Your job.

[axolotl]

Most people have to work.

Most jobs do not allow you to disappear for a week for no reason at all; and
most employers do not consider "to dress up like a clown and go party in
the middle of desert" a good enough reason.

All the tens of thousands of you who are going this year have necessarily
found a way around this problem.

So what do you do for a living, and how are you managing to avoid doing it for a week?

[ Just curious; I don't have the money to go this year anyway. ]

[Dork]

If you need to give a justification for taking one week a year to go on vacation, you have a sucky job. The fact that you're going to Burning Man instead of Vegas or whatever should not make a difference to them. A week is a week, and as long as your work is otherwise valued they should let you go.

I'm working at my second software company since becoming a burner and it hasn't been a problem for me. I tell them a couple of months in advance that I'm taking a week off, I give them the dates, and I say I will not be anywhere I can be reached.

[axolotl]

I don't have the money to go this year anyway.
:(

My brother just tossed some mail in my door, and it was a form letter from the IRS saying that they owe me- no, that wasn't a typo- they owe me $249.00 for 2004 and my new refund check is in the mail.

That's gotta be some kind of... omen? Add that to the $1 in my wallet and I do, technically, have enough for a Burning Man ticket.

[ Building materials, electronics, costume stuff, bike modifications, survival provisions... emmmmmm not so much. ]

Yes, I DO have a sucky job, that's why I have no money. I actually think I could tell them I needed a week off and they'd give it to me no problem, but I also thought that any less-sucky job, where I was actually doing something semi-important, wouldn't be so easy to get out of.

[hunter S]

OK, congrats on the wind fall! now hit the tic thread find a ticket as cheep as you can, start reading the survival guide, figure out the basic needs for a week, hitch a ride!

I think most of us lay down some real $$$ to do BM, I also know you can do it on a thread if you plan, budget, believe!

[Eric]

I have a job with benefits.
One of those benefits is vacation weeks.
One of those vacation weeks is Burning Man.
Simple.

While they know I'm going to Bman for my vacation, they have no say in how I choose to use my vacation time. I can sit at home for a week eating bon-bons & watching Monty Python re-runs for all they care.

The money to go on the other hand comes from scrimping & saving & budgeting. I figure the roughly 1200 it costs me for the week is about the same I would spend for a week in a hotel eating low-quality restaurant food somewhere like Vegas, and BRC is way more fun for me than Vegas ever has been.

[Ivy]

I work at a specialty fashion library.

They want me to bring back pictures. (I declined.)

One of my co-workers even suggested the library pay me to go. That was weird. (I declined.)

[hawks]

Just recently my company sent out a memo requesting that employees please, please, please take thier vacations and don't bank them too much or lose days. It helps the numbers etc. So not an issue really taking days

The Hawk Man.

[Ron]

I sell souls on ebay. Nice income, set my own hours, it works out. Thanks for asking, looking to buy or sell?

Ron

[Dustdevil]

I have been attending since 1996. That year I took off a couple of days and made a five day weekend. I don't get vacation time at my job. The following years I took a full week. Now I take almost two weeks. At one time I worried about finding no job (or no customers) when I got home. Those fears never materialized. I decided several years ago that I must stop working as much as I do and enjoy my family and my wife more. I have had the same job for nearly 31 years. I work in an auto repair shop that is always busy. Our appointments run sometimes six weeks ahead. I love my work, but there is more to life than work. Did I mention I am self employed? Being self employed, at least for me, makes taking time off more difficult. I have a great crew and a large customer base. The phone is still ringing when I get home. The only thing differant is my attitude, more relaxed and I find it easier to deal with the day to day problems. Life is good.

[Kinetic IV]

I work for a telco and have been there long enough to rack up a lot of vacation time. Still this year sucks for them, my BM trip is right in the middle of a PBX changeover due to my company spinning off earlier this year and they're delaying 2 installs until I get back.

As for money every year something comes up that cuts into the budget. You end up cutting a bit further and put the money aside to go or you tap a credit card if you have to. But I go regardless.

[nogganoodle]

I'm a chef and it sucks dick.

Its hot, stressful and my boss is nuts.

Bring on Burning Man

[Das Bus]

In '02 my boss told me one week before I was to leave for the playa that I could not go. I quit and haven't worked since. Luckily my husband works in construction, so if they won't give him the time off, he'll just get another job when we get back.

[Amberica]

I have a job with benefits.
One of those benefits is vacation weeks.
One of those vacation weeks is Burning Man.
Simple.

While they know I'm going to Bman for my vacation, they have no say in how I choose to use my vacation time. I can sit at home for a week eating bon-bons & watching Monty Python re-runs for all they care.

Yeah, what he said. (I actually thought most jobs DID give vacation time - am I really that sheltered?)

