Ok, so it's been 10 years since I was active on this forum (and I used to be pretty darn active! You all helped me through some tough times, and even got my sweet dog back to me when I left him in Florida and moved to Tennessee!) which is about how long I didn't own horses! Well, I went to school, got a great job, and finally got myself a barrel horse again. Life is pretty darn good. 

That being said, I'm tired of my hours. I work as a night shift ER nurse and while the pay is pretty good and helps support my habit, I kinda want out. It's miserable. I'm tired of working weekends, I'm tired of working overnights and being too tired to go ride, and I'm tired of not being able to take the weekends off to go to barrel races. It's a struggle. I'm ready for a steady Monday through Friday gig where I can be home every night and maybe even go ride in the evenings. 

Now, I know you have to work hard and make sacrifices to have what you want, and I'm more than willing to do that. But I'm also pretty young (30 next month) and I don't want to stay in a career that I don't like. I don't live to work, I work to live, but having a career that somewhat fulfills me is key. 

I'm single, no kids, just the one horse, and still rent. I have no desire to own a home right now, and my board is stupid inexpensive for what I have. 

What are all of you doing for a living that supports this wonderuflly bad habit we all love so much? Just looking for options, ideas, and want to know what everyone else has to do to live this horse life.  

It's hard to beat bankers hours.

I’m a dental hygienist and have several friends that are too that are barrel racers.

It's my understanding that most private dental practices are a Monday thru Friday thing. Half day Friday at most. I tried like heck to get into a dental office about 6 years ago as office manager. I loved my 4 day week back in Colorado. What's another 2 hours when you're already there and tired and then to have 3 days off always! 

Dental hygenists make some good bank in our area too. Probably pretty good money almost anywhere. 

Good luck with your choices. You are young enough to change track and make a go of it. And you'll always have your nursing degree and experience to fall back onto if needed. 

Why don't you work at a Dr's office or clinic?  I know some people that work 4 days a week. 8-5.  Using the degree that you have.  Or maybe office management in that field? 

Tha'ts kind of the route I've been thinking of taking. Definitely scouring job boards for something like that. I didn't get into nursing for the people (I know that sounds awful, but I knew I wanted something that would give me a job for life, so using my degree is definitely an option, as long as I can get out of the hospital/acute care setting. 

A good place in our area is surgery centers.  You work usually 6.30 am to 2 pm.  Intense,  but usually Fridays off. 

If you enjoy nursing, how about a regular doctor office or a school nurse or medical administraion?

I am the Safety Assistant for a trucking company, I make sure our company and drivers are compliant with DOT reulations.  I'll never be rich, but it has paid the bills for the last 13 years, and I absolutely love my co-workers and my working environment.  I can wear my jeans and boots to work and I have a 20 minute commute thru the woods.  I could commute 2 hours downtown or go to a larger company and double my salary, but it's just not worth it to me. 

School nurse is at the top of my list, actually. I LOVE that idea. They are hard to come by though, so when they pop up, they don't last long.

I'm also not opposed to something outside of the medical field, I'm well versed in reasons why I might want to get out of it and try something new. I don't need to be rich, I just want to be able to enjoy the life I'm making for myself. 

IF you have time in your schedule, you might sign up to substitute nurse with the school district - that way your name is on their radar when something comes open.  That's how my friend got her foot in the door with the school - she was a hospice nurse for years, now she is a nurse at one of the schools.

Good Luck to you!!!

I'm self employed, and own a residential housecleaning company. I do all the work myself, and I absolutely love it. I used to work a regular 8-5 desk job, but couldn't sit all day, and was bored. My start up costs were very low, and I can make my own hours, and I enjoy what I do. My rate is $35/hr. 95% of my customers pay in cash. 

As a nurse, i too understand the burnout feeling. Im tired as well! I worked nightshift on a med surg unit for 4 years and i had my fill. Nursing in general pays well but the way people treat you and the work load in unsafe and insane now. We are trying to keep corporate happy instead of being able to take care of our patients. I switched to a M-F job and only work half day on Friday. Im bored out of my mind but the pay is good and so are the hours.

Yes!! It's unsafe, especially in the inner city ER that I work in. We constantly have violent patients, psychotic patients, shootings, stabbings, etc. We scream to the heavens about our own safety but management only cares about numbers and patient satisfaction. I'm ready to be out, and I've only been in for 2 years. I was a CNA for 3 years, so a total of 5 years in the health care industry and I have had enough. 

What are you doing these days?

