10 surefire signs you are SO OVER your current job!

The following list is true.  I should know.  They happened to me!

1. Your immediate supervisor tells you she is happy you want to go back to school and is willing to scheduling your work hours around your classes. She then proceeds to tell her boss how much of an inconvenience this will be and that he should deny your request for flexible hours. Soon after, you are put in charge of making the Halloween display at your job. You decide to decorate the wall with a cemetery scene complete with handmade tombstones. You make a tombstone for yourself which reads “…She bled to death trying to get the knife out of her back”. (FYI – my flexible hours were approved despite my supervisor).
2. Your boss lets you order a new office chair as long as the price is under $100.00.  You find a message chair on clearance for $95.00 so you buy it.  Your boss thinks it’s funny and lets you keep it. Everyone is jealous. It is the best chair ever.  You STILL hate your job.
3. An asshole customer makes you cry. Since you are forced to wear a name tag, “asshole” now knows your name. Then, whenever “asshole” comes back in, he makes a point of saying hello and calling you by your name. You seriously consider changing your name to “my boyfriend is large and will kick your teeth in”.
4. You are made to feel guilty for calling in sick to work so you come in anyways. While at work, you pass out while waiting on a customer. Your supervisor panics and notifies the whole store you have fainted by announcing it over the PA system.  The store manager, assistant manager and 3 others rush to your aid. The store manager proceeds to ask if you are pregnant or on drugs.  (You can’t make this shit up).
5. You work at a mom and pop pet store where there is a large sign stating “Please do not pick up the rabbits”.  Of course, a kid picks up a rabbit.  It bites him. The kid drops the rabbit on the floor and you have to go retrieve it from behind the fish tanks. Said rabbit proceeds to scratch up your forearms with his razor sharp, talon- like back legs, until your arms are dripping blood like a tourist at a zombie convention. The little darling’s parents proceed to yell at you for “scaring their son”.
6. IBM used to market a business computer called Wang. The system is garbage and goes off-line at least once a day. You are constantly on the phone with the Help Desk for assistance. One particularly busy morning, the system goes down and you place the obligatory Help Desk call. They ask if the computer in the manager’s office is working, and as luck would have it, your manager has just walked in. The first thing out of your mouth is “hey, when you were in your office were you able to get your Wang up?”  It all goes downhill from there.
7. An investor is buying property that has been foreclosed on, and you are put in charge of preparing the deed and all the transfer documents. On the day of the closing, the buyers show up at your office to sign the papers. You and your male boss greet the visitors, and you stick out your hand for the customary greeting.  DENIED. The buyers tell you they will NOT shake hands with you because you could be unclean (i.e. on your period) and that it is against their custom to conduct business with a GIRL! The boss excuses you from the meeting.
8. A customer comes in to cash a check and you ask him for his ID. He hands you his license along with a condom that is stuck to the back. You try to laugh it off as you hand it back to him saying “I don’t need this”.  Instead of being embarrassed, he tells you to keep it “…in case you get lucky later”.
9. You are getting more and more disillusioned with your job and have started venting your frustrations on a daily basis. One day you overhear your supervisors talking about how unhappy your seem lately. You pride yourself on appearing professional, so you are mortified when one says “she has the face of an angel and the mouth of a sailor” to which the other replies “does she kiss her mother with that mouth”?
10. You have nightmares about your job. Every Single Night! Even the nightmares are better than the reality.

Your turn.  When did YOU realize it was the end of the road for a job?

There were two things I couldn’t wait to do when I turned 16; work and drive. As luck would have it, I couldn’t really have one without the other. So, the day after I turned 16, I went to my local Clerk’s Office, and applied for my first set of working papers.

To me, working meant money, and money meant freedom. Freedom to buy what I wanted, freedom to save up for my future, and freedom to get a car. I imagined never having to rely on anyone for a ride every again, I could go anywhere. (Yeah, right)!

