I don't have all the information yet (ie flexibility in scheduling and the pay) but I'm looking at a FT position at my current job #2 as my only job. I crunched the possible #s and found that there is a threshold of doable and then there's not doable.

I'm also considering working that job (again, if it's flexible in scheduling) and keeping job #1 for about 1 more year. This would allow me to bank a TON of money for school then quit wherever I don't want to be anymore to focus on school.

It should be interesting to see how it plays out.

Well, I have a temporary job lined up in Indy. My old firm asked me to come back at least until I find something else. They said they know I don't want to stay in this field, but would be happy to have me while I looked.

Dawn

I have had the range in offices from the call center cube farm to a Partner's office in a law firm. (2 walls of windows, a granite topped table, leather chair, and custom made computer credenza, sofa and chairs.) Hands down the BEST office I ever had or ever will have. One of the partner's I worked for hated her office and gave it to me when we were running short on offices. She took over the conference room and an inside paralegal office.

Now, I have an inside associate's office. It is a larger than a paralegal office, but it has no windows. All paralegals and attorney's in our office have actual offices with doors. The secretary's have "pods" which are larger than cubes and are not temporary stuctures, but are open.

I enjoy having a nice work space, but it isn't essential. When I worked in a cube, I thought it was nice, because prior to that I had never even had my own desk. In retail management, we had a store office that all of the managers shared and it was our stock room.

Oh, as a graduate assistant I did share a closet, I mean office with another grad. assistant in the basement.

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by mountaingirl:
Question for all: How important is the sense of place and surroundings to you when you are considering work?

As a Federal government worker bee (i.e., not top management), I have never had the luxury of having a beautiful workplace or even a window to look out of for most of my 37 years of service. For about the first 10 years, I worked at an open desk with no privacy and usually no window much less a view. For all but 8 months of the other 26 years, I have worked in a cubicle with 4-6' walls (usually with the door directly open to another employee, so still little privacy) and no window. For a wonderful 6 months, I worked at a window cubicle and for 2 months I temporarily worked in a private office, but with no window.

So for those of you who have lovely views or a beautiful building to work in or a cushy private office with real wood furniture, consider yourself fortunate! That is only a fantasy for a lot of us!

Jill,

Just read your rant below and I was wondering whether you've made any progress in your situation. Your job sounds like it wasn't healthy for you in any way -- I agree with you that getting out of there sooner rather than later was probably a good idea. Hope you found at least a temporary position for now, but if not, hope you are at least enjoying not being kicked around.

My own career situtation is warming up a little. I am hopeful about a couple of opportunities. I need to get moving on the dissertation -- I have made some progress but need to bump it up on the priority list.

Paula, I hope you find something where you are instead of moving back to Iowa. I am a big believer in trusting those gut feelings -- if you feel nothing but dread about moving home, don't do it!

quote:

How important is the sense of place and surroundings to you when you are considering work?

A nice place to work (the job I had before this one put me in front of a wall of windows that overlooked Tampa Bay!) makes any situation better; however, I sit in a prison now (no kidding--no windows, ID checks in AND out), but because the *job* feels like it's important and worthwhile, I don't mind it. My cube is *my* space, and I keep it clean and neat and uncluttered, with enough of my things around to make it comfortable.

When I worked in retail, I would straighten things that were out of order, stock shelves to make them look fuller, rearrange displays to make them more attractive--in short, while you can't control the BIG PICTURE, you can do things to control your bit of the big picture, if that makes sense. If an office is painted an ugly color, maybe you can offer to bring in a painting that'll cover the area you have to stare at the most.

Is that what you were asking?



Random things...I work on a contract, for a company the government awarded a contract to for specific work. Each contract is attached to a "vehicle", and contracting companies have to be on the "vehicle" in order to bid on the individual contracts. Got that? Okay. Well, the government, in its infinite wisdom, moved my contract to a new vehicle for the upcoming bid that's awarded in September. Guess what? My company isn't attached to that vehicle. That means close to 300 people are looking at the following:
-Losing their jobs completely because the company can't bid on their work
-Moving to work for a new company that wins the contract
-Working for the current company, but as sub-contractors and likely less money

Erm. Super. And to make it worse, THAT move made it EASIER for the boyfriend's company to potentially win this contract, and for him to run the program. Which would mean I couldn't work on the contract, because I'd be working FOR him, directly in his chain of command, which is a HUGE no-no.

