Back to work
Mar. 27th, 2010 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluefirebirdSo finally back at work after best part of 13 months sabbatical. In some respects it seems like only last week since I left - same chair, same desk, same computer, same phone: even the voicemail is still my password! Mind and fingers remember the commands that I used all day, every day - just the setup commands that constantly changed and I only had to type once a month or so are forgotten. These I mainly only needed to type when the system was rebooted, if the software crashed I just used the up arrow and return to re-run the previous command. No thinking and no remembering needed. And it's good to see all the guys again.
Ironically the first day was a Friday, although I am surprised how knackered I was at the end of it. Nearly everything was either already properly setup, or didn't take much setting up, until I tried to actually do some work and the drafting software wouldn't let me have a tool licence to actually do any editing! I went looking for the CAD manager, but 5pm on a Friday isn't really a good time to start looking for anyone.
The major difference to before, is that now I am a contractor: an employee of someone else, not an employee of the company that I am actually working at. But, hey, I gather that means I can claim travel and lunch as business expenses. It's a crazy world.
I still haven't figured out whether I have ended up short-changed on the money side. I added percentages on to cover lack of holiday allowance and loss of benefits (pension, health insurance) but I'm not sure that at the end of it my take-home is going to be more or less than previously as an employee. What I am sure of is that the theory that contracting - in my line of work - is lucrative, sure isn't the case here...
So now I need to service my bicycle ready for our Easter weekend Tour to the Isle of Wight. Something else that's going to prove kinda hard work as I have barely ridden the bike so far this year, and what I have done has been to sedate to be of any real benefit to my fitness.
Note to self: stop ready NCIS fanfiction (and trying to write some) and get on with life.
Ironically the first day was a Friday, although I am surprised how knackered I was at the end of it. Nearly everything was either already properly setup, or didn't take much setting up, until I tried to actually do some work and the drafting software wouldn't let me have a tool licence to actually do any editing! I went looking for the CAD manager, but 5pm on a Friday isn't really a good time to start looking for anyone.
The major difference to before, is that now I am a contractor: an employee of someone else, not an employee of the company that I am actually working at. But, hey, I gather that means I can claim travel and lunch as business expenses. It's a crazy world.
I still haven't figured out whether I have ended up short-changed on the money side. I added percentages on to cover lack of holiday allowance and loss of benefits (pension, health insurance) but I'm not sure that at the end of it my take-home is going to be more or less than previously as an employee. What I am sure of is that the theory that contracting - in my line of work - is lucrative, sure isn't the case here...
So now I need to service my bicycle ready for our Easter weekend Tour to the Isle of Wight. Something else that's going to prove kinda hard work as I have barely ridden the bike so far this year, and what I have done has been to sedate to be of any real benefit to my fitness.
Note to self: stop ready NCIS fanfiction (and trying to write some) and get on with life.
