(no subject)

[kodalai]

I hate today.

I was sick the entire trip from Austin to LA, and I come home to an apartment that smells weird, a sink full of filthy dishes, no food in the cupboards, and the whole apartment is freezing cold. The heating doesn't seem to work, at least not that I can figure out -- I can't seem to get it up past "lukewarm air." I want to go to bed because I have to get up early tomorrow, but I can't because of the fucking water heater that bangs and bangs and bangs on the other side of the wall. I think I'm going to talk to my landlady tomorrow -- maybe she can't do something about the noise, but she ought to be able to do something about the heat.

Oh wait, I can't talk to my landlady tomorrow because I'm going to be working from before her office opens until after it closes.

Since I can't get to bed early, I'm really not looking forward to getting up at 8 AM tomorrow to go to work, especially since I'm sure my boss will bitch me out for not being able to stick to the work schedule that she handed to me without bothering to ask which hours I was available. I'm sure I'm going to have to ask my other boss if I can reschedule to some other work shift that's inconvenient for us both, which is doubly annoying because I sure as hell know which job I prefer and which boss I like better. But I can't get enough hours on that job to quit the other one.

I don't know how I'm going to fulfill the stupid fucking social responsibility requirement this semester. My advisor is useless and I don't know who else to talk to.

I don't know how I'm going to do my thesis. I don't know what I'm trying to say any more.

I hate everything.

Comments

[maypirate.livejournal.com]

*hugs* If there's anything I can do, even hold up something for you to hit, just let me know.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

UGH!!! BLEAH!!

That sounds awful :(

The only think I can think is that it is considered perfectly normal, in fact well within your rights, to make a professional (or at least not personal) call to an office that's only open while you're at work, from work. A boss has absolutely no right to deny you that opportunity. You should be able to just say, "I need to call my landlady, I'm sorry to take up work time but she's only open when I'm at work, thanks."

Of course your boss doesn't sound like the most reasonable person, and by the time you get this it may be too late anyway.

[oakenspear.livejournal.com]

and if I recall, however, they can often nevertheless require you to do this during your lunch hour . . . (e.g., when your landlady may also be at lunch. . . .) paid by the hour doesn't always include much in the way of non-working-yet-still-hourly activities.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

If so, another indication of the decline of the average worker's rights in America, the growing inequality between those at the top and those at the bottom, not just in terms of money but, increasingly, a worker's rights as a human being. It may seem like a tiny thing but that kind of refusal to acknowledge simple conflicts and needs is just part of the larger pattern. Luckily, all my bosses in hourly jobs have been very reasonable about that sort of thing.

yes, larger pattern is not even just money and rights

[oakenspear.livejournal.com]

I certainly can't disagree with that per se! (esp. having been a temp.)

but I think a good analysis requires knowing both the bottom *and* the top. so for example: I hate it when people argue that i-bankers have it far worse, on an hourly wage basis, than your average mcdonald's manager . . . but a lot of people still find that argument compelling. (heck, for that matter, our hourly-waged office manager, when I was working in finance, got cigarette and lunch and doctor breaks; my i-banker friends got neither . . . and nor, for that matter -- not that I smoked, but I did want to eat lunch and go to the doctor -- did I.) even money and rights alone can't explain that.

understand, I'm not disagreeing with you -- I'm actually not disagreeing with any your statements about workers' conditions in america. but there need to be other considerations included in order to really highlight the differences between haves and have-nots. as you mentioned, it's money, AND rights . . . AND hours, AND benefits, AND social standing, AND opportunity for advancement, and PLENTY of other things altogether.