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21480. Ms. No - 4/4/2007 3:38:58 PM Hi Betty!
Whipped up a batch of body powder the other day and thought of you. It's great to see you here! 21481. betty - 4/4/2007 3:40:23 PM Ms. No!
How are you in a general sort of way? 21482. arkymalarky - 4/4/2007 7:32:07 PM I guess I can't fault the local stations for hogging the airwaves when it really was dangerous...the air outside looked positively yellow with huge dark clouds swirling around and we had our emergency plans all ready to go...where to wait it out, blankets for coverage, etc.
Tis the season. I'd have been glad to sit and wait it out with y'all, but if something hit while I was on the train I'd be trying to jump off of it. I handle it okay at home or school (it happens a lot in this particular part of the state, and any time of year), but on the road I'm a complete basket case. Of course my commute has so many trees and so few houses it's hard to know when or where to pull over. One year I booked it home right after a graduation, skipping the reception (we always have a nice one for everybody afterward at the school), and I barely got home ahead of a massive system that took out a lot of trees between school and home. Had I waited even five minutes I'd have been in the middle of it, and likely would have been blocked from getting home in any direction. Of course here, someone with a chainsaw will be along any minute and trees get moved pretty fast, but I'd have probably died of fright before then.
Speaking of, we had hail Monday night around 11:00, but this stuff came through last night with no rain (we already had plenty) yet still bringing the cooler temps--yea!
21483. arkymalarky - 4/4/2007 7:35:59 PM Congrats to you on the BA Betty! Glad to hear your daughter's doing so well!
21484. Ms. No - 4/5/2007 2:36:59 AM Doing pretty well, Betty. I'm stressed out, but living the best life I know how at the moment. I moved back up to Sacramento in August and have gone back to school to get my credential to teach high school English. That's still about two years away since I'm having to work full time for the next little while, but I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up and I'm absolutely thrilled!
What are you getting your BA in, again? 21485. betty - 4/5/2007 6:10:52 PM Ms. No.
I hear you on the working full time and school. I've been working 30 hrs a week (I sell furniture, can you imagine?!) for the last three years plus school full time which was no big deal at the community college, but the work's a little tougher up here in the top tier. I average four nights a week sleep. I get a little crazy sometimes. If I had it to do over again I would find another way. Part time sounds divine, though really I can't complain, they covered all but two thousand dollars a year on an almost forty thousand tuition. My degree will be in history.
I have a good friend in Sacramento, I might be going out this summer, I'll be sure to drop you a line if I do, we can have lunch. 21486. alistairConnor - 4/5/2007 7:56:30 PM ... Oh I'd love to be a fly on the wall...
... or a dog under the table ... 21487. arkymalarky - 4/5/2007 8:23:05 PM Down, boy. 21488. Ms. No - 4/6/2007 3:30:41 PM I'd love to meet up with you, Betty! Definitely let me know if you come to town.
21489. Ms. No - 4/6/2007 3:35:29 PM In about ten minutes I'm off to spend my last half-day in Hell. Everybody keep your fingers crossed that the staffing recruiter continues to shirk her duty until after Noon today.
I can't believe they sent me to an assignment that's been through six temps this year alone all filling in for a woman who's out on Medical Stress Leave due to having a nervous breakdown caused by working for this insane bitch who runs the company.
I'll give you all a full rant later. 21490. arkymalarky - 4/6/2007 9:47:04 PM We'll look forward to reading it. Yet another good thing about teaching. Not much interaction with administration. 21491. Ms. No - 4/7/2007 1:38:13 PM So I wasn't having much luck with the one agency I had signed up with. Oh, they loved me and wanted to send me out all the time but they didn't have the kind of jobs or pay rates I was looking for so I signed up with another agency.
I've come to the conclusion that temp agencies are easily impressed. As far as I'm concerned I had BETTER get a perfect score in Word and Excel since I've been using the programs for more than 15 years. I had BETTER score damn high in AP and AR since that's how I paid my rent for the better part of ten years.
But they were giddy and thrilled and gushing and had work for me right away.
And they sent me to hell.
Not only was it work that I had specifically stated I didn't care for (general office and file clerk), but they seemed to know very little about the office itself. The recruiter only told me that they'd had a couple of temps in there already that hadn't worked out well due to personality conflicts.
Yeah, it turns out that the last three temps left in tears and they've been trying to fill this position for nearly a year after the woman who held it had a nervous breakdown and was put on Medical Stress Leave.
And why? Because the woman who runs this office is a monster.
