Been there, done that - and everytime I’ve left what was supposed to be a “permanent” job it was because I was totally fed up with playing the stupid games and dealing with the other employees. Which is why my pay has been steadily going down with each job instead of increasing with each job.
I started right out of high school with some fairly decent clerk-typist jobs, but they were temporary.
Then when I was 21 I landed in directory assistance at the phone company. When I first started, they didn’t use computers - we had huge paper phone books that were reprinted monthly with updates every few days, and the average work time was 35 seconds. That was, we were allowed 35 seconds to answer the call, find out what the customer wanted, find the correct number, and tell it to the customer. And wait while they got paper and pencil. And repeat it four or five times because the kids were screaming and the TV was blaring away and they were too drunk to remember what we said anyway. I stayed in that job for 13 years, going from making around $200 a week to making about $450 a week, with 3 weeks vacation and medical and dental benefits.
Still staying with the phone company, I transferred to an office job. After a couple of years, I had my baby and I wanted to work just part time, but the manager said “that’s not the way we do things here.” So I got mad and quit.
We tried living on my husband’s profits from the used book store, but that didn’t work. So I tried selling Tupperware. 30% commission on the sales doesn’t go far when you constantly have to buy new products to have to show your customers.
Took a job as a telemarketer for about a month. That sucked. Quit.
Went back to the phone company as a term temp in directory assistance, and after 2 years they laid off all the term temps. They did pay for retraining, because they knew they were going to be closing the Spokane office soon.
Went to college and got an AAS degree in “greenhouse/nursery management” - which landed me a grunt job in a local nursery watering the plants.
The phone company was hiring more term temps for directory assistance again, so I went back for the money. They only kept the term temps for 6 months this time.
Then I got a temporary job with the Census Bureau doing the background work to prepare for the census.
After that ended, I drifted into medical transcription. I orginally was hired as their courier, then one day the manager asked me to type a psych report because that was so simple anyone could do it, even without medical terminology training. Was there for almost 5 years. Got paid by the line and had to type pretty much 9 hours a day without even taking a lunch break to make any money. My eyes were getting worse and worse, and I never got compliments, I was only told every picky little thing I did wrong. Finally blew up and quit.
Took a job calling people to conduct surveys, but between having to work with ex-junkies and lie to the people we called, I got fed up with that real quick and quit.
All along I had been helping in my husband’s bookstore when he needed a day off so I knew how to cashier.
3 years ago I got my current job as a cashier at a garden center/pet store. I’m glad I don’t work in the pet room or I would have quit ages ago over how poorly they treat the animals. Minimum wage (which is $8.07 an hour in Washington State) and only medical insurance for me, and I have to pay part of the premiums myself. If I wanted to add my husband and daughter it would take 2 weeks pay every month.
Maybe someday I’ll find a job I like where I make enough money to take lots of time off so I can do things I really enjoy. Until then:
It’s not my job to run the train.
The whistle I can’t blow.
It’s not my job to say how far the train’s allowed to go.
It’s not my job to let off steam or even clang the bell.
But let the darn thing jump the track.
And see who catches HELL.
Depending on the other factors, I might be willing to give up the classes for a shorter commute!