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View Full Version : 80/20 for hourly work?


bing42
08-26-2009, 08:37 PM
Several months ago I succeeded in cutting the chord and getting out of the office. It's fantastic... but there was one catch. In order to get out of the office I had to go from a full time, salaried employee to an hourly contractor.

Aside from being out of the office full time, little has changed with my job. I still work full time and fulfill the same responsibilities. The main difference is my tax status and benefits.. not that big a deal really and a small price to pay for remote status.

But I still have a problem. Because I bill hourly I'm still stuck working 40+ hrs per week if I want to make my income. I can't make the most of my new freedom because I have to be on the clock. In the 4HWW scenario, the objective is to use the 80/20 analysis to reduce the amount of time spent while increasing output.. but I'm stuck because my pay is based entirely on time spent.

How do I cut down my time when time is exactly what I am selling? I have tried the obvious solutions.. like negotiating a contract based on output instead of time - no dice. The company doesn't want project based work.. they want on-call availability during the work week. I can use 80/20 to crank out a lot of output when I work, but it doesn't help me to work less.

I can and do take a day or two off here and there.. but anytime I do it costs me money.

Anyone have any ideas?

DaveinHackensack
08-26-2009, 11:11 PM
A lot of jobs are like yours. I had a contract financial planning job once, where I was on the phone with clients or crunching data for them all day. Even if I had been able to do that work remotely, I would have been working the same number of hours.

Since there's apparently no way to reduce your hours without reducing your pay, why not use your free time to think of business ideas that can generate automated income? Another idea might be to leverage your current knowledge into a less time-intensive line of work. For example, what if you started a staffing firm that hooked companies up with contractors who do what you do?