Starved for a job...

Yesterday, I must have lost it. I didn't get off the phone between 11 am and 6 pm. I called in non-stop to be a background, because I noticed, my temp agencies weren't finding me anything. I don't know why, but I got overly ambitious getting an assignment this time and ended up becoming frustrated.

I think I am going to be paying more in telephone bills than what I have made this month.

After yesterday, I came to my senses though. Today, I limited my calls because I realized, this was becoming an addiction.

"Can you really be addicted to calling in for a job?" you might ask. Apparently, you can! It is probably because I am so starved for a job and that I need to earn more money. I just wish for a relatively longer assignment or a real job so I can get out of this job-search addiction.

Entertainment Industry has no shame!

Since I don't have any assignments today, I was applying for jobs until I ran into this listing. And I just had to share this:

"An immediate opening for an administrative assistant/floater. MUST have a minimum of 2 years prior experience"

FOR REAL? 2 years experience to be a floater? 2 years experience so you can distribute someone's mail, cover their phones for when their assistants are out, go on their runs? If I have done all that for 2 years already, do you really think I would want to go on a 3rd or 4th year doing it? Cause you might really want to be a career floater...

Live and Learn- Ways other temps will screw you over

If you ever have to work with other temps, DON’T! Okay, only if the other temp is evil, don’t.

I was at this one an assignment with another temp, who at first seemed very nice. But you shouldn’t judge a book by the cover… There were some things this temp did to specifically make me look bad and no, I am still not happy about it...

First, she had a task that required ¼ of the attention I had to give to mine. She kept loudly announcing how I was going slow. Girl, for real? Stick to your job and don’t try to exceed your title as a “temp”, will you?

Our boss seemed easily manipulated. So the temp purposefully repeated that I was going slow. Hopefully, the boss was intelligent enough to understand this other temp’s motivations behind her comments.

We were told, there would not be any overtime. So the options were (1) finish the work as quickly as possible, (2) don’t finish the work, (3) work the overtime but not get paid.

Of course, who would want to work overtime and not get paid, especially if you get a job every 2 weeks? So #3 was out of the question. #2 doesn’t fit my work ethics (but the other temp seemed real cool about it, “you can only do what you can do at a time given” she said. Well, that left only #1- to finish the work. So, I filled up my caffeine and brought on the snacks and focused all my attention to this work and worked through 8 hours with 30 minutes of break. I hardly ever left for the bathroom or any other break. On the contrary, the other temp slowed her pace down (X amount of work, which took her 30 minutes before, ended up taking her 2 hours) and took a longer lunch ( maximum you can take was one hour).

Our boss had to leave earlier. But she assigned someone else to sign the timecards.

I did as I was told. I was done right at 8 hours and was exhausted. The other temp managed to still have some work left, though. Not only that, but the assigned someone wanted to leave early too so she got her timecard signed blank. Oh wow! And that thing about not getting overtime vanished right there!!!

I sometimes wonder how successful I could have been if I could pull off unethical behavior in the workplace… Wouldn't you agree?

Youngsters in the Workforce

The biggest disadvantage of getting a Master’s is, when you end up working at a job, your bosses often turn out much younger than you are. You see, most often than not, they are incapable of managing anyone else but themselves. You figure, you can do a much better. Yet, since you’ve been spending your years getting a – at this point, useless- degree, you are working for them, instead of with them.

How unfair, isn’t it?

Your usual office gig isn't the only place younger people have flooded. Remember that alternative job I am doing? Most of the background actors I meet is often younger than me. And I will admit- I am not THAT old. The other day, when she found out that I had a master's, this 20 year old said "you must love school." Back in the day, when I was 20, I admired those who got a master's degree, not criticized them. But oh well. At this point, I need to start getting used to being old, don't I?

With the younger people in the workforce, the expectations in the maturity level got lower too. But I suppose, as long as the work gets done quickly, right?

It seems to me like all the temps are older, but permenants are younger. Could that observation be true? Anyone?

Camera Shy

Finally, I did something to get paid!

On any other day, I would be picky about the work I take. But I haven’t gotten anything for over 2 weeks, so I figured, whatever I take will help me buy groceries.

I became a background actor and acted as filler on this one show. A show, I would NOT watch. This was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I was getting paid to appear on TV, but I really didn’t want to appear. The whole day, I was afraid to be caught by the camera; worried someone I know might see me on the show and contact me via facebook -or any similar social network- and announce their discovery publicly.

I made sure to watch that show on TV later on that day, to make sure I didn’t appear on it at all. Like I had a right to edit it, or something. :) Well, lucky for me, I didn’t appear on it and my facebook nightmare didn’t happen.

At the end of the day, when all my expenses (lunch, gas, initiation fee) were deducted, I was not left with much, but I was happy to have made my initiation fee back ( cause I was convinced this was a useless expense.) When I got home, my feet were hurting like hell and I had twice as many wrinkles – because of the sun-. Oh well. Just a small price to pay for groceries...

