I despise my job

[datasuspect]

just stumbled on this website: the front page is really telling.

how many other people in the same boat?

http://www.idespisemyjob.com/page/page/1396312.htm

[mhr]

1. Unemployed 54 Months Here

CV Includes:
BSEE
MBA
15+ years professional work experience
Commercial Pilot
Honorably Discharged Naval Officer

Too much experience to be even the waiter or so I am told.

[NC_Nurse]

2. Great site!

I love the "Christmas Craptacular" page. :D

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. 2 Years Unemployed Here

BA, MA, MBA, JD

Refused a part-time minimum wage position in a charity thrift store the week before Thanksgiving.

On edit: I did not refuse the position - they refused to offer it to me.

[datasuspect]

4. you have credentials

and no work? you're joking right?

4 degrees?

holy shit!

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. I Wish I Were Joking

I live in crazy red f*cking JOklahoma where some of my interview questions have been clearly inappropriate - questions about my political beliefs, my religious faith, my personal relationships.

I was recruited and relocated here about a year before being laid-off. I had returned to school in the late 90s as a career changer and was doing well and advancing until being laid-off.

It has been awhile since I worked in my first career (law) and my second career (investment management) proved to be very short lived (just over 2 years).

I'm looking for a new career, looking to relocate, usually competing against experienced professionals for employment, and a litte lacking in the network area.

Just give me a whole new life....

[datasuspect]

7. same boat

but not as qualified as you are.

moved in with relatives in texas (moved from chicago) because i had nowhere else to go.

trying to get back up north because texas is an insane place to me.

chicago is a closed system (good old boy network) but it is 100 times worse here.

you have to belong to a church to get any type of position around here (a decent job).

retail? forget about it. been turned down for those jobs due to having a verifiable job history and marketable skills.

everything i own i can fit in two bags, my slogan lately is "travel light."

[Coyote_Bandit]

9. Hang In There

Since you are living with relatives I assume you have some kind of support system. I have one cousin here who I've become very close to - the rest of my family live in other states.

I wish I were able to travel as light as you. I own my own home here. I expect I will have a difficult time selling it. And, naturally, it is full of stuff. And right now it's a big mess. I've stripped all the wallpaper and repainted the inside trying to make it more marketable. And I'm in the process of going through all my stuff and deciding what kinds of things I can sell. I intend to do the eBay thing after the first of the year at least on most of the smaller items. What's left will be garage saled maybe even a couple of times.

[guitar man]

8. It is truly insane here

...in Oklahoma. I am comuting from Tulsa to Oklahoma City to work because there isn't jack shit for work in Tulsa. My home is paid off and my wife works in Tulsa, so it doesn't make any sense at all to move to OKC. Fortunately, my boss has been kind enough to let me use an empty office to sleep in so I don't have to drive back and forth every day, which I can't afford to do on what I get paid. I have been able to arrange my work week into 4 10 hour days, so I can come down here, work 2 days, go home and come back for another two. 17 months of this and counting so far, I am really starting to get exhausted.

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. I've Known Some Folks Who Have Made That Commute

I also know someone here in Tulsa who is commuting to Joplin, Missouri to work four days a week. And another who commuted to Coffeyville, Kansas for about 6 months.

I assume you are a guitar instructor. My hat's off to you. I'm sure you are not fairly compensated for your skill. I don't think most people realize how different the guitar is from the piano. The skill set required almost from the beginning involves far more than the ability to read music and perform certain techniques - something piano instructors can get by with for years.

[guitar man]

11. no, not an instructor

I have been playing the guitar for over 30 years though. My hat is off to those that have the patience to be an instructor.

My day job is Television Master Control Engineer. I'm the guy who punches the buttons that control what you see on the air. Actually, we have computer automation now, so I babysit the computers that control everything, unless they crap out, then I punch the buttons until they are back on line.

I play with a couple bands off and on and have a project recording studio I work out of doing independent music projects when I'm not working here.

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. So You're the Guy

that interrupts my telly to let me know that I should take a pillow, a flashlight, a radio and my two doggies and go hide in the closet (or the bathtub) for awhile because a big bad wind is coming.

Any chance you can transfer from the network affiliate in OKC to the one in Tulsa? One of my former college roommates is married to one of the Tulsa news broadcasters. Television can be a brutal business.

