Renzatic on 9/6/2011 at 21:55
I don't even want to talk about my job. All I'm willing to say is that my job desperately makes me want to don a paper hat and flip hamburgers for a living. Because, despite the loss of dignity and minimum wage earnings, it's far preferable to the ridiculous BS I have to put up with on a daily basis.
I should've done what my friends did. Get a job ITing a hospital making beaucoups an hour. But oh no, I wanted to stretch out on my own, land myself in a position of my own choosing, working a job that's equally physical, mental, and oh so rewarding. Little did I realize that I'd be involved with people you have to fight tooth and nail to get to live up to their end of a contract. Be surrounded by thieves who know how to work every inch of a system practically built in their favor. Passive aggressive idiots who order a rather large amount of expensive equipment, keep you hanging for a month by ignoring your phone calls and leaving messages that he'll call you back, then bail when it's too late to return said equipment. Bounced checks? SURE! Hell, I could go ON.
Course I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I'm the one who decided to start a business in the middle of a recession. I expected things to be slow, but I didn't expect things to be a twisted objectivist smorgasbord of "got mine, fuck you" as soon as things get the tiniest bit rough. It hasn't gotten to the point where I've lost faith in humanity, but I'm instantly suspicious of any other business owner. To the point where I'm not so just making a sale, but also trying to make it so airtight that I push them into a corner they can't squirm out of.
You should see my contracts. An extra line gets added for every unaccounted for situation I've had to deal with. Not that contracts are worth the paper they're written on these days.
Now I know why Mr. James, my business partner who's owned his own company since '85, is so incredibly angry and bitter at times. I feel myself inching towards that every day that passes. And I don't want to be that. Might as well try to break even, turn it all in, and go apply as a fry cook at McDonalds. I'll bust a couple of teeth out and get a mullet wig, that way they won't question why a 32 year old is wanting an entry level position at minimum wage.
Whew. It feels great to rant. I need to start a blog or something.
Jakeyboy on 9/6/2011 at 22:05
I make the name labels that your mum stitches into your pants when you went to school! And also other labels like designer ones etc.
Starrfall on 10/6/2011 at 04:23
Contributing to the over-representation of attorneys in this thread. I'm in water law, which is consistently interesting and busy in california, and I work with good people and good clients. It's pretty awesome :)
mxleader on 10/6/2011 at 06:08
I've been a bicycle mechanic for about seventeen years now. I served in the US Navy during Desert Storm. I have a bachelor's degree in the humanities (which is why I am still a bicycle mechanic). I volunteer as a treasurer/newsletter editor for a local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. I'm an amateur photographer that still works with film (amateur because I haven't sold anything yet (haven't tried to either)).
CCCToad on 10/6/2011 at 08:49
I didn't know that California had any water.
Matthew on 10/6/2011 at 08:54
Oh hey, I heard this was the lawyer's chat thread
I'm a solicitor who deals mostly with conveyancing, charities law, commercial & corporate and local government stuff (though less of that now).
Haplo on 10/6/2011 at 11:58
R&D engineer at Synopsys.
Tocky on 12/6/2011 at 05:52
Quote Posted by Jakeyboy
I make the name labels that your mum stitches into your pants when you went to school! And also other labels like designer ones etc.
chit chit chit chit chack chit chit chit chickety chat chick chick chat chack chack chickety chit chit
pull rings cut strings pop out stack store slap new cloth snap rings hit button
chit chit chit chit chack chit chit chickety chat chat chick chick chat chack chack chickety chit chit
I ran an embroidery machine on the graveyard shift for six months alone in an empty jeans factory a loooooong time ago. I settled for it because my then girlfriend claimed she was pregnant but she was just another lying wild thing in a long string I had to cut. I liked the solitude and thought I was doing a great job until I trained a good looking smartass little girl who beat my best time in less than a week. She pissed me off so much I married her.
I quit that job for one I've been on nearly thirty years- sales, installation, and maintenace of paint systems for body shops. I trouble shoot problems and haggle with suppliers as well as deliver, set prices, and collect. I tried the office for awhile but I'm damned if I can get people to put half the energy into doing what they are paid to do over putting twice the energy into putting it onto someone else. When I saw the opportunity to get back on the road I jumped at it. The money is okay but I know I've wasted what little ability I have in a frustrating dead end job under a boss who consistantly does the most hindersome things possible at the worst possible times. But really I don't want to think about that on my time off.
st.patrick on 12/6/2011 at 23:31
I'm a car journalist specializing on 4WDs. The job is great fun with some freebies on the side but the pay is genuinely shitty (somewhere around 0.000005 % Clarkson) so I'm seriously thinking about going back to teaching in a language school.
Rug Burn Junky on 13/6/2011 at 00:19
Quote Posted by Matthew
Oh hey, I heard this was the lawyer's chat thread
On the serious front, since everybody here already knows my day job:
I'm in-house counsel at a major Wall Street bank, specializing in corporate finance and some re-insurance and government contract work. This after working at two NYC corporate firms, and taking an ill-advised sojourn into writing for a professional legal publication at a very well-known media corporation.
On the side, I'm nurturing a nascent stand-up comedy career. No sustainable paying gigs, but I've done showcases at some of the more famous clubs through-out NYC. The highlight so far being Pete Holmes - the voice of the e-trade baby - complimenting me after a set.
I've also recently been pitched to write opinion pieces for a fairly well-known political magazine, though time constraints have suspended that for the moment.
