Word around the plant is that they're wanting to open up a second shift by the end of this month. I kinda hate that, because I like not having someone on my stand on second shift. I like coming in in the morning and knowing that my stand will be neat and tidy, just like I left it -- no jigs piled up, no scrap laying around, no having to track down my rolling table or parts trays...no having to quite literally put my work station back together before I can even start working.
Sometimes, I think second shift comes in and just throws stuff up in the air and where it lands is where it stays.
Still, the bright side is it means that work is picking up. The not so bright side is that I don't know who they are going to find to work on that second shift. I don't think they brought in a single new hire last week, and there were only 6 the week before. The plant is getting quite the reputation as a place people don't want to work.
I was talking about this last week with Production Manager Cuz. I told him, "Don't be surprised if you lose a lot of employees over this [metal detector]. People don't want to work for someone who treats them like common criminals. When you make me walk through that thing, you're telling me that you don't believe that I'm a decent human being. You don't trust me to be a good person. Why would I want to work for a company that thinks so little of me? You have to treat your employees with dignity and respect."
I also told him that I turn 62 in November and was seriously thinking of retiring at the end of the year.
And I have been debating on it, but at this point, I just don't see how I can swing it financially. I know the "rich people trick" of retiring early, because in the long run, you'll draw more from social security by collecting it longer even if you get less per month, but if I do retire at 62, my monthly benefit will only be about $1500. I don't think I can pay my bills on that.
People have said, "Well, you can get a part time job." But if I have to keep working just to pay my bills, I'm not really retired then, am I? I mean, I was thinking about looking for a part time job anyway, just to have something to do with myself, but I don't want to have to be dependent on that income to make ends meet. And what happens when I get too old to work? Once I retire, those social security benefits won't go up any -- other than very small cost of living increases. I have to be able to pay my bills on what I get without having to pick up another job.
What about your 401(k)? I don't think I have enough in it to make up the difference, not if I retire early. That's one thing I regret was not doing the managed account when I first set it up. I finally switched it to a managed account sometime last year, and it's grown so much in just that short amount of time, I wish I'd done it sooner. I'd have so much more in it by now, but all I could think of at the time was I wanted to keep all of my money. My money...my own....my precious...
But now, I don't have enough in it to last that long. And I'd like to have a little legacy to leave Cody when I'm gone.
Another thing I regret was not buying a house when I first moved here. Don't get me wrong, I loved living next door to my cousin and having family so close, but I keep thinking that if I'd bought my house back then, it would be paid off by now. If I weren't still carrying a mortgage, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But probably the only smart financial decision I've made in my entire life was to pay extra principle on my mortgage every month, and I've stuck to that no matter how tight things have gotten. You can save so much in interest by doing that.
I've also thought about taking money out of my 401(k) to pay my mortgage off, but I've been advised not to do that. I'd end up with more money by leaving it in the retirement account than I'd save in interest payments. However, if I did, at least I'd own my house free and clear -- except for the annual rent I have to pay to the government to keep my own home, also known as property tax-- and at least I'd have a place to live.
One final thing I have to take into consideration is that in an average year, about 25 -30% of my annual income is from working overtime. That's going to be a huge pay cut no matter what age I retire, because there is no overtime in retirement. That monthly allowance is all you get.
Plus, the overtime is what I'm saving up to fix up my house, because I sure don't want to go into more debt at my age.
Boy I sure didn't mean to get off onto that tangent, but it's been something that I've been considering here lately -- once it hit me how close retirement has gotten. And I do like the actual work I do. I just hate the toxicity of my place of employment. I mean, Cuz was telling us they'd spent -- I think it was $2 million on a machine for the production side, plus half a mil on a machine for tubing. Meanwhile, we brazers are still having to jury rig brazing jigs because they claim they "can't afford" to buy us the ones we need.
I keep saying they could sell those stupid metal detectors on Craig's List and buy us at least some of those jigs we don't have.
Which brings us right back to where I started. Where are they going to find people who want to work for a company that treats them so badly? Seriously, it wasn't that long ago that the HR director we called Crazy Karen made it company policy that we couldn't have anything to eat or drink but plain water outside of our normal lunch break.
When we pointed out that some departments were coming in at 3:00 AM and would have to be working eight hours straight with nothing to eat or drink, she literally screamed at us, saying, "This is company policy and it will be followed!"
(AI generated image, but it looks surprisingly like her.)
I know they don't really enforce that policy any more, but it's still official company policy, and it's a horrible way to treat your employees.
Well, this post has completely gotten away from me, so I'll just with my fellow Texans a Happy Independence Day,
and I'm going to go watch my sewing bee show and knit a bit.
Laters...
