fuck this job.com

So, I've had two interviews, now and an informal job offer from another office within my current organization. Very exciting!

being treated like a child.

Not to over-post, or beat the dead horse here, but if I do get the job I'm interviewing for on Wednesday, I will welcome the prospect of being treated like an adult. It's true, I look about 22, but I'm 30 and would generally appreciate being treated like a competent human being.

I know, I know...I want the world and more.

I don't want to jinx myself, but I may not be hanging around here much longer. I have a job interview on Wednesday - it's within the same organization, but an entirely different department and appears to be a small, friendly group of people.

I can dream, right?

The timing couldn't better. I can't stand this place anymore - can't stand the people, the sight of it, the upper-levels, my cohort...none of it. I'm having a hard time being civil to people, let along helpful or god forbid friendly. Most days I wear headphones with no music playing, just so people will stay away.

So my boss forwarded me an email he received from a Higher-Upper. It was a diatribe of how wrongly I handled the task of collecting quarterly reports. What exactly, you may ask, was my offensive behavior?

I am not this job. This job is not me.

This is a job, not a career. Definitely not MY career.

This job is how I pay my rent. I love my apartment.

This job is how I pay my student loans. I loved being a student.

This job is how I save money for retirement. (I will be able to retire someday. I hope)

This job puts food in our mouths. I keeps us alive.

This job is how we save to take our dream trip to Italy. (In two years.)

This job is something to put on my resume so that I may find a better job where hopefully they will not treat me like a three-year-old. One can hope, anyway.

Just a quick blog to say how tired I am.

Tired of being treated like a second class citizen. Tired of people I help lying about how I do or don't help them (mostly them denying what I do do). Tired of asshole officemates and small talk.

Problem is, I have no solution. Going into business for myself would be far too an expensive endeavor. It also wouldn't match my skills very well.

Does anyone have a job they like? (Heirs and heiresses don't count.) I'm not asking to be rich. Hell, I'm not even asking for fulfillment, just a little piece of contentment.

This job makes me feel like slime.

My splendid co-worker - the hostile one whom EVERYONE in our department has a problem with or complaint about. The one who makes the LOUDEST phone calls on earth. The one who has the LOUDEST conversations with other coworkers and during these conversations tells them the same monotonous, boring stories about his ugly little grandson. The coworker who is famous for needlessly curt emails and is often purposely unhelpful. The one spends his whole day going back and forth between his cubicle and the department manager's for no real reason other than poking his head into other people's business and having no actual social life outside the workplace. The one who meddles in everyone else's affairs. The one who oozes all over any decent looking woman under the age of 35 who comes within a 10 foot radius of him...had the gall to tell me that I should keep my personal calls to a minimum.

Happy New Year, everybody.

I haven't posted in a while, not that you necessarily noticed (I don't expect anyone did), but my absence has not been due to workplace contentment, it's just that the time leading up to the holidaze sucked the life right out of me. Anyway. I'm back at work - things restarted here last Thursday, but were in full swing as of yesterday. Nothing has changed: my new office situation still sucks. I share space with 3 people: one is hostile, cold and overall just a horrid person who should have her own office and be far, far away from everyone else; one is dumb and relatively useless - he wouldn't be a problem if he didn't talk so fucking much; and one is very nice - I'd share an office with her any time, all the time. But they are not really what I'm here to complain about.

So, my husband was just notified that he didn't get yet another job he's perfectly qualified for. Over-qualified, really. This is starting to bum me out and scare me - his student loans start streaming in for repayment next month. And this naturally hinders my own job search - I simply cannot make less than I'm currently earning. Given my interests (non profit), this isn't going to result in a new job anytime soon.

So here I am. I hate it here. I'm feeling trapped by the bullshit job, again.

Sorry to be so negative on Monday - as if that weren't reason enough.

OK, my last post for the day...provided people leave me alone...

I need some advice. I'm now actively seeking a new job. This is the first real job I've had since taking a 3 year hiatus to attend graduate school, so I'm compelled to use my current boss(es) for references.