I went to the dark side and work in the administration side of quality care.

My sister is a nurse and she works for surgery center. Most weekends off, rarely on call. 

I am a vet. I don't think I would recommend it if you want a better quality of life with less time working, unless you went into small animal or had a spouse who could support the household and you didn't HAVE to work the hours we do. Just being honest...and sad LOL. If I did my own thing I could work my own hours but if I worked my own hours not sure how busy I would be or how much money I would make. 

My momma would've disagreed with that!!!

but easy to beat bankers pay. . .

I loved working at the bank. I was a teller then loan processor, eventually would of moved up to loan officer but the pay just wasn't worth it.

I still don't make a ton, but I get 4 weeks vacation and a week of sick time every year (vacation rolls over), and my office is really flexible, plus my dog comes to work with me every day!

I'm an accounting clerk. 

I work in equipment sales, I LOVE IT. Monday - Friday no weekends ever and great pay. 

My momma was VP; made good money.   But she was usually at work by 7:30 and sometimes not home til 7 or later.   She wasn't one of those "I'm upper level management so I can do what I want"---she took the bank's business personally and worked hard.   Started at the bottom as a teller and worked up to President of the main bank's subsidiary/VP of the main bank.  I'm very proud of her. . . . 

I worked in the medical field for several years. Got tired of it. Now I'm self employed and build fence. Yes, I work harder but I'm alot happier and make WAY more money.

I'm an accountant at a CPA firm.  I've always loved numbers. Its not the greatest pay but I'm working my way up and still young.

I'm a self employed accountant, and I love my hours. . . Except from Jan til Apr 15!!!   I'm blessed to do what I do and have my business.   Wonderful clients who for the most part are friends as well.  

I think I’ve definitely got the oddest job out of everyone here so far. I work at an animal genetics lab testing dog poo for DNA for people who don’t clean up after their pets. Yes this is a real thing laugh as you wish, everyone does.. including myself! We’re actually a million dollar company.. we’ve got deals with apartments and neighborhoods all over the globe. If an owner doesn’t pick up after a pet, we match their dna to our database of dogs living in the buildings or city and the apartment/city deals with it how they want. Some fines are over $1000 and others lead to an eviction. It’s a boring job, I sit in a lab all day listening to podcasts but it pays my bills for now and I’m off every weekend! I’m actually trying to go back to school for nursing (I have a bachelors in animal science) the end goal is to be a nurse practitioner! 

I am an AP clerk for a distribution company. Its a boring job at times but the owners treat us really well. I drive an hr 1 way through Dallas everyday. Work 8-4 and off weekends and holidays. They take care of us and I plan on being here a long time. I was at a job 20 minutes from home and HATED the upper level management. Loved my immediate coworkers and boss. But the upper levels could and would pick on you cuz they held the power. I lasted a year and a half. 15 months longer than I was told I would last ;) When I left, it was on my own terms and walking out that last day was like a weight was lifted. 

Do what makes you happy. I deal with stupid traffic in order to enjoy my job and the bonuses that go with it. 

true!! My best lameness horse vet had one child and had to work less hours and itnwas hard to get an appointment. She ended up having TWINS and told me she could no longer be an equine vet. She got a job at a small animal clinic and all she does is spray and neuter dogs/cats on Tuesdays and Thursdays!!! That’s it !! She told me she makes 4x her salary doing that 2 days a week than working on horses at all hours. Hated to see her go but I totally understand it! 

  I’m a high school teacher and college professor myself. No complaints from me! Love what I do and hours are great for having horses! 

I am a college professor.

Have you thought about going back to get a Masters in Nursing and maybe trying to teach somewhere?

I am an independent insurance and real estate agent in my small local town! I love my job! I never work weekends, nights or holidays unless I schedule to meet with a client on my own time. Every day is different in my office and I never get bored. Stressful sometimes such as crop season or a major hail storm, but no job is perfect. The pay is great as long as you are motivated, plus I work with great people who are very flexible! 

I'm a Management Analyst for the FDA.  Great pay, benefits, and hours.  There are several different work schedules you can choose from with most Federal jobs.  I usually work 6/6:30-2:30/3 M-F, and get to work 1-2 days a week from home.  You can start your day anytime between 6-9, as long as you work your full schedule, and you can change it daily.

I know most federal facilities (ours included) have at least one nurse on staff as a government employee.  Keep an eye on USAjobs.gov

Good for her! You can definetly move up if you stick it out. 

I was floored how much responisbility tellers have with how little pay. 

