Lots of big Assistants leaving 4* jobs

[OverandOnward]

Back to the topic …

Somewhere along the line, a whole lot of jobs that were never, ever intended to be support for a family are now looked at as if they should be. Jobs that used to be thought of as no more than extra money for a teenager learning how to show up on time looking presentable, or someone wanting part-time supplementary income, now have workers who do need the income to keep a family going … and it is a total mismatch for what that job can provide. I see middle-aged adults in jobs that were originally intended for high-schoolers and college kids as temporary part-time work.

As has been posted, some of the assistant jobs may never have been meant to be other than low-paying internships, as it were. Not a career job. Rotating people in and out was the whole point. The incumbent was expected to promote themselves out after a year or two so the next person could have that learning experience.

Clarifying which job changes are natural to the job, and which jobs are really full-time permanent career positions, would cast more light on what it means that so many assistants are leaving. It’s not so unusual that some expected general turnover occurs all at about the same time.

[CFFarm]

@mvp

So in those grand old days, where did that “not a serious job” phase of life fit into your lifeplan? How did you explain to the relatives at Thanksgiving what you were doing and why? Was it that you would eventually get married so no job had to be a career one? Was it that you’d one day inherit enough money to be a trainer anyway? You were doing something like the “gap year” after college before settling down to building your real career?

I’m just curious about how it is/was ever possible to take a dead end job like this. There are so, so many benefits to spending time working in a professional program, even for people who will be life-long ammies. In other words, give me some rhetorical ammo to use at the Thanksgiving table!

College? Inherit? Lifeplan? Thanksgiving Dinner? LOL.
Survival was about it. Someday I’ll write the book…

[Equibrit]

Try looking at the larger picture, the rot starts at the bottom !

[Velvet]

I completely agree that assistant jobs are stepping stones. They were always considered educational opportunities back in the day when I had those positions. An assistant made more money than a working student, so it was a good gig to get more experience and be able to pay some bills–but not many. And, no, you didn’t have to be independently wealthy, just super frugal and never have your own horse. There was no real insurance, but they had to have Worker’s Comp and there was an assumption out there that since you were living and working at the barn (mine always included housing) you were most likely to get injured on the job and would thus be covered. It was cheaper than college and looked 100x better on your resume to note who you had worked with/for rather than saying you’d sat in a class about horses and were riding college donated horses. Top horses at a top barn were the things that allowed you to charge higher training fees. The kids out of college were usually laughed at and paid even less, since most had no real world experience.

For those talking about jobs that pay so little and don’t have housing…you’re looking in all the wrong places, or you don’t have the correct qualifications–nor do you have the right connections. It’s 80% networking (who you know) when looking for jobs in the horse world, and 20% being in the right place at the right time. Along with that, it’s having paid your dues. No one thinks they need to pay their dues anymore. Yes, I went to college, but that is not real world experience and it seems only the horse world recognizes that. In corporations people get a four year degree and get offered jobs they have no practical experience in (most of the time) and are paid better than in the horse world. Go that path if you don’t want to have to pay your dues and make next to nothing. It is easier, and you’ll be just about as broke until you’ve paid off your college debt.

The thing everyone takes advantage of in the horse world is the love of horses. And I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s hard, dirty, and dangerous work. But we do it because we have a passion for it first, not because we think we’ll make a fortune out of it and put in a 40 hour work week. Horses are 24x7, not 40 hours. You choose the life of working with horses, or you don’t. And sometimes you have to try it on for size to decide if it’s worth it to you or not. (And sometimes it’s worth it until you decide you want other things in your life…family, kids, a house, your own horse, etc.) Every once in a while someone has enough skill (or is crooked enough) that they make a fortune in the horse world, but those are few and far between, and they still put in a TON more than 40 hours a week.

It’s a unique industry and I like it that way. It helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

[gumtree]

@mmeqcenter

The government calculator comes a bit different, but still the same principal.
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc…5&year2=201705

$50 in 1982 = $127 today per above calculator.
$10/hour. With housing and food paid? Absolutely reasonable/livable. For a four hour work week, that’s $20,800. I would not take a $20,000 salary for a 12+hour/day job in any industry. Nope. Slave labor.

The other option, still reasonable.
$100 in 1982 = $255 today.
$20/hour today; $41,600/year for a 40-hour work week. Perfectly livable long term.

Offering a job as described at the beginning of this thread at $20,000/year with no other benefits is laughable.

“$50 in 1982 = $127 today per above calculator”

This is a good example of what inflation, hyper inflation can, does do to ones spending power. In my comment #36 right above yours I mistakenly used 1980 dollars instead of 1982 dollar in the calculator. My number of around $150 was correct for that year. Yours is correct for 1982. So in 2 years the “buying power” had dropped by 16%. But I doubt most people’s pay went up by 16%.

The 80s had serious inflation issues.