Career and family irony

[Deleted]

My mom and aunt are retired from the US Post Office..

Most of my IT career, I've done something with email system..

Email has cut into physical mail volume..

So there is some irony that I, in a modern way, followed in my family's footsteps. The second piece of irony is what I do has helped to make the old business model hard to sustain.

[NastyWoman]

The song of your life MMC

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[Deleted]

I'm indirectly working to put myself (a classroom teacher) out of business. I also teach online classes, which allow students to take coursework not currently offered at their school. Most of my students are remedial (every school offers 10th grade English so if you need to take 10th grade English online, it's because of some unique situation). Still, the foreign language teachers, the AP teachers, and so on make it so a school doesn't have to hire a teaching unit or two.

Similarly, schools in Alabama have moved away from the traditional summer school model where you would have to have four English teachers--one for each grade level. We do what is called Credit Recovery, which is computer-based and only requires one certified English teacher. Oh, even better . . . the school can do online Credit Recovery and only pay an aide to run the computer lab while CR is in session.

Yes, the state is indirectly paying the online teachers, but it is definitely more cost-efficient than adding teacher units. For one thing, we already receive the benefits from our regular teaching position. Plus, you can offer 3 students English 10 if that's all that need it . . . and pay $450 for the course.

I see the irony, but I do it, anyway. It helps my retirement, and if I don't do it, someone else will.

[midjd]

FIL made millions of dollars as the half-owner of a logging company. He has cut down thousands of trees in his career. His partner bought him out during the recession, and FIL sold all his equipment.

Now DH and I are about to spend several thousand bucks to have someone else take down two dead trees precariously close to our house.

FIL keeps saying he'll do it, but it's been a year and a half now and I don't want to go through another tornado season... so to the professionals we go. Not quite the same example as the OP, but I find it a little ironic. (Plus I would feel HORRIBLE if something happened to FIL while he was felling a tree here... better to let a stranger get hurt, as awful as that sounds!)