Looking back, I have to laugh at my naive self. I was in such a hurry to prove myself, to be an adult. And the really funny thing was that I never understood how much freedom I actually had as a teenager that DIDN’T have a job. My nights and weekends were my own. Sure, I was broke, but so were all my friends. We got creative with our down time. Hanging out at the mall, loiter downtown, or stealing our parent’s booze and getting wasted on the jungle gym at the park.

But I thought I knew what I wanted, and once I started working, I never looked back. The longest gap in my job history is the 3 months I took off for maternity leave after having my son. He was NOT an easy baby. I was glad to go back.

I got my introduction into the working world with my first job as a cashier at the now defunct Fay’s Drugs. Two times a week and on weekends, I would hand ring in purchases from a variety of interesting people. Interesting being a nice way of saying creepy, nasty, impatient people. Don’t get me wrong, some of the clients were nice. Mostly the little old ladies that came to fill prescriptions and stop to pick up shortbread cookies. But this drug store was not in the best location, and the majority of people that came through the door were “interesting”.

I soon discovered that not only did I loath running a cash register, I was also not very good at it. I sucked making change, I had a hard time figuring out what department an item belonged to, and I got easily distracted. In the end, I usually just hit the “grocery” key for every item purchased. I apologize to the State if they missed any tax revenue because of me.

During the week I typically worked from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. On the weekends it was 9 to 5. What little money I did make from this job (I think minimum wage was $3.25 back then) I socked away for “someday”.

At 16, I was the youngest person working at the store. My assistant manager was a middle aged woman named Kay. She was all business. The store manager was an overweight younger guy that always looked sweaty. He was obnoxious and unprofessional, and said things that I know now where sexual harassment. But at the time I was taught to not make waves. You did your job and sometimes you had to put up with some bullshit along the way.

I really started to dread going into work. My grades started slipping (I was not the best student back then anyways) and I started picking fights with my mom on the ride into work.

I had been at that job for almost eight months when everything came to a head.

It was a Friday night and close to closing time. A drunk, older man came to my register to check out. Even though he was obviously plastered, he was still nice. I chatted with him for a few minutes while I rang him out, like I would do with any customer that came through my line. I didn’t know it, but the store manager was standing off to the side, and he was watching this interaction.

When the drunk guy left, it was 9:00 and time to lock up. The only people left in the store was Kay, the store manager and me. As I was walking back to the locker room to get my things, I heard the store manager say to Kay, “I bet she was making a date with that guy. Probably trying to earn a little extra money on the side”.

Now, I may have been a bit naive, but I knew what he was implying. And even at the age of 16, I knew I didn’t have to put up with his shit. The crappy, low paying job that I hated, was not worth my free time, my grades, and especially not my self respect. I found Kay and quit on the spot.

Kay told me she didn’t blame me for quitting. I could use her as a reference even though I was not giving two weeks notice. At the time I thought she was being so nice. Helping me out of what she knew was a bad situation. Looking back, the way she handled things just pisses me off. Kay knew what I was enduring at the hands of Mr. Sweaty Boss. But she let a 16 year old girl deal with a hostile environment when she knew it was wrong. Why? To protect her own crappy job?

In all fairness, women were not as empowered back then as they are now. I didn’t really know Kay, or her situation. And when I left that night, feeling lighter than I had in months, I let the door close behind me and I never went back. Even after the drugstore closed down, and a mini-mart was opened in it’s place. I never went back.

My take away is this:

Even at a young age, we know right from wrong, and we know when a situation is bad for us.

We need to trust our own instincts and intuitions, and be our own best advocate.

A great job is worth fighting for, a crappy job that zaps your energy and motivation can ALSO be worth fighting for depending on where you are in life. But it’s also ok to walk away sometimes.

Women need to stick together in the work force. And older workers (that would be me now) should help mentor younger women as they navigate the work environment.

There is power in numbers and men like Mr. Sweaty Boss need to learn women will not be pushed around.