Caution: Heated Vent
Hey.
You want to know what's worse than being out of a job? Being out of a job and having the prospect of having to return to a bad job of your past come to haunt you.
Yesterday the manager of my last workplace called and asked if I was interested in returning to work for them. This is the Microtel in Pigeon Forge. I worked Night Audit for them for a year. It was barely tolerable much of the time and downright awful a lot of the time. I had to deal with irate guests and clueless guests and issues I wasn't built to handle. I had problem co-workers and problem schedules. I had pay issues with the management. The management had issues with the corporate apparat and internal conflicts as well. Ultimately, this job cost me more in career terms than I could ever hope to get back from it. My only fringe benefits were free coffee, use of a TV with Basic Cable, and tickets for area attractions I couldn't enjoy because either I had to sleep when they were open, or were things I had no interest in.
And on my last week before leaving the position, money went missing that I should have caught. I didn't take the money, but I took the fall voluntarily because that was the responsible thing for me to do. Sue for $80? I missed the money, but I know when a fight isn't worth the trouble. Walk before they make you run, as Keith Richards put it.
I hate it that I'm unemployed but I hate it worse that the only options I see don't fit me at all. I took a personality test to gauge what jobs I should be working--most of them at the top are scientific positions I don't have enough training/education to tackle. If I take the time to go back to school and advance my degree, I'm still at a disadvantage because everybody demands years of work experience. And I'm already staring down age 40. Nobody's going to hire a "rookie" that old! By the time I get a career going, I'm sunk as far as living is concerned.
Well I don't have an answer. I'm willing to hear options, so long as they don't involve joining the military or marrying a single mother and ripping off her Welfare.
You want to know what's worse than being out of a job? Being out of a job and having the prospect of having to return to a bad job of your past come to haunt you.
Yesterday the manager of my last workplace called and asked if I was interested in returning to work for them. This is the Microtel in Pigeon Forge. I worked Night Audit for them for a year. It was barely tolerable much of the time and downright awful a lot of the time. I had to deal with irate guests and clueless guests and issues I wasn't built to handle. I had problem co-workers and problem schedules. I had pay issues with the management. The management had issues with the corporate apparat and internal conflicts as well. Ultimately, this job cost me more in career terms than I could ever hope to get back from it. My only fringe benefits were free coffee, use of a TV with Basic Cable, and tickets for area attractions I couldn't enjoy because either I had to sleep when they were open, or were things I had no interest in.
And on my last week before leaving the position, money went missing that I should have caught. I didn't take the money, but I took the fall voluntarily because that was the responsible thing for me to do. Sue for $80? I missed the money, but I know when a fight isn't worth the trouble. Walk before they make you run, as Keith Richards put it.
I hate it that I'm unemployed but I hate it worse that the only options I see don't fit me at all. I took a personality test to gauge what jobs I should be working--most of them at the top are scientific positions I don't have enough training/education to tackle. If I take the time to go back to school and advance my degree, I'm still at a disadvantage because everybody demands years of work experience. And I'm already staring down age 40. Nobody's going to hire a "rookie" that old! By the time I get a career going, I'm sunk as far as living is concerned.
Well I don't have an answer. I'm willing to hear options, so long as they don't involve joining the military or marrying a single mother and ripping off her Welfare.