ch... ch... ch... ch... Changes
Hello, folks.
I figured that since a number of things have happened in my life as of late, I should probably let the folks who might care about such things know what's going on.
First in all of this is the fact that I'm once again among the ranks of the unemployed bums.
Yes, you heard that right, I am no longer squandering my life at Wal-Mart for the princely sum of eleven bucks an hour. How did that come about, you might ask?
And well you should.
Things have been building up for a number of months: increasing levels of stress, and feeling crappier both physically and mentally, with the depression coming back with a vengeance until it was getting to the point, where I could no longer do a lot of the things I enjoyed doing, especially writing, which makes things worse, because writing is one of the few escapes I still have.
Likewise, the environment at work was slowly becoming more and more toxic for various reasons. The kicker happened when I was working on Good Friday. Shortly before noon, I began to develop what I thought was a splitting migraine: the type, where you start to become light-sensitive, and your thought process becomes fuzzy, etc. etc...
I took a couple of Advil, but it only got worse, and eventually, when I was moving some stock across the floor, I started to lose my balance, and I suddenly collapsed to one knee. Two of my co-workers were nearby, and they rushed over. One of them happens to be a retired nurse (though I didn't know it at the time), and she asked me what was wrong.
I told her it was just a bad migraine, and I'd be fine. She and the other co-worker helped me up and she said: "Like hell it's a migraine! I've seen this in my husband."
Long story short, the retired nurse forced me to sit down, and she took my blood pressure.
I came up as 212/149, which is a medical emergency, and is 'pre-stroke' conditions.
Again, in the interest of brevity, I sought medical attention, and was diagnosed as having malignant hypertension, and I was put on some very powerful anti-hypertensives, and received dire warnings about my stress levels, lifestyle, and diet.
It took me almost two weeks to adjust to the medication, because my body was suddenly going from elevated blood pressure to sending it through the floor, so I had to deal with all the symptoms: the cold sweats, the dizziness, the weakness, etc.
Management at the store was somewhat less than sympathetic, and somewhat less than understanding. At the end of two weeks, a variety of factors made me realise that things just simply weren't going to get any better in that workplace, and I made the decision to give two weeks notice.
Well, Wal-Mart has a so-called 'no quit' policy, and I was pulled into a meeting with management, where they tried to talk me out of my decision, saying that I was a 'valued' employee. They then gave me what they considered 'incentive' to reconsider my decision. The 'incentive' was a re-iteration of the same offer they had given me eight times over the past year and a half. Essentially, they offered to make me lead of the unloading crew in return for an exceedingly generous offer of twenty cents an hour. An offer I had called 'insulting' on more than one occasion, especially when considering the level and amount of additional responsibility they wanted me to take on.
I pretty much laughed at them, and said that they had just outlined one of the biggest reasons I no longer wanted to be there. In response, I was given a speech about how I needed to 'lose the attitude' and 'know a good and generous opportunity when it's offered'.
My response was to ask them if they were fucking kidding me, because I felt like I'd just stepped into Bizarro World.
After that, the manager told me: "This is a family company, and I really don't appreciate that kind of language."
Just like I don't appreciate being used and treated like a Goddamn slave.
So, needless to say, I'm no longer employed.
The Good: It's been a few days now, and I can honestly say that I feel better than I've felt in well over a year. I suddenly don't have stress! Like the old adage about the frog in boiling water, I really didn't fully appreciate how bad things had really gotten until I was removed from the situation.
The Bad: The bad is that I now have to find other employment ASAP, especially while the economy is still in depression, and still battered and bleeding after being prison-raped without lube by the banks, corporate robber barons, and other associated Wall Street pricks.
The Ugly: The ugly is that I only have about a month's worth of financial cushion left, if I really stretch things, so I can't afford to fuck around for very long. Hence, any helpful hints, tips, or suggestions would be most appreciated. I probably also need to chase down a few folks, who owe me money.
The other ugly is the inescapable fact that I'm now 39 years old, and I'm not getting any more employable as time goes on. Apart from my age, the other things working against me is that I'm over-educated, under-skilled, and my resume is far too top-heavy with minimum wage shit jobs, especially in retail. If I want to turn up brutal truth to the maximum level, I may as well say that I've been looking for an adult-level, *REAL* job with *REAL* pay since 1991. In short, since I've graduated high school, I've pretty much constantly been at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.
In these days, where things like credit checks have become de rigueur for pretty much any hiring process for any job above minimum wage, I tend to look like a piss-poor risk for any potential employer to take.
If I had the means to be properly self-employed, that's probably the route I'd go these days. Not sure what else to do.
