Pre-July 2014
From July 2013 to June 2014 I worked a large amount of general labor type of temp jobs. I never thought that would happen to me. The stress level was unreal. There were times when we had ice formations inside various areas of the house, I would wear over four layers of sweat clothes hoping to keep warm, shopped at Dollar Tree for food, had food from a local food bank, and so on. It was a horrible time. One of the things that made it worse was waiting for a graphic job. In a year I sent out roughly 5,000 emails/applications for graphic jobs alone, not even including "regular" jobs.
I worked at several plastic factories, at a Pepsi bottling plant (where I was hit with over 30 cans of soda flying out of a machine), then was lucky enough to find a semi-perm position at a local factory doing 12 hour shifts with alternating days. The pay range on those was $8.25 to $13 an hour. I even did a one day job helping with inventory at an upscale clothing store. The temp jobs were horrible. Most people treat temps like criminal lepers.
The worst single day job was at a mailing house, putting financial reports in envelopes. On top of it they were a former Donnelley/Bowne client. It was just a few miles down the road from the office I spent 8 years at. That was a very depressing day.
Since getting my new job it has been a very slow state to regain what I would consider my life. The good part is my snotty attitude is totally gone. I thought once Donnelley cut us all I would return to work after nine months and have a seemless transition. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
Here's Brian. We worked together in a clean room for about five out of the six months I was there.
From the 27th floor of the Boston Financial District, to a factory. This was a humbling kick in the ass.
I spent almost a year with limited sunlight exposure and working in environments with no windows to speak of. The positions were so bad that I had to ask permission to use the rest room. Imagine that as an adult. It still blows my mind.
I worked at several plastic factories, at a Pepsi bottling plant (where I was hit with over 30 cans of soda flying out of a machine), then was lucky enough to find a semi-perm position at a local factory doing 12 hour shifts with alternating days. The pay range on those was $8.25 to $13 an hour. I even did a one day job helping with inventory at an upscale clothing store. The temp jobs were horrible. Most people treat temps like criminal lepers.
The worst single day job was at a mailing house, putting financial reports in envelopes. On top of it they were a former Donnelley/Bowne client. It was just a few miles down the road from the office I spent 8 years at. That was a very depressing day.
Since getting my new job it has been a very slow state to regain what I would consider my life. The good part is my snotty attitude is totally gone. I thought once Donnelley cut us all I would return to work after nine months and have a seemless transition. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
Here's Brian. We worked together in a clean room for about five out of the six months I was there.
From the 27th floor of the Boston Financial District, to a factory. This was a humbling kick in the ass.
I spent almost a year with limited sunlight exposure and working in environments with no windows to speak of. The positions were so bad that I had to ask permission to use the rest room. Imagine that as an adult. It still blows my mind.