Work's Ups and Downs

I got to work as an election official today. 13 1/2 hours worth of work at the polling place. It was a satisfying feeling as I helped people vote. AND I got paid a bit. It works out to $6.95/hr but that's so much more than I earn at the stocking job.

Speaking of the stocking job, I am no longer a stocker. I was told that I HAVE to work EVERY day without exception. I told my boss that I CAN'T AFFORD to drive in to work seven days a week. It costs $25 per week for gas to drive in. I got paid $174 for the last two weeks of work (that's about 40 hours of work). That equals $4.35/hr (I made more this past week!) Let's subtract the gas money: $174 - $50 = $124. $124/40hrs = $3.10 per hr. $124 for two weeks of work is NOT enough to pay bills like rent or electricity or water or ISP or phone or food. Well, I take it back; I could pay my phone bill and a bit of food, OR my ISP and a bit of food, but NOT ISP AND phone OR any of the other bills.

SO. I am being replaced at Hickham.

Well. Now I have more time to look for other work. Thursday I'll apply for welfare and food stamps. I've tried so very hard to avoid doing that, but I really have no other options available to me right now. Perhaps the extra help will allow me to keep us living indoors.

Perhaps sleeping will allow me to rest my brain enough that I can come up with some idea that will result in gainful employment.

Must rest brain. Must have light bulb go off in brain. Must make enough money to live on...

Think Positively

Okay. Enough with the whining. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Here's a feel good video for all of us. Enjoy. Be inspired.

Some Days Are Just Like That

Never go to bed the same person that you were when you woke up
(learn something, do something, be something)

This morning was just one of those days.

I took my certified copy of my college transcripts over to the school district office, thinking I'd finally completed all the hoop-jumping and would get put into the substitute teaching database. Lo and behold, my transcripts list my unmarried name ('cause I was single when I graduated) and my substitute teaching application has my legal name on it (hyphenated with old name and married name). THEREFORE I have to provide a copy of my marriage license showing the name change. I DON'T HAVE my marriage certificate here with me in Hawaii. In fact, I'm not certain where in Arizona it is. My Ex said he would look for it. If the certificate can't be located I'll have to order another copy from Utah (that's where we got married). It's just another delay in a long line of delays when it comes to substitute teaching here.

So off to the survey farm I go. I make it into the paid parking lot with ten minutes to spare for the walk over to the job. I just pull into my parking space when Lola (you DO realize I don't use real names on this blog, right?) runs up to my window in a panic exclaiming, "I locked my keys in my car and the engine's still running, and what should I do now?" I knew I was going to be late for work but it was for a good cause. I called AAA - they arrived within ten minutes. During the time I was waiting for the AAA guys to arrive, Lola ran over to the survey shop to tell them what happened and that we would be at work as soon as possible.

What?????

While she was gone, the AAA guy arrived, unlocked the door and left. Unlocking the door took a total of two minutes. Yea for quick, efficient work! Lola made it back saying that she'd told our supervisor that I'd had a minor accident and that we'd be there soon!!! What?????

Lola had gotten the phone number for work (silly me, I didn't have it in my cellphone) so I called to talk with the supervisor to explain what REALLY happened and said we'd be there as soon as we'd paid for parking and walked over. We were a half hour late. No problem.

No problem until we got to work, that is. We were taken into a back room and told that since we were late we were going to have to go home. I said that it would have been nice to know that BEFORE we paid for parking.

So. I lost $48 in wages, $10 in parking, about $5 in gas while being a good Samaritan. I sat in my car and cried.

After my cry I called my hanai Big Sister. We met for lunch (her treat - she's such a doll!) and just talked. I cheered up immensely.

So now I'm back home working on a new plan for bettering my situation. Big Sister is going to give me feedback each day so I'll keep on track.

I've got to get myself into a better financial situation. It could entail moving back to Arizona to be closer to my clinical hypnotherapy partner or possibly to the Bay Area to work from there.

I HAVE to do SOMETHING that will help me. I'm about as close to being homeless as is possible and still live indoors. This situation is downright scary.

Wish me luck.

Great Words of Advice

We find inspiration in the strangest places...

I was planning on just relaxing this weekend; cooking and cleaning and reading. Instead, I 'got' to spend a long day stocking at the Hickham commissary. I'm rather burned out and grumpy so I web surfed looking for inspiration. I found it in the following words of advice taken from Stitches in Life blog.

