Recently in Employment Category

I am taking a break from work, so thought I'd drop a quick post onto the old blog. Not much to report. Well, that's not completely true. I was having difficulty with breathing this morning on the way to work. Also, there is some pronounced swelling that runs from my belly button across to my right side. It was at the location of this swelling that I felt pressure on my right lung. If you continue the line of swelling around to my back, it intersects my kidney, which also ached this morning. Interestingly, it was after drinking my morning coffee that the pressure abated, the pain at my Kidney quieted, and my breathing became easier.

That's just weird.

Yup, I finished what reading I had left, took the tests, and got myself the rest of my licensing CEUs. Never mind that I have to pay three times the amount a Doctor or a Nurse pays for their license. Never mind that I have to acquire three times the amount of CEUs as a Nurse or Social Worker. Never mind that I am in the lowest paying career in contrast to the other three previously mentioned careers.

It seriously sucks to be a Substance Dependence Counselor in the State of Minnesota. $400.00 to renew my license. That is ridiculous. 40 hours of CEUs. That is ridiculous. And to make matters worse, with the slow, steady strangulation of my field, the employers are no longer supplying free in services. Roughly speaking, it is about $13.00 per CEU. I spend over $900.00 to remain in my field.

And people wonder why I am fucking mad all the time.

I am off to a job interview this morning. Oh, don't worry, I still have my current job. And, to be honest, things are going well. The deal here is that I am interviewing for a job with the Department of Corrections. Or, as most in our field say-Department of Cash.

Now, there are a whole bushel of reasons not to take this job, should it be offered; ridged inflexibility that comes with working for any government job, a philosophical approach to counseling in which I have little training and even less experience, and a 5 day work week.

My current job is very flexible; if I get a case of cabin fever while working on my paper work, I can go for an hour walk to calm myself, I have 4 day work weeks (though the 10 hours cuts into family time), I work with wonderful people, and I actually have a fair amount of experience, and self-education, with their philosophical approach to counseling.

However, the biggest draw back to my current job; lack of secure financial viability. The company is small, it relies on the insurance industry for most of it's revenue, and it is intimately affected by the economy.

So, the question is: Do I take an economically secure job that offers little in the way of joy and relaxation, or do I take an economically insecure job that offers quite a bit of enjoyment and flexibility?

Of course, most of this is an exercise in futility, since I am just going for an interview, and have not even been offered a job. Still, it does not hurt to weigh the pros and cons.

I am sneaking a quick post in before I have to do group. Just letting you know that the job has been great so far. It's wonderful to be working with your average dysfunctional human beings again. After being employed in past jobs having fellow co-workers engaged in excessive denial, relapse, and some of the most unethical, and illegal behavior to exist in the chemical dependency field, this change of pace sure is enjoyable.

Oh, and I am getting 4 days of for Thanksgiving!

I've just not had the time to write any thoughtful (or thoughtless, as the case sometimes may be) post, what with my new job, the lack of Internet at home, and my life in a short-term patch of monetary strain. I'll try to post later, but really don't hold much hope out for it.

Just a reminder; there is a donate button over there on the right.

This is the afore mentioned post:

I feel empty. I've no energy. I've not the motivation to write my anger out. And I am full of anger. But it does no good. All the writing of angry screeds. All the ranting at the unlawful, unethical, amoral actions of BushCo™. All the bitching about the American Aristocrats and their raping of the American middle class. Not any of it accomplishes a damn bit of good. In the end, I am drained. Lifeless. I have not the desire to do but the bare minimum to survive.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I do my job. But there is no love in it for me anymore. I've been away from my family for too long. Alone, empty, without the life affirming embrace of my loved ones, there is no reason to be happy.

There is no reason for me to put up with the standard mediocrity of many of the employees where I labor. There is no reason for me to accept the inadequacies, and sheer incompetence, that populate the back water institution of my employ.

And it is a backwater institution, let me tell you, full of backwater thinking. Many of them are bush country hicks with visions of grandeur. They all carry the same mentality of "we do things different up here in the Borderland."

Yeah, they sure do. Many live mediocre lives while performing mediocre levels of employment. At least they are at their best 100% of the time.

I despise them. They represent everything that is wrong with America, and with the human race. They reflect everything that I found wrong with me.

That's the biggest part of the problem. I see me as I was years ago. Ignorant, self-centered, intellectually lazy, and emotionally stunted. It's all around me. Echoes of my past failing persona.

Without my family to remind me of what I've accomplished, to support me and uplift me, I fall into my old funk. And I can't take it anymore. I want the fuck away from this place.

Yes, I know, it is petty, judgmental, and cruel. I was in a bad place.

However, things are now different. I have a new job. It starts on Monday of next week. I am not willing to give two weeks notice. Back, about a month or so ago, I explained my financial situation to my boss, who is the director of the facility I am now leaving (God, that feels good to type!). His response? "You better do something about that."

Well, having been one month behind on the mortgage, three months behind on the electric bill, three months behind on the cable bill, two months behind on the gas bill, paying out the ass for gas to get back and forth to be with my family, and the extra cost of paying for a motel room, I did just that, I found a new job.

You know, in the end, it's not that corporations are soulless, it's that the people who are in charge of them are merciless, uncaring bastards. A corporation, whether for profit, or a non-profit, is merely a reflection of the personalities and soul of those in charge.

So, anyway, I am resuming my life in Hastings, MN. Farewell, ol' Borderland of the North. May your frigid winters not be seen as a metaphor of your heart.

Actually, many of the people up here were quite delightful and pleasant. Indeed, as a whole, I found International Falls, and Littlefork, to be pleasant, restful, and beautiful.

My problem was with the uncaring, and insensitive manner with which my boss reacted to my financial difficulties. I wasn't expecting him to do anything much more than offer some words of encouragement, or at least a bit of empathy. But to be told coldly (and it was cold and blunt, let me tell you) "Do something about that" was the last straw. So, I figure I own the company as much regard as I received. Which was none at all.

I've an unpublished post that is a rant about life, my employment, and being away from the family. It shall remain unpublished until such time as I am no longer employed by my current employer. Although, I could publish it, and maybe it would hasten my removal from current employment.

No, Cheney and Bush were not impeached and removed from office. But, I do have a job interview for a position in a town only 20 miles from Hastings, not 305 miles. This is a good thing!

Oh Christ! I'm channeling Martha Stewart. Shoot me, shoot me now.