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How are you able to sail the Hatch on a monday?
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ascott72



Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Posts: 124

PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:35 pm    Post subject: How are you able to sail the Hatch on a monday? Reply with quote

Sailed today, Monday 9/21, at the Hatchery. By 10am there were already 20 people on the water. More came throughout the day.

Normally at this time, I would have been in an office tower in downtown Portland beginning the M-F workweek.(I quit my job so I have a little bit of flexibility for the time being.)

This is past the tourist season. How are you guys able to sail on Mondays? Retired? Working remotely? Self-employed? Bartending evenings?

Just curious. Someday I would like to arrange a lifestyle like that for myself Smile
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:36 pm    Post subject: Re: How are you able to sail the Hatch on a monday? Reply with quote

ascott72 wrote:
Sailed today, Monday ... (I quit my job so I have a little bit of flexibility for the time being.) ... How are you guys able to sail on Mondays? ... Someday I would like to arrange a lifestyle like that for myself Smile

Sounds like you just did. That's one solution. Others are suggested in this post from a dozen years ago:

Try these ideas. I call them Windsday Sailing.

Five obstacles to Windsday Sailing are meetings, deadlines, the boss’s attitude, knowing when to implement your plan, and getting vacation approval on short notice. All have partial solutions:

MEETINGS:
• Keep subordinates prepared to stand in. It develops their careers and your professional and personal flexibility. My subordinates were encouraged to handle every meeting and briefing they could, wind or no wind, for the benefit of them, me, and the future health of the organization.
• Schedule meetings for days you cant go sailing anyway -- such as days already committed to truly mandatory meetings.
• Hold meetings early in the day, then split. The boss will be impressed with your eagerness and devotion, everyone will be fresher -- and they dont need to know the wind holds off til afternoon anyway. (An alternative: the Delta often blows best in the morning, then tapers off by midday. Go to work with helmet hair. )
• Ask the participants of a small inescapable Windsday meeting if another day would suit them. Most people don’t care when a meeting is held.
• Admit it -- you are NOT indispensable at every meeting.
• Manage meetings more efficiently. I conducted my division staff meetings in 15 minutes, rather than the 2 hours my predecessor took to handle the same issues, and attendees said I did a better job. Meeting efficiency can be vastly improved, even if you’re just part of the audience, by helping the group stay focused.

DEADLINES:
Stay ahead of them, for many reasons. One firm rule enabled me to meet hundreds of deadlines and catch most Windsdays: Do First Whats Due First. Screw prioritization, screw estimates of how long tasks may take, screw most fancy schemes: just stack them in the order theyre due and try to stay one day ahead of the nearest alligator. Determine how much time and effort the next item deserves, whip it out, and grab the following one. Even though some take minutes and some take hours (if they take days, they should be subdivided into smaller subtasks), I found that I met every worthwhile deadline for many years. Good for the performance evaluation AND for Windsday sessions.

Corollary to “Do First What’s Due First”: “Waste Not”. Forget the old false saw, “Any job worth doing is worth doing right”. That presumes that all tasks are of equal importance, which isn’t realistic. You’re paid to allocate your time intelligently, not rotely. If I did every task as well as possible, I should be fired for wasting company manpower and not doing my job, which includes allocating my time efficiently. Let certain superfluous, well-chosen deadlines slide, whether it’s to catch some wind or just to save corporate manpower. As chief of a large division, I was once tasked by our administration office with spending hours per month verifying the validity of long distance phone charges worth $20-30. I told them they’d get about two minutes of effort on the biggest two calls to fill their square (our annual budget ran into 8 figures and some bureaucrat wanted me to devote hours to two figures?).

If all that still leaves a deadline interfering with a Windsday, ask the person expecting the product if a day’s delay will hold him up. Usually it won’t, because he’s swamped too.

BOSS'S ATTITUDE:
Explain how special and how mind-refreshing a day of high-wind sailing is (don’t tell her how thoroughly it trashes your body). Explain how your time management plan was conceived and how effective it has been in organizing your work, meeting deadlines, and developing subordinates. And offer to stand in for the boss on her perfect golf days, encouraging her to take those best days off because she’s earned her vacation time. Hint ... hint!

WHEN TO ACT:
Learn to predict Windsdays well in advance so you can put in an extra burst of advance speed and planning. Learn to recognize when a Windsday worth taking has actually arrived. Computers and smart phones are indispensable in this.

QUICK LEAVE APPROVAL:
Check with the boss the day before a Windsday, and let your subordinates know you may be gone tomorrow. Prep your stand-in, and submit tomorrows products today or arrange to delay them if possible. Leave your filled-in vacation application with someone in case you phone in tomorrow morning to say, “Surfs up; I’m outta here”. (Don’t try to fool anyone; the hair, the fresh sun, the lifted spirits, and the endless grin are dead giveaways.)

Other scenarios:
A doctor/lawyer whose career involves working with inescapable patients/clients might schedule patients/clients only between 8:AM and 1RazzM M-F, or from 8-8 on MWF, saving afternoons or T & Th for solo work or for sailing. Ya gotta do the paperwork SOMETIME, and a block of time sans patients/clients is an efficient way to do paperwork -- or shred. Salaried workers might arrange to bank overtime in exchange for Windsday comp time. General Electric was GLAD to find a supply clerk who WANTED to work the graveyard shift, and Kim gets overtime wages for much of his 40 hours because it is graveyard.

If the obstacle is a spouse, get him/her into the sport and that problem is solved. If you chose a significant other who isn’t interested in sports -- Jeez, What were you THINKING ... with? OTOH, many non-sailing spouses are happy to support their SO’s passion.

