Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Bad Manager. Boring Work. Poor Pay. What's a Bad Job Worth?

So how much income would it take to keep you at a job you don't enjoy? I'll attempt to breakdown specifics into a dollar amount. Before going through the list, a salary has to be set that you would expect to get paid in a job that you were happy, and enjoyed...then tack on the negatives. Assuming, a person expected $50,000.00 USD annually at a job that s/he enjoyed. Bad Manager - Micromanager: $2000/year - Non-existent manager: $1000/year - Biased/unfair manager: $5000/year Incompatible co-workers: $1000/year/co-worker - Add $500 per co-worker that you must interact with more than 2 hours per day. Boring work (Some might actually be willing to be paid less for this :) - With Internet access: $500/year - No Internet access: $5000/year Non-Paid Overtime: $37.50/hr * number of hours worked OT in a year (assuming time and a half for OT) Stress - Variable. Can be based on many things, for example, the number of new white hairs per year, , pounds of weight gained per year, or square inch of lost hair per year. Plus you have to factor in health risks. I would value stress from $10000 to 25000/year. Overall job dissatisfaction: $10000 - You could say this is that uneasy feeling you get everyday when you go home. Or if people ask you how's work? So this employee who's very stressed out with a micromanager, 5 incompatible coworkers, very boring work with Internet access, and averaging 10 hours of OT a week should in fact be getting paid $109,500.00 in order to stay at that job. In all seriousness, quality of life is important...Are you happy doing what you do? It's something I think about a lot...Just how much is it worth?

5 comments:

Adventures In Money Making said...

Thats pretty good.
now i know how much of raise to ask for! ;-)

James L said...

i like your breakdown.

i can relate to incompatible co-workers, boring work, and overall job dissatifaction. i'll add to that low job growth potential and lack of skill development.

fairly compensated and too cushy to leave. looking for ways to make more money outside of my regular job. doing ok so far.

freedumb said...

James I, good additions:
- Low job growth potential
- Lack of skill development
I'll add that to my revised list later...

Good luck on that raise Empty Spaces!

Single Ma said...

This is a funny post. I love the way you broke down the categories. LOL

Honestly, I don't think any amount of money could compensate me for a job I really hated. I just pray that I never have to find out.

Anonymous said...

Oh dang, that's hilarious! Great list. I like how you broke it down. :)