Giving up a 'proper' job to work in the lbs. Pursuit of happiness content

To set the scene. I have a proper, grown up, job that I have come to despise, at a company I now despise, in an industry I’ve always despised, but tolerated. (Sales/account management at an it distributor) They’ve messed me about, to put it mildly, and if it wasn’t for the pretty good money I’d leave tomorrow. Dragging myself to work every morning is a superhuman effort.

I’ve just started doing weekend work at the lbs. I love it. I’d do it for free, and can scarcely believe I get paid to do it. (I realise the novelty/honeymoon feeling may fade…)

There is an opportunity to do the lbs job full time. Thing is my pay would halve if I jacked in my job to do it. Now, while I could afford to live well enough on the lower wage in my current situation (28, no kids, no mortgage but renting) I don’t want to screw myself for later on in my years.

So, WWSTWD? Anyone done it? Anyone wish they hadn’t?

If your current job in IT sales/distribution only pays twice as much a LBS you’re either getting screwed or you are shit at it. Either way, it’ll never be easier to give it up than right now.

There is an opportunity to do the lbs job full time.

Do it, and then sort me out loads of favours.

Looking at your maths- could you afford a mortgage in the future on a lbs wage?

Have you worked out all your outgoings v new wage?

Weekends are bustle/busier. Imagine bored out of your brain/unchallenged during the week (possibly?). No future weekends off/6day week?

Do it, and then sort me out loads of favours.

This. I have biscuits and I’m not afraid to use them.

I think some-one off this parish as done exactly that; possibly Peter Poddy but I’m not 100% sure. I think he’s slightly older though but again could be wrong.

My main thought is that at 38 what would you want to be doing? I’ve often mulled over the idea of quitting it all but I’m just not sure about how long the honeymoon would last for me. My bikes are clean and I keep them well maintained (IMHO) so I like working on them.. dealing with stuck bolts and all that good stuff would get tiresome for me at least.

What ever makes you happy, life is short.

Well, I’m prepared to put a slightly more positive post than old snarky scotdruidh

My current job pays 11k less than my previous job. But I believe in what I’m doing and my finances where well sorted before hand.

I’d never go back.

Hob nobs or chocolate digestives?

I took a ‘gap year’ job back in the bike industry, it was superb fun. Didn’t pay the bills, but was great fun. Given your age and life, you could afford it, but be wary of being dragged into it. It’s not all staff discount and shiny bikes……

Try a new employer/different product area.

Btw you working 7days then?

You need to look at filling your non-working time with fun things. Youll then be recharged/feel great with your weekends ready for work. I went through a phase of doing nowt at weekends. It made my working week unbearable.

In a really really cynical way its stacking shelves (but with a lifestyle product).

Do it! Do what you love….who knows where it will take you…at least you’ll enjoy the journey.

I was an IT contractor I earned great money…money I never imagined I would earn. I hated it, I came to hate everything about it. I stopped sold up, moved out. I now have a fraction of the money, a fraction of the stress, I do what I love….I won’t go back.

Romance is a beautiful, but overly emotive factor in some decisions. Try to imagine/plan your life and most importantantly options…. in 5 years time. That may help.

Current outgoings I could afford on he new wage, thanks to moving in with a mate.

Keeping up mortgage payments wouldn’t be an issue, however saving for a deposit would. Though if I’m honest I’ve never been he biggest advocate of owning my own house.

Bored during the week? I’d sooner polish every bike in the shop again than what I’m doing now.

That said, if it did all go Pete tong, would future employers take a dim view of my career choice? Depends on them I spose?

Oi! – I am being positive. By the time I thought of alternative careers I couldn’t afford to take the drop in salary. That’s why I say that if it’s affordable then do it. Otherwise you’ll regret not trying.

As for any potential future employer, there’s nothing wrong with showing you are (a) willing to take a risk and (b) capable of broadening your experience. Who knows what sort of jobs you might apply for in future where direct retail experience could come in handy. Hell, you might even end up getting a job with a bike distributor based on your “whole life experience”.

