Time to pound the pavement

Well….two weeks has come and gone and that job I was so content with had turned into more of an ongoing Officespace episode. Well, to be clearer, my boss (lets call him Andy) was sort of like the boss in Officespace. From the get go I should have followed my gut about working for him. I nannied for two of his children as I already told you, but I didn’t tell you about what the housekeeper told me the last day I was there when it was just me and her (the little boy was asleep and the girl had went to school). She told me how many years she has worked for them(7 years) and what she has observed with the family. First pointing out little things she has noticed, then the insane. I mean in terms of pickiness and cheapness. The housekeeper told me she gets paid every other week and Andy’s wife puts the money in an envelope. Well, one day the housekeeper took the envelope home and the woman got mad at her explaining how she likes to reuse the envelope and to please return it. *I saw this very envelope sitting on the windowsill in all its crinkly glory * I mean come on, its an envelope for crying out loud. Is it so much to replace it at least every month? The housekeeper just nodded and said “Yeah,it gets worse.” She then goes on to tell me about how many nannies they have gone through. 3. That number doesn’t seem like a big deal, but their kids are not that old, one is 5 and one is 3. I guess one of them made the mistake of opening a new package of cookies or chips before the other one was already done with. But they were apparently two different kinds and the kids didn’t want the kind that were already open. The mom came home and chastised the nanny for it. There are more stories but I will cut it off here for longevity sake. Lets just say they are SUPER picky and SUPER cheap.

I asked the housekkeeper if she was paid a decent amount of money and she kinda laughed and said “No”. I asked her why she stayed and she said “I really need the money, but let’s just say I am not very loyal. If something else comes along I will quit in a heartbeat.” I had to respect her honesty. I asked her if they give her a bonus or do anything nice around holidays and she again said “no”. I sounded like a gossip queen as I uttered “Noooooooooooooo” in that long tragic tone you hear so many women use when telling a story. I mean, jeez even people I have barely known have given me a little something special for caring for their children etc. I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t show someone who cleans their house a little appreciation around the holidays. My thoughts kept returning to the fact that I had given the father my resume the day before. I told the housekeeper about it and sounded scared about the prospect of putting myself in such a situation at Andy’s company. She tried to alleviate my fears by saying, “Well, I have to say Andy isn’t that bad. I mean one time he did slip me some money saying “don’t tell my wife”. Maybe he’s different at his company. Which leads me to my experience at the job.

