Day Job?

[Marcus Wilson]

Well thats nice for you but I'm already here.

[Rachel Peters]

oh golly, I'm posting again.

I realize I'm quite the late-commer to this conversation -like half a month late - but if you wanted to take up Flash animation and make preschool shows, I'd be willing to trade jobs! ...there aren't any cars to fix though. ...Unless you break some first.

Today I found a pizza slicer, a steak knife, and a pair of big scissors in the office kitchen. Who in their right MIND leaves those out when they know I work here?!
Yesterday I hit my boss in the gut with a juggling ball, and scared the I.T. a little when I tried to show off my knife tossing abilities (granted, I'm not that good. he had every right to be afraid).

...I am so fired. There will probably be an opening here for you soon.

Anyway, we need a pro in this place. It's far too quiet here.

Bored out of my skull (not quite literaly),

-rp

[jesus]

coming to an end

well reality has set in and i must come to grips with my situation.
friday i leave for 14 days on a ship in florida and when i return i need to focus on my profession and not my hobby so i have informed Jiffy Lube that i must cut back to 3 days a week or quit. seems three days a week is fine with them as "responsible" "adult" employees are hard to come by.
it was sweet while it lasted.

[Tom B]

day job

I have a "regular job" for the winter months. I teach skiing and snowboarding. Fun in the winter, and fun in the summer. Its a good break to have seasonal jobs.

[Evan Young]

Do Not Call

didn't get that computer sales job. instead I got a temp job doing phone surveys about smoking habits for the state of colorado.
Just so you know, if you say "I'm not interested", we will call you back. If you hang up without saying anything, we will call you back. If you never answer the phone, we will call you like 50 times. The national do not call list does not apply to us because we arn't marketing.
If you don't want to take the survey, Please FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, answer the phone and say these magic words "please place me on the do not call list", and we will.
I can see the call history for you number. I can see that you hung up on us five times. I can see that you never answer your phone. I don't want to call you, but I have too. For my sake and your own, just ask for the do not call list!

[jester]

I hate you

Evan

I hate what you are doing. You have sold your soul. You are working for SCUM! There is absolutely no excuse for you to be persecuting consumer-kind simply so you can earn extra porn money.

I'm glad I don't live in Colarado.

I hate unsolicited phone callers. I wind them up. I waste their time. Your masters are the ultra utterly lowest form parasytical bacteria that ever existed.

Quit this job immediately. Come and rejoin us all in the human race. Turn back from the darkside and walk towards the light.

I'll pray for you Evan/

[Evan Young]

hehe.

I'm not selling anything, I'm doing a government sponsored survey about smoking habits. I get paid by the hour, so keeping me on the phone is actually more fun for me than punching in numbers for people who don't pick up.
Like I said, I'm not selling anything. the purpose of the survey is to find out what people are doing and thinking about smoking so that state law makers and public health officials can make more informed decisions about public policy.
Surveys like this tell us, for example; that lower income households smoke more than high income households. That gay men smoke more than average and gay women smoke less than average. That the city of Denver smokes a lot more than the rest of the state. Most of the smokers that I talk to smoked thier first cigarette at the age of 15. It tells us wheather or not the states stop smoking advertising is working or not. it tells us how people feel about smoking bans in public places. etc.

Several states in the US, including colorado, have placed heavy taxes on tobacco in order to pay for the damage it causes to the public's health. Those taxes pay for this survey.

I don't like the job, the pay isn't very good and it's tedious. I took it b/c it's easy, flexable, and they don't expect me to stay with them for very long.

I don't think the job is evil, but I really don't like harassing people who I know don't want to talk to me; so I'm trying to educate the population on how to get us off your back.

[Rachel Peters]

would you get in trouble if someone tried to start a conversation with you? Like, if your bosses overheard you talking to a phone-answerer about you favourite t-shirt, or say, eating 50 eggs?
Curious. I love to help entertain survey callers and even telemarketers (which is NOT what you do, I know) for the exact reason you mentioned, but I don't want to get them into trouble. For some reason they don't call us here much...
door-to-door people, I don't enjoy so much. but the phone is phun. ...I mean 'fun'.

[martin ewen]

I get these lovely old biddies knocking on the door of my lonely and isolated dwelling from time to time with their Bibles and their earnest expressions.
It's hard, even for me, to treat them like the right wing, intolerant, hate filled reptiles that they are.
I have a pit bull (quite cute really, white with black eye patch, very friendly)
I let it out and it jumps excitedly around at their feet, its tail wagging violently.
Its actual name is Pippin but I yell, "Satan...Inside...now."
Then explain that I'm in the middle of something very important and have my own faith and no need for their services and wish them all the best.
They are happy to leave as the dog whines and scratches at the door.
For phones I just ask to be taken off their call list.
But if you want to play try this

http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

its a bit too much for me.

[Rachel Peters]

Mormon missionaries used to come after me when I was a kid.
It was a small town, and they knew I was the Baptist pastor's kid.
It would have been a big, huge, town deal had they converted the pastor's kid.
Small towns can be weird.
I learned discernment early on.
I learned to be suspicious of people who were being too "nice".
I learned to send them next door to talk to my Dad.

OH! I just realized how funny it would be to pass off a telemarketing phone call to my Dad. HA! "Dad! It's for you!" ...I think he'd think it was funny. ...well, at least I'D think it was funny. taht's all that really matters. I'll try it next time.

signed,
a right wing, intolerant, hate filled reptile?

[jesus]

I see...

I was the Baptist pastor's kid.

Many things are starting to make sense.

PS. I kept two of my Jiffy Lube shirts and one jacket. The Dream lives on!

[Rachel Peters]

Before I left the office, I took two cubicle walls and an administrative assistant.

The dream lives on... No, wait. I never wanted to be there. No dreams live on.

[jester]

Careers Advice

I just point out to telesales people that I am a qualified Careers Advisor and that NOW is the time to stop doing stupid unrewarding pointless work and to go and do something useful with ones life.

That is after all the benefit of living in a welfare state at a time of high employment when good employees are highly sought after. Telesales jobs should be left to the unimaginative, unambitious and the morally lazy who aren't quite dumb enought to join a pyramid selling scheme.

[Rachel Peters]

But when you career is a creative one, and you just need a day job to get by, I wouldn't invest in an imaginative, ambitious job... You end up with zero energy left to invest in the career. I think Evan's job is a wise choice for what he needs it for. Easy to quit and easy to leave at the office. And just crummy enough to spur him on to greater things.
There's a book coming out... it's actually about animation (of course -- sorry), but a lot of it is about "down time", which I think applies to any artistic career that works on contracts or freelance (the whole entertainment industry, really). I was interviewed for it, and my quotes are supposed to be sprinkled throughout it like pixy dust, as I have had much "down time" and "survival" experience. One of my (sort of self-evident) pieces of advice for finding a job was to make sure you don't find a "normal job" that's too comfortable. See to it that it's just crappy enough to make you want something more (while making sure it's not so crappy as to make you bitter. Know yourself).
I went through college with some people who are still at Home Depot. That makes me sad for them.
The book is written by the director of Blue's Clues. He's funny. I met him on a bus in Ottawa and we talked about squeegee kids.
Oh, and Evan doesn't sell anything. ...only knowledge of the state of Colorado lungs. I can respect that.

[le pire]

Re: Careers Advice

Originally posted by jester
I just point out to telesales people that I am a qualified Careers Advisor.

As I said to my high school guidance counsellor when he told me "bricklaying" was a great job that I should consider:

If you know so much about intelligent career choices, why are you a guidance counsellor?

Good luck at your shit job Evan! Where you living these days? Are you still in MA?

etienne