Hell, you might even end up getting a job with a bike distributor based on your “whole life experience”.

That thought had previously occurred… 🙂

Don’t start to hate your hobby because its now your job.

Never underestimate how retail can kill the soul.

It’s not all staff discount and shiny bikes……

Shhh!

You are going to talk him out of sorting us out staff discount on shiny bikes…

Oi! – I am being positive

Sounded grumpy to me. But I’ll take it back. Apologies.

* grump, grump *

😆

Us, Jamie? There’s no us here!
My discount is well and truly sorted with a very large part of the trade! Why else do you think I took the job?

🙂

To set the scene. I have a proper, grown up, job

Now, while I could afford to live well enough on the lower wage in my current situation (28, no kids, no mortgage but renting)

You may have a ‘grown up’ job, but you’re not yet ‘grown up’…

The key to life is to have a job you enjoy (and are good at) while earning more than enough money to enjoy life at a level that suits you.

I can’t see how anyone who works in an LBS (except maybe the owner) will ever achieve that, once they have a family – so as long as you don’t want a family, go for it.

Us, Jamie? There’s no us here!

Darcy warned me there would be men like you…

Don’t start to hate your hobby because its now your job.

Never underestimate how retail can kill the soul.

That is a worry, and I’ve been in bike retail before and walked away (though that was 10 years ago, from halfords, because they wouldn’t train me properly, through cytech) but I don’t plan on doing it forever, maybe 3-5 years with a view to getting a grown up job in the bike trade.

I’ve worked in it distribution. I have no soul left.

The idea that your job should be fulfilling and life enhancing and improve the quality of your existence is largely a load of old bollocks.

The vast majority of people across the world, across the UK, across your town or city work because it gets them the money to live in a certain way, or gets them the money just to live.

Stop dreaming about a lovely little job in a bike shop and start living your life outside of your job.

Not sure if PP will be around to answer this , but Yes he works as a sales / tech guy at a Trek dealer and loves it. From speaking with him about it he wishes he had changed careers years ago.

b r – Member
To set the scene. I have a proper, grown up, job

Now, while I could afford to live well enough on the lower wage in my current situation (28, no kids, no mortgage but renting)

You may have a ‘grown up’ job, but you’re not yet ‘grown up’…

The key to life is to have a job you enjoy (and are good at) while earning more than enough money to enjoy life at a level that suits you.

I can’t see how anyone who works in an LBS (except maybe the owner) will ever achieve that, once they have a family – so as long as you don’t want a family, go for it.

Well that’s me fecked then!!! 🙂

Tried it and it didn’t work for me, a few reasons, the boss was one of the vilest humans ever, there is more to life than bikes it was nice to have a conversation that wasn’t about bikes, the pay is awful. You have to deal with the general public and can’t tell the idiots to do one.

Learnt a lot about bikes which was good and got the dream out of my system.

The vast majority of people across the world, across the UK, across your town or city work because it gets them the money to live in a certain way, or gets them the money just to live.

So true but so very sad and totally unnecessary , why choose to do a job you dislike for 40+hrs a week only to fill the void by trying to buy a slice of supposed happiness using your wages?.

I work in a small rural bike shop (mechanic/sales : there’s only two of us in the place) 3 days a week and in my other job (chocolatier) 2 or 3 days a week, both jobs pay minimum wage or thereabouts but i enjoy both jobs and realise i’m never gonna have the cash for a mortgage or a flash car as my combined income from both jobs is £10k less than the uk average wage but i’ve never been bothered bout money, as long as i have enough to buy food, pay the rent/council tax and take care of my bills then it’s all good.

I’m pretty happy, i’d like a holiday now and again but that’s not really necessary as i can head off into the hills on my bike whenever i like, nae kids to worry about and never will have.

For an opposing view i did once have a proper job for 6months when i left college at the age of 25 (now 41), had £37k income and bonus but i had to work wi self-important suits and the role i was taken on as (mech engineering/development) was a crock of shite, there were far to many toadying arse lickers so whilst in yet another pointless meeting i just stood up and said “i’ve had enough of this job, sorry but i quit” and walked out.

