DH really loves his job, but sometimes it is kind of ridiculous.
Remember how his company was taking a break from April – July? Yeah, well, that’s not happening anymore.
DH was busily working on a grant proposal when the company CEO emailed to tell him that he’d signed DH up for a conference in April. DH responded that he had been planning on consulting for my employer (technically for free for me, but he didn’t say that) in April because he thought the last pay period ended in March until July funding.
The CEO replied, “That’s news to me.” So DH’s boss talked with the CEO and got an update. Apparently they currently have enough money to get through May if everybody takes a 85% pay instead of the 90% pay they’re currently getting (with the CEO taking no salary and loaning the company money and DH’s boss taking a larger % cut). But they’re also welcome to take some unpaid time off as well, which DH may do in June. He has a lot of work to do in April (he no longer has to half-ass a month’s worth of work in the final week of March) and will probably have a lot of grant writing in May. Plus the kids don’t get out of school until almost June.
On the one hand, I’m a bit bummed because I was looking forward to working with DH. On the other hand, he likes this job and I’m a big fan of his salary. So…
We’ll see what happens. 85% pay isn’t as compelling as 100% pay plus retirement. He’ll be figuring out if/when he should do that in conjunction with his boss as it gets closer to June.
In the meantime, we’ll be getting a couple months more of his salary that I’m not entirely sure what to do with. I guess we’ll just stick it in cash savings until we know more about what the future will bring.
March 27, 2017 at 8:56 am
That’s great news! Although odd that it was poorly communicated throughout the company! I mean, April is right around the corner.
More money to pile up in cash, what to do with all the extra money? :) I like these sorts of PF problems.
March 27, 2017 at 9:10 am
DH’s boss thanked DH for forcing the CEO to make a decision. (From what we understand, the CEO is essentially loaning a couple hundred thousand dollars to the company in order to make 85% of payroll.)
We drove to the city last weekend and spent more than $500 (mostly on groceries). Apparently I was feeling too wealthy after getting this news! (Also we hadn’t been to the city in months, so we were out of TJ’s and WF supplies.)
DH and I talked and we think we’ll have something like 10-11K that we weren’t expecting to have (I’d already saved up for him being out of work!). And no, we don’t know what we’re going to do with it… hopefully it won’t all drip away to grocery stores. Next week’s post I think is on what we identified as big expenses coming up during that conversation (cars, roof, etc.), but more on that next week. DH also wants to take a vacation with his extended family this summer, probably while I’m conferencing, which may mean us renting a couple of cabins so we can help his parents subsidize his siblings (last year his parents and siblings went without our family– they all live near each other and the camping area) plus the cost of travel to get there. I should note that we never really vacation– generally either they tag along with me for a conference or we go to DH’s parents’ place. So this will be new and different.
March 27, 2017 at 8:52 pm
time when you’re not working is perfect for taking vacations, if you can swing the cash. That sounds like an excellent plan.
March 27, 2017 at 9:19 pm
I hear you on the groceries. Our pantry was starting to get pretty bare and I hadn’t taken my mom real shopping in weeks. My mom is very slow these days so a grocery outing that hits 3 or 4 stores can take 5 or more hours. I really can’t do that every weekend, so we stocked up again and $500 later, we are good.
Regarding dh’s company. It must have a pretty good long term prognosis if the ceo is kicking in his own money to keep things rolling.
March 28, 2017 at 5:31 am
I don’t know about that. The CEO has a day job that is extremely lucrative.
March 28, 2017 at 6:57 am
Or maybe just a good mission to be worth funding. Interesting to have a CEO that also has a day job. But, hey, whatever works, right? I’m glad DH enjoys his work.
March 28, 2017 at 7:00 am
… well, it is a good mission worth funding, but, in the end I don’t think that’s what motivates, say, just pulling this example out of the air, surgeons.
March 28, 2017 at 11:00 am
$500 on mostly groceries sounds totally unsurprising to me. When I go to the big beautiful supermarket in West Hollywood, I nearly always spend $200. :-) I don’t go there often because impulse shopping at the supermarket is A Thing. But impulse shopping on food is pretty darned excusable IMO because, you know, we eat.
I’m sure your family will come up with excellent ways to use, or not use, the unexpected additional $$.
March 28, 2017 at 3:34 pm
The hope is that we eat things up before they go bad!
And that the extra $$ gets a place for it before it burns a hole in my pocket. We’ll see what happens.
March 28, 2017 at 1:12 pm
That “news to me” bit from the CEO would have been unsettling were I in his shoes. So often the follow up question: (what else is news to you?) yields not awesome answers.
But yay for a longer infusion of cash than expected. I’m wildly risk averse and cash hoard-y at the moment so that sounds lovely, though I realize you are in a good position to take the time instead of the money.
March 28, 2017 at 3:35 pm
Definitely a bit unsettling.
We will like having this extra money if the company goes under again. I need someplace to hide it from myself in case that happens.