Work

Not much going on today, so I thought I'd discuss work a bit. I complain a lot about my job...truly, it is one of the two biggest stressors in my life. Without one, I could handle the other, but when both suck, I don't want to get out of bed in the morning. Now, before I start, let me say that yes, I realize I'm lucky to have a job. It pays fairly well, and no one shoots at me. No one's life is in my hands. I hate it more because it is a combination of the worst traits of every job I've had in the past. A brief history:

Burger King. When I was about 14, my dad told me that if I expected to drive when I turned 16, I'd better get a job and start saving for a car, because I wasn't driving his and he wasn't going to buy me one. This wasn't really a bad job...it got me out of the house, provided me some spending money, and taught me what work was. The worst part was the hours...difficult to work much as a HS student.

The movie theater. By far, my favorite job. It's the only one where I've stayed in contact with most of the people I worked with, and I loved it. Perfect hours for a college student, I was in charge of parts of it, lots of free time. The only things I didn't like were the complaining customers (I hated dealing with the public) and the fact that ownership didn't want us. Who wants a couple run down theaters in Dayton Ohio when you're trying to position yourself as "Sony Theaters"? In fact, when Sony took over, they wouldn't even let us put their names on the theater...we stayed "Loew's Theaters."

CPA firm. A mistake. I never wanted to be a public accountant, and I told them that. I wanted to be a cost accountant. They told me I'd be doing consulting work. My first job was an audit...I felt completely useless. Didn't last long.

Controller of 4 metal stamping plants. Great job, for the most part. This is the one I consider my first 'real' job...I was 'in charge', and I was a professional. Since it was privately owned, though, the pay wasn't great. I also had a boss that made sure I knew he was the ultimate authority...I became disenchanted when I wasn't able to let go of an employee who had basically stopped doing her job. I left there soon after...probably a HUGE mistake.

Cost accountant at Panasonic. This job was great in that I was truly doing what I wanted to do, and it was a huge pay increase. What I didn't know when I took it was that the company was going out of business. The employees that were there had horrible morale, and again, ownership didn't care. I had to leave here...I had a new baby, and the place closed two years after I started.

Lexis-Nexis. A stop-gap job. I needed something, so I took it. The pay was much lower, and it was basically an entry level position. I spent most days doing nothing of importance, my boss hated me, and I was actively looking for something else shortly after I started.

Which brings us to today. I hired in as a financial analyst/cost accountant. Since then, the company has expanded four-fold, my position has changed four times, and the company has made bad decision after bad decision. I've been moved to the IT department...not what I want to do. I deal all day with complaining customers...ugh. I have no power to fix anything. And morale sucks because everyone can see that management couldn't care less about us. I spend day after day, fixing the same problems over and over, listening to people bitch, and doing absolutely nothing to improve the company's bottom line. It's demoralizing. If I felt like I was DOING something, I could stand it. I work with some good people...I just wish that we didn't all feel like we were circling the drain.

Anyway, there it is. I'll try to keep the bitching about the job to a minimum, but I'm sure it will come up. And now you have the backstory.