"Ahh, another late night in the computer lab. I'm working a double shift, from 8pm to 2:15am, and I'll probably feel pretty darn tired at the end of it, but my coworker, A- has got to be exhausted. She's been here since 7:45 this morning, taking 6 shifts in a row. Exhausted and CRAZY. This is what happens to you when you have no exams. She's written 3 essays today, and when I look across the hallway, she's actually dead asleep at the desk. I don't blame her.
I recently had a conversation with some of the older folks in my dorm about jobs and employment. Looking back, I haven't had it too bad, and my work experience is definitely well-rounded. They say that's a good thing, since a lot of places won't hire college students straight-off because they've never had any office experience. I've had plenty. I present to you a vague resume of my life:
Chore Pay - My parents paid me a $5 a week allowance if I did all my chores. This included making the bed, tidying up my room, doing the dishes, helping to fold laundry, taking care of the dog and so on.
Dotcom Pay - In 7th grade, I somehow managed to make it onto the roster as a beta tester for a pre-teen website. I gave suggestions and edited and created content. Pretty sweet gig until I realized that I was only making $200 a month. But the dotcom bubble burst 4 months later anyway and it ended up not much mattering. Which wasn't much of a shame because whoever chose their color scheme must have been blind. It was that ugly.
Icecapades Pay - In 10th grade, I became the newest skate guard at the local hockey arena. This would have meant a lot more if they weren't so desperate for staff that they'd hire any schmo off the street. They even hired people who couldn't skate. But the pay was minimal ($6.25 an hour), and my boss was a jerk. And it's hard to get to a skating rink that far away when you haven't got a car. And did I mention my boss was a Jerk?
File Pay - After skate guarding and nursing a lot of scraped knees and bruised egos, I got a job at the local news-clipping agency. You know how after talk shows they say, "If you would like a transcript of this show please contact...." I worked at the place that made those transcripts. I filed. Good God, did I file. I was so fricking efficient. And at the end of the day, it was like I hadn't even made a dent in the pile. There was no feeling of accomplishment, because as soon as I'd finished filing a stack, my supervisor would have already placed a new stack on my desk. It never ended. It was awful. The following summer I went back. And I managed to make it into the summer-worker elite of computer input. Which didn't suck. But my boss was still a Jerk.
And there have been internships and summer jobs
And now I work in a computer lab where people of questionable intelligence abuse me daily. "My computer won't start up!" "Why don't you have PC's?!" "I forgot my printing card!"
Today's comic is of myself and my coworker.
It never ends. I brought candy to work today. Too bad that sugar wears off so quickly..."
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