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The End is Near. (Not furry. Not funny.)
12 years ago
Ok, pretty much nobody is going to see this, but as I've said before, sometimes it helps me to write it down.
My job is ending. Probably in a couple of months. 7 years of working there, called out like twice in that time, always volunteered for holidays and overtime, a total of 15 years of experience with hardware and software... but it's no match for someone with a college degree in culinary arts who had to have the start button explained to her. Because that's SO helpful for helpdesk work. A manager who'd been there for more than 30 years was forced to retire because she didn't have a degree. Meanwhile, a friend who has not one, not two, but THREE degrees in things actually relevant to the job (computer security, another computer one I can't remember, and business management) is basically shoved out.
A little over a year ago, I was shuffled from the helpdesk job I'd had for 6 years to commercial stuff only. I work for a phone company (can you hear it?) doing tech support for internal employees, and for external commercial customers like the shipping company with the red and blue logo and the coffee that America gets the runs from. We went from around 50 people to 16. Last year in September, we all got shown the axe. I had the longest expiration date, at 12/31. Happy fucking new year. They did offer to pay a bonus to each of us who stayed and didn't do anything blatantly stupid, that amounted to about a month's pay. Time passed, and we dwindled. Finally, I was the only overnight person left in town, with the other five being six states away. The end came... and passed. Apparently, one of the higher ups was trying to get them to keep us, one way or another. So, here I am, four months after my expiration date.
Now, the axe is actually being swung. We're all getting new expiration dates, and this time they're for real. The higher up has failed to convince them. Now, I could understand if I was a problem child, always taking time off, always calling in sick or fucking up calls.. .but I've got such a squeaky clean record that Billy Mays never had a product that could shine it up more. Once in a while I'd get a caller who was a bitch, they'd whine to their management that I wasn't helping them steal their neighbor's wireless after he put a password on his router and so obviously I was deliberately preventing them from getting online, but they'd listen to the recorded call and take the coach off.
Some fuckstick way high up has decided that everybody has to have degrees, even if they're completely irrelevant. I considered buying one from somewhere online, but the couple I looked into, were pretty much non-accredited, and in at least one case non-existent (color me surprised) and while I have the experience for a PhD, why should I pay 120$ for a piece of paper that I could knock up myself in OpenOffice and print at Kinko's for a buck? I don't have the money to actually take classes, and I don't have the 'work 16 hours a day' time to take classes... so I'm kind of fucked.
For various reasons I can't leave Florida right now, as much as I'd really, really like to. So, I get to start looking for another job, yay. I hate interviews. I hate the bullshit questions they ask you that nobody can answer without either a canned shiny-happy-people response or lying. "Where do you see yourself in five years?" I don't. My eyes aren't that good. I do what comes up, and planning that far in advance doesn't really do any good for something like a job, because promotions depend on there being somewhere to GO, which means either someone died or retired, and you can't really plan on that.
So, you lie, and hope that your bullshit answer lines up with their bullshit expectations, and it's great that it's all based on bullshit. So, my old ass is going to be out of a job, and there's SO much work available now.. (sighs) And I hate looking for work. And I've kind of run out of steam. So, if you actually read this, hi. If you didn't, then how do you know what I'm saying?
(starts writing at 5.50a. Finishes at 6.35a. Wanders off and has a beer. So I'm working, they don't really seem to care anyway...)
My job is ending. Probably in a couple of months. 7 years of working there, called out like twice in that time, always volunteered for holidays and overtime, a total of 15 years of experience with hardware and software... but it's no match for someone with a college degree in culinary arts who had to have the start button explained to her. Because that's SO helpful for helpdesk work. A manager who'd been there for more than 30 years was forced to retire because she didn't have a degree. Meanwhile, a friend who has not one, not two, but THREE degrees in things actually relevant to the job (computer security, another computer one I can't remember, and business management) is basically shoved out.
A little over a year ago, I was shuffled from the helpdesk job I'd had for 6 years to commercial stuff only. I work for a phone company (can you hear it?) doing tech support for internal employees, and for external commercial customers like the shipping company with the red and blue logo and the coffee that America gets the runs from. We went from around 50 people to 16. Last year in September, we all got shown the axe. I had the longest expiration date, at 12/31. Happy fucking new year. They did offer to pay a bonus to each of us who stayed and didn't do anything blatantly stupid, that amounted to about a month's pay. Time passed, and we dwindled. Finally, I was the only overnight person left in town, with the other five being six states away. The end came... and passed. Apparently, one of the higher ups was trying to get them to keep us, one way or another. So, here I am, four months after my expiration date.
Now, the axe is actually being swung. We're all getting new expiration dates, and this time they're for real. The higher up has failed to convince them. Now, I could understand if I was a problem child, always taking time off, always calling in sick or fucking up calls.. .but I've got such a squeaky clean record that Billy Mays never had a product that could shine it up more. Once in a while I'd get a caller who was a bitch, they'd whine to their management that I wasn't helping them steal their neighbor's wireless after he put a password on his router and so obviously I was deliberately preventing them from getting online, but they'd listen to the recorded call and take the coach off.
Some fuckstick way high up has decided that everybody has to have degrees, even if they're completely irrelevant. I considered buying one from somewhere online, but the couple I looked into, were pretty much non-accredited, and in at least one case non-existent (color me surprised) and while I have the experience for a PhD, why should I pay 120$ for a piece of paper that I could knock up myself in OpenOffice and print at Kinko's for a buck? I don't have the money to actually take classes, and I don't have the 'work 16 hours a day' time to take classes... so I'm kind of fucked.
For various reasons I can't leave Florida right now, as much as I'd really, really like to. So, I get to start looking for another job, yay. I hate interviews. I hate the bullshit questions they ask you that nobody can answer without either a canned shiny-happy-people response or lying. "Where do you see yourself in five years?" I don't. My eyes aren't that good. I do what comes up, and planning that far in advance doesn't really do any good for something like a job, because promotions depend on there being somewhere to GO, which means either someone died or retired, and you can't really plan on that.
So, you lie, and hope that your bullshit answer lines up with their bullshit expectations, and it's great that it's all based on bullshit. So, my old ass is going to be out of a job, and there's SO much work available now.. (sighs) And I hate looking for work. And I've kind of run out of steam. So, if you actually read this, hi. If you didn't, then how do you know what I'm saying?
(starts writing at 5.50a. Finishes at 6.35a. Wanders off and has a beer. So I'm working, they don't really seem to care anyway...)
Had I a company, I would hire you. On the spot.