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Post by BJ on May 2, 2011 18:07:16 GMT -5
As someone whose phone number is always "867-5309" and zip code is always 90210", I understand your pain. I don't actually feel sorry for you, because I hate those questions, but I understand.
And this, from Mrs Torgo's post, is hilarious.
"Either you trust us with an everyday modern transaction or you don't. If you don't, quit calling and go live in your off the grid cabin and grow chard and polish your shotgun."
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Post by mrsphyllistorgo on May 2, 2011 18:20:34 GMT -5
So, Katie, you worked at Borders?
What? Of course my husband and I didn't meet at Borders a few years ago while we were both chafing under its increasingly idiotic decisions streaming in from the main office while telling the perverts to not take the nudie mags into the children's section and getting screamed at by customers who didn't want to give out their emails while trying to buy a newspaper. And of course I didn't get fired and my husband didn't basically tell the management that he was quitting so they could blow said policies out their butts, and of course reading about Borders bankruptcy gave me no feeling of deep, personal satisfaction.
Heavens, no.
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Post by Don Quixote on May 7, 2011 8:37:27 GMT -5
Two things I'm not crazy about regarding my job:
1) The waste. The State mismanages their money a bit, and I'm sure it's tied up in things that I can't begin to fathom, but I can't see why certain processes can't be streamlined.
2) The drive. I drive a total of three hours every day going to and from work. But, I can put in for a transfer after a year. Or, I can look for an apartment, since I'm spending about as much as rent would be for a studio in a month on gas.
Overall, though, I'm stoked to have a job and to have a place to go every day. I was unemployed for too long to complain about employment, really.
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Post by Cerrita on May 18, 2011 22:11:00 GMT -5
My coworkers don't really bug me that often. Now the people who call me? YOU ARE A NUMBER. YOU WERE ASSIGNED A NUMBER FOR A REASON. WE ARE A BIG UNFEELING CORPORATION AND YOU ARE A BLIP IN OUR DATABASE. THAT WILL NEVER GO AWAY UNLESS YOU STOP SQUIRTING OUT BABIES. SO FOR THE LOVE OF LITTLE GREEN APPLES, WHEN THE PHONE ASKS YOU TO TYPE IN YOUR NUMBER, DO IT. MAKE YOUR LIFE AND MINE EASIER. AND NO, WE'RE NOT GETTING RID OF THE AUTOMATED PHONE MESSAGES EITHER. That felt good! I have no issue with automated phones. They can, at times, go quite smoothly. What I don't like about them is when you reach a dead end that says "see our website bla bla bla for your answer", and when I go to the site, it gives me "call number bla bla bla for your answer".
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Post by Cerrita on May 18, 2011 22:14:58 GMT -5
Overall, though, I'm stoked to have a job and to have a place to go every day. I was unemployed for too long to complain about employment, really. If you know anyone who needs an engineering or technician job and is willing to move, my company has hundreds of openings in the US and all over the world.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on May 18, 2011 22:18:23 GMT -5
Teaching would be great if it weren't for all the goddam students. They're all like, "Grade my papers!" and "How could I fail? I didn't even turn in the assignment!" and "I can't read!" I mean, really, I've got important things to say, and I can't be bothered with worrying about whether they care or are engaged or (quote-unquote) "understand" me. I'm the one standing up and talking, dammit! I'm the center of attention, not them and their petty problems like "Day care closed and I can't come to class" or "My house was flooded" or "Someone jumped me at the bus stop and stole my backpack with the laptop, text books, and all my credit cards and identification!" WHO CARES!? I've got brilliant things to say about Shakespeare!
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Post by Cerrita on May 20, 2011 23:11:22 GMT -5
Teaching would be great if it weren't for all the goddam students. They're all like, "Grade my papers!" and "How could I fail? I didn't even turn in the assignment!" and "I can't read!" I mean, really, I've got important things to say, and I can't be bothered with worrying about whether they care or are engaged or (quote-unquote) "understand" me. I'm the one standing up and talking, dammit! I'm the center of attention, not them and their petty problems like "Day care closed and I can't come to class" or "My house was flooded" or "Someone jumped me at the bus stop and stole my backpack with the laptop, text books, and all my credit cards and identification!" WHO CARES!? I've got brilliant things to say about Shakespeare! I had a teacher like that. In lieu of the test, he once spent all period giving us his opinion about his first experience at a whorehouse.
