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Thursday, 10 April 2008
- 9:27 AM : Stop yanking my chain please
This is intended to be a quick, short entry. I just needed to gripe. I think I mentioned I sent my CV in to a contact, and she forwarded it on to her minions? Well last week I had a "meeting" and they were talking about a position involving basic shitkicker work for two days a week for 5 and a half hours a day, which was a bit more hours than I wanted, but I looked into extra day care for both boys and I could possibly come out of it with a couple of dollars left over after parking costs too so was willing to give it a try. Women I met with said they'd give me a call on Monday (this Monday gone). Phones never rang. In the mean time I rearranged Les' swimming lessons for next term to a different day to leave me free if this job eventuated. Tuesday, I got a call from a different woman, and naive me thought this was probably someone higher up the food chain in charge of the area where this possible job was. So I said "yes I'd love to come down and see you and do your typing test". Soooo, off I went, thinking this next meeting was about the same job, but it turns out this was an entirely different area, and the jobs they want filled are full time days at SEVEN AND A HALF GODDAMN HOURS, one for 5 days a week and one for 2 days a week. I already mentioned on the phone to the woman that I wanted work during school hours and 2-3 days per week. Obviously I was not prescriptive enough. And I had a problem with the office, it had a HUGE laser printer on the desk return (!), a laser fax on the cabinet behind it and a gigantic busy photocopier next to that, all in a tiny stuffy room. I felt nauseous the moment I walked in (I'm sensitive to ozone fumes) and I mentioned that I had a problem with that. I also mentioned that it was bad for lung health to be constantly exposed to that, and the woman's face went dark. Ahem. IMHO she should know better, and I was tempted to tell her to google "printer fumes Morawska" and have a read. This was known before Dr Morawska's study, I was actually told it as far back as 1987 when trying to get a large HP dinosaur moved from next to me as I was constantly feeling like vomiting during working hours from its fumes. I don’t think I’ll be hearing from that lady about that particular job! This time they really yanked my chain. If I get any more calls about working for this particular organisation, I am going to be very firm about what I’m looking for and I’m not dragging my behind down there again during my valuable kid free time if it’s for something that doesn’t suit my needs. I have realised that this organisation obviously has no co-ordination between different areas, no central Human Resources Unit on site to evaluate people, it's all done piece meal. Do I really want to work somewhere like that? Compared to my ex-work, particularly being in a fun team of fellow Generation X people, places like this organisation pale in comparison. I don’t want to go back to full time secretarial. If I’m going to work full time, I’d give ex-work a call and go back there, better the devil you know. They might offer me a help desk job which would be the bees knees. But I’m not, (working full time) so that’s a moot point. And another thing, His Lordship has an issue with the proposed pay rate. They said about $19.50 an hour which I thought was OK as it's a bit more than what I was on 6 years ago before I quit after giving birth to Little H. There are temp jobs out there trumpeting $21-$22 an hour for full time PA's. But His Lordship reckons that totally sucks and it's not worth it, especially if we have to fork out for extra day care and parking, and having no idea what I'd be taxed on that. I think he may have thought I would be earning lots more and getting free onsite parking (yeah, right). Sigh. And on another point. I went to see my trusted women's health professional. She gave me a label to think about. "reactive depression". Interesting googling. I am going to see about some counseling, to help me come to terms with whatever it is that is giving me the whoops. In the mean time, thinking about going back to a bit of work is keeping me feeling happy, as is finally ripping our CD collection slowly into MP3's. Time for a cup of tea.
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