A rant about Work and Jobs

hear hear.

the other day my micromanaging sup had a separate meeting w/ me after our meeting w/ big daddy dog...to make sure i understood what he wanted...and in which i had to explain what it is he wanted because she did not get it.

um...what??

I had a job that I absolutely hated for almost 2 years. I mean, it literally made me ill and I had a coworker who sexually harassed and honestly mentally abused me (and management seemed unconcerned about this.) I am NOT one to cave under pressure at all and when I was leaving meeting in tears and throwing up in the womens bathroom I knew it was time to bail. It sucked because I was a PM and I put a ton of work into my project and team, but sometimes one bad apple ruins the whole bunch. I quit, took 3 months of funemployment (after working 70+ hours a week at that job for 6 months with no overtime I neded a break) and ended up falling into an amazing job (difficult and stressful, but fun most of the time.)

Incidentally, the guy who harassed me ended up quitting about 2 weeks after me and took a bunch of trade secrets with him. Douchey Mc-Doucherson.


My advice? Seriously, get a new job. NYC is one of the only places with a thriving employment market right now...try something else!

I just got a new job this week after absolutely despising my position for the last 6 months. I gave my notice to my current job on Wed. That evening (yes, evening) my boss's boss called me and guilt tripped me for 20 mins and told me that 2 weeks is the "bare minimum" and that I was severely disappointing her.

To which I responded that 2 weeks is a courtesy and since we're talking courtesy this company has afforded me none for quite some time.

It felt incredibly good to stand up for myself.

Hamilton, you are my hero!

I tried to do a 360 career change a few years ago. I had a job I thought I would be ideal. I worked for a record label but it was the worst job ever. The culture was not very professional and growth was not in the game plan. But I am happy I gave it a shot.

If a change doesn't involve drastic income changes that would obviously be more appealing. After you are accustomed to living a certain way, it is hard to cut back.

I suppose I'm extremely lucky with my current position. I left college after one part time semester because my band got signed. A nice signing bonus kept me unbroke during our first year or so of hard non stop touring in a van and sleeping on people's floors. But after a few trips around the US the fanbase grew and so did record sales and soon we took the music over to the UK, mainland Europe and even Japan. Eventually we put ourselves on salary and had steady income from playing music, a dream come true. But as time went on I became really disenchanted with our music and certain members in our band, particularly the one who thought he was god's gift to songwriting and we should all follow his lead in every way. It got so bad that we felt uncomfortable eating because we knew he'd have some sort of comment about what you eat affects your weight and appearance which will inturn affect record sales. Whatever happened to being happy we were lucky enough to play music for a fucking JOB? Eventually everyone else felt the same way. After we recorded our final record I knew either I was going to quit or the band was going to fall apart.
It was then I decided to prepare for either to happen, took what ended up being the worst job I've ever known and moved to Brooklyn. I worked for an entertainment promotion company, dealing specifically with hanging posters in business storefronts. I'd walk up and down an assigned route, with a list of businesses, and ask if we could hang our client's posters up. If you exceeded your daily quota of posters hung up, you received 25cents a poster bonus on top of your pay. If you were under, you lost 25cents a poster from your pay. Could be great, or terrible. Of course in my case it was always the later. Call me crazy but I guess shops on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg just don't want Barry Manilow posters hanging in their doorways! They also would only give the "display reps" as they called us, four days a week to work. Some shop owners were very nice and polite whether they let me hang the posters or not. One guy on W40th would give me a free coffee or juice every time I came by. Then some were rudest thing since rude came to rudetown. Not to mention mean, demoralizing, condescending, and sometimes violently threatening. It was frustrating, but it was work and it was fall so it was nice being outside all day. Unless of course it rained, because you weren't allowed to bring an umbrella. Fun right? Thennnnnn winter hit! It got real cold real quick, and trying to tape up posters in a doorway with no gloves in 15 degree weather with heavy winds was far from easy. None of this mattered at all if it ended up effecting how many posters you were able to get up. So cold, frustrated and being docked pay because you had shit luck that day.
I was broken beaten down and was starting to get extremely depressed. The band officially broke up and never toured off our final record (which I feel was our best). Then a friend told me about a position for a paid internship at an entertainment marketing company where I would get to be inside. The pay was actually almost the same as I was making hourly at my other job, so I did both, and was able to work all 5 days a week. After a week as a part time intern they asked if I'd be interested in becoming a full time paid intern. You better believe I said yes. I put in my two weeks at the other job, and oddly enough they were happy for me and only made me finish out that work week. I was ecstatic. Time went on and I started learning more and seeing where my strengths and weaknesses were with the various things we do at this company. And my hourly wages went up a bit as well as the company itself grew. After just under a year they offered me a salaried position, medical benefits, profit sharing at the end of 08 and the opportunity to head my own department that I would build from scratch. 23 years old, hadn't had health insurance in 5 years, no prior office experience and no college education? You bet I accepted that offer. And it's only grown from there, my department is doing great and starting to grow, I've gotten another raise and will soon be sharing a new office with three other department heads with a killer view of the Upper East Side (did I mention this job is in Jersey? heh). So that's that. Went from an extreme high to a few degrees of extreme lows to now a rising high. Honestly the only things I can complain about right now is my commute. Ft. Greene to Edgewater, NJ is one hell of a trip every morning, but it's worth it. I guess I can also complain that the latest intern given to me is the real life equivalent to Ralph Wiggum. I've never seen someone so amazed by Microsoft Excel to the point where they called adjusting the width of columns as "tricks of the trade". He makes my brain hurt, a lot.

I'm sorry to point this out but a 360 degree change involves turning in a full circle and going in the same direction. Perhaps a 180 is what you are looking for?

arock75 wrote: My job sucks on the next level. My boss and his boss are both morons who have no clue how to manage people or formulate a plan and stick to it. I don't understand how they have not been fired. I would love to go in to all the details but I would probably be fired. I wouldn't really mind but I need the health insurance for my wife and I so I stay. I plan on getting out of here, hopefully there will be a change in management before I leave. It can't get any worse.

There are good, professional companies with true mentors and leaders. When you go on your next job interview, interview the company on how they treat people and what types of leaders they seek.

I hope you would not enter a romantic relationship with an abusive woman who verbally humiliates you and dips into your wallet behind your back while jeopardizing your home ownership status, so why get tangled up with companies treat people like crap while jeopardizing the companies' reputation and financial health.

You are a human and deserve respect.