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Let me explain. I'm a clerical worker -- I've been a secretary or performed some portion of a secretary's job since I first started working outside the home in the late '80s. The 'con' of that kind of work is that the jobs pay poorly compared to other jobs that require similar intellect and mental capabilities, but the 'pro' is that they're usually jobs that, once you've established yourself as competent and learned the required ropes, don't stress you unduly and leave you with plenty of time and energy for other things.
Mr. Nownow and I moved from a pretty good market for clerical workers into a really crappy one, several years ago, and my employment record went from seven years at the same job, with steadily increasing pay and benefits, to spotty, underpaid and under or unemployed. I had jobs I hated, and went for long stretches without any job at all. I wasn't used to it -- I'd worked steadily for ten years, with only days or weeks between jobs. I was one miserable puppy, at times.
I was without a job for a good six months, taking whatever several temporary agencies had to offer. One of the agencies called me with a job that the agent was very excited about -- great job, not too far from where I lived, 8:30 to 5:00, Monday through Friday, at above the average offer for starting pay. It was something of a technical secretary's position, a rarity in the area where we'd moved, which was a lot like what I'd done before. All I had to do was report to this address and interview with the rest of the staff, and unless there was a major problem, they'd probably hire me on the spot.
So I went on the interview. The people there seemed friendly enough, and they were interested in what I'd done before -- the atmosphere got warmer and warmer as they asked me about specifics, and found that I had many of the skills they were looking for. Then the time came for me to ask questions. My first one was 'what, exactly, do you make here?'
They made detonators for military equipment. Bombs, mostly. Like the ones they drop from helicopters. My job would have been with the R&D division, managing paperwork on new projects.
Yeah. I immediately got up out of my chair and said, 'look, this would be a great job for the right person -- it has nothing to do with any of you, or with the responsibilities involved, I could do that -- but I don't think I can do this.'
From the looks on their faces, though they were clearly disappointed that such a good candidate didn't want the job, I wasn't the first. They said they understood -- it wasn't for everybody.
It wasn't for me.
With what's going on in the Middle East now, I'm doubly glad I passed on that job. Even then, I only regretted it so much. I couldn't have done it, day after day, couldn't have wondered if the company I worked for had manufactured a killing machine.
Maybe it's just me. I have often wondered about that, since then. So, anybody else ever passed on (or quit) a job for this or a similar reason?
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