Do I tell them I'm actively seek employment elsewhere or wait until someone calls looking for a reference?

What you have you all done in the past? This is a new one on me. Usually I quit because I'm moving.

Thanks,
PWADJ

So...my friend at work (I'll call her Joyce) was pulled aside by one of our managers because he, the manager, thinks I am brainwashing Joyce.

What?

Now, if you've read my previous posts, you'll notice that I am very unhappy at work lately. However, Joyce hasn't been terribly charmed by this workplace, either. We have similar, but mostly separate jobs, so my dissatisfaction is mine, and hers is hers.

The manager felt the need to bring this up because we took a longer-than-usual break together yesterday. Sure, we were probably out of line to take a 40 minute coffee break (though, it was my first break of ANY kind in three days), but how this translates in me brain-washing her, is beyond me. Especially because this manager has no idea what we may have been talking about. We were discussing the need to look for new jobs, but this was a conclusion we came to separately. In fact, a lot of people in my cohort are looking for new jobs. A lot of nice, easy-to-work with, smart people. Hmmmm, I wonder if it's us, or the department?

That's it. I'm officially hunting for a new job. What was going to be casual, window-shopping approach will now be a full-force, all hands on deck, out-and-out search. I've had the longest week of my life. Monday and Tuesday were busy. So fucking busy that the only breaks I got were to piss. Why? Because I believe in doing a good job. Perhaps it was a bad judgment call, but oh, I don't know, crazy me wants to do a thorough job. Yesterday I went for a one hour break - and caught shit from my supervisor. She was worried about the "perception" that my officemates might have gathered from my break.

So, I mentioned in an earlier posting that I've been feeling paranoid lately.

Annnnnd...I mentioned in my very last post that I was summoned to a meeting with both of my supervisors.

I have now learned that my instincts are frighteningly sound.

I was informed today that my duties are being reduced and they are moving me from my peaceful, cozy office to a cube wherein my nearest neighbor is the department asshole. All because the executive office is out to get us and, well, I'm taking the fall. I was supporting the (I'll call her) branch supervisor and her staff - people I love dearly, the only nice people in the dept, if you ask me. Now I'm to focus on a different part of my job and support people who don't need support, shoved in an office with 3 other people: the retarded HR woman, a very nice, boring finance woman, and the dreaded finance bitch who pretty much no one can get along with - every last person finds her difficult, AT BEST.

Just got a memo that my standard, weekly meeting with one of my supervisors will not include BOTH supervisors. Ugh. I can't help but be worried about this. I can't be fired, not that I think it will happen, but it's pretty much impossible to fire people for under-performing here. Nonetheless, I feel my response time has been good and I'm more on top of my work than ever. Still, I'm mentally shitting my pants.

I don't have anything specific to bitch about today. Things are rolling along OK here. I still hate my job, my supervisors are pretty impossible to please and my husband is still jobless. He's been temping in my office and has had had some good interviews, but he always seems to come in second. He's been looking since June so pretty much, after tomorrow, his search will have been going on for 5 solid months. It's discouraging and of course, demeaning, as most job searches are. I'm pretty frustrated, but he's sending his resume everywhere, looking outside his area of expertise, following every lead - it's definitely not his fault, he's putting all his effort into it...still, nothing. His student loans come due next month and while we can afford to pay them, it's going to make finances tighter and, well, I'm just feeling overwhelmed, carrying the household, providing all the income. I would like to seek new employment, but certainly cannot until he has a stable, sure job. And the thing is, he's probably going to get sucked into a job as unfulfilling as mine is, which is a fate I wish on no one. All of this - his struggle for employment, my dissatisfaction with my dead-end job, just have me feeling blue. I don't want to be rich, I truly don't, but feeling needed and productive would be great. I don't even feel like a worker bee. I'm more of a worker ant. I'm very small, around here. I am all for humility, but feeling like dirt is not wonderful. Feeling used or unappreciated, is not great, either.