Rock bottom

This job search of mine has led me to some interesting places. There was the office that looked like it was straight out of 1986, with dusty-rose-colored walls and a phone that might have well have had a rotary dial (I believe the phone in this dingy, industrial office was the very first touch-tone model ever). There was the interviewer who made it clear that she didn’t like me before I even sat down (she thought I wanted a more “creative” job; I just wanted any job). And there was the part-time college test proctor position that I couldn’t even get a callback on (I’m pretty sure a trained monkey could have performed that job).

And after all of the resumes I’ve sent out, the place that really seems to want me now is 40 minutes from my house and offers zero benefits. Yep, I’d be a temporary-but-permanent employee. I’d wear one of the company’s uniform shirts in an office position but I wouldn’t really be an employee of the company itself; I’d be a contractor. And did I mention that the company had three employees killed on the job in the past two years due to the firm’s own negligence?

This is what it’s like to search for a job in America now. It’s depressing, it’s demoralizing, and it makes you wonder why you even went to college. Right now, I’m also half-contemplating going back to school for even more time and money, but I’m wondering what field to even get a master’s degree in. I can easily picture myself with a master’s degree and the same slim prospects that I have now. On an interview several years ago, I found out that one of my prospective co-workers had her master’s, and the job was barely paying double-digits per hour.

I looked up contract jobs today and I found an article from 2014 that said that many workers, especially older ones, are getting trapped in these temporary positions. Some of them are permanently temporary and others have a set end date. More and more companies are willing to add “jobs” but they’re not willing to offer 401(k)s, paid time off or health insurance. And that means that workers’ savings are being wiped out and that many people are also going to have to work until they’re about 80 years old.

I’d tell people not to accept these poor excuses for jobs, but I know that people need to eat. They have families to support. It’s not easy to find a job to begin with, so if someone offers you a chance, you might feel like you have to take it.

But as for me, I have to hope that there’s something else out there. Even if that hope is quickly running out.

It’s easy for many hiring managers and recruiters to think that these people and these jobs don’t matter when the managers themselves are making a good income and have benefits, but I just wish companies would step back and look at the toll these contract positions are taking on their lowest-level (and often hardest-working) employees.

And so it goes

I haven’t published anything on my blog in years. Years!

And so much has changed.

For some reason, I’ve had a lot of hits on the blog this year (even without any new posts), and I’ll have more posts coming up about what’s been going on, so stay right here.

Out with the old…

I did some spring (summer?) cleaning to the blog and you four people who come here looking for song lyrics should be very impressed.

The domain name is still the same — dottedheart.wordpress.com — because I couldn’t get that changed to anything remotely like my new title, but the rest is new.

And with a new look will come…new posts! So stay tuned!

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day

I’m a registered Democrat, but I have to admit that I was unsure about Obama. To me he seemed too slick, too promises-made-but-not-kept. I had been pulling for other candidates in the primaries, but he decimated them all. I thought he had experts pulling the strings in his campaign, but no real substance from him. I even thought the community organizing he did was all for show, to lead up to his presidency.

But something I saw on Election Night made me think. It was a logo in someone’s signature on a message board and it read: “Nobama. Keep the change.”

Wait a second–was this person saying that we don’t need change? That the past eight years have been so wonderful that we need to keep this up for the next four years or more?

Then I figured it out: That’s exactly why tens of millions of people voted for Obama. I never thought McCain was a viable candidate anyway, especially not after his pandering pick of Palin.

But the bottom line was simple: We can’t handle four more years of Bush. People have been counting down his departure for eight years, and they were not going to elect his clone.

I don’t hate McCain. I think he and his campaign people made a lot of missteps, and they just generally didn’t seem very well organized. But I don’t hate Obama, either, and when I put his election in the proper context, it makes a lot of sense. I wish him luck, and it will be interesting to see how the next four years unfold.

Goodbye, summer

 

I know autumn technically begins in mid-September, but Labor Day always tends to be the “unofficial” end of summer, just as Memorial Day “kind of” begins it. So with that in mind, I present highlights from my summer.

Pro: Went to tons of movies. I liked “Tropic Thunder,” “Wall-E,” (surprisingly) “The Incredible Hulk” and semi-liked “Step Brother.”

Con: Saw “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.” How did this movie even get made? Adam Sandler can (and should) do better than this.

Pro: Finally got braces.

Con: Miss nachos like crazy. I guess I could eat them if I was careful, but how fun would it be to break the nachos into tiny pieces and half-gum them so as not to risk losing a bracket? Maybe someday I’ll get braver but I’d rather just wait. For now.

Pro: Getting a new car stereo for my birthday.

Con: Having said stereo stolen from my car less than a week later. That was really crappy.

Pro: Going to the state fair.

Con: Being so exhausted from a bad night with allergies that I didn’t much enjoy the state fair. And I also didn’t get a ribbon for my entry. Sucks.

Pro: Getting into the Olympics. I’m not a sports person at all but there’s just something about a bunch of random sports (racewalking, anyone?) that just draws you in. I especially liked the rebroadcasts in the middle of the night, since I wasn’t home a lot when they were first aired.

Con: Olympic withdrawal after it was over. I have to wait another four years for this?? I know the Winter Olympics roll around in two years, but it’s not the same, dang it! 🙂

So that was my summer. This season’s kind of anticlimactic when you get out of school. When you’re a kid, of course you can’t wait for summer to get here, and are way depressed when it’s over and school rears its ugly head. Now, it’s like, “It’s too freaking hot outside!” and you look forward to crisp days and wearing sweaters. And Labor Day rolls around way early this year, too, cutting short the summer fun. But I know, at least here in the South/Midwest, we’re still going to have 90-degree weather for the next few weeks, I’m sure, so maybe summer isn’t really leaving us alone yet.

State Fair

You can always put your finger on the pulse of pop culture just by visiting your local state fair’s midway. Hanging from the ceilings of the booths are various icons that could be yours for a few (hundred?) chances. So this year, among the fake Hello Kittys and Hannah Montana knockoffs, what were the big prizes that were waiting for the taking, that all the cool kids wanted?

Free gas cards.