My son works at a fast food restaurant. We got him the job because we know the manager from eating there all the time. I have been thinking about working a few hours a week, and I called the manager to ask if he would hire for a certain shift Mon-Thurs. He said yes. I don’t want to work Fridays because my husband is always off, but I think I could work that four hour shift for those days. It pays $8 an hour, so it wouldn’t interfere with my disability, and I’ve worked in fast food before.
It makes me feel kinda dumb because of my degrees and experience, but I can’t get a better job and risk losing disability because I can’t support myself full-time. The position I used to work at tends to pay $15-20/hr. so that is out of the question.
I am not reliable, though. At all. I WANT to work, but can I? For those of you who do, how do you handle it? My husband’s student loans are now due, so we are losing a few hundred dollars a month, and we also need money for birthdays and Christmas as well as clothes and my makeup/ hair care addiction. Again, I WANT to work. It would only be 16 hrs. a week, so that isn’t too bad, is it?
I work. I gave up social security this month and I am working full time 5 days a week I think it’s good therapy and keeps my brain busy.
I make about $25 an hour so I am losing my disability but honestly if I had stayed on SSDI and just worked part time at McDonald’s or something like you are considering I would be bringing home more money. My SSDI was kind of fat. I have paid about $150,000 into the system from when I worked before. I have three college degrees and several years of management and leadership experience.
But I am paying into another retirement system, still paying into Social Security, am paying into a 401k. I am on probation for a year though and if I make it through the year I get a $15,000 a year raise and that will definitely beat my disability.
When (and if) I retire from this job I will have four retirement checks plus a 401k. I had a 401k before but I already cashed it out when I got sick. Had to pay a big penalty to withdraw the cash.
I wasn’t able to work before but I think I can now. My wife thinks I am going to fail miserably but I think I am ready. SSDI gives you 9 months to test the waters and make as much as you want and I made it through that okay. Sure I had some rough days and had to leave work early a few times because I forgot to take my meds in the morning.
But the point of all of this is that you won’t know until you try. It’s a good idea to start small and if you can do it then you can move on to bigger and better things.
Thank you both for the comments, @GrayBear@TomCat. I think that I am ready to get out of the house a bit. I need encouragement to do so- to get out of bed, take a bath, do some laundry- yhou know, normal stuff. I think a job would give me a reason to do those things, a bit of purpose. I was told last night that the manager I know would be in today, and he’d be able to hire me on the spot. I will keep y’all updated.
I’m not suggesting that you should learn every last detail presented in these articles but if you just look these over I think you might find something there that helps you.
I got tripped up at my last interview when they asked me to describe a situation when I’d dealt with a difficult person and tell them how I handled it. I don’t have a lot of experience in that area professionally because I’ve always worked lower-level positions. I had a panel of three staring at me waiting for an answer. I’m trying to think of a good response in case it happens again.
77nick77 gave some excellent advice in those articles. I am reading them too.
Thanks @77nick77, @anon39736208. I think this is kind of a “show up and the job is yours” thing. When we asked him if he would consider hiring our son back in, like Sept. or Oct., he had my son fill out an application. We prepped my son on common interview questions, reminded him to say “Sir” or “Ma’am”, and told him to say “yes” instead of “yeah”. So we thought he was all kinds of prepared. Then, when the manager met him, he just took him to the back, got him a shirt that fit, and told him when to start. So I think it will be pretty easy.
All the same, I will check out those articles. You never know what could happen, and I want to be prepared.