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Post by Grape on May 21, 2011 12:07:33 GMT -5
Teaching would be great if it weren't for all the goddam students. They're all like, "Grade my papers!" and "How could I fail? I didn't even turn in the assignment!" and "I can't read!" I mean, really, I've got important things to say, and I can't be bothered with worrying about whether they care or are engaged or (quote-unquote) "understand" me. I'm the one standing up and talking, dammit! I'm the center of attention, not them and their petty problems like "Day care closed and I can't come to class" or "My house was flooded" or "Someone jumped me at the bus stop and stole my backpack with the laptop, text books, and all my credit cards and identification!" WHO CARES!? I've got brilliant things to say about Shakespeare! I had a teacher like that. In lieu of the test, he once spent all period giving us his opinion about his first experience at a whorehouse. Well, it's quite a change in career but good luck to the fella.
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Post by Skyroniter on May 21, 2011 12:48:56 GMT -5
How about: I'm the only person that shows up on weekends to work? This is an IT job for a university, and usually there are 3 people who are scheduled to work Sat/Sun. Basically, the place would not be open without me showing up. How do you think I should handle it? Quit showing up.
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Post by Mighty Jack on May 25, 2011 0:52:22 GMT -5
It's funny, we spend so many hours of our lives in places we hate, so we can get money, so we can give most of that money away to our landlords and electric companies and what not, so that we are not stuck sleeping outside etc. And with whats left we buy alcohol to kill the pain brought about by the working and the bill paying... Now, I'm glad I have a job and the food and the electricity and the booze, but it does seem an oddity, spending so much time in misery-ville. Clock-watching (only 5 hours till I make my escape... woo-hoo!) I wonder what it's like to have a job you like? Or is at least fulfilling? Once, I took about 6 months off, lived off savings, so I could focus on my music (I could make some money with the music, but it was about half of what I made at work). While I was home I played house husband. My wife liked coming home to clean house and dinner on the table. I took care of the bills and the chores (cooking, cleaning etc) and the cat litter and the vet visits and the car/home repairs, etc... and then at night I might play a gig, or do some writing, recording or promoting. It was a lot, A LOT, of hard work, but I loved it. It was actually fulfilling, I felt like I was doing something that mattered and was appreciated. It was then I realized I didn't hate work because I was lazy, I hated work - my job(s) because it was useless in and of itself (a part from the money I made) Ah well, that's enough of a work rant --- I havn;t slept in 4 days (which really makes work extra sucky, BTW), I hope some of this makes sense
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Post by mrsphyllistorgo on May 28, 2011 11:48:22 GMT -5
I wonder what it's like to have a job you like? Or is at least fulfilling? I have often wondered that myself. The problem with first world education is that the minority who can afford it get told "you can do whatever you want! Pursue your dreams!" in exchange for handing over unholy sums/garnering massive student loans to said education despenser. Nobody pays a gazillion dollars a year in tuition and books and dorm fees and so on to hear "You will be fortunate to find a job that lets you pay off your debts in twenty years, your major is more worthless than Confederate currency, and any job you do find will keep you under 40 hours a week so you can't get health insurance. Also, forget about owning a house. Really. Forget it. By the way, the aging process starts to accelerate expodentially from here on out. You will not believe how old you get, or how fast." What? NO, I don't have a degree in theater! Shut up!
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Post by Mitchell on May 29, 2011 12:25:45 GMT -5
I disagree with that completely.
Those who can afford it don't take out loans.
I don't know very many people who have applied themselves after college that aren't working full-time, or without benefits. I guess it depends on the major, and I generally know people in applied sciences, so my experiences may be skewed.
This economy is challenging and many people are under-employed, but I seriously only know one person who is in the situation you describe, even though he works hard to apply himself; but he also may be geographically limited.