[blueniteowl]

I guess it depends on what field of work you're in.


Hey Amberica, do I know you? I'm in Minneapolis, and we've done burner meet ups before. Just wondering if you've been to one.

[AntiM]

Oh, you're sheltered. Larry's old job meant leaving the paya Sunday morning and beating feet straight back to Utah; we didn't even get to unpack the railer before they had him slaving away. Job had zero benefits.

Now he gets paid vacation days, and he can take more time if he really wants it. And there's always, always more trucking jobs; an average 400,000 go unfilled annually.

[Amberica]

Hi Blueniteowl - I don't think I've been to any/many local Burner events that I can think of, outside of a few little gatherings with people I've camped with before.

My husband-to-be was known last year on the Playa as "Captain Adaquit" (yes we spell it taht way on purpose), and in years past he has been the driver of a large cow-bus (now owned by the DPW) and a zebra-taxi-volkswagen.

One of our occasional campmates goes by "Squid" and was with Spike's Vampire Bar last year.

I think the latest thingy I went to locally where other Burners were present was a poi class in Mpls early this year w/ Mr Fun - were you there perhaps?

[unjonharley]

I'm reired now. When I was working the co. turned thr light out in my section of the plant. I'm a tempermental ass hole. If you touch my work I'll have your head I dont care if you do own the damn place. Fine craftsmen act that way. Took me five years to teach my replacement. To not tell anyone what he was doing. That keeps them at bay and there mind & hands out of your work.

[blueniteowl]

I've never actually been to any of the spin jams. Mr. Fun is a great guy though.

Well, if you are interested in meeting up with some people, a few of us meet up on Wednesday nights at Bob's Java Hut in Uptown. I can message you with more details if you are interested.

[Bin Noddin]

I've been in wireless telecom for 7 years - everybody is a contractor. They hire us project by project and turn us out when the project's done or they run out of money. The work pays well, and, once you're known in the industry, fairly steady. When I want time off, I just tell them I'm going. Sometimes they "approve" it - though I don't ask for approval. I just tell them and go. Downside - no benefits, no paid time off, no union. Every day off is so many dollars lost. Some things are worth it, so I don't have a problem with that.

[Dr. Pyro]

It doesn't suck to be me. I manage a major stock brokerage firm in Sacramento, can take as much vacation as I please, earn more money than I can spend, and can live as lavishly as I please, even in an environment such as Burning Man. And I do. Caviar anyone?

[skygod]

I have worked in a state mental hospital (Agnews Developmental Center)for 27 years, getting rdy to retire. I cover for my coworkers during Xmas and I get the week before labor day.

[blueniteowl]

Doc, I hope you know that I'm plotting to steal your good wine this year.

[Lassen Forge]

Just don't touch his "green goddess" ... and I'm not talking salad dressing...

I work for the State, and get vacation, plus can work OT for CTO (wich I merrily burn off the very next month in some dusty spot in Nevada). Before that, worked on contract (take time off? Sure. Pay? Ha ha ha ha ha... A job when you get back? We'll see) , and before that was a dinner house/resort chef. Was nice, as the staff was good, but the bennies sucked (1 week vacation and 1 week sick leave, any other time you want off was fine, but don't expect to get paid) which was the main reason I did a 180 in my career choice and did what I do now.

[capjbadger]

I work as a Software QA Lead here in CA. I told them I'd be gone during the interview. They had no problem with it.

[phil]

I told them I'd be gone during the interview.

Yeah, I was gone during an interview once. No problems there, either.

[seelivemusic]

First time I went I told my director where I was going. He smirked and said, "I have some old friends that go every year, I know what goes on there. I'm sure you are going to have fun."

When I came back, I told him that he had no f*cking idea of what goes on "there". He smiled and asked me if I had come down yet.

[capjbadger]

I told them I'd be gone during the interview.

Yeah, I was gone during an interview once. No problems there, either.

hehe No no.. I told the during the interview that I'd be gone for a week at the end of Aug.

[PORN&EGGS]

Give more than you take.

We LOVE YOU!

[virgin]

i simply quit

[blyslv]

I answer the phone, go to meetings, make statements, draft memorandum, interface with various command and control types, and have a weakness for chocolate. My job invovles the manipulation of symbols, mostly letters but sometimes numbers. The mind numbing ennui is punctuated by short bursts of intense boredom. It emmanates a faint nimbus of virtue as I can claim to take actions "in the public inetrest" and make decisions based on substantial evidence. There is occassionally heavy labor and lifting involved, but often I can set my own schedule. Sisyphus is tantalized and Karl Marx once saw me as the vanguard of a new proletariat reality, but has now sadly settled for a survival wage and partial benefits. I don't believe they notice when I take the week to go to that thing in the desert.