My 34th Year

My birthday was Sept. 28th and I turned 34. A generally unimportant birthday all things considered, but happened to coincide with two massive events in my life.

After two years as an in-house temp at a staffing agency, I quit my job in what can only be described as a blaze of glory. It was a build up of stress and poor treatment by supervisors and by corporate. The straw that broke my back was the other in-house temp who has only been there for 6 months was hired on perm at $8 more an hour. When I asked my boss about it, she dismissed me as being irrationally upset.

I haven't been able to take a vacation in two years, I didn't have medical insurance, I haven't had a raise in 2 years, I had been promised for a year and a half that I would be perm and when I was off sick, I had to work that weekend to make up the hours. I had been working 60 hours a week and was exhausted. I couldn't take it anymore. It was stressful work conditions and I was being treated like a second class citizen. They didn't even think that I needed to be told. I found out like schmuck. This was the final insult and I was forced into a position where I had to quit. I would have given two week's notice, but it was mutually agreed with my emotions being as high as they were that allowing me to interact with the client would not have been good.

I quit with nothing to go to. I had enough money saved up for a month's worth of unemployment. I signed up with a bunch of temp agencies and applied to all jobs I could on craigslist. I've had a bunch of phone and in-person interviews, but keep getting told I am the second choice only because someone has just a little bit more experience than myself. It is frustrating, but not surprising in this economy. Right now, I have a long term temp assignment that is crap pay, but plenty of OT that allows me to make more money than before. I have to work 7 days a week, but I can pay my bills without raking up more debt.

I am still in search of a stable steady position with better pay. I keep getting told it is right around the corner and I'm sure it is, but there are a lot of corners to look around for it.

This was a pretty cataclysmic event and kind of dwarfed the news I had that happened the day before.

I got accepted into a master's program for photography. More to come in the next post.