I really don't hate everything about JOklahoma. Promise. But let me add tornados and weather in general to the list.

[guitar man]

16. I transfered to OKC from Tulsa

I worked part-time for 2 1/2 years trying to get a full-time position in Tulsa and it just wasn't happening. I was running a pretty good little studio biz in combo with the part time job until Bu$henomics screwed up my life. I had been looking for a full time job for over 8 months when this job opportunity opened up. I just hope the job will hold out for 4 years, I don't know what the hell I'd do if this one goes South on me.

I hear ya about the tornados, In the 30+ years I've lived in this state, I've been "up close and personal" with a few of them.

<edit typo>

[Coyote_Bandit]

17. OKC is so much more diverse than Tulsa

There really isn't much comparison between the two in my opinion - which isn't to say there isn't some bad blood and old rivalries expecially among the old money.

And Bricktown has to be one of the best things in the whole state. Tulsa will never be able to duplicate that - partly because they have chosen to try to do that downtown away from the growth, travel and monied areas of town and partly because Tulsa has a much more widely spread and deeply entrenched religious community than OKC.

I hear you about Bu$henomics. Screwed up my life too. Funny thing is I think I might have liked JOklahoma if it weren't for the rampant religious fanaticism and getting screwed in the job I relocated here to take.

[rkc3]

5. I was thinking the same thing this morning.

Maybe I just don't like change, but I'm at a small firm and we just brought on two project managers - neither is worth a shit and worse than that they both think they walk on water (and are RW nutjobs to boot).

The boss doesn't help either - he expects the rest of us to pick up the slack and come to the rescue of these jackasses and their incompetence.

Despite having the best sales year ever for me and the other salesman - no Christmas bonuses went out due to a cash crunch. The cash crunch is a combination of paying these two idiots and the fact they aren't getting the work done and billings are held up.

Hope the site helps.

[Wapsie B]

12. Cool site!

Thanks for the link.

[rbnyc]

14. So sorry.

That really sucks. Having a job that you love, or at least like, makes such a huge difference to one's health and happiness. I hope you can find something better. Good luck.

[sariku]

15. Yeah I hate my job...

I am so overworked that there is absolutely no way for me to finish what I need to do. Oftentimes, this means that I can't even finish the basics. Recently, I've been spending most of my time talking to disgruntled customers - upset because they repeatedly receive the wrong parts, which is a problem we've been having for months, and have failed to correct.

I've had to put up with verbal abuse from one supervisor (he's not MY supervisor, mind you) and a co-worker. Both serious cases which were brought to the attention of my supervisor and the president. Hell, one of the cases was in FRONT of my supervisor - who sat there with her mouth hanging open and didn't say a word until the other supervisor had left, then pissed and moaned about how out of line he was.

We have tuition reimbursement, but I've had to fight to receive it - even though I followed our policy and received pre-approval for my coursework.

We have one supervisor who plays RPG's on his computer on company time. He also in general just sits around his office and is notorious for not doing any work. Another supervisor plays card games on his computer - in front of the CEO and President. And every employee is aware of this.

On the other hand, the president has been known to get on the PA system and tell the lower employees to get back to work if he felt they didn't disperse quickly enough when the end-of-lunch bell rang.

We give paid sick and personal time to the managers and supervisors (who are both exempt and non-exempt), but not to the "lower" employees. That means that sometimes we have to make a choice between taking care of serious illness or feeding our families. This happened to me in October, and here it is December, and I'm paying for it.

I caught a simple head cold from my 15 year old, but within 24 hours it was an upper respiratory infection. I lost over a week's worth of pay and was on bed rest on my doctor's orders. Because of the loss of pay, I went beyond the usual "budgeting to go to the movies" and had to make a serious decision. Pay for my meds for seasonal depression, or feed my kids and pay the electricity bill. Hrm. What a choice.

Normally I would have taken my anti-depressants through December, but I just couldn't afford to refill the script just before Thanksgiving. I realized the choice I was faced with a little late, so I wasn't able to wean myself as thoroughly as I would have liked. So, I had to stop taking it too abruptly. It probably would have still been ok except for the extreme stress at work - both in being unable to complete my job and having co-workers (who are also frustrated) calling me to scream, yell and threaten. All of it adds up to a sudden and serious case of depression .... and four more lost days of work.

It's frustrating, and infuriating.