So... more work news: Work is getting better and I'm definitely getting used to the job and the various co-workers I'm surrounded by. Whateley and I are now on the same shift, so our schedules sync. I'm almost waiting for the axe to fall... like there's no way a husband and wife can be together 24/7 and not want to kill each other at the end of the week. But then, we are newlyweds. Maybe that will come later.

In other news, we're both sick. In fact, everyone on our team seems to be sick, and half the company seems sick. I think one person brought the germ... and it spread is apocalypse over all of us. We even left early on Wednesday but worked on Thursday (unfortunately, being newbies, we didn't get Thanksgiving off) because I don't think they would've let us call in to begin with, but then we both called out Friday, and Whateley called out today but I went into work half-miserable. That's the sad status of a temp worker. When I take sick days, they're unpaid. What sucks is that they had a health fare a couple of weeks ago, where the real employees (the non-temp-through-staffing-agency people) got free flu shots. Well, Whateley didn't go because he forgot, and our roommate went and didn't get the flu shot cuz he's convinced flu shots make you sick. So poor me, someone who actually went and paid for flu shots last year, who actually would jump at the chance for a flu shot, didn't get one, while two other people around me who could didn't. Where's the justice in this world?

So forgive my I'm-in-pain-and-I-feel-like-I'm-dying tone of this entry. But my friggin' stomach muscles are sore from my coughing, and now they feel like they're burning. Or it might be something I ate. Or didn't eat. Did I mention I'm having a hard time eating yet I'm always hungry?

The problem with a customer service job is this: You don't need a degree to get one.

Heck, even a friend of ours who's basically a high school drop-out (w/ no GED, even) managed to get a job there (though he quit after two days).

So basically, a lot of my co-workers are very young, and it's their first or even second full-time job, and some are even going through college at the same time. So basically, what happens when you're surrounded by all that youth? Well, it's a fun environment where everybody has shared interests. But... it also means that many of them have very little experience in the corporate environment. And the only one they can compare it to is school and parents. Now, that's usually not an issue, except that some of the people in managerial positions have never dealt with corporate leadership before. All they know of is teacher/parent leadership... where you're the disciplinarian, the evil watchful eye, and you're basically there to tell people what to do and to catch them doing something bad.

But anyone's that's ever worked for a corporation knows that when your employees are treated like children, morale and productivity will drop. And if people don't feel like they're part of the company, and they're just there to pass the time so they'll get paid... well, it'll end up costing the company more money and it won't have a chance to grow.

I guess part of the problem is that since so many of these people are young, there are people that don't take their job seriously, who will skip and be late like they were at school, and who do need to be told what to do or else they won't work (heck, that's what working retail's like). But it seems insulting to the rest of us who do know how to work but are being treated like children.
I'm just venting. It's not as bad as I'm making it sound. It's more of the extreme that I'm describing. And maybe I'm pissy that I'm older than 80% of the department. (An estimate.) (Maybe even an exaggeration.)

Work's been good so far. Whateley and I are dealing with having different days off and having a two-hour shift differential while he tries to move into mine. But then he applied for the Billing department, the same one that called me three days into training at my current position at Customer Service. And because of that, they won't hire me into that department until I can become permanent at my current position and get the recommendation of my supervisor. And most likely, Whateley will be able to get into Billing cuz he actually is permanent, and he will take the job cuz it pays just a little bit more.

Do you see the irony here? If I could've not started training until a few days later, then when I got the call from Billing, I could've taken the interview and possibly the job. And then Whateley would be able to transfer over. Instead, because of those three little days, I now have to wait at least three months to even make permanent (through an agreement they made with the staffing company) and most people don't even get it 'til 4 or 5 months. So instead of Whateley and I having the same schedule by next month, we'll have it by next spring. Sigh. It's stupid cuz if I were to quit and apply to Billing, they probably wouldn't hire me cuz I quit my last job after only two weeks... and it's the same company!

Maybe it's the cosmos telling me not to get too complacent at my current position and to work on getting an artistic position instead.

My first day as a non-trainee. It went well, though I learned now that I get tired about mid-way, and while one cup of coffee does wonders, a second cup will make me jittery and nauseous. Who knew, huh? I mean, I used to have two to three drinks per shift at Starbucks.

I called my mom today after ignoring several voicemails. I don't really mean to, but often times I don't even check my voicemail until well after midnight, so I couldn't call them right away, and then of course I'd forget the next day. Anyway, it's always hard talking to my mom since she's convinced I've thrown my life away. I can't even explain to her where I'm working now cuz I just don't have the vocabulary. To her, all she knows is that I'm working the swing shift with non-traditional days off. She kept mentioning how she wished I'd go study something useful and get a good job. I can't explain to her that I'm hoping this job will lead me to the artistic job that I want. Sigh.

Anyway, in other stories, I just gave Compassion International $18 for a Christmas gift for my sponsored kid. Sigh.... I don't know how to feel about this. I sponsored this kid sort of as a whim. More like, I was considering it, it was the big thing at church when I was college, and I had plenty of money from my scholarship and my overpaid campus gig. But then college ended, I was struggling for money, I was working crap retail jobs, and I was barely scraping by. But I couldn't justify cutting $28 a month out of my budget because while I coulda used the money, I wasn't in desperate need of the money. And meanwhile, I hooked up with Whateley, moved in, and his and my income combined covered our expenses, so again, while I coulda used the money, I wasn't so desperate. Now, now that I've got a full-time job, I'm not in school, and we're on our way to saving up for place of our own... well, we can afford that donation, though, like I said, I could always use the money since I'm not making a lot of money. (I'd say we're on our way to becoming lower middle-class.)

Am I a horrible person? I've been feeling so guilty I can't get myself to open his letters, nor write to him much. And this poor kid is caught in this weird psychological web I've entrapped myself in. But I feel so guilty cuz I've been this kid's sponsor for over 5 years now, and I don't want to drop him as a sponsor since older kids have a harder time finding sponsors. Yet, it seems cruel to be a sponsor for him 'til he turns 18 and barely communicate for the entirety of his childhood. Okay, I just requested that they assign a correspondent for him. I'm so weak. :(

Anyway, Happy Halloween, everyone. And if you object to Halloween, then Happy Hallow's End! And if you don't know what that means... go play WoW!