She's a micromanaging control freak with both attitude and temper. She yells at everyone and will call you on the carpet if she reaches for a certain color pen and it doesn't happen to be in the cup nearest to her hand (even if you already stocked the cup twice and it's her damn fault for migrating the pens all over the fucking office.)
She is nearly incapable of speaking to anyone without condescending and treating them as if they're stupid and she constantly interrupts when you attempt to ask her a question for clarification about something. Before she actually knows what you're asking about she's scolding you for asking a dumb question about something else which you had no questions about to begin with.
The corker is that I contacted the agency after having tried to stick it out for a week and informed them that it was not a good fit for me and they needed to find me something else.
Turns out the recruiter who placed me was already gone from the company and the new recruiter had this account years ago. She knew exactly what my problem was: the Boss Lady.
Now, the procedure for such a situation is for me to alert the agency and them to take care of it. Either to send another temp or to address the issues with their client. (Usually just send somebody else)
But this recruiter decided it was much easier on her if she pressured ME to approach the client and let the client know that I didn't think it was a good fit for me. She did this because she knew I didn't want to talk to the client about it --- nobody would. I mean, honestly, do you try and talk to a vicious dog about its tendency to bite? No, you stay the hell away from it or you put it the fuck down.
This is expressly prohibited by the contract I signed with the agency. (Er, negotiating directly with the client, not shooting them, that's supposed to be understood.)
So when she still hadn't contacted the client after a week I told her that Friday would be my last day and she needed to let the client know.
Again, she said I could let them know I didn't think it was a good fit.
So yesterday, the client still thought I'd be coming back on Monday. I emailed the recruiter and let her know that I absolutely wouldn't and she could tell the client anything she pleased, but that she'd better do it early Monday morning or she'd get an earful.
Sent to hell AND left to rot. 21492. arkymalarky - 4/7/2007 5:58:34 PM Why don't they get rid of the idiot? Does she own the company?
Great jobs and cheap living to be had in AR, No! Nice college town, establish your residential status for cheap in-state tuition (or likely get it waived), alternative certification programs for getting creds while you work at teaching, so you could start teaching right away.
And now is a great time to try it out. Mose just got a 2-story, 3BR, 1 and 3/4 bath house in a great neighborhood: $550 a month.
Just a little food for thought, there! 21493. arkymalarky - 4/7/2007 5:59:05 PM That's with CH/A, btw, and a huge fenced in backyard with lots of trees for her two dogs. 21494. Ms. No - 4/7/2007 11:02:53 PM Ah, Arky, it sounds divine! Who knows where I'll end up? I'm established here in Sacramento for the time being and glad to be in a town I love with dear friends around me. Besides, if I moved to Arkansas I'd probably end up driving a getaway car for Todd. ;->
And yes, the woman DOES own the company. She and her husband do. It's been a family business since his father started it some 65 years ago. She seems perfectly loving with her family and her grandchildren seem to like her fine, but I do wonder if her husband married her simply so she'd run the one side of the company with ruthless efficiency and leave the rest of them the hell alone. He spends his days on the other side of the warehouse in the congenial office....although he's not much of a conversationalist. 21495. arkymalarky - 4/8/2007 12:42:02 AM Sounds like it should be a family business exclusively.
The same that holds here holds for a lot of college towns in the South, I'm sure, and possibly some (dunno about costs-wise) in more rural CA. If you want to fast-track the degree and certification to get into teaching more quickly in any state, those with alternative certification plans (CA probably has one) and a nearby university to finish up qualifications to end up where you want to be are a good option. Now that teachers are in such demand, there are more options for people who want to change careers than there have been in the 26 years I've been teaching.
And the skills you already have will get you a good job pretty much anywhere, I would think, but especially in the South, and with people willing to adjust for your school schedule and other needs. 21496. arkymalarky - 4/8/2007 12:45:34 AM Smaller communities and universities work perfectly for this because there are so many places to work and live within commuting distance of the town hub and small university (almost all of which have education programs), in addition to less competition for jobs and housing--IFIFIF you go at the right time. By August the opportunity is generally gone because students take up all the good housing by then. That's why Mose slid into such a great deal now, but couldn't get the right place before then--she was needing and apartment when all the good ones and most of the bad ones were gone. 21497. Ronski - 4/8/2007 1:42:18 AM Happy Easter
21498. Ulgine Barrows - 4/8/2007 11:36:33 AM Oh, Ronski, that is gorgeous!
Thanks. It is .....stellar! 21499. arkymalarky - 4/8/2007 3:56:50 PM OOOhhh, lovely!!
HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!
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