Jobs

[interdpth]

I got an interview at EA games as a QA tester. Yay, though I applied at Apple and hope something there happens...

[squishy_ichigo]

I'm an assistant manager at Subway. Been working there going on four years now.

[interdpth]

I got the job as QA Game Tester signing an NDA felt amazing >_>

[Silver Skree]

Remember this post? No longer accurate, since Monday.

I started work at a merchandise and T-shirt retailer that prints shirts and sells merch based on a local football team. I'm not into football at all, but since my mom works there I was just kinda 'hired' in a 'lol okay sure' way.

I work in the E-commerce department. We start around 7 AM, and receive batches of freshly-printed shirts from the Production department. My day usually starts by folding all the shirts they bring to us alongside another co-worker. It's a lot of shirts, by the way. A damn lot. Our team is doing really well this season, so business is way up. Anyway, while we're folding, all the online order sheets get printed out-- two sheets for each order. An invoice sheet, and a packing sheet. They're exactly the same, save for one has PACKING SHEET printed at the top. And the rest of the people start answering phones and weighing->printing>labeling (this last phase is called Postage) the shipping info on any finished packages we had the night before.

Anyway, this phase where we fold shirts (define: sick-and-tired) usually takes all the way up until lunch, promptly at 12. There's a Burger King literally right next to our building, and a Taco Bell in the middle of the block over. I eat whatever I want (today I just had a chicken sandwich and some onion rings with a strawberry milkshake over at Burger King) and kill time listening to my MP3 player.

After heading back, the fun begins! It is, of course, 4 more hours of work before I can return home at last, but at least it's somewhat varied work. There's a lot to do, and because of our hectic status and swamping of orders, we'll split ourselves up and do whatever task whenever, because there's always a pile of stuff at whatever stage. Let's just follow one the whole process in progressional (?) order:

My mother (and boss), being the co-head of the E-commerce department, grabs a handful of order sheets. Like, a handfull. Take a big stack of paper and grab as many as you can fit in your hand. That kinda handfull. They're set on a table in the same room that all the mountains of folded shirts (phew) are stacked.

Phase one. Two-man job here: Pulling and Packing. One person, the puller, grabs the two sheets for an order from the top of the stack, signs an initial (for me, just a big 'D') in the "PULLER _________" field on both sheets, and walks around the room, sheets in hand, pulling the shirts the order calls for from the stacks. The shirts are then plopped on the table, order sheets on top, and the puller moves on to the next two sheets.

Phase two. The Packer takes the two sheets and initials both in the "PACKER _________" field. He/she then lays the invoice sheet on a stack of other invoice sheets face-down. Next, they look at the ID number of the order on the Packing sheet and write it on the outside of whatever they're about to package it in (envelope or box), along with the customer's initials directly below. They fold the packing sheet in half, stuff the box or envelope with the shirts/other merchandise and Packing sheet, and seal it.

Phase three, the Shipping. Someone takes the crate-fulls of envelopes and boxes the Packer generates and brings them to a desk with a computer and electronic scale. We use a special program to do very interesting communications and calculations with the post's servers and rates. The process goes a little something like: grab box/envelope, read 5-digit ID number on package, place on scale, type number into program (which also reads the weight on the scale) and it brings up the customer's shipping and contact info, along with a calculation of the cost of shipping depending on which kind it uses (you switch it between First Class and Priority based on weight). Read the customer's name. Initials written on the package match? Good, click the Print Label button. The program communicates with the post's servers and takes credit from our account. It then tells a special printer next to the computer to print a special shipping label. Peel it off the waxed paper and stick it onto the package. Toss it in the other crate if it's a box, or a bag if it's an envelope. Yay, next. By the way, if there's a mismatch, you get to rip the package open and send the contents back to the Packer and tell the poor sod to do it all over again and he damn better get it right this time.

Got all that? I'm glad.

Of course, all this time the phones are ringing nonstop. Literally. You answer one call and two more come in.

Somewhere around 3 PM, people from the post office come to take away the mountains of bags and crates we've produced. From 3 to 5 is the time where we start to wind down. We'll switch out more frequently, the calls become less frequent, everyone kinda loses momentum on the whole. Now it's just time to do spots of work here and there and wait for 5. Well, 5 for me. Some people leave earlier or later, depending on their personal circumstances.

On a good day, we'll have processed all of the shirts Production sent up to us all the way through.


And if anyone is wondering, I get paid minimum wage. $7.25/hr. Considering I live with my family still, and my mom is my employer, I'd say those are pretty good circumstances, though. Right now I'm just excited because I have like an actual job for once and HEY GUIZE MONEY IS COOL!!!

