How was your 2025?

[Fenixgoon]

So like a house of 3 now?

4 - us 2 and the 2 doggos 😀

 

[Exterous]

My wife moved into teaching after doing photography for decades. I applaud all teachers as their job is BONKERS these days in the post-COVID, always-connected, mid-AI world. We've had 3 full-time career teacher friends quit in the past couple of years due to how bad the modern situations are: more kids being downright awful (screen dopamine dependency, lack of parental enforcement, etc.), school admins letting parents bully them into submission, ChatGPT ruining everything, etc. My wife is lucky to be in a better situation, but man, the horror stories we hear these days coming out of different schools!!

I'm very grateful that my job has, so far, stayed out of the IT impact bubble. I focus mainly on small-biz admin support with a spectrum of on-prem support, as opposed to cloud-based stuff. It suits my ADHD quite well & keeps me engaged in ongoing professional education, as I tend to get painfully bored lol. AI is my primary focus going into 2026, which is scary because it's so powerful, yet so awful at the same time in many ways (job elimination, content slop, environmental impact, truth degradation, etc.).

Tell us more about Antarctica, that's AMAZING!!

There's no way my wife is making it to 25 years as a teacher. She'll probably be done at 20-22 from burn out. Which sucks because she's great at it.

On the IT side I'm hiring a manager for one of my teams right now and the applicant pool is crazy. So many well, and frankly, overqualified applicants. I normally struggle a bit for quality applicants because I can't compete quite as well on salary - my selling points are work life balance and job stability (I half joke my applicant pools are 'newer to the field' people and refugees from mega-corps who are burnt out on the hours). So to have this many candidates I can't help but wonder about the broader industry.

We're very excited about Antarctica. We've been saving for a while and finally found an option that worked timing wise (due to school calendar considerations) and budget. Lindblad was our first choice but their prices have been increasing almost as quickly as what we'd saved for the trip. Quark was a close second and who we ended up booking with. 11 day cruise. Less than 150 passengers and the focus is really around your time outside the ship (so not as fancy of a ship as other options and less onboard lectures while you're within landing distance. But who wants to spend more time on the ship??!!). Most of their ships are supposedly better adapted to the Drake's Passage than a lot of others and have a high ice strengthened hull rating - hopefully meaning more chances to get to cool areas where we can land. Already locked in an overnight camping night on Antarctica (weather permitting).

We booked a couple of days ago so now its time to wade into the T&Cs of travel/medical insurance options and assess our gear. We should be in pretty good gear shape given our trip to Iceland last December but we're going to need certain waterproof pants for the sea kayaking.

 

[IBMJunkman]

I haven't done serious web design in over 15 years & only got back into it in 2025 thanks to ChatGPT doing all of the design & integration work for me! I've been able to create some really wonderful custom solutions that were previously beyond the reach of my skills, focus, and finances, as well as tackle some great projects I've been meaning to get to for YEARS now!!

Side note: my very first college computer professor was on the original team that developed CAD for desktop computers 45+ years ago (she had absolutely INCREDIBLE stories!). She told us the story of when she went to college & they were doing punch cards for computer programming. Her classmate tripped on the way to their programming final exam & dropped like 100+ punch cards...no printers back to easily number the cards, so her friend just sat down & cried. I can't imagine the executive function that must have taken back in the day! These days, I do all of my design work in Plectica, build the coding components out in ChatGPT, then then iterate until stable...soooo much easier!!

Back in school, I also learned the story of a PhD student who lost 5+ years of work due to a laptop hard drive failure. That story & the punch card story are the primary reasons I have such a strong backup system in place today for my customers & my personal data. Few things are worse than losing YEARS of work with no recovery option!!

Being raised in the mainframe world the word backup is not foreign to me. But as an individual I probably can’t afford an Iron Mountain account. So, after major code changes or database updates, I make 3 thumb drive copies of everything. 1 goes in my safe. The other 2 go into the safes of 2 shooting buddies. All the important folders, email, financial, documents, source, website images, etc get copied to a drive based on the day of the week by my shutdown batch file. In my system the son, father, grandfather backup concept is 7 generations deep.

 

[bbhaag]

Overall 2025 was a level year for us. After several years of ups and downs it was nice to find 2025 being more even.

On the personal side I sobered up and got my relationship with my wife and kids back on track. After years of struggle this was big for me and my family. Our oldest child finally stepped out on their own and moved out in their own place. Our youngest started college this year and while it started off rocky he found his groove and settled in.

On the business side it was a really solid year. Sales were up 10% YOY which is fantastic considering we had a two year slump were sales were flat. It was great to see that uptick in sales and customer growth again.

 

[nisryus]

2025 has been so-so for me and the family. Career wise nothing exciting as having a job now is a win.

Kid is doing fine at school and has a crush on a girl in his study group... so when he's home for the holidays I been taking him to shop for new cloths, get hair cut, get men's beauty products (*cough couch, i know, i know, but he really needs cleanser and stuffs).

