Let me start off by saying that I had a really good job about two years ago. I was an assistant manager at a retail store, full benefits, 15 min drive
to work, great hours and plenty of spending money on top of paying 80% of mine and my wife's bills. Due to improper management and poor budgeting at
that store, I and a few other managers lost our jobs.
I was unemployed for a year and a half trying to find work at even half the pay that I was accustomed to living at and that my bills required. I knew
where to get work, but I also knew that within months it would lead to bankruptcy.
Well, unemployment ran out, and after hundreds and hudreds of failed applications and many promising yet failed interviews, I was forced to take the
general labor route for work. Unpredictable hours, twice the drive and fuel consumption per week, limited benefits and really, REALLY boring,
monotonous work.
I have been employed at my company now for fourth months and I just got hired in after working through the temp agency for $8.50/hr. I am starting at
$9.85 and yearly raises based on performance.
Here is where the rant part comes in, now that you know the background:
I have a six month old son, I am a full time college student, I have held a mid to high 600's credit score for the last seven years and I am now
preparing to file bankruptcy, all while working full time. My life is not perfect, yet I see ten people a week come through the doors to our company
as temp workers that can't even stick it out three days. We make wooden doors for high end homes for crying out loud, it is essentially a woodshop.
You have machines to do the work for you, very little labor involved unless you are in assembly, and even then they have vaccum lifts that pick the
doors up for you after they are done being put together. You have to stand in one place for eight hours (with some movement) and do the same job over
and over and over. While this may seem monotonous and boring (and it is), you are getting paid for CAKE WORK!!!! Yet I see temps dropping like flies
because they can't handle the job.
With the economy as bad as it is, and thousands of people fighting for any paying position they can get, wouldn't you think that work was important as
long as it was something? Hell, even if you could stick it out for a few months and find a higher paying job, at least you are getting paid??!!
There are a few younger kids that come through the door, but most of the people I see are mid twenties to mid thirties, yet I am one of the three
temps in the whole plant that actually stuck out the job to get hired into a full time position. THEY WANT PEOPLE; they also want you to show up and
be on time without complaining, it's not that hard.
I am in financial hell, and everything I worked so hard for in the last ten years is about ready to go to hell in a hand basket for lack of a better
term, yet I stick it out because I have responsibilities, a son that needs me, a wife that makes about as much as me because her hours were cut down
to 3 days a week, so why the %( can't you stick it out like the rest of us?
I live in Michigan, MICHIGAN!!!, this is probably still the worst state for unemployment in the country, yet I see people walking out the door on an
almost guaranteed job if they just hang in there until their 90 days are up. There are a ton of job postings on the board for full time positions, but
no one to fill them becuase the lazy @** temps are TOO GOOD for this kind of work. How do you think I feel? My life is getting flushed down the toilet
and I am still there, every day, on time without a word to say about it. My truck is up for sale and will probably be repossessed by the end of the
month if it doesn't sell, do you see me complaining about standing all day, or getting dirty, or getting a splinter?
I suck it up like a man and do what I can for my family, so to hell with anyone who has the nerve to complain that they aren't employed when they pass
up opportunities because they think the job is beneath them. Jobs like this may not pay all of my bills, but they are the kind of jobs that founded
this country as a leader in industry, so don't knock the quality, skill and patience of the people that are full time or long term employees in the
general labor market.
I didn't want to end up there because I knew what it would do to me financially, but I did it anyway because I'm not going to live off of welfare and
other people's dime because I can't humble myself to do some dirty work.
Get a job and stop complaining about it.
King
edit on 16-8-2011 by Kingalbrect79 because: (no reason given)