"Vince, why come you got all this time to be writing on this blog," the little black girl asked.
"Well lil Shay-Shay, I do so little work at this job," Vince told the lil sass-a-frass girl. "That it feels like I'm stealing money. So, I'm giving back to the people."
I was kicking it with my dude Chuck yesterday and basically told him that I've never worked this little at a job before (my first job was at Bagel Bros., extremely fun, but I worked like a dog and had to deal with rich white women getting mad when we ran low on cheddar bagels...I used to be like, "Here's some plain bagels, now scrape some of that cheddar-like plaque off your teeth and get movin, before I leap across this counter smack that smirk off your face, Barbara." Then my boss Gabbi would come out and...actually, you know what? Bagel Bros deserves a blog post...)
Anyways, let me give you all a snapshot my day on this job. The short of it is that I have absolutely no responsibility. Well, actually I have three tasks to perform all day. THREE. This after I spent 3 years at AF&PA handling thousands of tasks/day and supporting a VP; more than a year at The Wash Post, where phones rang off the hook and I had to write three paragraphs on some women's soccer game in 15 seconds to make the deadline and my various writing internships where I stayed busy, especially in Orlando where I was churning out five stories/week.
So basically this job is like foreign country. It's like being slim or living the Good Life or or urinating without having to wipe the rim clean.
Here are my tasks, in order of importance.
1. Answer the phone. Only the phone rings a total of maybe 6-10 times and hour. And when I answer it, I don't have to answer any questions, or solve problms or anything...I just transfer the client to one of our designers or salespeople.
2. Got get the mail from the lobby at noon. When I pick up the mail, all 15-25 pieces of it, I sort it and put it in my co-workers mailboxes. This whole task takes me about 5 minutes from the time I leave my chair, take the elevator down to the lobby, pick up mail, sort, file and get back to blogging.
3. Take a small stack of invoices and put them in a express mail evelope, stick an already-prepared address sticker on it and drop it with Old Black James at the front desk when I leave at 5:00 (and no later than 5:00, no 5:30 or 6:00 or 6:30 like the AF&PA days. I mean, at AF&PA I used to take work home.)
Usually, by 2p I have read every internet article, posted 2-3 5,000-word blogs, read everyone else's blog, scoured the Washington Post and any other time-consuming material. Next week I'll bring along my Bible and this jazz book I stole from Ricardo Maese, which should help pass the time.
But ultimately, this is really all I want from a temp job...as long as they'll pay me for it. Militant Megan was saying how everyone needs a mindless job every once in a while...and this will give my brain all the rest it needs before I begin my next writing job.
With that said, you can expect regular blog submissions for at least the next couple of weeks..what else will I do while I'm here?
I was kicking it with my dude Chuck yesterday and basically told him that I've never worked this little at a job before (my first job was at Bagel Bros., extremely fun, but I worked like a dog and had to deal with rich white women getting mad when we ran low on cheddar bagels...I used to be like, "Here's some plain bagels, now scrape some of that cheddar-like plaque off your teeth and get movin, before I leap across this counter smack that smirk off your face, Barbara." Then my boss Gabbi would come out and...actually, you know what? Bagel Bros deserves a blog post...)
Anyways, let me give you all a snapshot my day on this job. The short of it is that I have absolutely no responsibility. Well, actually I have three tasks to perform all day. THREE. This after I spent 3 years at AF&PA handling thousands of tasks/day and supporting a VP; more than a year at The Wash Post, where phones rang off the hook and I had to write three paragraphs on some women's soccer game in 15 seconds to make the deadline and my various writing internships where I stayed busy, especially in Orlando where I was churning out five stories/week.
So basically this job is like foreign country. It's like being slim or living the Good Life or or urinating without having to wipe the rim clean.
Here are my tasks, in order of importance.
1. Answer the phone. Only the phone rings a total of maybe 6-10 times and hour. And when I answer it, I don't have to answer any questions, or solve problms or anything...I just transfer the client to one of our designers or salespeople.
2. Got get the mail from the lobby at noon. When I pick up the mail, all 15-25 pieces of it, I sort it and put it in my co-workers mailboxes. This whole task takes me about 5 minutes from the time I leave my chair, take the elevator down to the lobby, pick up mail, sort, file and get back to blogging.
3. Take a small stack of invoices and put them in a express mail evelope, stick an already-prepared address sticker on it and drop it with Old Black James at the front desk when I leave at 5:00 (and no later than 5:00, no 5:30 or 6:00 or 6:30 like the AF&PA days. I mean, at AF&PA I used to take work home.)
Usually, by 2p I have read every internet article, posted 2-3 5,000-word blogs, read everyone else's blog, scoured the Washington Post and any other time-consuming material. Next week I'll bring along my Bible and this jazz book I stole from Ricardo Maese, which should help pass the time.
But ultimately, this is really all I want from a temp job...as long as they'll pay me for it. Militant Megan was saying how everyone needs a mindless job every once in a while...and this will give my brain all the rest it needs before I begin my next writing job.
With that said, you can expect regular blog submissions for at least the next couple of weeks..what else will I do while I'm here?
posted by Twistinado @ 9:48 AM
1 Comments:
At 6:29 PM,
Not Your Average Chimichanga said…
most meaningless job i ever had was working the snack counter at a YMCA.
in our jobs, we think a lot. sometimes, you get tired of thinking and strategizing. sometimes, you just want to be like half the lames in america and go to work and not do shit all day.
my dream is to work at a starbucks in spain, where i can fix bad espressos and insult people. sigh.
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