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Clodfobble · 11-07-2005, 05:51 PM

I. Hate. My. Job.

I have had menial jobs before; this isn't one of them. It isn't tedious, nor is it under-paying. Instead, the main problem is that I find myself seething with frustration and anger every single day. This is a desk job where the entire set of expectations put upon me is unreasonable. I am currently running 16 different (tiny) projects. My deadlines are usually less than a week after I receive my materials. The company is chronically staffed at about half of what it needs, and it is my job to "find" a programmer to do the tasks necessary to complete the project. Nevermind that I don't understand the tasks myself, and I am forced to simply present random people with archived code and say "Do you know what to do with this information?" When everyone is inevitably booked for the entire week, I am blamed for not scheduling them 3 weeks ago, before I had ever heard of the project. Then I have to hand the task off to an outsourcing company in fucking Argentina, and ride their asses every couple of hours to make sure that they didn't mistranslate "I need this by 5:00 PM my time zone" as "Eh, get around to it sometime next week, whenever."

One of the reasons we are chronically understaffed is I am not the only one who understands how much this company sucks, and our turnover is ridiculously high. I have been there one year, and there are only 5 people with seniority over me--all executives. (The only reason I made it this long is I've only been doing this shit-work for the last couple of months; prior to that I was merely an audio contractor, and was blissfully unaware of the general workings of the company. But I foolishly thought, "Hey, extra money, sure, I'll take on a few unrelated tasks in my spare time...") In fact, a programmer just quit today. She had been here for a grand total of a week. They made her a counter-offer, and she laughed in their faces and told them she was already taking a pay cut to get the hell out.

But I am essentially trapped, because I am pregnant. When the baby is born, I hope to stay home for an indeterminate number of months/years. I can't just go get another job, because no one will hire me with the understanding that I will be leaving in 6 months. (And no, I won't lie to them. That's the sort of bullshit stunt that gets women hired less often and at less pay than men, and I won't contribute to the problem.) BUT, I can't afford to just stop working entirely right now because I need to save up a buffer for after the baby's born. We can almost live on my husband's salary, but not quite. I could quit working in the shithole and just do temp work from now until then, but it is very hard to tell the practical side of me that it's worth it to get paid 2/5ths what the shit-company is paying me (like I said, they pay me very well. Because they're desperate to keep me.) I figure my only real option is to just suck it up for the next 6 months, and then take my permanent maternity leave and never look back.

So that's my whine-fest. I know everyone hates their job, but I really can't stand mine.

11-07-2005, 05:51 PM	#11
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	I. Hate. My. Job. I have had menial jobs before; this isn't one of them. It isn't tedious, nor is it under-paying. Instead, the main problem is that I find myself seething with frustration and anger every single day. This is a desk job where the entire set of expectations put upon me is unreasonable. I am currently running 16 different (tiny) projects. My deadlines are usually less than a week after I receive my materials. The company is chronically staffed at about half of what it needs, and it is my job to "find" a programmer to do the tasks necessary to complete the project. Nevermind that I don't understand the tasks myself, and I am forced to simply present random people with archived code and say "Do you know what to do with this information?" When everyone is inevitably booked for the entire week, I am blamed for not scheduling them 3 weeks ago, before I had ever heard of the project. Then I have to hand the task off to an outsourcing company in fucking Argentina, and ride their asses every couple of hours to make sure that they didn't mistranslate "I need this by 5:00 PM my time zone" as "Eh, get around to it sometime next week, whenever." One of the reasons we are chronically understaffed is I am not the only one who understands how much this company sucks, and our turnover is ridiculously high. I have been there one year, and there are only 5 people with seniority over me--all executives. (The only reason I made it this long is I've only been doing this shit-work for the last couple of months; prior to that I was merely an audio contractor, and was blissfully unaware of the general workings of the company. But I foolishly thought, "Hey, extra money, sure, I'll take on a few unrelated tasks in my spare time...") In fact, a programmer just quit today. She had been here for a grand total of a week. They made her a counter-offer, and she laughed in their faces and told them she was already taking a pay cut to get the hell out. But I am essentially trapped, because I am pregnant. When the baby is born, I hope to stay home for an indeterminate number of months/years. I can't just go get another job, because no one will hire me with the understanding that I will be leaving in 6 months. (And no, I won't lie to them. That's the sort of bullshit stunt that gets women hired less often and at less pay than men, and I won't contribute to the problem.) BUT, I can't afford to just stop working entirely right now because I need to save up a buffer for after the baby's born. We can almost live on my husband's salary, but not quite. I could quit working in the shithole and just do temp work from now until then, but it is very hard to tell the practical side of me that it's worth it to get paid 2/5ths what the shit-company is paying me (like I said, they pay me very well. Because they're desperate to keep me.) I figure my only real option is to just suck it up for the next 6 months, and then take my permanent maternity leave and never look back. So that's my whine-fest. I know everyone hates their job, but I really can't stand mine.