Thursday, October 01, 2015

Hmmm...Retirement plus Part-time work?

For some time now, the FAA has been transitioning away from government employees for many staff jobs (like training) and hiring training personnel from a contract employer. Before I retired, my manager had suggested that when the SGF-ATCT (Springfield MO Air Traffic Control Tower) staff person retired, he would probably be replaced by a part-time contract worker. (Most of them are retired controllers.) I think he was hinting that I might want to consider that.
Hmmm...

Well, yesterday he retired.
And today (apparently) a job opening was posted for the contract position.
And I had two different people call me to tell me about it -- just in case I am interested.

Before I retired I had indicated that I might be interested in such an arrangement. Now, I am not so sure.
The thought of having to get up at a certain time to be at work -- even just a couple of days per week -- doesn't really appeal to me. However, I'm not entirely certain that I want to dismiss the idea completely just yet.
Hmmm...

Money isn't really an issue (although, who couldn't use a little more of it?), so that isn't going to be a driving factor in my decision. Personnel at the tower is pretty much equally split between people I'd like to see regularly, people that I'm indifferent about seeing and people that I really have no desire to see. I guess it will come down to finding out exactly what is involved and whether or not I think that it will be worth the compensation. The only way to really do that is to go through the process. 
Hmmm...

Under normal circumstances, it would probably only be about 8 hours per week. However, there is a lot of training at SGF right now so it may be closer to a full time position for a little while. But it would be all weekday hours, no nights, no weekends, no holidays. 
Hmmm...

Maybe I'll have to think about it for a little while.
Hmmm...

John <><

3 comments:

eViL pOp TaRt said...

The idea sounds intriguing; but being obligated to work on a schedule could work for you or against you. It gives you a focus; but it could limit travel plans.

Kevin Gilmore said...

I suppose there's no harm in taking the position to see how it fits with your life and decide after a while if it's something you want to continue to do. I think if I was at all uncertain but somewhat curious I'd opt for giving it a try. Best of luck!

Mike said...

It depends on how much they want to pay you. A contract person should get two times as much as when you were working. Maybe more.

I went back to Bell as a contract trainer on a computer system I had worked as an admin on about a year after I retired. It was when DSL was first starting up at Bell. There were very few people there. They made me a temporary system admin saying we'll get to the training in a while. 12 months, 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week, later I was ready to retire again. But I did make a LOT of money.