I hated that job wi a passion and i soon realised money was not the be all and end all.

It’s a hackneyed saying but life is too short, do stuff that makes you happy and **** money.

I was once into boats – then I fell off the path of righteous financial sanity and worked as a sailing instructor. After a while getting in a boat felt like work and I stopped doing it for pleasure. I’ve now hardly been in a boat for 20 years and it was once something I was good at and really enjoyed. That’s not an advert for doing a job you hate but certainly mixing your pleasures and your employment is not a guaranteed winner. If you spent all your working hours fettling/selling and talking about bikes and your free time fettling/riding and talking about bikes it would be like being stuck in here 24hr a day (with some added actual riding which is a rare occurrence for some I have an inkling!)

why choose to do a job you dislike for 40+hrs a week

Because most people don’t have any choice?
Because without those people, our bins would go unemptied, our sewers untended, our roads unswept, our prisons unguarded, our hospitals cleaned, our mortuaries unstaffed and so on.

The dream like idyll of the middle class in the UK is dependent, like the ‘lovely house in the country’ thread a while ago, on lots and lots of other people not living in the country/doing all the shitty jobs that we make that ‘superhuman effort’ to drag ourselves to every morning.

Count your blessings…

So true but so very sad and totally unnecessary , why choose to do a job you dislike for 40+hrs a week only to fill the void by trying to buy a slice of supposed happiness using your wages?.

As per Crikey, if everyone did what they wanted, your bins wouldn’t get emptied.

Yes they would, that what we have immig…… I mean, nope, no they wouldn’t. 😛

Crikey, I know what you are saying. For the last couple of years my mantra has been ‘you have a job, you are better off than most’ but the way the company has acted in the past year has been, IMO, awful so I’ve already got one foot out of the door, it’s just this lbs opportunity seems ace, though my rosé tinted glasses may be set to ‘off the scale high’….

@tom worst comes to the worst – train as a mech – go abroad or some vague plan like that.

I know what you mean, and I’m not on a standard rant, but I come into contact with so many people who work so hard for such poor wages and such poor job security that I am eternally thankful that however crappy my job may seem, it has its upsides.

It’s a trite and clichéd thing to suggest, but trying to be objective about exactly how crap your job is and exactly how bad it could be is sometimes an illuminating experience.

The other thing I would suggest is that just about every job gets to be crappy and boring when you’ve done it long enough to be competent at it.

Grab the rainbow, Tom!

Do it, who wants a frigging mortgage anyway?

I was in my early 30s not long married and with a hefty mortgage. Ended up hating my job as an insurance claims handler.
Chucked it and was lucky enough to get a job with the ambulance service. Not saying its always perfect but I now get paid more (because of shifts), have an interesting job that I enjoy and have plenty of time off for familystuff.
It was quite daunting as I had to pass all my training and my personal life suffers a bit sometimes but I couldn’t have faced the rest of my life doing a job I had started to loathe.
You’re still reasonably young, with few commitments. Fek it, just go for it- if it doesn’t work out you’ll find something else to do!

You’re only 28?, do you really wish to waste all your working life doing something you dislike in return for money?, i just find it weird that some folk choose to spend the vast majority of their life doing something they dislike or hate.

My mate who sweeps the streets in our town takes home double what i earn in a week, he used to work on the bins for a few years prior to getting the street cleaning job, he’s perfectly happy wi his hours, his work, and his pay.

Try it, if it doesn’t work out go and try something else, go abroad and work in a bar,fruit picking whatever but get out and explore, find work where you can – that’s what i did and don’t regret it for a second…..

Typical human nature,wanting something badly then getting fed up with it or losing interest, your quest for happiness will sooner or later turn around and you’ll soon get bored of the bike shop scene. You’ll miss the money and the hidden secrets of bikeland will all be revealed.

All that glitters is not gold.

Although a $hite with glitter sprinkled on it is hella convincing.