I have found that it's more about the tradeoffs and choices one makes or is willing to make (i.e. what work is one willing to do? What sacrifices is one willing to make? Is one willing to leave their extended family and move to another area of the country?), rather than anything wrong with "first world education." Some people value those things, balance, family, hell even their beer-drinking time (I grew up in a very blue-collar environment) than career. And that's fine, but every choice costs something, either in lifestyle or in job.
The implication is that some Soviet or some third-world system is better; and seeing how many Russians, Indians, Arabs and Asians of all sorts come here to get educated or work, I don't think the problem lies within Western post-secondary education. Plus there seems to be a lot of people who own houses for it to be something we all should forget about.
Very, very few, I would even suggest no-one, in this country is powerless to change their station. As much as using myself is a logical fallacy, I've done it. I've worked long hours, many jobs, and suffered through a decade of part-time college to do it. My family was blue-collar, my father was out of work two years of every three, and my first "real" job was in a foundry.
And here I am, living the dream of moderating a long-canceled puppet show message board.
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Post by Frameous on May 29, 2011 13:35:50 GMT -5
I'm pretty happy to be back into the 9-5 swing of things after my first ever stretch of unemployment and semi-employment. But I really had to take a look in the mirror when I found myself asking my sister 'Is it wrong that I've only had this job three days and there is already someone I can't stand?' I've never had a job I've loved, so basically all I want out of it is to make a living and work among civilized, decent people.
My last job was a zoo. They hired through contractors, so basically the dregs of society who can type 30 words per minute and "pass" a drug screen. What you get are the most belligerent, uneducated, uncouth, double negative using, sweat pants wearing, fist fight in the parking lot having customer service agents who we've all had the pleasure of dealing with. And none of those qualities were age, race, or gender specific or exclusive.
There was the blow hard who was "allergic" to deodorant. Turns out he's allergic to working as well, despite him still having his job where I was laid off. Then there was the guy who came back to lunch reeking of so much gin we had to have a meeting about it. One of those 'we won't punish the individual but punish the whole team' meetings. Meanwhile, two co-workers were fired after the janitor caught them having sex in an empty conference room. Let's not forget the supervisor who was discharged for sending around inappropriate emails and "fraternizing" with the females. And of course there is the pot luck "organizer" who collects anywhere from $50-75 from the team and produces paper plates (that have already been opened and used) and a veggie tray. I'm not kidding.
This new job is nothing like that. Still, there is a person who just grates on my nerves. And I know it's not just me, but I'm the only one who has close to zero tolerance when it comes to her endless yammering. She has no interior monologue, so anything that passes through her grey matter just staggers out her mouth in her Tom Waits Marlboro voice. She is also one of these people, you've probably met a few, who thinks everything she says is not only important, but hilarious, and punctuates her sentences with canned laughter that is trying to invite others to join in. I just about went on a rampage when she got off a "stressful" call and said she needed to go out side and have a "ciggy-poo".
When I feel like I'm gonna lose it on her, I just take a deep breath and think about my last job. The place where one afternoon someone basically took a dump in the hallway in front of the bathroom. The place where, although this was after I left, someone slipped on and fell in human waste in the restroom, and was docked attendance points and pay to go home and change. A place where a dumpy middle aged woman fell asleep on the love seat in the break room and her belly and half her bosom fell out of her shirt for all to see.
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Post by Mighty Jack on May 29, 2011 16:34:05 GMT -5
^ Jesus, I'll never complain about my jobs again. LMAO.
People can be hell, so now I have a job where I work mostly alone. But it's a trade-off- Yes, I no longer have the stress and upset of fool co-workers. But I also miss those handful of decent, cool folks I got to see every day. (and when I do have to deal with people, sadly they are the crazies, drunks, or garden variety dickweed... which doesn't give me a positive outlook on the human race)
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Post by mummifiedstalin on May 31, 2011 23:25:19 GMT -5
I believe in marrying well. I'm a trophy wife. (I'm not joking.)
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