I talked to my gov't boss (who adores me) about it a bit today, and she has a plan. One of the gov't employees in our department will be deploying to Iraq. He's been looking for something else for a while now, and she believes this deployment will get him the kind of experience that some of the other teams want, and he'll probably move on. If that happens, she'll say that she wants/needs me in that job, right NOW, and won't "compete" the job (meaning the application process won't be open to anyone else). That'd be super...and would mean moving from a company I really DO like working for to being a gov't employee. Gah.

(Sorry to be so vague about things, but I try to err on the side of caution as far as what we call OPSEC, operational security, and not give out too many details about whos and whats, since people's lives can be deeply affected by what I do and don't say.)

Paula,
I can understand how you feel - working with a placement service is hard sometimes because it is their job to sell you, and it's no secret that the win/win depends on you. When I actually throw my resume out at a job, I always feel a little obligated, and then a conversation obligates me further, and a meeting obligates me even more...and it becomes harder and harder to be the one who says "No thanks" because I feel so obligated! Well, that is my problem, hopefully not yours. I was a low level recruiter many moons ago, and I remember being the one who gave out only tiny details (without lying)in order to get a yes from the person I wanted to place. Are high level recruiters like this?

I recently applied for several diverse positions, and I'm wondering which will pop - not crazy about any of them. I think I would rather do the "home depot" option which was mentioned recently than take an office job I know I'll hate. I've been overthinking the whole thing, I must confess. Too much time on my hands.

Glad, Susan, that things are moving forward for you!

Question for all: How important is the sense of place and surroundings to you when you are considering work? It could be that I'm wired this way, but if I can't picture where I will be and feel positive about that, it is a big hurdle for me. It seems like something that shouldn't matter, but I'm really spacial or something, because I get very affected by my physical surroundings. Curious.

quote:

Excuse me, but I need more info to base a decision like this on before even applying.

Paula, it sounds to me like you have lots of good reasons to NOT consider a position in Iowa but I wanted to say that I don't really think that you need much information at all to just apply for a job. Short of being concerned that it is a job with your current employer (I don't think that's a possibility for this situation), why do you need more info to apply? I agree that the recruiter is probably being excessively obtuse but that is not uncommon as they try to protect their interests.

Peg

Okay.

I told the first client that I will not be continuing to do freelance work. It was a relief to just say it. Interesting thing is that as I cut this stuff free, I'm getting all kinds of e-mails about positions in the area where I grew up.

I'm not sure I want to move back to Iowa. The Recruiter who told me about the position in Des Moines Won't give me any details about the job.
Responsibilities, industry... ya da ya da ya da. I asked for more information and all he gave me was the title of the position and the salary range. Excuse me, but I need more info to base a decision like this on before even applying.

Honestly, I don't like the idea of going back to Iowa. Mom and Grandma would love it, but I just get this huge feeling of dread when I think about it. It would put me right in the middle of all the family drama and all that stuff. The money would be fantastic but I love my life here. The people I work with are great. I've got a solid relationship with Bob. I have a few friends here, but I'm not a person that has a lot of face-to-face friendships. I never have been. I'm a loner for the most part. But Texas has become my home. Iowa is now just the place where I grew up.

I prayed about staying in Houston a year ago and and my current position was the answer to that prayer.

The good news is, my interview is finally scheduled. The bad news is, it's next week, right in the middle of DH's travel schedule from hell and a very busy week at work for me and DS's spring break. But I have this weekend to prepare so I'm not panicking yet.

I had to dig pretty deep to find this thread. How's everyone else doing?

Peg,
I expect to meet with the counselor about his job on Tuesday, and I submitted a coverletter and resume for a dental receptionist position as well. Generally I have thought that I wouldn't like that work because there it seems that there would be so much insurance processing - but I decided I could be wrong about that and it was worth finding out. The office is very nice and their ad really stood out. I just have to keep trying things and being open.

