For the past year, there have been so many changes with my work schedule. Before the pandemic, I had a very stable work schedule. It wasn’t necessarily the same schedule every day, but from week to week it was the same unless I was working a few extra hours to bank hours to take time off. Even with having one of my jobs being on my own time and having a lot of flexibility, I was consistent with the hours I worked and that allowed me to have stability in my life and to plan for things outside of work time.
At the start of the pandemic, I had reduced work hours for a while. Then it got reduced even more to only working 3 hours a week to handle voicemails and pass off messages. And then in August, I was out of work with my box office job. I still had my flexible one, but it wasn’t a lot of hours.
And then, when I got my new job, things started to stabilize again. I still had some fluctuations with my work schedule with my hours changing slightly and then switching up my job responsibilities. But it’s remained pretty consistent since I completed my training with the job. And then recently, I went back to my old box office job for a few hours a week. It was a bit of an adjustment to get used to working that job again, but fortunately I was able to pick it up quickly. I knew because of my new job, I wasn’t going back to the hours I had with the old job. But I also knew there was a little room for additional hours and that it might be happening.
And this week, I’m increasing my hours at my old job. I still don’t work there on Mondays since that company is closed on Mondays and I have already been working on Saturdays for the full shift. But now, I will be working 2 hours in the afternoon Tuesday-Friday. And this pretty much maxes me out for what hours I could do. I guess I could add the first hour in the morning 2 days a week, but unless things get crazy at that job I doubt it will be happening.
I have felt like I’ve been back to my full schedule since I started back at my old job, but now I’m really back to something closer to my old schedule. I am working earlier than I used to a few days a week since my new job has a different schedule than my old job. But for so long I worked until 3pm most days and that’s what I’ll be back to now. There is a slight chance I may be adding more hours to my new job later in the day, but that’s something that would happen in the future and it’s not something I’m worried about just yet. For now, I’m just happy that I’m back to what feels like my normal schedule from before the pandemic.
I’ve said this before, but I’m glad I had a slow transition back into working. I think it would have been overwhelming to go from no work to a full work schedule again. I’m still working on breaking some of the bad habits I gained when I wasn’t working and I’m glad I’ve had the time to slowly adjust to it. I do still have a few struggles (mainly with not getting enough sleep), but I’m working on getting better each week and I know I’ll be back to how I’m hoping to be soon enough.
And besides loving the consistency with a full work schedule, I’m also glad from a financial standpoint. I’ve been doing ok for a bit, but it’s because I’ve had money saved. And I don’t want to keep using that money to pay my bills. Since starting back at my old job, it’s helped even though it’s not a ton of money. And with the increase in hours, it still isn’t a ton of money but it will help. I’ve been doing a bad job with my budgeting again, and knowing I’m at what should be my schedule for a long time is motivation to work on a fresh start with my budgeting app. I know that I still don’t make a lot of money and I have to be careful, but knowing that I should be making enough now to not have to stress each month is a great feeling.
As much as I wish I lived a life where I didn’t need to have day jobs and could live off of my acting career only, that’s not my reality. I hope it will be my reality one day, but until then I need to be happy with my day job situation. And I’m finally in a good place again with my day jobs and I’m so happy that this is just one more thing that feels like I’m getting back a bit of my pre-pandemic life again.
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