I figured that since a number of things have happened in my life as of late, I should probably let the folks who might care about such things know what's going on.
First in all of this is the fact that I'm once again among the ranks of the unemployed bums.
Yes, you heard that right, I am no longer squandering my life at Wal-Mart for the princely sum of eleven bucks an hour. How did that come about, you might ask?
And well you should.
Things have been building up for a number of months: increasing levels of stress, and feeling crappier both physically and mentally, with the depression coming back with a vengeance until it was getting to the point, where I could no longer do a lot of the things I enjoyed doing, especially writing, which makes things worse, because writing is one of the few escapes I still have.
Likewise, the environment at work was slowly becoming more and more toxic for various reasons. The kicker happened when I was working on Good Friday. Shortly before noon, I began to develop what I thought was a splitting migraine: the type, where you start to become light-sensitive, and your thought process becomes fuzzy, etc. etc...
I took a couple of Advil, but it only got worse, and eventually, when I was moving some stock across the floor, I started to lose my balance, and I suddenly collapsed to one knee. Two of my co-workers were nearby, and they rushed over. One of them happens to be a retired nurse (though I didn't know it at the time), and she asked me what was wrong.
I told her it was just a bad migraine, and I'd be fine. She and the other co-worker helped me up and she said: "Like hell it's a migraine! I've seen this in my husband."
Long story short, the retired nurse forced me to sit down, and she took my blood pressure.
I came up as 212/149, which is a medical emergency, and is 'pre-stroke' conditions.
Again, in the interest of brevity, I sought medical attention, and was diagnosed as having malignant hypertension, and I was put on some very powerful anti-hypertensives, and received dire warnings about my stress levels, lifestyle, and diet.
It took me almost two weeks to adjust to the medication, because my body was suddenly going from elevated blood pressure to sending it through the floor, so I had to deal with all the symptoms: the cold sweats, the dizziness, the weakness, etc.
Management at the store was somewhat less than sympathetic, and somewhat less than understanding. At the end of two weeks, a variety of factors made me realise that things just simply weren't going to get any better in that workplace, and I made the decision to give two weeks notice.
Well, Wal-Mart has a so-called 'no quit' policy, and I was pulled into a meeting with management, where they tried to talk me out of my decision, saying that I was a 'valued' employee. They then gave me what they considered 'incentive' to reconsider my decision. The 'incentive' was a re-iteration of the same offer they had given me eight times over the past year and a half. Essentially, they offered to make me lead of the unloading crew in return for an exceedingly generous offer of twenty cents an hour. An offer I had called 'insulting' on more than one occasion, especially when considering the level and amount of additional responsibility they wanted me to take on.
I pretty much laughed at them, and said that they had just outlined one of the biggest reasons I no longer wanted to be there. In response, I was given a speech about how I needed to 'lose the attitude' and 'know a good and generous opportunity when it's offered'.
My response was to ask them if they were fucking kidding me, because I felt like I'd just stepped into Bizarro World.
After that, the manager told me: "This is a family company, and I really don't appreciate that kind of language."
Just like I don't appreciate being used and treated like a Goddamn slave.
So, needless to say, I'm no longer employed.
The Good: It's been a few days now, and I can honestly say that I feel better than I've felt in well over a year. I suddenly don't have stress! Like the old adage about the frog in boiling water, I really didn't fully appreciate how bad things had really gotten until I was removed from the situation.
The Bad: The bad is that I now have to find other employment ASAP, especially while the economy is still in depression, and still battered and bleeding after being prison-raped without lube by the banks, corporate robber barons, and other associated Wall Street pricks.
The Ugly: The ugly is that I only have about a month's worth of financial cushion left, if I really stretch things, so I can't afford to fuck around for very long. Hence, any helpful hints, tips, or suggestions would be most appreciated. I probably also need to chase down a few folks, who owe me money.
The other ugly is the inescapable fact that I'm now 39 years old, and I'm not getting any more employable as time goes on. Apart from my age, the other things working against me is that I'm over-educated, under-skilled, and my resume is far too top-heavy with minimum wage shit jobs, especially in retail. If I want to turn up brutal truth to the maximum level, I may as well say that I've been looking for an adult-level, *REAL* job with *REAL* pay since 1991. In short, since I've graduated high school, I've pretty much constantly been at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.
In these days, where things like credit checks have become de rigueur for pretty much any hiring process for any job above minimum wage, I tend to look like a piss-poor risk for any potential employer to take.
If I had the means to be properly self-employed, that's probably the route I'd go these days. Not sure what else to do.