and cons list, of course). We couldn’t be happier, and we are SO ready to get back to camping this year.
Even not taking camping into consideration, having an additional day off made me able to get outside more and just move my body more. My health is a huge aspect of my “why” for my slow FI journey, and having Fridays off has made a big difference in that regard.
What I have not been loving…
And yet.
Even with all of these WONDERFUL bonuses of having Fridays off and working less, I have still craved more. I’ve written about it in nearly every post since shifting to part-time work. The shift has only made me want MORE free time. It has only made me want to spend less time behind my desk.
Don’t get me wrong. Taking the scary leap to ask my employer if I could cut back on my work hours was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
But lately, I’ve felt the tide changing. I’ve always said (and hoped) that I would know when it was time to downshift further. For most of the past 2 years, it wasn’t the right time. I wanted to save more. I had money goals I wanted to achieve. I wanted to do it on my terms.
About a year ago, I opened up a fortune cookie to find a fortune that has been living on my work desk ever since. It reads: Right now there’s energy pushing you in a new direction.
The time has finally come. The tide has changed. The new direction has begun.
In my next post, I’ll go into more details about the change I’ve made.
Until then, be well my friends.
But also, what have you all been up to?? I’ve missed connecting, and I would love to hear what’s new for you on your journey. Feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email ([email protected]), and I’ll be sure to get back to you.