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Should I take a farm job?
I know that, really, this is a decision only I can make, but writing out would help, and I really value your opinions.
So, since I've been working at my local Farmer's Market I've gotten job offers from 2 different farms: (A) the one I work for (an organic produce farm), (B) a hydroponic lettuce farm where I'm friends with one of the workers. I would *love* to do this, but being farm jobs they are seasonal (April-October) and pay less than half of what I made now. DH and I talked it over and we can swing that, and I'm already on his health insurance. However, we're TTC and I could not do Job A while pregnant. I could probably do job B, as there's no huge farm equipment or much heavy lifting involved. Personally I would prefer to work at A over B, but either would be much better than my 9-5 office job.
So I have 2 separete issues.
- Do I interview with either of these farms, and explain I would have to bail on them if I get pregnant?
- Farm B wants me to do Sunday Farmer's Markets now, as I am obligated to Farm A for Saturday markets until the end of October. Do I want to work M-F 9-5 and Sat-Sun 5-2?
ETA: This also means taking a job out of my field (environmental consulting), which I spend 6 years getting a degree in...
Re: Should I take a farm job?
Would you be happier? If you can swing something that makes you happier... I say do it. But what cuts would it make in your lifestyle? Would they matter? Would you see your husband less?
Can you volunteer a day at each and get a better feel for the environment?
I would love to take a job somewhere like that, but... not an option.
I have to decide in the next day or two whether I want to work at a Farmer's Market both Sat and Sun, in addition to my 9-5 job.
Yeah well your parents make you eat at Ruby Tuesdays.
Clearly, they aren't going to 'get it' but ultimately its your life and you have to be happy.
I say do it. I think its a great opportunity to try this out at a point when you are planning to leave work in the relative future anyway (at least relative to longterm career planning).
I wonder if there are ways in which you could use your education and experience working with a farm as well.
I work in a similar field to you now, but I interned at an organic research farm for one summer in college. To be perfectly honest, I ran back to the consulting focus after that summer. I'm personally not cut out for the manual labor that farming takes, and it simply wasn't my thing. But, it could be yours!
I may have said this before, but if you could do any kind of trial-basis work on the farms before making a decision to leave your day job, I'd recommend it. I'm not sure how much field work you do now, but remember you'll have to work in all types of weather conditions. It's not exactly a joy to digging holes on a cold wet day, or hauling around irrigation equipment during a heat wave. Also, I don't know if you deal with any environmental allergies, but those were a factor for me with the farm job.
If it were me, I'd see if I could squeeze in whatever I could try at the actual farms before their seasons end, and then make a decision for next spring based on that. Do you have to interview now, or can you wait until February or so and decide based on whether you get pregnant in the meantime?
I'd be happy to talk to you more about what it was like working on the farm if it turns out you can't try it for yourself first. I'm sure there are others you know here and elsewhere that can offer you other perspectives as well. Since the one I worked at was research based, it was quite different from a normal working farm. I am sure that some of the issues that frustrated me will not be things you would have to deal with, but there are certainly other challenges that I didn't have to face as well. Good luck with making your decisions!