Take This Job--

--and SHOVE IT!  Yup, just park it right up there where the sun don't shine, Girls!  And so's yer old man, while we're at it.

This would be the winery job I'm referring to here, which I quit in an emphatic blaze of righteous indignation last Saturday night and have only just cooled off sufficiently to write about it.

But I'm not going to because who cares?  One shitty job is the same as any other--no matter how much or little $$ you're making, no matter how good/bad you are at it, the job makes you feel like something Management's trying to scrape off its shoe.  You spend every minute you're not there dreading the next time you have to show up.  While you're there, you spend every minute wishing you weren't.  Sucks!

The good news, however, is that I just started another part-time job, this one as a page at the local library, which just happens to be the #2 library in the entire State of California in terms of volume of circulation, patron satisfaction, and--who knows what all the criteria are?  I haven't been there long enough (3 days) to know.  But I do know when I am having a good time, and THIS is IT.

For example, today I spent my four hours checking in books, shelving books, reading shelves, eating chocolate, filling up printers with paper and toner, laughing with co-workers, learning how to do more stuff like process magazines (they actually circulate!), making a holiday hair ornament out of plastic holly and ribbon for a co-worker who has the most beautiful hair I've ever seen, and sitting on the floor with five-year-old Rachel, who has eyes the size of headlights and introduced herself by plopping down next to me where I was shelving picture books and asking, "What's your favorite aminal?" 

I did all this while wearing jeans, a ponytail, and almost no makeup.  Four hours of this sort of activity seemed to last about 20 minutes.  And I get PAID (though not much) (but 20% more than the winery!) to work there, so I suspect I've died and gone to Heaven. 

Comments

[Tom Montag]

Yup, you have. Died and gone to heaven. My picture of heaven? Locked in a room full of good books and three times a day someone slides a little tray of food in through the door. (Could I say I saw the handwriting on the wall when they gave you the "You Have to Market This Place" speech? Did they get it when you told them off, or do they think of you as "a disgruntled former employee?") Good luck with the new job.

[beth]

Good luck in the new place, Doc. I'm glad you're out of the old ne and back into a place where the people are readers and the commodity is words. And can I have one of those hair ornaments too?

[Trey]

So what IS your favorite animal?