Great Words of Advice

1) Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2) Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
3) Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4) When you say, ‘I love you,’ mean it.
5) When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ look the person in the eye
6) Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
7) Believe in love at first sight.
8) Never laugh at anyone’s dream. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
9) Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
10) In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
11) Don’t judge people by their relatives.
12) Talk slowly but think quickly
13) When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, ‘Why do you want to know?’
14) Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
15) Say ‘bless you’ when you hear someone sneeze.
16) When you lose, don’t lose the lesson !
17) Remember the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.
18) Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship…
19) When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
20) Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
21) Spend some time alone.

Feels Like Being a Kid Again

Today, work at the survey shop was tough.  I think they put me on the "everyone hates me" list.  I had a LARGE number of irate people swearing at me and hanging up. I haven't been sworn at so much since I was a young teenager living at home. It was hard to stay unfazed by it even though I know it wasn't personal.  I just don't like being sworn at - it's not what I consider a good time.

There WERE moments where I considered saying, "Sir, if you can be this abusive to a complete stranger, your family must suffer a hundred times more."  Or "I'm sorry sir, you seem to have a speech impediment - I'm having difficulty understanding what you are saying." Or even, "Gee, are you related to my father?".  Toward the end of my shift, after I felt worn down by the abuse I DID think, "F you and the horse you rode in on!" but I certainly never said any such thing!

I realize that these people are frustrated by all the calls generated by our company.  I also realize that we are intruding on them.  I wish there was a way to make the process pleasant for both of us. I am simply doing my job. In spite of all the reasons we give them to be irritated, it doesn't give them license to abuse us. It's along the lines of a former boyfriend who said, "I wouldn't get angry if people didn't make me angry" as justification for his explosive rages.

No one MAKES us anything; not angry, not frustrated, not irritated, not anything.  We do that to ourselves.

I realize that I allowed myself to become worn down by the swearing and abusive words. In the past I protected myself from that type of abuse by avoiding contact with my parents.  It allowed me to distance myself from the people that felt abuse was their right to dish out. Now, at work, I can't simply hang up or leave the situation. So, I have to just buck up and get through this time.

I'm REALLY looking forward to working elsewhere.

On the Job Training

I learn something new every day at the survey shop. Most of it is learned via the "Get it Wrong First" method.  That's where you make a mistake that you don't know you made and then are told how to do it the correct way. There's a lot of that going on at the shop.

Today I learned the difference between a Refusal and a Hard Refusal.  A (simple) refusal is when the person at the other end of the line either hangs up when contacted or says that they don't want to participate.  A hard refusal is when the other person swears at you or makes threats and THEN hangs up. I certainly hope management pulls the phone numbers of the hard refusals so we don't continue calling them, but you never know...

I also learned that I am only scheduled for eighteen hours of work next week even though this is supposed to be a full-time job.  Apparently there's not enough work for the number of people they hired.  Seems that due to the large turnover rate, they have to hire too many people in order to have enough interviewers. (That was the other thing I learned yesterday - my title is Interviewer.) I just have to hang on long enough for the substitute teaching job to come through.

I DID get my fingerprints taken, finally, for substitute teaching.  I still have to take them my certified copy of college transcripts, but aside from that, I should be good to go very soon.  It would be nice to make enough money from just one job to live on.

Hopefully, one day soon I'll get out of poverty.

Management Does NOT Like Change

Today was my first full day of work doing surveys. It wasn't as bad as I feared. I had more than my minimum quota for the day. Yea for me, since I'm still considered a newbie.

I was evaluated on one of my calls and was told to not be so nice because it might cause people to chat. ?????Not be so nice????? That's a first!

I discovered how to get through all the screens without having to use the mouse. I was so proud of me. I timed myself; I could get through all the screens after a typical call (an answering machine) in ten seconds when I used my new method. Regular time using the mouse was thirty seconds. I thought this was a great way to be more efficient. My neighbor watched me zip through the screens and asked how to do it, so I showed her.

I tried to show my method to the floor manager. Wrong! She was horrified and insisted I use the mouse. I asked to talk with the hiring manager since he told me there was no way to be able to get through the screens using only the keyboard. Deep breath. All managers are horrified that anyone would use a method other than the one they used.

NOT!

WTF? Isn't it a GOOD thing to be able to get through more calls? Apparently not if the method is not in their training manual. And for the record, I was never TRAINED how to do anything. I was simply set in front of a computer and told to go through the screens on one survey and just start taking live calls when I thought I was ready. My "training" lasted 13 minutes.

Sooooo, did I go back to using the mouse? NO. My scores are up. My speed is up. My success rate is up. I'm completing more surveys. They seem to be 'not noticing' my aberrant behavior. That works for me.

I'll continue 'training' anyone that asks how I do what I do, as long as it's not anyone in management.

I KNOW I have authority issues, but why in the world is something new considered so bad especially if it improves productivity? And why the heck is using the mouse so danged important? What in the world is wrong with management?