Happy shopping, Susan! I have never owned a business suit, but I am loving the new dress and skirt craze in women's work wardrobes! Its so flirty!

Thanks, you guys. The waiting is a little nerve-wracking, as all you job-hunters know. And this may be a case of countin' my chickens, but I'm going shopping for an interview suit today.

Lynne, I'm glad your DH was able to resolve his situation in such a good way. Hope this means you can figure out what you want to do, too.

Great news Susan. Hope things start coming together next week.

Wow, Lynne, that's good news too! I hope that these avenues pan out. I'm sure it would have certainly been difficult on the girls to move at this point so if he can get something there, it's likely a better deal for the girls and maybe you although I know you'll land on your feet either way. So what happened with the doctors?

Peg

Yeah Susan! Fingers and toes crossed for you!

Update from me as well: My husband decided to sink his teeth into staying here and really seek his next good option within his company around here. Fortunately, because of the hub-bub of him not getting the promo he wanted, his boss was moved to give him new insight into several other avenues (basically because he realized how pissed Dave was and doesn't want to lose him ). Wouldn't you know it, there ARE other jobs he can be a good fit within and he just didn't know: his boss described three different scenarios. This changed Dave's mindset completely! My head is spinning.

Meanwhile, as if the universe were not throwing enough at me to process, we acquired free tickets to a movie screening last night of Peacefull Warrior.(Blockbuster.com was promoting it as is Best Buy, so check these sites for your own free tickets to a local show) It was a phenomenal story about a young olympic hopeful who has a motorcycle accident and has to rehab his way back to peak performance, assisted by a gas station attendant/guru who shows him how to stay present focused and eliminate the garbage in his head. The philosophical focus actually really helped my head so much. I need to stop trying so hard to control my future and enjoy this moment right now. See this movie if you can!

thanks for listening,
Lynne

Update on my interview saga: The recruiter left me a message at home yesterday that they wanted to bring me in for interviews. I didn't get the message till I got home, so I returned her call this morning. And I haven't heard back yet. Argh!

Jill: I'm really sorry that you are feeling so overwhelmed with your current job situation. {{{Jill}}}}

I worked for 10 years for a guy who demeaned me during every annual performance evaluation. All the while, I was earning awards and raves from my customers. It was a very sort of split personality time in my career. Looking back, I don't know why I put up with it. I wish I would have either left or, at a minimum, filed a Union complaint or something about him...but I just stayed quiet and took it. It doesn't make me feel good about myself to say that. And it doesn't make me feel good to think about it happening to you either. Get that resume updated!

I'm sorry you're being mistreated. It's a terrible, horrible feeling.

Home Depot IS a good place to work So is Lowe's, and so is any company run by the Limited Corp, and so are a growing number of grocery-store chains. You deserve to feel appreciated and respected in a workplace. Have you considered giving your resume to a temp service, and telling them you're only interested in permanent jobs, so that they can do the looking for you? (Some of them even edit and finagle the resume for you...)

Jill,
Don't you already have another part-time job in addition to your full-time job? Can you get more hours there if you need to?

Dawn

quote:

I am reaching a breaking point and I don't want this to end badly but I have had enough. I am tired of being walked on, used, and told what to do. I know, bosses are supposed to tell you what to do but I cannot take this anymore. Thanks for "listening".

Oh Jill! I know so much how that feels - I could have written it 3 weeks ago. So lets say I am you in three weeks: You give your notice, and it feels good. Two weeks later you are hitting the pavement, feeling selfrighteous and a little broke. Hm. Three weeks later, you are feeling a whole different kind of desperate!
What I mean is if you can possibly ride this out until you secure another position, you can avoid the desperate part, which is misery of another flavor. So basically, try not to do what I did! I am wishing I stuck it out until I was re employed, but my misery won out.

Jill, I totally agree with Dawn. You need to get out of the situation ASAP. Your post reads like an entry in a "Worst Job Ever" contest. And you're right to compare it to a toxic personal relationship. The effect on you is the same! Sending hugs and support till you can figure out how to end it.