A Tale of Two Jobs

From January to April I work two jobs. This is my second year doing so. The night job is something I never thought I would (or could) do: sell, basically, though it’s low-pressure. The day job is something I’ve done for four different companies over fifteen years.

I have discovered I love one and hate the other. Funny, how things turn out.

I think it boils down to how I’m perceived as a wage slave. Er, employee, I mean. I feel valued and respected in the one, and just a replaceable cog in the machine of the other.

By day I process payroll for over 600 employees, spread out in three divisions over twelve physical locations. I have two days every two weeks to get everything submitted to our payroll company. I hold myself to a high standard: 99.9 percent accuracy. My average payroll is $650,000, so that leaves me a margin of error of $650. It’s stressful because a lot of hands touch the payroll besides mine – those of the employee, the manager, and the payroll company. But it’s fun and zen and I enjoy doing it and rarely can a mistake over $650 be laid at my feet.

What I hate, though, is the death-by-a-thousand-cuts that happens during those other eight days of the pay period. Yeah, I have certain reports and tasks that need to be done, activities that comfortably fill those eight days. But I have a phone, an email address, and “superiors” who can walk in to my office. After giving it a bit of thought, I realize that every week I get about 35-40 “problems” tasked to me to resolve. Some are little, some are big, a few are interesting, most are hassles I care little for. About a third can be fixed on the spot. Ten percent of the remaining turn out to be debilitating, morale-killing grindhouse projects.

By night (and Saturdays with some Sundays thrown in) I prepare tax returns for clients. Federal and any state, though primarily New Jersey and New York. It’s a job that fits neatly into a pie chart divided into three sections: One-third relationship and rapport with the client, one-third knowledge of tax law, one-third expertise with the computer system. Every night I go in there’s a thrill, I must admit. Any one thing in any of those pie chart sectors could go awry. Last night, for example, I had a young married couple in and had them laughing, talking about their honeymoon at the Amalfi coast, had their federal return completed with a nice fat refund, but, for the life of me, I could not get New York to tax only the wife’s New York income and keeps its greasy hands of the husband’s New Jersey income. It was a software thing. No overrides worked. I felt a little embarrassed. They were a little peeved. They will return on Monday, so I gotta figure it out by then.

What I love, though, is the camaraderie I have with the other tax pros there. We all help each other. We empathize when another has a nasty client. We tell war stories with glee. And there’s a friendly competition to see who can bring in the most $ on any given day. I’m not micromanaged. I’m not given problems to solve. All I do is serve the client by promising him or her the best refund possible or the least liability owed. And I offer tips and suggestions for an even better tax year for when they return to me in 2019.

Now here’s the million dollar question – if I had a million dollars, would I still go to work? And my gut tells me (I need to rely on my gut because my head has consistently messed me up for, well, most of my adult life) … my gut says that I would continue the night job. In fact, I think this is a soft urging to tell me to get out of the payroll business. For I have discovered I’m having far too much fun selling and interacting with clients.

Make no mistake, it’s not all Fourth-of-July fireworks and parades doing taxes; it can be quite stressful, but the stress is of a different breed than the stress I feel having those 35-40 problems shoveled atop me every week at the day job. Proactive stress versus reactive stress. Eustress versus distress.

I guess that’s all I wanted to say. The weird dichotomy I’m living through right now is so mind-blowing to me that I haven’t been able to put it into words until now. And I’m not sure in this post I’ve done a good job of it.

Carry on, and don’t forget to get yer taxes done by April 17!

EDIT:

Oh – forgot to mention perhaps the biggest reason for this dichotomy: I NEED my day job whereas I DON’T NEED my night one. Right from Day One I went into the tax thing as, “I’ll do this to see if I like doing it and I’ll continue to do it until it stops being fun / amusing / interesting.” That’s a great attitude to have going into a new job. Perhaps the key attitude. Most of us are wage slaves so we need that job to keep on the hamster wheel society says we must tread evermore on. What a key difference the outlook that you don’t NEED a certain job is to the enjoyment and mastery of it.