New Avenues

You might wonder why I have not been blogging. You might have also figured it is probably because I have not gotten an assignment in the longest while. If you guessed so, you were right.

Truth of the matter is, my luck hasn't been this dry in my lifetime. In the past 2 to 3 months, I must have sent out more resumes than I have ever had in my career. I haven't heard from a single person. Statistically, that doesn't sound right. I mean, I have Master's degree, right?The total net worth of my education is a quarter million dollars, right? If I am not getting a job, who is filling those positions???     Well, apparently it happens.

The wonders aside, I figured, if I weren't getting any jobs ( permanent or otherwise) that I would start looking for new avenues to make a living. YES! No stopping in this game. This must be the survival instinct...

And I found one. And I immediately signed up with an encouragement of couple friends.
So at this new gig, I paid a small amount of money to sign up- which I am told, I make back on the first time I work. This sounds so wonderful, doesn't it? Well, it turns out, getting the first gig isn't as easy as it sounds.

It is background acting. So first, you must fit into their criteria ( and I mean, the criterias are quite ridiculous- mostly about your physical look/abilities). Then, you must be willing to drive to where the work is ( with $4.09 /gallon of gas, you really don't want to drive too far if it isn't worth it). Finally, you must commit your whole day and perhaps another, but you wouldn't know that until the day you're working.

Too many unknowns, too little need for a master's degree.

I am going to be honest: I am really not so excited about this new avenue. But you know, it's a matter of survival. So I will keep calling. Perhaps I will get something soon and at least make back my initial fee, right?

A Life Lesson Remembered

Most recently, I was lucky enough to get one day of assignment again. I say “lucky,” because although I am told that the economy’s getting better and more people are hiring, I haven’t been able to benefit from that.

So, I was a runner for that day. You might wonder why take that job, especially you have roughly a quarter million dollar worth of education... Well, you’ve got to do, what you have got to do! This business is tough and I take what I get.

During this assignment, I was sent to multiple locations to run the company’s errands, like deliveries.

For one of my errands, I had to make a delivery to this place where I used to work at. That didn’t feel good. And we hadn’t part our ways in harmony, I must say. I left there tear-eyed and bitter and everyone else was sad that I was going, but still cheerful that they were staying. After that job, it took me many months to get over and see the blessing in disguise.

So I got back to that same workspace and all the icky memories came back. Even the door attendant was still the same. Of course, he didn’t remember me, but I did. And of course, I pretended I didn’t either. But instead of the bitter feelings this time, I appreciated the chance to have left that place for a better future. That was indeed a blessing in disguise because if that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have gotten into a field I have a passion for and gotten a master’s education!

Now, you might ask, “what good has that done to you?” Well, as one of my good friends says, patience is a virtue. Who knows, I might get a call tomorrow for that permanent dream job! But until then, I am going to practice patience.

The Office Rivalry

It is not spoken, but it exists...the office rivalry. The assistant's assistant, or the office assistant, is worried about getting fired. The assistant (one above him) is worried about losing  his/her job to the bottom one. The assistant's boss (3rd from below) is worried s/he won't get promoted and s/he will need to look for a new job. The boss of them all doesn't give a shit about any of this at all.

The best part of not having a permenant position - if I had to be positive now- is that I get to visit different offices and see different practices. Here is one practice I most recently ran into:

A secretary/receptionist has tried to scare the office assistant, the intern and the temp away, saying that the boss doesn't like to see them hang around. Why? No reason. This secretary/receptionist says, the boss has this thing about lo-lives ( s/he didn't word it that way, of course) and that the boss just doesn't think these people are necessary...

So, who is necessary exactly, at the work place? Does this boss think the crap-work would get done if any of these people were absent? Would the boss do all the work by him/her-self?

Of course, it doesn't require a PhD degree to figure out at some point, that this secretary/receptionist was trying to get the lo-lives out of sight, so s/he would seem to be doing all the work. But his/her scare tactic has worked! The intern, the office assistant and the temp- all got out of sight, at least for the time I was working there. And s/he "seemed" to spend 10+ hours a day doing all the work.

The lesson? I think the competition happens because people at the workplace feel insecure about their future, or they think pulling the mat under one's feet is the way for them to move up. Also, I think sometimes the tasks at work overlap. Finally, the society's standard of 15 hour work-days , define "successful," so everyone strives to look "successful."

The solution? I don't have a definite solution for this since I find that some people are competitive by nature. But when I have my own company, I will make sure to  (1) define & design every position's work/task load, (2) value "efficient" time management (3) appreciate and show appreciation for the employee -so they won't feel insecure and try the scare of the lo-lives. If I could, I would also (1) punish the ones who play an unfair game.

Who knows? May be I could be the owner of  one of those " top companies to work for"!