The Week Ahead!

My son was home for roughly 36 hours - his big time off! He left about 2 p.m. today to return to driving the highways as they criss-cross across this nation in a big rig. He just completed truck driver training about 3 weeks ago and was hired immediately and last week was his first week on-the-job.

I miss not having him near-by daily but I am so happy for him that he found this job. I'm happy that yes, simply put, he is employed again. A big relief with so many around not just this area but all over the country who can't find even sub-standard employment. A very big relief that he got THIS job and it pays quite well so maybe he will be able to finally get himself on a decent financial ground for a change! And the best part of this job - for him and for me - is that he likes it. He REALLY LIKES it! That aspect of any employment - one that people often overlook and opt for a well-paying job that they hate at times and fail to see the forest for the trees that work like that can do more harm than all the big wages in the world may help!


A prime example of that would be my son-in-law here. He has a job now that he likes but, as is the case all too often too, the pay is not bad but still not really enough to provide a means for him and my daughter to get the stability they need financially. So now, because my son got this better paying job driving tractor trailer, my son-in-law is talking about how he would like to get a job doing that too. How, he would fare so much better if he would/could do that and if my son's employer is considering putting someone on there, part-time even, he will go try to take the CDL driver's test and get hired driving big rigs too with my son.

Now, on the surface, to him this sounds like an excellent solution. To my daughter, his wife, and to me, it is pure and utter nonsense!

Two years ago, he quit a job he'd held for about 7-8 years as a mechanic to take a position as a laborer with a local coal/construction type firm that paid very well. The drawback to that job was that it was seasonal - lasting from about April thru November and unemployed over the winter months plus, there was no insurance for medical care and with a wife and five children in all, medical expenses without that commodity can keep your potential for any net gains to an absolute minimum, if any at all.

So, he quit that job and returned to the old postition of mechanic but was very disgruntled to be back at that job because of the methodology of the shop supervisor/owner and he found the job he now has, as a mechanic, but in a place where he likes the actual work better. The drawback here - to him - is this job pays less than did the previous job as a mechanic thus making that dream of some type of financial stability that much more difficult for him and my daughter.

Ok, so he now thinks this truck driving possibility would be the best thing for him since sliced bread, but he's dead wrong there. You see, he HATES to drive for openers, plus he is completely unfamiliar with ANY big city traffic, dislikes traffic in general and city or rush hour traffic, he abhors. So, how would this job be a good thing then for him when it would make him more and more miserable in the end over his predicament! If he enjoyed any form of driving at all - which my son does like - maybe it would work for him. But considering his base attitude about driving, travel, traffic and all those components rolled together, the finanicial aspect that might improve slightly would not be strong enough to off-set the migraine headaches he would be getting on a really strong and constant basis nor would it help with his qualms about being away from his wife for any length of time either. Because his first wife ran around on him, he does have a tendancy to worry that my daughter will do the same - not to a really bad point there in the jealousy things that can erupt from things like that, but you can tell this is still something that creeps into the back of his mind, nonetheless.

Which avenue would you try if you had a choice about employmen and wages: increased earnings and a job you really didn't like, or liking a job and making do with the earnings?