A Guy Named Starbucks
I caught 'An American Carol' with a friend and a friend of a friend tonight. It was a good flick - funny, good cast, gags, etc, and a (thankfully) refreshingly different point of view from the same old same old mainstream schlock. And Gary Coleman had a cameo, who couldn't like that?! The only downer was that there were fewer than ten people in the theater - and I mean a New York City movie theater with high ticket prices, stadium seating and highbacked chairs. Maybe people aren't comfortable with unpopular viewpoints. Tsk.
Remember that kid in high school who entered your school for the first time - in the 9th, 10th or 11th grade and left at the end of the year because his family moved around all the time and got transferred somewhere different every year? That's kind of what temping is like; a new office or workplace every couple of weeks - new social situation, new rules, new policies, new restaurants and sandwich places nearby.
On that note, I rejoined the temporary workforce in no time flat - a week and a half after ending my two month stint at Consulting Associates, I started a two week stint at the New York offices of The Red Door Store, helping move things around while they renovate and paint the offices - moving mannequins (very slender and pale, but very uncooperative) from the 9th floor to the 40th, shifting boxes and random fashiony crap from one office to another, etc.
I thought it would be tiring, since my first day was exhausting, but oh, was I wrong! We five guys do more sitting around shooting the shix than anything else, and the reason, to borrow an overborrowed movie quote, is that "I believe there is a failure to communicate." Basically, people don't always know when they'll be moved, nor where they'll be moved to, because their supervisors don't tell them until the last minute. Which is how much of the Red Door Store's office seems to function. Oh well, they pay me to move crap, not to care.
Maybe the key to male bonding is simply moving heavy crap and sitting at the beck and call of others. We have a varied and motley crew; a show performer who does Sammy Davis Jr. impressions, a first-time temp who's basically working in order to put something into his Social Security account (God only knows whether it'll still be around when he needs it, but that's another topic for another time), a young father who's mostly worked in temporary suit-and-tie jobs, an accountant who nicknamed me 'Starbucks' for my morning beverage (hence the blog title), and yours truly. A lot of our conversations have to do with the aforementioned lack of communication in the office (and their penchant for having us move a roomful of shix into one room in the morning, only to decide to have us move it into yet another room in the afternoon), our off-the-clock lives, and good-natured ribbing. I've written off nearly all the full-timers since the majority of them rarely speak to us (being the hired help and all), which I've never done before as a temp. But thankfully, I do work with a good crew of guys, and for this assignment, that's enough. Hopefully God willing, the next assignment'll put me behind a desk again. I was supposed to have started a nine month assignment with the library today, but they put the project on hold "because of the economic climate." Wussies. In the meantime, I'll be applying to other agencies and waiting to hear from Consulting Associates about that second round.
Remember that kid in high school who entered your school for the first time - in the 9th, 10th or 11th grade and left at the end of the year because his family moved around all the time and got transferred somewhere different every year? That's kind of what temping is like; a new office or workplace every couple of weeks - new social situation, new rules, new policies, new restaurants and sandwich places nearby.
On that note, I rejoined the temporary workforce in no time flat - a week and a half after ending my two month stint at Consulting Associates, I started a two week stint at the New York offices of The Red Door Store, helping move things around while they renovate and paint the offices - moving mannequins (very slender and pale, but very uncooperative) from the 9th floor to the 40th, shifting boxes and random fashiony crap from one office to another, etc.
I thought it would be tiring, since my first day was exhausting, but oh, was I wrong! We five guys do more sitting around shooting the shix than anything else, and the reason, to borrow an overborrowed movie quote, is that "I believe there is a failure to communicate." Basically, people don't always know when they'll be moved, nor where they'll be moved to, because their supervisors don't tell them until the last minute. Which is how much of the Red Door Store's office seems to function. Oh well, they pay me to move crap, not to care.
Maybe the key to male bonding is simply moving heavy crap and sitting at the beck and call of others. We have a varied and motley crew; a show performer who does Sammy Davis Jr. impressions, a first-time temp who's basically working in order to put something into his Social Security account (God only knows whether it'll still be around when he needs it, but that's another topic for another time), a young father who's mostly worked in temporary suit-and-tie jobs, an accountant who nicknamed me 'Starbucks' for my morning beverage (hence the blog title), and yours truly. A lot of our conversations have to do with the aforementioned lack of communication in the office (and their penchant for having us move a roomful of shix into one room in the morning, only to decide to have us move it into yet another room in the afternoon), our off-the-clock lives, and good-natured ribbing. I've written off nearly all the full-timers since the majority of them rarely speak to us (being the hired help and all), which I've never done before as a temp. But thankfully, I do work with a good crew of guys, and for this assignment, that's enough. Hopefully God willing, the next assignment'll put me behind a desk again. I was supposed to have started a nine month assignment with the library today, but they put the project on hold "because of the economic climate." Wussies. In the meantime, I'll be applying to other agencies and waiting to hear from Consulting Associates about that second round.