Do you work at a place that is “triathlete-friendly”? Can you use flex time (come in early/leave early etc)? Take long lunches for midday swims or rides? Good vacations?
Here is one example: I had many friends that worked at pearl izumi (this was several years ago) and the entire company shut down almost everyday at lunch for a good 2 hour ride… It was great to see the president of the company riding along with them.
How about you?
My company is friendly to me and to all who choose exercise as a way to improve thier health. Work hours are flexible and there is full fledge gym onsight.
Vacation time for a regular full time employee starts with 20 day vacation, 5 personal days and 12 sick days. Company has 11 holidays and the day before the holiday we close down at 3:00pm.
I’ll be heading out in about 30 minutes for a 6 mile run. Then I’ll take my time to cool down, take a cold shower and be back at my desk. Total time 1:30 or so. Monday - Thursday I’d stay till 5:15 or 5:30 to make up the time, but it’s Friday and no one is here anyway.
I’ll be building flexible hours as I get closer to my IM. I may start riding long on Friday mornings, leaving Saturday to be my short ride, long run workout and Sundays dedicated to the family.
I do have flex time, but vacation sucks. I have 10 days of vacation and 10 days of paid holidays and that’s it. I do have unlimited sick days though. I’m really bummed that I don’t have more vacation time because I could really use a vacation right now. Since I have so little vacation time, I end up taking a lot of 3 day weekend vacations by working the previous Sunday to make up for the time.
But the flex time does rock. There have been days that I have come into work at noon and worked until 8pm because I went for a 3 hour ride in the morning.
I used to work at Zoot and it was very training friendly for obvious reasons I suppose. 
Now I work for a hedgefund, there’s 5 of us here and still they are very flexible, always telling me to adjust my work schedule if needed for training. I bike to work two days a week and since I’m off work at 3p, it allows me to do a longer ride home if so desired. The other 3 days I’m off around 2p so works out great!
Despite the 60+ hour work weeks in our 15 person company 2 of my bosses are very competitive triathletes. One who has gone sub 10 IM and one around 4:30 half. 3 others here run marathons and everyone is in the gym on a regular basis. We don’t get the long lunches or the early evenings and vacation time is minimal but I am surrounded by strong competitive athletes and we make it work.
no. they suck. they told me last friday I had to do some work this sunday at 0100.
well i’m doing pineapple man at 0700.
so i’ll be doing it on zero sleep.
it’s really not my companies fault, it’s my bosses. these kind of scheduling issues could be worked out, if he had any balls.
most of the guys in my group would rather search for that ‘lost shaker of salt’ than break a sweat .
The place I work for is sort of flexible…Within reason. I only have 10 days of vacation per year and only 5 paid holidays per year. No sick time whatsoever; If I get sick it either comes out of my vacation time, or I just get my pay docked for the day(s) I miss.
I haven’t had what one would call a “real vacation” in over a year.
But the work is light (right now), and I suppose I could be more creative with my flexible hours, which are cool as I usually arrive at 6:30 and leave at 3:30 or 4. But there’s really no need riding in the morning when I still have 5+ hours of daylight when I leave for the day…
Totally flexible schedule
6-weeks vacation
Travel for work to cities where there are races and for San Diego, they know that work will likely coincide with some triathlon-related event.
Some of the partners do IM races. The CFO is doing Alcatraz this weekend. The tri club is a pro bono client.
clm
I suppose I work at a “normal” company. I work 9-5:30 and have an hour for lunch. I never have had to work on a weekend and rarely work late. It’s very stagnant and predictable. I come in on time, and usually there is a box or 2 of Krispy Kreme donuts sitting out in the break room. Even the stale ones disappear. Most people are either sitting in front of computers all day or are outside taking smoking breaks every 45 minutes. Lots of coffee and cafessito consumed. Lots of Cuban pastries. At lunch, sometimes I go to a nearby gym and work out for 30 minutes. People think I’m insane. I used to run for 45 minutes at lunch, but I got so much weird feedback from people, that I stopped.
We do have a decent cafeteria that makes good oatmeal for only $1.06. I get that for breakfast sometimes. Their lunches recently got a lot better, and sometimes I get those in a pinch. I also get 3 weeks of paid vacation (includes sick days) + my birthday. The bad part is that we have to work on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Everyone else has kids and families, so I usually work those days so they take off and enjoy the holidays. We’re a travel company, so I can use un-reserved resort space if I put a request in and get matched up (I should take advantage of this more). We can roll over a certain number of unused vacation days to the next year, which is nice.
We get some good corporate discounts on cell phone services, rental cars, apple and HP products, and several other things. Healthy care is good. Dental and eye care - very affordable. 401K, life and disability. Today I’m “working” thru lunch (haha) and leaving early to go work out. I don’t do that very often, though.