The first bank I worked for was a big chain bank, if you didn't hit a bunch of sales goals you never got a raise. The second bank I worked for was a little 2 branch bank. I loved it there, no sales goals, laid back, but I went 6 months with the promise of a significant raise, and never got it. So I left. 

I don't recognize anyone there now. I think there is 1 or 2 still there from when I left 6 years ago. 

"Bankers hours" isn't as easy peasy as people think, that's for dang sure! 

I recently became an insurance agent with a big company.  Its a 8-5, Mon-Fri job.   I get a salary rate, plus commission. The % of commission depends on the amount you sell each month. My next paycheck will have a nice commission/ bonus on it. 

But the longer I'm here, the better it should be. Will I be rich? No. But I am making more than I was before. With better hours. 

I went to school on my own to get my Agent and Adjuster license. Most do it after they were hired. So taking the initative is what got me hired pretty quickly.

The reason I went to school was to give my horse a better life! lol

Marketing/Event Sponsorship Coordinator for an equine supplement company.

I process sponsorship applications for both individuals and events, help provide input to our main marketing gal here when necessary, and answer phones (take orders, answer questions about the products, etc).

Love my job and love the friendships it has created with horse people (mostly barrel racers) across the country. It's not always rainbows and unicorns but I am very grateful that this job kind of fell into my lap when I was least expecting.

My OBGYN told me if I ever decide to have kids and get pregnant with twins, I wouldn't go back to work either. LOL. I was like thanks for the bode of confidence.  

I actually taught high school before applying to vet school.  I don't think I could have afforded the horses but I would have had more time to ride them LOL. I am really fortunate that both of my bosses also ride.. the oldest one doesnt take call anymore (he deserves not to at this point in his career) and my other boss works with me to help me go to races.  I'm going to have to figure something out when I start to try and rodeo again... all my vacation days would be eaten up fast. 

It’s a shame to hear that you seem to be experiencing something that’s becoming more commonplace in nursing, namely burnout.  Unfortunately the corporatization of healthcare has created an atmosphere where you become disillusioned with the corporate attitude that makes you feel more like an “employee” with a badge than a highly trained, unique professional.  You already know that you can earn a real decent income as an RN, and you probably know that, with specialization, you can earn 2-3X more.  It sounds like you are just burned out or spent from ER nursing, which can be incredibly stressful and can consume you, for the reasons you mentioned.  You’ve got some experience under your belt, plus you’ve invested a lot of time and money to get where you’re at.  It would be a shame for you to get out of nursing completely, without really looking at some alternative careers in nursing.  Get creative and start digging.  I bet there’s a niche out there somewhere.  Without going through a list of possibilities, I actually did a little homework for you.  Start with this:

https://nursejournal.org/community/10-great-non-hospital-nursing-jobs-for-nurses/

I am a middle school science teacher, going into my 10th year. I love it and have the opportunity to give lessons and work horses on the side. The only down side is when I am on, I am “on.” As in, the to do list never seems to end!

I recently got on at one of the top 50 public schools in the nation, and the work doesn’t compare to the hours I put in at my former school that was low income. I would leave work drained just worrying about what my kids had to experience at home. That was a mentally exhausting job. I will always cherish the times I had there, but I am thankful for my new job on how I get to focus on actually teaching vs. balancing all the other roles of being a teacher plus a parent plus a disciplinarian etc. The many hats those have to wear in most schools...they deserve so much more!

I have taught school for 43 years. Retired in 2003 but continued to teach full time. There is a big demand for chemistry/physics teachers. I have had the F bomb dropped on me one too many times this year, had a kid threaten to shoot up my house and same kid threatened me. No one seems to want to do anything about that and for some reason if I tell the kid he probably won’t be around to threaten anyone else they sort of frown upon it. Then our super duper superintendent decided to cut all retired personnel salary $10,000. All retired personnel has quit. It is soooo nice not having to count the days until school starts. No way they are going to find enough teachers for next year. 

All I can say is that for those of you who teach, whatever you make, it isn't enough. . . 

So much of what you said sounds so familiar, especially about not knowing anyone at your local bank anymore.  Glad you made the switch and your dog gets to go to work with you--Luca loves going with us and being an "accoundog"!!

I’m also a nurse. Last year I got my masters in nursing informatics. You don’t need the masters to get started but that might be something to look into if you like computers. You could also look into being an SDN. I also work with a girl that used to work for an insurance company. She could work from home. I also had an instructor that left the floor and teaching to work in a legal department. You’ve got a lot of options. Cath lab, GI lab, OR, and preop/PACU can all have decent hours, too. 