Today he almost bought cologne while we were at the mall, but he couldn't decided which one. Being a helpful dad, i told him get Old Spice. (The wife rolled her eyes)

Wife's cancer battle is over and everything is back to normal. Hopefully everyone in the family will stay healthy.

*we just visited like three different nurseries today looking at trees. If I live up mid-west I would definitely give bbhaag my business!

 

[Dr. Detroit]

I quite enjoyed 2025 and am more than content on where I ended up for the year.

On a professional level I've hired 4 new team members, got a new boss who appreciates what I do with zero micromanaging, received an above avg 4.3% raise, and got a hefty RSU award. Wish the company stock was performing better but am looking to vest out my retention bonus this year. I think this was my lowest stress year in almost 30yrs of full time employment.

Personally, I had some great vacations, saw some amazing concerts, drank a lot of great beer, and my blood work all came back very positive - although I need to drop 20lbs. I cycled over 1000 miles, rowed ~400,000-meters, and hiked over 200 miles.

Big goals for 2026 are to read more literature, hit the fitness harder and get back to lifting again.
I also really need to figure out my retirement and decide on when, where, & what. It's easier to just work but I really need to to shift that mindset.

 

[BoomerD]

2025 was...OK. Inflation hit our finances pretty hard...and the residual medical bills from my wife's stroke in Dec. 23 and her after care keep adding up. I've had my share of medical issues...nothing "life or death serious," but the bills for all the specialist doctors and myriad of tests have added to the financial hits.

However, we celebrated 50 years married this past June...and we still like each other, (most of the time) plus, despite our various medical complaints, we're still on the right side of the grass.

 

[brianmanahan]

a big chunk of the year was 50-60 hour work weeks

i'm guessing 2026 will be almost completely 60 hour weeks. they don't want me taking any vacation days at all until starting in september.

all this for a %2.5 raise and a 7$k bonus...

 

[Brainonska511]

a big chunk of the year was 50-60 hour work weeks

i'm guessing 2026 will be almost completely 60 hour weeks. they don't want me taking any vacation days at all until starting in september.

all this for a %2.5 raise and a 7$k bonus...

Are you salary? If so, why even work so much if they don't appreciate it and are inhibiting you from using part of your compensation? Take a page out of Peter Gibbon's book.

 

[Red Squirrel]

2.5% raise and 7k bonus sounds nice though, but I don't know if it's worth working that much non stop with no time off. Not like you even have time to yourself to enjoy that extra money. In fact I would hate going back to just straight 40 hours. I rather work more hours one week then get time off. I work a mix of 12 and 8 so the more 12 I work the more time off I get. In average it works out to 40 hour weeks.

 

[lxskllr]

I like working less than 40 a week. If I had to do 40, I think I'd want four 10s. The day's already ruined, and two more hours isn't a big deal to get another whole day to myself.

 

[jpiniero]

Are you salary? If so, why even work so much if they don't appreciate it and are inhibiting you from using part of your compensation? Take a page out of Peter Gibbon's book.

He likes being employed obviously.

 

[Brainonska511]

He likes being employed obviously.

I like being employed to. It doesn't mean you need to be a bootlicker and put up with being abused by your employer.

 

[jpiniero]

I like being employed to. It doesn't mean you need to be a bootlicker and put up with being abused by your employer.

Try paying the bills with that kind of attitude.

There's a lot of jobs that are only still in the US because they are able to make salaried workers work extra hours without paying OT. Those "Big 4" public accounting companies are the first thing that comes to mind.

 

[brianmanahan]

Are you salary? If so, why even work so much if they don't appreciate it and are inhibiting you from using part of your compensation? Take a page out of Peter Gibbon's book.

because they just recently made overtime mandatory, and if we don't get this project finished by the planned date then we're probably all fired. a decent portion of us might be even if we do finish on time.

i've been "on vacation" but working through my vacation to try to keep from falling behind.

 

[brianmanahan]

Try paying the bills with that kind of attitude.

There's a lot of jobs that are only still in the US because they are able to make salaried workers work extra hours without paying OT. Those "Big 4" public accounting companies are the first thing that comes to mind.

exactly. there have already been other projects where they decided to outsource to some third party, and got to fire 30 or 40 people in the process.

 

[Brainonska511]

Try paying the bills with that kind of attitude.

I do just fine paying my bills with exactly this kind of attitude. Thanks for your concern.

There's a lot of jobs that are only still in the US because they are able to make salaried workers work extra hours without paying OT. Those "Big 4" public accounting companies are the first thing that comes to mind.

If you're going to make people work an OT job, it should be coming with the salary premium to match. People at big consulting firms and whatnot work a lot, but at least their pay is commensurate with the hours they are putting in as they work themselves to death.

