Lessons from an American workplace, volume 1

I’ve been working at my temp job for a week after 18 months of either being unemployed or working from home. I expected a bit of a culture shock since I haven’t worked in an office since 2008. So I thought I would document the lessons I will learn over these next nine months.

I got a job! But I need another.

That’s right. After 18 months I finally have a job. It’s only a temp job, but it’s something. And, if I don’t screw it up, it’ll last until the end of September. Which complicates going to SkepchickCON a bit, but I’ll take it.

I don’t think I can adequately express what a relief this is. I won’t get paid very much, but I’ll be able to buy my own groceries, pay my own bills, and even save a little for a rainy day. Sure, I can’t afford to get sick or have any days off, but it’s what I have to do for now.

How to make an unemployed music fan’s day.

Being unemployed during the holidays sucks. Well, it sucks all the time, but it especially sucks during the holidays. It’s horrible to receive presents and be unable to reciprocate.

This is one reason (of many) that I completely love singer/song-writer Marian Call. She writes in her blog that she noticed a lot of people want to buy her latest album, but simply can’t afford it because of a shit financial and economic situation. (I’ll admit that I was one of them.) So rather than sit on her hands, she’s developed a novel little plan.

When I have time to do anything, I can only do nothing.

I have a question for my fellow unemployed people out there. Do you dread waking up on the weekdays? Not in a “Gawd I wish I was dead” sort way, but a “Gawd I have to think of something to do today” dread. Because I get that all the time.

I never thought I would say this, but watching TV all day gets really old after a while. (Plus, I think I’ve watched all the good TV shows Netflix Instant has to offer.) Frankly, if it wasn’t for my bloggy activities, I would have gone nuts months ago.

How not to be kind of a jerk.

I just want to say thank you. In two days my previous post was viewed by over 100 people. I know that isn’t big in Internet terms, but it’s so much more than I ever though would see it. So thanks so much for reading and tweeting it an sharing it. I hope people understood where I was coming from.

But something has come up since I posted that last piece. I shared it with the Facebook friend who posted the offending picture. Specifically, I posted it as a comment to the picture, since I thought it said everything I thought needed to be said. And he/she responded on my wall. I quickly copied the response to email to a friend I had been discussing this issue with. I want to post a response to his/her response here. I feel a little scummy for doing so, though, since I have already unfriended him/her (for reasons that I hope will become clear), but I really feel like there is a lesson her on how not to respond to someone who has been hurt by something you’ve done.

In which I lose a bunch of readers, but cannot find the will to care.

The other day I was sitting at home perusing Facebook in between job searches and I came across what at first looked like one of those 99% photos. Then I read it. It is a photo of someone who appears to be in the military holding a notebook with a handwritten message:

I have a steady job with a regular paycheck, great benefits, and lots of room for promotion. Next year, I will be paid to go to college and graduate with a guaranteed position making a decent salary. I am the 1% of the 99% that decided hard work and sacrifice were more important than complaining about how life is too hard and I’m not getting any free handouts.

When I first came across this picture, I became absolutely enraged. I had to wait a few days to write a post so I wouldn’t say something I would regret.

I hope there is a hell so Congress can rot in it forever.

Doods. I hate this country. The House of Representatives, instead of doing something helpful, decided to pass a resolution that reaffirms “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the United States.

I’m totally offended by this on several different levels. Sure, I don’t appreciate “In God We Trust” being the motto of a country that purports to abide by its own Establishment Clause. But whatever. That’s not what pisses me off the most is how much of a colossal waste of time it is. Time that could have been spent trying to stimulate the economy and lower the unemployment rate.

Pride and Prejudice

I’ve worked really hard for a long time. I’ve worked multiple jobs, I went to school, I volunteer, I passed the bar exam. I sort of thought that at this time in my life I would have a job that could pay the bills and where I could gain some good experience. I thought I would at least be in an office somewhere, filing papers or something.

It’s not something that’s easy to admit, but I’m a fairly proud person. I can’t help it. I do think that there are some jobs that are beneath me, so to speak. Not that I think there is some moral failing on the part of people who do mindless jobs. It’s just that I really believe I have a lot more to give.

That sounds so pretentious and elitist, but I’m trying to be candid.

On not being gay

I’m not gay.

I usually don’t go out of my way to make that clear. Anyone who looks at my résumé can see that I’ve done a fair amount of LGBT rights work. It would be easy to make assumptions. If people want to make assumptions and treat me differently based on those assumptions, then they aren’t people I want to hang out with. I’ve never really considered other people’s hang-ups to be my problem.

But that was before I read about a Harvard University study that determined that openly gay men are 40% less likely to be called in for a job interview, particularly in the American South and Midwest. Where I live. Hawesome.

Occupy Topeka is happening, people!

Did you know that there is an Occupy Topeka protest going on? Me neither, until last night. If the name doesn’t make it obvious, this is an off-shoot Occupy Wall Street, the mega-protest that has been going on since mid-September in New York City. The goal of this protest is, from what I can gather, a showing of support for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The problem, of course, is that Topekans (and Kansas in general, I think) are notoriously hard to get mobilized. Let’s not forget, that we are the home of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. We’re not a bunch to get too riled up.