The first week and a half was good. I even thought Andy was down-to-earth early on. I mean the second day was kinda hard because Andy brought me out to lunch and bombarded me with his expectations. I mean this guy just thought you should know what they do and all the lingo after one day. He threw questions out trying to get information that he wouldn’t directly ask for or tell me why he wanted to know. I saw right through him from the get go and it was very uncomfortable, but I just ignored it. After lunch we were back in the office and he was firing one random question after another while in his sitting in his personal office around the corner from where I was putting binder material together. The questions he asked baffled me and I wondered why he wanted to know but never asked. Questions such as; “So how big was your high school?” “How many people went there?” “What kind of car do you drive”. I mean these weren’t questions to make conversation, they were to get to something he really wanted to know about me, whatever that was. After that second day experience I felt very strange about the job but wanted to continue to try it out. The next day I was working with this girl Lisa who told me Andy was rarely there. I confided in her with what the housekeeper had told me about him and about my weird day with him the day before. She told me everything I told her explained why he is the way he is for her. That scared me. Then she told me her stories. They were all just as bad as the housekeepers. She said you just had to learn how to deal with him. So the rest of the week was good. I worked with Lisa and Andy was never there. I was actually happy (which my previous blog about work reflects) The following week is another story. He was there practically every day. And every day he drove me more and more nuts. One of the sales reps who also can’t stand him asked me if he reminded me of someone. He then did the infamous “yeah, I’m gonna need you to..” line and I knew. “Yeah, totally! I said. Andy is the kind of boss who wants you to be constantly busy even when you already are. He always walked in the room and without asking if you are already doing something said “Yeah, Sarah, I’m gonna need you to help me lift these boxes” Or whatever other random job you wanna throw in there. He had me doing so many random jobs that I was not being trained for what I was hired in for. He was the most condascending boss I have ever had. If I didn’t do something the way he wanted he would say “What did we learn from that experience for next time?” And he said it in such a tone that he made you feel like a kindergartener. This past monday was the straw that broke the camels back for me. All day I was running around doing pointless random jobs. “Yeah….I’m gonna need you to take those boxes out to the dumpster”, “Yeah, I’m gonna need you to take that box to the storage room (a huge box with 65 pounds inside might I add)”"Yeah, I’m gonna need you to answer the phone”,”Yeah, I’m gonna need you to go borrow a vacuum”,”yeah, I’m gonna need you to put this computer together for the sales rep”, on and on they went. At some point Lisa told me Andy wanted me to do something for his wife. I immedietely asked “what?” She said she didn’t know. I said “Well, I’m sorry I am not going to do it. I am not here to do his personal business I am here to service his company.” To make a long ass story short, he wanted me to take him to the airport to surprise his wife for her birthday or something. I didn’t do it, a sales rep did. There are so many other things I could tell you about the job but I need to stop. At the end of the day this past Monday Lisa told me I could go home because she had nothing left for me to do, even though it was 15 minutes before I would get my 8 hours in. I asked her if I could at least stay till the top of the hour and she said “Well, I have nothing for you to do and I don’t want to waste Andy’s money”.*Like paying me to do all the random jobs I was doing wasn’t a waste of money already, fifteen minutes of doing nothing might break the bank I guess * My jaw dropped. I said “Its fifteen minutes.” I couldn’t believe it. Thats when it happened. I said I would not be coming back the next day the job was not for me.I told her I was not learning anything and I have began doing jobs that were not included in the job description. She said she told me I would be multi-tasking. I said “I’m sorry multi-tasking is one thing. Moving boxes, washing shelves, or taking my boss to the airport for personal business is another.” I drove home so happy that day. It was an intense feeling of relief knowing I did not have to go back there in the morning.

So I’ve already began the job search this week. I have made phone calls and even popped in to Manpower yesterday. I’d like to get into advertising but its a very hard business to get into rom what I have been hearing. I am determined.

Jeff is more web savy than me

Jeff has started working on Spectrum Neon’s website (his place of employment). I think it looks really great so far and I wanted to share it with all of you. I went to school for what he is essentially doing and I can’t even figure out where to begin. I know I could do it if I really sat down and tried it, but I don’t have the patience these days. Being in school for 7 years killed my interest for a while. Now I just vegetate, work, and complain about being tired all the time. This is a website Jeff surprised me with last year. We were hoping to do some web animation stuff together. It was going to be based on the quirks of our relationship magnified to the 10th degree. We may still get around to it someday. Or maybe I will turn it into a blog or something. But that would mean I would have to get some blog software or something right? I need to do some research or something. JEEEEEFFFFFFF?!

My New Job and The White Van Man

Well, its been one week and one day since I started my new job and I am happy to tell you I love it! Its a small medical technology company that includes only about a handful of us. Most of the time, it is just me and my co-worker Lisa (so nice to work with) and the occasional sales representative who stops by every couple days or more. My boss is only around less than 40% of the time and even when he is around,he is pretty down-to-earth. I think I told you the position I have been hired in as (administrative assistant) but it is actually a sort of apprenticeship for office manager. Lisa was offered the position but declined since she has a daughter and does not want the responsibility that comes with a managerial job*she has managed stores in the past*. For now she will be training me until I understand the ins and outs of the business. It will probably take me 1 to 2 years. In September I will be shipped off to Indiana for a couple days of management training at Arthrotek, one of the companies whose orthopedic and arthroscopic products we sell/loan to hospitals here in Michigan.