Put in your 40 hours in four ten-hour days if possible. If you regularly work more than 40 hours a week -- thats your choice. I chose not to. Sure it hurt my career a little ... so what? That’s a whole ‘nuther magazine article

If you own the company -- problem solved. Take your Windsdays, let your people take their golf and hang-gliding days, and everybody’s happy. Thats what YOUR vacation time or comp time is FOR. Give them slack when possible, and they’ll bust their butts for you when necessary.

This isn't just theory. I wrote the article after being assigned to manage 150 people spending $40,000,000 annually on Star Wars research, and these ideas worked well for me despite those responsibilities.
-------------
I'll add this problem: MONEY.
Really sort of simple: spend less of it on other crap and/or make more. Tip: the former is less counterproductive and can easily free up more than 10% of one's income very quickly.
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biffmalibu



Joined: 30 May 2008
Posts: 556

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some of us pay for it via lower (or no) wages. It's a sacrifice some are willing to make for a higher quality of life.
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

biffmalibu wrote:
Some of us pay for it via lower (or no) wages. It's a sacrifice some are willing to make for a higher quality of life.

In the '80s and early '90s, I knew many Gorge sailors who lived the windy half of the year in pickups and unconverted vans. I at least converted mine, my wife worked (and sent money), and I had a pension.

QOL MATTERS.
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cgoudie1



Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Posts: 2597
Location: Killer Sturgeon Cove

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:13 pm    Post subject: Re: How are you able to sail the Hatch on a monday? Reply with quote

You should be an Engineer. I work what most Engineers consider
a regular job, in an Aerospace company. I work specifically at the
current company, because:

A. The work is interesting and varied (and the toys aren't too bad either).
B. a 9/80 work week gives me every other Friday off.
C. I've been at this same company better than 30 years, and I have a relatively good 5 week a year vacation benefit.

Planning my vacation around Holidays, and my Fridays off, (and performing duties at work much the way Mike describes them),
I manage about 75 days a Season in the Gorge, and I'm sailing a lot
during the week.

I also take calls and resolve issues from work during my vacation
and Fridays off. This seems to put me in good stead with my co-workers and superiors, and makes it easier to get the time off.

I consider myself graced to be in such a circumstance.

-Craig


ascott72 wrote:
Sailed today, Monday 9/21, at the Hatchery. By 10am there were already 20 people on the water. More came throughout the day.

Normally at this time, I would have been in an office tower in downtown Portland beginning the M-F workweek.(I quit my job so I have a little bit of flexibility for the time being.)

This is past the tourist season. How are you guys able to sail on Mondays? Retired? Working remotely? Self-employed? Bartending evenings?

Just curious. Someday I would like to arrange a lifestyle like that for myself Smile
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:38 pm    Post subject: Re: How are you able to sail the Hatch on a monday? Reply with quote

cgoudie1 wrote:
I consider myself graced to be in such a circumstance

Graced ... and a better planner. Anyone who tells me I was "lucky" or "fortunate" to get the jobs I did and the flexibility and locations they provided gets a well-earned earful about the planning, work, and execution that went into getting them and the freedoms I created within them. My head reels when I see people who are passionate about something outside work asking something like, "I'm a pro-level snowboarder who just took an accounting job in Key West. Where do they ski around here?"
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hilton08



Joined: 02 Apr 2000
Posts: 505

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:42 pm    Post subject: Re: How are you able to sail the Hatch on a monday? Reply with quote

ascott72 wrote:
How are you guys able to sail on Mondays? Retired? Working remotely? Self-employed? Bartending evenings?

All of the above - plus add Wind Clause, Trust Fund, and Underemployed to the list.

ascott72 wrote:
Someday I would like to arrange a lifestyle like that for myself.

Quitting your job is a good start. Wind season may be winding down, but midweek days skiing and snowboarding at Meadows are so much nicer than the weekends.
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30knotwind



Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 239
Location: White Salmon, WA

PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 9:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm a Gorge telecommuter, financial analyst, east coast hours.

So... I start work at 4:30am; I can leave work by 12pm and finish up in the evening if necessary, i.e. 3.7 at Hatch/Wall/3mile or 8 inches of pow on the mountain.

Hotspot makes remote workdays possible, but I would never admit something like that to anyone at my company.

Achieving this setup took A LOT of career and personal maneuvering over 20 years, including a couple threats to quit unless I could telecommute or move to an even more remote location--conveniently timed when other workers resigned--and many hours, over many years, discussing moving to the Gorge with my wife.

I sacrificed aggressive career advancement, but live where I play, not NYC or Chicago, where almost everyone else in my industry lives.

It is my life's work, my masterpiece!
Chris

_________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.30knotwind.com/
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

30knotwind wrote:
Achieving this setup took A LOT of career and personal maneuvering over 20 years ... I sacrificed aggressive career advancement, but live where I play ... It is my life's work, my masterpiece!

You and I are in the microscopic minority of ordinary people who understand that and made it work. My careers had their successes, but none as big or enduring as the overarching "masterpiece" you refer to. That's why, when I see a post like "I am a WSing addict but never get any wind. Help.", my very earnest, heart-felt, serious, and hopefully motivational response is
MOVE!
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underwood



Joined: 15 May 2010
Posts: 54

PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Work on boats. Lots of options and industries within the maritime world. Most share a common theme; you work an average of 6 months out of the year. The crew on those push boats and barges going up and down the river work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. Other sectors may work 4 on & 4 off or 6 on & 6 off. Deep sea can be 4-6 months on with an equal time off. The pay is good even at the entry level for only working 6 months a year. And when you are home it is like practicing for retirement, your time is your own. Tough if you have a young family but I see A LOT of middle aged and older guys new to the industry on their second or third career.
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