[Qactis]

I have never been able to find a legitimate job, though I send out some applications a couple times a year when I remember. I used to be more enthusiastic about finding work, but after a couple years of nothing, I basically lost hope of ever really landing anything. Having Tourettes and Diabetes doesn't exactly help, either.

Nigga I have diabetes too, never stopped me from having a job. Tourettes probably doesn't matter in half the jobs out there, try construction for example. No one cares as long as you get your work done. I can tell you right now beyond a shadow of a doubt that filling out a couple applications a year is the REASON you do NOT have a job. Try filling out an application a day, maybe three. And when you filled out a good ten or so, CALL THEM BACK, and say "hey I'm just asking about an application I filled out on X date, have you had a chance to look at it yet? No? OK." *calls back the NEXT day*. You have to bug the shit out of them. This doesn't piss them off in most cases, because employers are looking for people who are taking the initiative to get off their ass and actually try their hardest to get a job. They are looking for people who WANT the job.

As for myself. I worked at Domino's Pizza for 3yrs3months. I started when I was 17 as a customer service rep. for a little over a year, then moved to a different location to start being an assistant manager, and I stayed as assistant manager over that store and then later another store for the rest of my time at Domino's, working at a good dozen stores total in the area's franchise before they fired me for turning in bank deposits a few days late (boss man gets mad when he's not immediately collecting interest on the 300-1200 dollar deposits every day). Funny thing was, they never really warned me not to. I got written up on a thursday, informed it was a bad idea, and promised to not do it again, and then was fired on monday. Now I'm 20 with nothing to show for myself except a halfway-to associates degree at the local community college and a change of heart on the matter of what I want to major in. I signed up for unemployment at the ncesc and was qualified, which requires proof of 5 applications filled out a week and the results of them. I hope to get a full-time job soon or 2 part time jobs. I want as many hours as I can get, up to 60.

Edit: You ask, Joel, why do you want to work that much? Because, I believe if you're not lazy (I'm not lazy, just not motivated), then you should have no problem doing whatever your job asks of you and more, because the more hours you get, the more money you get (unless you're salary, and most people on salary get jipped out of a lot of money).

[squishy_ichigo]

Well, if all you want out of life is money, then go for it!

Personally I work about 35ish hours a week and thats more then enough to pay my bills.  I live comfortably enough, and have enough time to do things that I enjoy to do, like be here.

I work hard, and then laze about the house most of the time. :P

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Okay, Qactis, you wanna fucking go there? Fine.

My Tourettes cause me to involuntarily make jerking motions with my head or my jaw. Other times it causes my eyes to move around randomly or to start sniffling and snuffling so much that I quite literally am incapable of speaking and sometimes breathing. If I got a job at that construction site I'd be looked upon as an extreme liability because there's a significant chance of my Tourettes causing me to become disorientated and fall off of something. It is distracting, hard to ignore, and personally causes me physical discomfort and occasionally injury. Don't even fucking tell me that you have any idea how limiting Tourette Syndrome can me.

As for the Diabetes, it's not as bad now as it was 3 years ago when I was when I was first diagnosed and even the doctors have no idea how many years I've actually had it. You don't go for years of having 400+ blood sugar levels and not escape unharmed. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be, I can't even tell you what's on the receipt that's laying a foot or so away from me. Glasses aren't an option cause they would just give me perpetual migraines and make me tired when I tried to read through them. Speaking of tired, my stamina and endurance so damned low that I'm physically maxed out after even a little physical labour.

I'm slowly working to regain my stamina and endurance but I seriously don't see myself significantly improving upon it without at least a couple of months going near daily at the gym. Biking for 5 minutes is enough to wear me down, let alone doing it for 15.

And I never said those were the exclusive reasons I have trouble finding work. I've never had a job before, so I can never provide previous experience, and if I can't be hired even by places that say they take people with little experience then that isn't helping matter. As for not turning in applications constantly, I've been told FLAT OUT by all the places I give applications to that I'm only supposed to/allowed to submit applications every 60-90 days. That's about 3 months so yeah, a few times a year seems rather appropriate. I have no fucking transportation besides the bus so I'm kinda limited to where I can apply. And all these places that require online applications literally won't let you submit another one until the time is up, so they're out of the picture, too.

You try finding a work with no experience, no references, in Southern California amongst the tens of thousands who are also looking for work, and you see how well you do. No one in their right mind is going to want to take a wet-behind-the-ears guy almost 30 years old who has never held down a job before. Hell know, they're going to go for all those other people who've had experience and references and college degrees first.

