Just curious what do you see happening with mystery shopping this year.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@mysterioso412 wrote:

Maybe stupidly, I’m also taking fewer mystery shopping jobs. I do it after my main job, but, I don’t take any now unless they are very high paying or literally on my way to/from work/other errands

That's not stupid at all. It's utilizing MS in a way that's beneficial to you , and you will get a higher average value for each shop that way.

Anyone losing their job and hoping to replace it with MSing is making the mistake IMHO. The best value of MSing work is augmenting traditional employment, or retirement/disability. It was never meant to be a full-time job and while some can make that work, those who are getting the best value from are not doing it full-time.

A big mistake I made long ago was relying on MS to get me through a period of unemployment, when I doubled down on the shopping. In retrospect, I could have cut back on MSing and invested more time into finding a new job, then recovered quicker.

I agree with this and got into shopping in 2007 after a job loss. I qualified for unemployment but wanted to "do something" besides being home and job searching. I was lucky and found a new job in 2 mths but trying to make a full-time income on MS was a grind back then and still would be today. Now I need the benefits that MS'ing doesn't provide - like health insurance, and with kids, I need a more predictable schedule.

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For me, it's actually close to one year from when I was laid from my last job. But I was fortunate to receive severance as one lump-sum payment and still be able to qualify for my state's unemployment benefits. It wasn't until I had to make a decision on going with COBRA for health insurance, that I was able to avoid that and go work where I'm at currently.

Mystery shopping helped to offset expenses during that period though and make unemployment benefits last longer, if needed. I thought the time in between jobs would be a preview of early retirement. The first couple of months were fun, but it was actually quite depressing afterwards. Personally, I found that full-time employment with benefits suits me, especially during prime earning years, with mystery shopping more so as a hobby.

beer money, still
It'd be hateful for me to try it full time.
For all who do, I tip my hat to you....it's me, my personality would not fit well with it full time...which actually leads me to want to do a post about something related to this.

Sorry to get off topic. I feel like I am one of the more younger members here, and you all have more life experience than me. But if anyone does feel like you're going to get laid off, and your company doesn't have an unlimited PTO policy, consider saving/banking it to get paid out at the end.

Also, I've seen some layoffs turn out very differently than expected. Where you would expect the lowest performers / least experienced to get let go, but sometimes a director ends up getting cut for additional headcount / individual contributors (not contractors), and to eliminate an additional layer of management. Some with long tenure nearing retirement may voluntarily request to be laid off.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2025 03:55AM by Okie.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@mysterioso412 wrote:

Maybe stupidly, I’m also taking fewer mystery shopping jobs. I do it after my main job, but, I don’t take any now unless they are very high paying or literally on my way to/from work/other errands

That's not stupid at all. It's utilizing MS in a way that's beneficial to you , and you will get a higher average value for each shop that way.

Anyone losing their job and hoping to replace it with MSing is making the mistake IMHO. The best value of MSing work is augmenting traditional employment, or retirement/disability. It was never meant to be a full-time job and while some can make that work, those who are getting the best value from are not doing it full-time.

A big mistake I made long ago was relying on MS to get me through a period of unemployment, when I doubled down on the shopping. In retrospect, I could have cut back on MSing and invested more time into finding a new job, then recovered quicker.

Well said Steve, I'd summarize it this way...

MS'ing is to full time employment as coupon clipping is to full price shopping.

@Okie wrote:

Sorry to get off topic. I feel like I am one of the more younger members here, and you all have more life experience than me. But if anyone does feel like you're going to get laid off, and your company doesn't have an unlimited PTO policy, consider saving/banking it to get paid out at the end.

Also, I've seen some layoffs turn out very differently than expected. Where you would expect the lowest performers / least experienced to get let go, but sometimes a director ends up getting cut for additional headcount / individual contributors (not contractors), and to eliminate an additional layer of management. Some with long tenure nearing retirement may voluntarily request to be laid off.

My district just puts you on indefinite furlough, and in order to get severance pay, you have to resign or retire. You get $20 per day of banked leave, and if it’s over $500, you have to put it in a 403B, so you can’t really access it.

@mysterioso412 wrote:

@Okie wrote:

Sorry to get off topic. I feel like I am one of the more younger members here, and you all have more life experience than me. But if anyone does feel like you're going to get laid off, and your company doesn't have an unlimited PTO policy, consider saving/banking it to get paid out at the end.

Also, I've seen some layoffs turn out very differently than expected. Where you would expect the lowest performers / least experienced to get let go, but sometimes a director ends up getting cut for additional headcount / individual contributors (not contractors), and to eliminate an additional layer of management. Some with long tenure nearing retirement may voluntarily request to be laid off.

My district just puts you on indefinite furlough, and in order to get severance pay, you have to resign or retire. You get $20 per day of banked leave, and if it’s over $500, you have to put it in a 403B, so you can’t really access it.

That's horrible!

When I was younger, I worked at a company where there was little turnover, and it was not uncommon to see people who had worked there for over 20 years. I remember someone who was planning to retire, and wanted to get laid off when it came to that. She had been there 30 years and got two weeks of pay for every year. In a sense, that worked out, where it was like a going-away gift.

@mysterioso412 wrote:

@Okie wrote:

Sorry to get off topic. I feel like I am one of the more younger members here, and you all have more life experience than me. But if anyone does feel like you're going to get laid off, and your company doesn't have an unlimited PTO policy, consider saving/banking it to get paid out at the end.

Also, I've seen some layoffs turn out very differently than expected. Where you would expect the lowest performers / least experienced to get let go, but sometimes a director ends up getting cut for additional headcount / individual contributors (not contractors), and to eliminate an additional layer of management. Some with long tenure nearing retirement may voluntarily request to be laid off.

My district just puts you on indefinite furlough, and in order to get severance pay, you have to resign or retire. You get $20 per day of banked leave, and if it’s over $500, you have to put it in a 403B, so you can’t really access it.

There are many different ways companies deal with this stuff (And yes, Okie; You date yourself by even brining up unlimited PTO, which is a thing I often hear younger people talk about, but never have personally been offered).

In my industry you cannot bank years of back pay. At the end of each year, you are paid out for any unused vacation or PTO, and nobody takes it along the way. You just get the payout at end of the year and roll that into an IRA.

And your advice seems sound, but also backwards. This comment will in turn date me, but aren't you essentially saying that if you are concerned about being laid off, don't take PTO? As in...show up for work every day and do your job well? That's a better a recipe for not getting laid off than for having the cash reserves if you do.

The company I work for now offers unlimited PTO, but it's at the discretion of your manager/business unit. In the end, I heard that it averages out to what the standard PTO policy was a long time ago. The biggest disadvantage to this is that a company does not have to pay unused PTO when an employee leaves, because there is no PTO balance.

The company I worked for previously, you could carry an unused PTO balance into the next year. The balance maximum increased after certain milestones in length with the company, similar to a vesting schedule. For example, after three years, you could carry an even larger unused PTO balance. It provides an incentive to stay with the company long-term. For me, I carried a larger PTO balance that was carried forward, and that got included in my last paycheck.

I think your advice is sound. But for me, it was complicated. There was really no way to avoid it, where it was a larger business decision to eliminate a specific department and do a reorg.

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Just curious what do you see happening with mystery shopping this year.

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