 

[Fenixgoon]

2.5% raise and 7k bonus sounds nice though, but I don't know if it's worth working that much non stop with no time off. Not like you even have time to yourself to enjoy that extra money. In fact I would hate going back to just straight 40 hours. I rather work more hours one week then get time off. I work a mix of 12 and 8 so the more 12 I work the more time off I get. In average it works out to 40 hour weeks.

I'd be dead tired of working 125-150% of normal time for a 2.5% raise. I'd absolutely be looking for a place that values me and my time more.

Edit: the company is getting a 10:1 or 20:1 return on its investment. Abd that assumes they're feeling generous to give the raise and bonus in the first place. They might decide 0 is a much better number consistent with business financial goals, and then our good friend worked his ass off for nothing other than to keep his job that the company will say he should be grateful for.

One of the best things you can do, if you can do it, is to vote with your feet.

That got me a new job with a huge raise, a better bonus, less stress, and in a lower cost of living area. And i probably avoided a layoff at my old job too.

 

[Chaotic42]

I like working less than 40 a week. If I had to do 40, I think I'd want four 10s. The day's already ruined, and two more hours isn't a big deal to get another whole day to myself.

I switched to 4x10 and I love it.

 

[kranky]

2025 was OK. Too much dental work which will continue through April. Finances are OK. Wife is happy. No big car problems. Am a little concerned that I don't like socializing with friends as much as I once did, and I don't want to become a hermit, so I need to work on that.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I had a summer job like that as a student and loved it. Got 3 day weekends so could still go out camping and such and actually enjoy my summer.

 

[Fenixgoon]

2025 was OK. Too much dental work which will continue through April. Finances are OK. Wife is happy. No big car problems. Am a little concerned that I don't like socializing with friends as much as I once did, and I don't want to become a hermit, so I need to work on that.

Thats why you have us! 🤣

 

[nakedfrog]

Worst year of the decade so far for me, but I had a pretty good run leading up to it (and it wasn't actually all that bad). Pretty sure I've got some kind of age-related shoulder thing going on, started noticing it sometime in the summer and it's slowly been getting worse. Tried to set up an appointment in early December, but since we're switching insurance companies was advised that by the time the pre-auth referral was obtained it might not be valid with the new company (just resubmitted today).
Got on my HOA board because it was mostly full of pricks, resigned a year early because they voted for even prickier pricks who ran on a campaign fueled by bullshit and I'm not going to waste my time with it if that's what they want.
And the whole US government fiasco directly hurting a number of my friends and targeting me hasn't been super great either.
But I put together a folk band out of the remnants of a dissolved band and a violinist who was new to town and looking for opportunities, and we gel really well together socially and musically, got a paying gig lined up in March. Saw some cool concerts, learned to screen-print my own shirts, hiked 736 miles & 130k feet in elevation gain.

 

[lxskllr]

Pretty sure I've got some kind of age-related shoulder thing going on, started noticing it sometime in the summer and it's slowly been getting worse.

Could it be related to guitar, and posture? Long shot, but maybe try paying attention when you're standing, and see if things feel weird. If so, that would be lucky. It's easy to change guitar posture.

 

[MrSquished]

2025 was pretty good, all things considering. On a micro level, since the macro level is so fucked. The whole fascism thing is a huge downer, so this is the time to focus on the smaller picture stuff basically. The way I put it on one of my dating profiles 'Practice responsible hedonism in order to fight fascism' - you can't let it drag you down into misery.

I have really tried to focus on relationships, whether friends or family, or sexual - and enjoying the ridiculously amazing amenities that I get access to right here next to NYC. The food, the art, the culture, the diversity. Time to enjoy what we have around us all the time, while it is still allowed to exist. I have always done this and consider myself so blessed for where I get to live, but am now really trying to focus even more so on that.

This could only happen if I reduced political news interactions. I totally cut off all social media access for myself early last year - as in deleted FB, Insta, Threads, and Bluesky. Twitter was already finished for me.

I stayed on reddit, I only browse and do not comment, and the only subreddits I put in my feed are purely non-political - I edited that list down quite a bit.

P&N I got banned from for a couple of months, and then I gave myself another two months off just for myself to take a step back. I have cut my reading of political news drastically, and tv related to politics to a very small amount. I do always keep up on current events but I do not read nearly as much copy as before - just getting in the key facts - and occasionally reading some longer analysis. But I did go to multiple protests, from small ones at the NYC Tesla dealership, to the big No Kings marches, in no way am I just totally tuned out and just focusing on pleasure.

I did have a shake up career wise mid-year, and at the time it was a bit scary but I made a move to a different group and it all ended up for the better. So nerve-wracking for a bit, but ended up being a positive thing which I have to take advantage of this year.

2025 did a family trip to Venice and the Dolomites, plus visted my best friend in Denver for a week, and saw two bucket list concerts at Red Rocks. Two trips that didn't just live up to the hype, but exceeded it.

This year is a 10-day family trip to Yosemite & Sequoia national parks plus King's Canyon, and planning to go back to Denver for another week.