still on the job hunt

I currently have 6 applications in and 2 to complete tomorrow. All of them offer crap wages the best being $11 an hour. Sometimes I wonder why I am bothering for that sort of wage (most will be $8 an hour if I am lucky) and then the realist rears its head, telling me it will at least pay for one set of tuition fees next year. Plus I might actually like it...working that is. LOL.

I have been on a bit of a downer this week. My embroidery isn't going well as I feel that I should be doing more important things like .....sitting on the PC avoiding doing the important things. However, today I decided I was going to be more positive and it has been a more positive day. Of course it helps that last night I had a full nights sleep courtesy of a sleep aid. Two nights of not sleeping wasn't helping the situation, I was too damn tired to do anything! How can that be right, I am too tired to do anything but cannot sleep. Tonight I am back to the no sleep aid. I know it will get better eventually but God I am so envious of people who can sleep. I also bought a new CD to fall to sleep to. Now if I just work out how do a play list for my MP3 player I might have music all the night though.

Need to go, just realised its almost 5.30pm and dinner has be made.

So I am again searching the job ads

and this time I am more resolute about the whole thing. I have already applied to several jobs and once I have finished here, I am going to apply for more but this time I am going to try for office work. I enjoyed my time at Sears apart from the bad management, lousy hours and most importantly the crap pay, so I am not completely put by working in retail but I would prefer office work, I think.

My official leaving date was the 10th Jan but Glades took me off the schedule from Wednesday which I was glad about as I really didn't want to work another 2am-9am (always extended to at least 11am) shift on Sunday.

As I left I overheard Glades and Theresa cooking up something about Ray, giving her more pay,hours or both but they will come unstuck soon, as at least 2,probably one other, of the girls (making 3 in total), are resigning in the coming weeks, leaving with them only 3 associates. Given that I was the 5th person they hired for the same position in 6 months because they lie about the hours, they are going to have problems. Personally I would get rid of the whole department and have a bigger floor staff doing the job, with regular hours.

One the thing I did notice on the last day, is that Theresa (the operations/HR ASM) twitches her left eye if she is lying or caught out by something unexpected. Basically our ISS lead, Glades disappeared for a good 2 hours on my last day and when we asked Theresa about it, she twitched her left eye nervously several times. She then pretended not to have Glades' cell phone number (Glades' cell is seriously glued to her ear, despite being banned at work) even though we all know that Theresa calls even on her off days to check up on the cleaning crew at night. Again as she asked for Glades' cell phone number from another colleague, she twitched nervously several times. She must have known Glades was missing in action as she shares an office with her and is very pally-pally with her. Plus, if Glades is working, she is almost always in the office, not on the shop floor where she is meant to be.

Anyway despite all the hassles of the lousy hours, bad management and bad pay, I enjoyed working with all the girls in the dept, even Ray who at first got one my nerves with her so eager to please attitude. After a couple of weeks there, I soon realised that without Ray the dept would be in utter chaos as she does most of the lead's (Glades)work. So they better pray she doesn't move out of Austin for her degree once she is finished with her credits at ACC or that they have replace Glades before then. So I will miss the girls but not the work.

Jobs, or lack of them

Emily was told on Tuesday that after today her services would no longer be required which is ok because it was a seasonal job with only a vague possibility of becoming a permanent job. To honest, the hours she worked this Christmas were ridiculous for a 17yr but at least it has given her a good base for her savings and she has already put in several applications for other companies who will hopefully have better work practices than Sears.



I have quit my job as well.

Why did I quit? I was considering staying for at least another month but I was just getting fed up with not knowing what the next weeks schedule was until the last possible moment because the Section Lead seems incapable of planning ahead. The work week starts every Sunday and most weeks I have been there, I haven’t had a schedule until maybe Friday but mostly Sunday at the start of the work week. I know I am starting at 2am this Sunday morning but the rest of the week is a mystery as she hasn’t put up the schedule yet! Also the hours aren’t reliable. This week I did almost 40 hours and apparently from another source, its looks like most of us will be lucky to get 10 hours this week. One week I did over 40 hours the next it was 17.5 hours. Fortunately I don’t rely on this to live on but couple of the women do as they are single with kids. With the uncertainty of hours, it’s not as if you can even plan a 2nd job around it.



Anyway, I have left a parting shot because I know most of the team are really fed up with hours and the management, so I told them I was being paid $8 an hour as oppose their $7.50 hour. I don’t know why I was being paid a higher rate but it is obviously unfair. I am doing exactly the same job as them but being paid more. I don’t know whether they will do anything about it but the ball is in their court. To be honest, I really don’t know how they have stayed there that long but I am glad I have made the decision to go. It just wasn’t worth it.



So I am now on the job trail and hopefully this time I will get a 9-5 job.

on the 24th day of Advent

I was working from 10am - 6.30pm and boy! it was busy. I cannot believe that so many people want to shop on Christmas Eve. If I had the choice and I wasn't working, I wouldn't be shopping right up to the last minute. They had the shop closed for 10 mins and people were still browsing for gifts! Apparently, they were even bangingon the closed doors

Anyway thats me now on Holiday until 11am on Tuesday when all the mark downs start. So I am sipping a glass of wine and looking forward the big day.

on the 6th day of Advent

Today started early....4am to be precise and I managed to fall out of bed, I was so shocked by the alarm. Weird because a good part of the night I was waiting and dreading the sound of the alarm. Well, work started at 5am and the only good part of that is the lights are nearly always green so it only took 10 mins to get there.

Nothing much else to report as most of it was spend at work. As you can see I am quite enjoying this scribbler programme. I am beginning to get a certain amount of control of it now so the images turn out much as I image they would if I had drawn it myself. If I get my scanner working again, maybe I will do some real drawings for advent.

another day

Well, I just got an email from the person who interviewed me on Wednesday and as I suspected I didn't get the job. Of course they put a good face on it and said unfortunately the position I was interview for, was already filled but it that was the case why interview me. Oh Well, just plug on,I suppose.

I will be glad when the american mid term elections are over as maybe then there will be less shouting at the TV.