Re:Prolonged Partial Sleep Deprivation for a Job (The worst ...
by neilk on Monday November 10, 2008 @04:36AM
(#359067)
You're lucky to be a hacker. There's almost no other profession more suited to unusual sleep schedules. The place where you were working sounds very anti-hacker. You'll have to find a better place. It will not be as hard as you think, just be up-front about your condition.
I have a co-worker who prefers to work on a 28-hour schedule. (I don't think he has a sleep disorder, he just decided he liked it.) His office hours are unpredictable, but he gets his work done and nobody cares.
There's even another team on this floor that's adopted a "results-only" management style, which means that people are discouraged from insisting on things like office hours. Those people are practically never even in the office.
I don't think it's absolutely required that you be a contractor, and in lots of places contractors have even less leverage than regular employees in defining the terms of their work. But if you go this route it's not particularly hard either. Just say you are one, print business cards, get a job in the normal way, and then cash their checks. Maintain your own computer equipment and count the depreciation as an expense. Charge more than you would make in wages to make up for the lack of job security. You don't even need to incorporate, or even talk to a lawyer, although this is sometimes advantageous once you're really raking it in.
If you happened to be offshore, your sleep disorder might even be an advantage, since every few weeks you'd be in sync with headquarters. I assume you are in the USA? Maybe you should consider moving to Australia or something.
P.S. It sounds like you've managed before? Management of offshore operations is one of those things that corporations constantly struggle with. So if you were cycling in and out of both time zones, that might be a real advantage.
I have a co-worker who prefers to work on a 28-hour schedule. (I don't think he has a sleep disorder, he just decided he liked it.) His office hours are unpredictable, but he gets his work done and nobody cares.
There's even another team on this floor that's adopted a "results-only" management style, which means that people are discouraged from insisting on things like office hours. Those people are practically never even in the office.
I don't think it's absolutely required that you be a contractor, and in lots of places contractors have even less leverage than regular employees in defining the terms of their work. But if you go this route it's not particularly hard either. Just say you are one, print business cards, get a job in the normal way, and then cash their checks. Maintain your own computer equipment and count the depreciation as an expense. Charge more than you would make in wages to make up for the lack of job security. You don't even need to incorporate, or even talk to a lawyer, although this is sometimes advantageous once you're really raking it in.
If you happened to be offshore, your sleep disorder might even be an advantage, since every few weeks you'd be in sync with headquarters. I assume you are in the USA? Maybe you should consider moving to Australia or something.
P.S. It sounds like you've managed before? Management of offshore operations is one of those things that corporations constantly struggle with. So if you were cycling in and out of both time zones, that might be a real advantage.