Workin' for the Weekend
Lately I've become rather dissatisfied with my work situation(s). Bear with me while I rattle them off:
1) The Factory - I work as a "trades helper," and have for almost 6 years now. Basically, I get every shitty, dirty, nasty job in the factory that would be a waste of the actual skilled laborers' time. When I started the job, it was pretty crappy work, but very good money. As I stuck around longer and they got to know me / my work ethic, I got better jobs and better pay. But I've been at the top of the pay scale (the max for my position) for over a year now, and the work has gotten worse and worse the last two months. I was doing electrical work (which was very cool) and now I'm cleaning filthy grinding tanks, rifling through garbage, picking up cigarette butts from the parking lot ... some of the shit has gotten ridiculous. To give you an idea how bad this is getting, the guys I work with joke that I'm not hourly any more, but I get paid by how dirty I get.
2) The Station(s) - I also do promotions work for four radio stations. All summer long, a dozen of us busted our asses for a rock station, which switched to oldies in September. Since there's NOTHING going on with the oldies, I've been getting some hours with the other three stations in our cluster ... but since Thanksgiving, that's been quiet, too. Every time I go to the station, I wonder if my ID badge is going to work. I'm waiting for security to jump me, seriously.
3) The Merch Company - I started doing some here-and-there work for a merch company in December. Really, this isn't a bad gig. It's easy, it's with good people, and I have no real complaints. But I have a weird feeling of being on a frozen lake when I'm there. I don't know why - if I'm afraid of running out of work or what. I don't mind if I run out of work. No big deal. THIS isn't the job I rely on to pay my bills. This is more my sanity gig. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of? That I'd lose my sanity job, and therefore, my sanity ... Hmm. A very real concern.
Anyways. I guess all this employment unrest stems from a few things. It's now 6 months after my graduation ... and I've got dick to show for it. I've got 5 months until Dez graduates (my "deadline" to start looking for radio gigs out of Chicago) ... and I've got no demo tape and no real motivation. I've heard about 3 radio jobs that I could probably get (and definitely do) but I'm too chicken-shit or something to do anything about it. So ... I continue working my three crappy part-time jobs to make what money I can and keep things moving. My problem is the same thing it's always been - I wait for opportunity to kick me in the face. I gotta get off my ass and do something.
We'll see what happens.
PS - Thanks for just letting me vent and, basically, work my thoughts out a little. Feel free to say whatever.
PSS - Million Dollar Baby is a pretty decent flick.
1) The Factory - I work as a "trades helper," and have for almost 6 years now. Basically, I get every shitty, dirty, nasty job in the factory that would be a waste of the actual skilled laborers' time. When I started the job, it was pretty crappy work, but very good money. As I stuck around longer and they got to know me / my work ethic, I got better jobs and better pay. But I've been at the top of the pay scale (the max for my position) for over a year now, and the work has gotten worse and worse the last two months. I was doing electrical work (which was very cool) and now I'm cleaning filthy grinding tanks, rifling through garbage, picking up cigarette butts from the parking lot ... some of the shit has gotten ridiculous. To give you an idea how bad this is getting, the guys I work with joke that I'm not hourly any more, but I get paid by how dirty I get.
2) The Station(s) - I also do promotions work for four radio stations. All summer long, a dozen of us busted our asses for a rock station, which switched to oldies in September. Since there's NOTHING going on with the oldies, I've been getting some hours with the other three stations in our cluster ... but since Thanksgiving, that's been quiet, too. Every time I go to the station, I wonder if my ID badge is going to work. I'm waiting for security to jump me, seriously.
3) The Merch Company - I started doing some here-and-there work for a merch company in December. Really, this isn't a bad gig. It's easy, it's with good people, and I have no real complaints. But I have a weird feeling of being on a frozen lake when I'm there. I don't know why - if I'm afraid of running out of work or what. I don't mind if I run out of work. No big deal. THIS isn't the job I rely on to pay my bills. This is more my sanity gig. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of? That I'd lose my sanity job, and therefore, my sanity ... Hmm. A very real concern.
Anyways. I guess all this employment unrest stems from a few things. It's now 6 months after my graduation ... and I've got dick to show for it. I've got 5 months until Dez graduates (my "deadline" to start looking for radio gigs out of Chicago) ... and I've got no demo tape and no real motivation. I've heard about 3 radio jobs that I could probably get (and definitely do) but I'm too chicken-shit or something to do anything about it. So ... I continue working my three crappy part-time jobs to make what money I can and keep things moving. My problem is the same thing it's always been - I wait for opportunity to kick me in the face. I gotta get off my ass and do something.
We'll see what happens.
PS - Thanks for just letting me vent and, basically, work my thoughts out a little. Feel free to say whatever.
PSS - Million Dollar Baby is a pretty decent flick.