They require “corporate attire” - so skirts, hose, heels. That’s the worst part to me. I prefer jeans.
I work with nice people. But I miss my old job where I worked with really nice SMART people. I wish I worked with more people who were healthy and younger. It’s the same old joke in the elevator each morning, “So, what - did you already run 10 miles today?” I wish there were more people I related to in that way. Most are moms and dads or grandmas…
Previously, I worked like a slave for a high-profile ad agency. Most of us lived close by and essentially (or literally) lived there. Their work was killer, and I worked on some bike-related accounts, which was awesome. We had a lot of people in the office who were bikers. Sometimes we’d ride together, but for the most part we just grumbled about how under-paid and over-worked we were. The stress level was through the ceiling. I was draining my savings to work there, and got a “raise” that kept me barely over the poverty line. I did the math one day and figured out that I was making $7.16/hr. So, I quit, and took the job I have now.
I always read about Nike and the benefits they have there, and I wish I could find a corporate culture like that.
No - rent the movie “Office Space” for an accurate depiction of my present work conditions…
…now, I need to get back to those TPS reports…
Damn. You beat me to it.
Absolutely! Flex scheduling - most here work 9 hr days (8 hrs on Friday) and get every other Friday off. I chose the normal 8 hr day. Get one hour for lunch, but barring no meetings, that’s flexible too, as long as you get the job done.
We have on site: Beautiful weight room - three treadmills, stairstepper, stairclimber, eliptical trainer thing, full range of free weights, weight machine, recumbent cycler, mirrors (weight room designed by bodybuilders), also a great machine that has two fully adjustable arms, up, down, left, right, that lock in place, then you set the weight for each handle coming out of the arm and have at it - possible the most brilliant weight machine invented, a television and stereo. OK, we also have a 25 yard pool (the executive VP bought a large pace clock for us), showers and lockers. A good sized space has been allocated in the warehouse for bikes, complete with bike racks. The surrounding area has trails everywhere, paved trails, dirt trails, single track, etc. There are flat runs, false flats, hills, walls, creek crossings, jungle runs (thick brush to negotiate) anywhere from a mile loop to a half-marathon run (fit that in your lunch time!)
Where is this? Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - right next to O’Neil Park.
nothing special here - 2 weeks per year vacation but we get an extra week in Dec - we shut down around Xmas and New Years. 6 days per year sick time. Have some Marathon runners. Cool thing is we get relay spots in the San Diego International Tri each year due to being a sponsor.
not as friendly as i’d like considering i work in the sports industry, but not bad. come in late on swim mornings, scoot out early on long run wednesdays and some days when the weather is just too nice not to ride.
my boss thinks i’m insane for doing IM. a former client does it now and he just says that the two of us are friggin’ crazy. but then, he’s a fat guy with stick legs that just shouldn’t have to be seen in shorts.
they aren’t all that pleased that i’ve been taking a week off in my busier time for IM the past couple of years, but taper does allow me extra time (and brain power) to be prepared for it. this year could be a different story depending on what happens with stuff. they may not want to let me take the time off :-\ vacation time didn’t used to be a problem, now the only problem is i have none. if i’m not here, i’m not paid, but that should be changed soon. i hope.
k
Not quite like Pearl but my director rides and races bikes. In fact share the same coach and we ride together a fair bit. Another director is a big fan of pro cycling (we have two Navigators shirts signed by the entire team framed and hanging in the office) Definitely a good thing!
the real question is: is your company ST posting friendly
.
Very training friendly where I work with gym and 50M pool on corp campus. I swim or lift every day, come in early on Tuesdays so I can leave early for a 4 hr bike. Key is to get the job done right and as long as CEO is happy everything else is cool.
" No - rent the movie “Office Space” for an accurate depiction of my present work conditions…"
At my last job my cubicle came with a red stapler. Enough said.
Well that was before some “consultants” came in, interviewed everybody, and then fired about a third of the staff. The funny thing was through all that I still never saw it coming, and I was a huge office space fan.
Not at all, but you can take 10-15 smoking breaks per day no problem. Ironically, I saw a dude holding a cigarette in the same hand that had a Livestrong bracelet, give me a break!
Dave in VA
Well I am an academic in a university so I get the usual perq’s with that - actually my new job will be even better as I only have to teach 3 classes (105 classroom hours) and get 2 months at Christmas, 2 weeks over easter, and a further 3.5 months in the summer (no summer classes). Of course, I do have to do my research if I want tenure. Oh, and after 3 years I get one year off full pay for sabatical (that’s Ironman year! lol)
Ah, well if I can’t brag about my speed, or training hours, at least I get to brag about my vacation days!
cheers
James