So let me tell you about the experience I had on my way to work this morning. So I’m driving off 75 North and getting onto 696 West. I had to get over to the left because the lane you enter onto the freeway with becomes an exit ramp onto Campbell-Hilton. So I merge into the lane next to me *just barely since the guy next to me didn’t want me coming over* and the A*SH**E beeps his horn at me like I have no right changing lanes. Did I tell you traffic was crawling and we were going 2 miles an hour? Umm yeah. I threw my arms up like “what?! I needed to get over.” So I guess I interupted his rush to work by having to get over to get myself to work like the rest of the 2 mile per hour freeway goers. So not too long after I got in the same lane as this guy, we start snailing along. We moved for a total of 2 seconds before coming to a complete halt. This is how it is practically every morning and everyone who takes 696 is used to it. What does this guy behind me do right after honking his horn at me so rudely? Ohh,…..he runs into my car. Now I have learned from past incidents not to get worked up over psychos on the road, especially since you never know if they have a gun or something, but somehow I pushed all of this aside for this one moment. As soon as this guy hit my car I said “I know he did not!” then jumped out of my car like a police officer would after a car chase *slamming my door as hard as I could to let him know I was mad*. All the cars in morning traffic were outside of my peripheral as I marched towards the psycho in the white work van behind me. As I walked back towards him* arms waving in the air* I said “What the hell is your problem? First you don’t want to let me in, now you purposely hit my car!” Then he says barely hanging out of his door in an almost sarcastic manner, “Well, I didn’t have enough room to stop.” I told him he was a “psycho.” I never do this believe me. But he hit my car on PURPOSE. I turned around and walked back to my car. I heard him call me name but it didn’t affect me the way hitting my car did. When I got back to my car I realized I forgot to look at the rear of my car for damage *somehow all the emotion caused me to forget about that part*. I jumped back out to look at my car *cars were moving past me at this point* He jumped into a lane to the right and I jumped into my car wondering if I should write down his license plate. I decided I would let it go. I got over to the far left lane and cruised along. I lost track of the guy in the white van and and since the sun was blinding me when I approached him after hitting my car, I did not know what he looked like other than white, chubby, kinda hairy, over 50 and blue-collar looking. For the rest of my commute to work I wondered if the white van to my left or my right was him. It became an obsession almost and I found myself wanting to give them all dirty looks. I fantasized about it. When it came down to it though, I only drove past these white vans not even looking in their direction. I had to let it go. He was gone. The pyscho in the white van. He is still out there honking at innocent drivers and deliberately hitting cars to express his anger of people getting in front of him in rush hour traffic. Beware.

Then there are the people like me who look like psychos in our own rite

Yay!

Last week I worked for a family in Farmington Hills. I watched their adorable 6 year old girl *who has the biggest bedroom I have ever seen any kid have* and the most loving 3 year old son. After telling the father a little bit about myself and how I just graduated from college, he mentioned his company is looking for an administrative assistant. I just said with half interest “Oh, the company you work for is hiring?” He said “Yeah, actually its MY company.” Wanting to hear a little bit more but still feeling hesitant I inquired further. I’d be in the office most of the time, some travel could be required at times *only in Michigan*, and I would eventually be office manager for this new division. Well, he told me to check it out on career builder.com because he had just posted it up there at the time and I had to jet. After checking it out when I got home I decided it sounded like a good entry-level position for myself. Its obviously not the most ideal job, but it is realistic for me. I will have a full-time job with benefits and make more money than I currently do, why not I thought. I applied that night and when I went back to the family’s house in the morning the father said he had received my resume the previous night *fax must have been directly to his home office* and he preceded to ask me about some of my job expereince and college course work. I wasn’t sure if I would hear from his office but this week but a lady called and interviewed me over the phone a bit. We hit it off, but I wasn’t holding my breath. I’ve lost jobs to others before and almost expected them to pick someone else over me. She said I should hear from them again by the end of the week as they are still interviewing potential people. Well, after work today I got the call. “Sarah, We were wondering if you could start Monday. You will be training and we can even do a temporary thing to see if you like it etc?” I was so happy to have gotten the job. As soon as I hung up the phone I was in half shock. I know its no big deal, but I haven’t had very much luck finding any jobs, let alone one I might like. Lord knows the advertising agencies weren’t opening any doors to me.

So thats my news. I am starting a new job next week and I will tell you more when I know more. I mean who knows….I could hate it and want to go back to nannying. Time will tell. Cross your fingers for me.