Cigar Asylum Cigar Forum

I'm a woodworker.

A couple years ago the company I worked for, Palmer Johnson Yachts went under, to pay the bills, I took a job at Time Warner Cable in the call center, making half of what I did in the past. My shift was 1:30-10:30 Sun - Thu, the emphasis on Sunday. IMHO, Sundays are for church, spending time in your jammies, watching golf, taking naps and spending time at home with your family. For the last year and a half I've not been able to do that as I had to leave for work at 12:30pm.

This past week I started a new job, back in woodworking at a place called Cages By Design. We make cages for reptiles, small animals, birds and aquariums. I'm working with wood again. This small company is as flexible as I've ever seen when it comes to your schedule, you wanna work:
5 eight hour days...fine
4 tens...fine
you want to eat your lunch at your bench while you work, fine, then leave a half hour early
you wanna just snack at your bench and not take break, fine, then just work 37.5 hours and we'll pay you for 40
Having a bad day and want to get away for a bit, cool, punch out and go fishing in the pond on property

I was told I was going to be sanding for the first month or so until the company was confident in my work. Six hours into the first day, the lead woodworker said, "we have a six sided aquarium stand and hood to build, I've done one in the past, do you want to give it a shot"? The next day I made the cabinet and my boss came over and said, "that's nice work"! The confidence and trust they had in me on day one was so refreshing, it's fantastic to work with people who you feel have your back and are not just monitoring it. My breaks and lunch are no longer scheduled to the minute, I don't have to log into personal time to take a piss. I now have a job that has a simple philosophy, do your work, do your work well, we trust you'll get it done and done right. A thousand pounds has been lifted from my shoulders.

The pay is not as much as it was at Palmer Johnson but better than at Time Warner Cable, but either way, I'm back in woodworking, doing what I love. I now have Sundays off. I told Linda that I was going to sleep as late as I wanted on Sunday morning, no alarm, no reason to get up early, just lay in bed till I felt like getting up. The bedroom door opened up just past noon and my 3 1/2 year old Grandson Bubba (Daniel) jumps up on the bed and says "Grandpa, it's time to get up, motorcycles on TV." THAT is what Sunday is about and exactly the time I wanted to get up. I don't know if I can even explain how important this Sunday is to me, my first one off in over 18 months and it's going EXACTLY as I'd hoped.

Wade