Most of the country is in a pretty bad shape right now. Forget the holidays, where we try to blunt the hard emotions we have with presents and baubles, when we start feeling the pain again will be after the holidays.

Something happened a week ago which made me feeling less than human. I got sick a day after Thanksgiving. I felt so bad I decided it was best not to come to work. The next day I still felt bad but I decided to go in. We have this policy at work about being sick, which essentially boils down to you can't be sick. It's the usual draconian big business model, where it makes more sense to institute a blanket rule and not look at individual circumstances. Months ago I had to go to the hospital and while it is tough for me to admit it, I was so sick I was close to dying. I used up a lot of my sick time trying to recover. I was told months ago I pretty much couldn't get sick for a few months with the time came back up.

So I played by the rules, got myself off the last call before getting fired, and when I got sick after Thanksgiving, I was well past the time I was told I would be off the list. Turns out the information was incorrect, so I have been graciously given one more reprieve, but I have been told in no uncertain terms if I miss work in the next six months I can kiss my job goodbye.

See, that's where we are in this economy. There aren't a lot of jobs out there, forget the good paying jobs. Working at some low paying job is a good way to wait for the ball to drop and for you to get fired. Companies know that and their playing hard ball with employees. We have so many matrices we have to meet to keep our jobs. If the call volume goes low, they give us other work which they say will help the company. I have no doubt that it does, but there's a air of 'be grateful for your job and love what we're shoveling' mentality about the whole thing that makes me sick.

There are times I want ot do something else. I have people wanting me to go back into things I did before landing my job here, but with the economy I don't dare try to branch out because there's no guarantee I'll get the money needed to survive, and let's not even talk about being able to live well. Right now, for this season, I was able to shop and to get extra things because I don't have a car. If I had a car I'd be struggling and would feel more stuck at my job.

The thing about all this is I know I can't complain. If I were at my old job at Sony, I would have been laid off a long time ago, because that was the rules they worked under. I can see many of the other jobs I had where, because of the economy, there have been massive layoffs and I would have been one of the statistics. Again, because of the economy I have to look at this job, with all the minor issues I have with it, and have to be grateful because I know how much worse it can be.

A few days ago I talked to the owner of the comic shop I go to and he's struggling because, let's be real, comics are a luxury item in hard times. The guys, like myself, who might come in and spend $15-40 dollars a week (and believe me I'm more at the $15 end) are spending a lot less and coming in less. That means he's having a hard time making ends meet and is causing stress with his family. It's this terrible circle where people are treading water, their getting tired, the tide is rising and the ceiling is a few inches ahead. At some point something's going to give.

<< PREVIOUS
NEXT >>

Copyright © Chaotic Fringe LLC. All rights reserved.

The Man Has Us Under His Thumb - Dec 13, 2008
Home | News | Entertainment | Blog | Podcast | IMVN | Everquest 2 | Links | Photos | V-Blog