I don't fucking wanna SEE you try and brush away the Diabetes and Tourettes like it is nothing, and don't for a second take lightly the job market here where I live as it is a fucking joke. I know people who are GREAT at their jobs, and they're STILL looking for work over a year later. So don't you fucking get condescending at me about it. The way you act it's like I don't want to fucking work, and I DO gods-damn it cause sitting around the fucking house all gods-damned day is BORING AS HELL and it doesn't get anything done.

[Quietus]

Hmm...  It sounded to me like Qactis was urging you on more than anything, rather than playing down your circumstances, and calling you incompetent / lazy / whatever.

[Qactis]

Hmm...  It sounded to me like Qactis was urging you on more than anything, rather than playing down your circumstances, and calling you incompetent / lazy / whatever.

Yes

Okay, Qactis, you wanna fraking go there? Fine.

I went there. Yes I did. I went there. I did I did.

Don't even fraking tell me that you have any idea how limiting Tourette Syndrome can me.

Who said I didn't have an idea? I'm full of them, that's why I'm here.

You don't go for years of having 400+ blood sugar levels and not escape unharmed. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be, I can't even tell you what's on the receipt that's laying a foot or so away from me. Glasses aren't an option cause they would just give me perpetual migraines and make me tired when I tried to read through them. Speaking of tired, my stamina and endurance so damned low that I'm physically maxed out after even a little physical labour.

Did it ever occur to you that pissing 30 times a day and being constantly thirsty was abnormal? I'm speechless. Glasses and contacts that are prescribed to you perfect your vision and so doing do not give you headaches. It's nice to be able to see again. I was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 (the permanent one) at age 4. I've been taking shots (4 times a day now) for 16 years. I've been doing this so long that I've actually put myself into a state of perpetual boredom with the entire process. Since then my A1C has climbed to a whopping 9.9 as of my last doctor visit.
http://www.diabetescontrolsc.com/Images/A1c_chart.gif
That puts my avg blood sugar around 275. I know what this will turn out as if I don't turn around my control. You can see from the color coding what it should be.
My doctor took one look at the depression chart and read off the apathy line to me and offered to put me on anti-depressants. I'm not depressed, because I know the power that being positive holds. I'm just sick and fraking tired of doing this for so long. I know exactly how diabetes is, and that is why I'm coming to you saying to you that diabetes will not hinder your ability to work, where tourettes would. I'm not retarded. Being turned down from a job BECAUSE of your physical limitation is called discrimination, and it's no laughing matter. I suggest signing up for unemployment, and visiting their office to see what you can do about getting a job. If that leads you no where, then consider signing up for disability. America is wonderful for providing for people who have unfortunate setbacks, such as yourself.

You try finding a work with no experience, no references, in Southern California amongst the tens of thousands who are also looking for work, and you see how well you do. No one in their right mind is going to want to take a wet-behind-the-ears guy almost 30 years old who has never held down a job before. Hell know, they're going to go for all those other people who've had experience and references and college degrees first.

This all sounds like excuses to me, from someone who is burnt out on their financial situation. Sorry if that sounds rude, but that's how I read it.

I don't fraking wanna SEE you try and brush away the Diabetes and Tourettes like it is nothing, and don't for a second take lightly the job market here where I live as it is a fraking joke. I know people who are GREAT at their jobs, and they're STILL looking for work over a year later. So don't you fraking get condescending at me about it. The way you act it's like I don't want to fraking work, and I DO gods-damn it cause sitting around the fraking house all gods-damned day is BORING AS HELL and it doesn't get anything done.

My replies are in order. I don't. I know. I'm aware of California's economy, I was born there. I'm not. I didn't try to give you the impression that I'm calling you lazy.
Initiative and positive attitude will change your life.

[Digital_Mantra]

Why don't you just go on disability?
Join the club man.

Hey wanna trade? Schizophrenia for Tourettes.
How about just for a week. You can have my pills too.

[snarfblam]

Why don't you just go on disability?

I've been working since I was 16, with only a single stretch of unemployment that was three months long. Those were three of the most depressing months of my life. Interacting with people, feeling like you're doing something useful (even if it's only flipping burgers), and knowing you are paying your own way all do a lot to fend of depression. If somebody can work, he should. Even if it's a menial or low paying job, there are big benefits besides a title or a paycheck.

DMan, you have problems I have no insight into, so I couldn't judge you if I wanted to, but for some people not working can be the worst option. I think it would do Hiroshi a ton of good to have some kind of job. It sucks that it's hard to find one right now...