I have been an RN for 20 years now and spent 17 of them as a Home Health/ Hospice Nurse. I loved my work but the company I worked for was horrible. They treated their employees like crap no matter what you did it was never enough. I made good money but it was not worth it. I had multiple titles during my time there and was the Director of Nurses for a few years. I was so burned out and worked constantly.  I was on call, worked weekends and holidays and even on my days off I constantly got calls from patients and co-workers and generally charted for a few hours a day to stay caught up on my paperwork. I was scared to leave because I knew I would never get the same amount of money at a different job. The straw that broke the camels back was when the company was going to change the way they paid us and I would have been expected to do the same amount of work but would have made less money. I told the guy from corporate no thanks that if that was how they were going to treat a loyal employee of 17 years I wasn’t interested and I walked out. 

I applied at our local health department to be the School Nurse for our School Distruct and have been doing that for almost 2 years now. I love it and the paycut I took is made up for in the Medical and Dental coverage I get, the pension I’m building and the 401k match I get from them. I work Monday thru Friday from 8-5 with no weekends and paid holidays. I’ve also got 2 raises in the 2 years I’ve been there.

The best part is I work for a company who truly appreciates me and tells me all the time how lucky they were to get a smart hard worker like me. It was truly the best decision I ever made. Look around there are a lot of opportunities for nurses that don’t involve a hospital and acute care. Good luck I know you will find something you will like. 

How bizarre! That's cool though!  I always think about dogs and controlling animal abuse and abandonment and wonder how we can do better - rather than just promoting adopting "shelter dogs"  and shaming those who want buy a purebred from a reputable breeder --- if they are DNA'ing dog poop to police dog owners....well, there's hope! 

I remember you!  I was never VERY active on the board, but have been around since the beginning.

I'm a legal assistant at a criminal defense firm.  I still have no interest in becoming a lawyer, but 18 years ago I got connected with this small firm and not only is it very interesting, I am working for wonderful attorneys and they are very good at what they do - we have been involved in cases that have made world news and several with movies and documentaries. 

I work hard.  Drive 45 mins to 1 hr there and back -lots of sitting, but I have a Vari -Desk that helps tons -- we don't close just because the courts are closed for a national/county holiday because we have work to do and clients coming in, and a lot of times, I'm the last to leave, but I think that's mainly because all of the driver license/DPS issues go to me, which is constantly a puzzle to solve.....but anytime I need to take off, I can, and very rarely work weekends.  Some law offices close early on Fridays or even are closed on Fridays - not us, though.  Most of the time I work through my lunch break, just shove food in my mouth in between phone calls, because 12-1 is ususally a time I can get the most work done, because it is a LITTLE quieter (I could leave if I wanted to, but that's the way I choose to handle my workload to not play catch-up later). I can take off whenever I want (but often I work late before I take off or work late after I come back to catch up, because nobody else does my work - that gets hard - I don't take many week long vacations).  They are high profile and very busy and the stress sometimes is hard - sitting for hours trying to meet deadlines has actually changed my teeth, because I hold my mouth so tense for so long. 

If my bosses weren't so wonderful and didn't feel like family, I would not have stayed here this long, though.  These attorneys have shut down the office to all go watch me run at a matinee performance at the Ft Worth Stock Show/Rodeo.  My car broke down one time and I called in late to work, saying that I had to get another vehicle because mine was not going to make it.  My boss called me back and gave me a raise over the phone to help with financing.  They paid for our entire honeymoon. They pay for my cell phone (yet that also means I get emails or texts on days off and after hours I sometimes must reply to). Generous Christmas bonuses. 

I was working as a CNA in nursing homes.The last one I was at refused to listen to me when I told them my anxiety was getting out of control.The last straw for me was when my blood pressure hit 170/120.Im looking in to going to Walmart.It can’t be as bad as nursing.

I have a small printing business from my home. I've been doing this for nearly 12 yrs and still love it.  I design logos, banners, barrel wraps, signs, decals and also do invitation and business card design. I print the large stuff in house.  It is always different with each order. I get to be creative, make decent money and its all on my own time. I don't think I'll ever trade it. I do have my real estate license as well but I deal in ranches and large land deals. Not much residential so hardly any headaches lol

Yes teachers are underpaid but cutting our salary $10,000 is beyond ridiculous 

It should be going UP that much