Progress is I (soft of) found a (sort of) job. The first sort of is my temp agency actually found me the job, and the second sort of is it’s temp to hire, so I can blow it and not get hired. At which point I might be pretty well fucked. But I have several reasons to feel good about this opportunity.

I have experience and training in the field. The job itself is easy, it’s changing light bulbs, plunging toilets, futzing with the occasional door. Although the two people I interviewed with dropped hints that if I work out there might be more in store for me. The people seem pretty chill, no one sticks out as an obvious dick and most of the people seemed to be reaching out to make me feel comfortable. It’s a fairly large crew, there’s 8 including me. One of the sources of conflict at my last job, in the Pearl, was there were only three maintainers, one of who was the chief. So it was just me and Numbertwo day after day after day. Numbertwo and I get along, I’d even venture to say we’re pretty good friends. But there would be flareups occasionally, mostly because we would get sick of looking at each other. I like this situation better.

The last reason is the reflection part and it’s about blogging. I never got into diaries or journaling, I only started blogging to keep my IM friends up to date. But occasionally I’d get bored and look through old entries. That’s how I discovered that I, in fact, do NOT have a strong immune system. And it also identified a pattern with jobs. I walk in excited, I become intoxicated with the place, then I turn against it with the type of savageness normally reserved for mama bears and bored cops. All due to overwrought expectations. So this time I’m going to keep my head about me. It’s a job, in fact, it’s an audition for a job. It’s not going to change my life. Other than the paychecks and time sink.

It’s a commercial property management company downtown with one big and several smaller buildings. Details? Ask me IRL.

This job thing just doesn’t work out for me.

I started this job just as a way to not work for Target any more. If I stayed there I’d probably still have a job, but that place was a terrible fit. It was in a part of town I hate, far away from the part of town I wanted to and now do live in. And there was a very flirty nineteen year old redhead. Who had a boyfriend. And I was using maybe 1% of my education.

Anyhoo.

I don’t know how much longer I’d have stayed here anyway. At least, how long I’d have wanted to stay here. This was a supremely, I guess I can’t be surprised about unprofessional workplaces any more, but the level of general disrespect around here was astonishing. My tools would disappear, jobs assigned to me would be poached. Numbertwo gave one of my keys to the janitor because I wasn’t hear to defend them. Numbertwo was the guy who MADE our keys. And there were only three of us! It’s not like there’s any office politics.

And then there was the farting. And the bitch in the office who couldn’t be bothered to walk anywhere if she could call us to do something for her.

Instead I get a big (maybe really big) payout and unemployment bennies along with a great reason to be looking for work. Doesn’t sound like a half bad deal. Especially if I get a new job fairly soon. Before my lease is up, hopefully.

What I will miss.

Living a 5 minute walk from work. Starting work at 9:30. Maybe it’s a good thing my debt from dental work sucked up a lot of otherwise disposable income. When you can close the bar AND make it to work on time, very dangerous.

Not having to work very much. Unless Numbertwo or Boss had a wild hair up his ass. This building’s fairly new, we didn’t even have to replace any motors. And we didn’t get a proper preventative maintenance schedule up until about 5 months ago.

Reliable internet. I might have to break down and subscribe to a wifi provider.

I bet if you could chart my apparent job satisfaction based on blog entries I’d look manic-depressive. I bet that’s not too unusual.

Okay, it’s New Year’s Eve. I have no plans. If you know how to get a hold of me, hit me up.

My apartment looks like I’d been snowed in for a week. Which I wasn’t. I went to work every day , except Christmas (including Friday, which it turns out I had off, but the heat at work is free and the internet connection is much faster and I did about the same amount of work) and did some beer-having with some people who couldn’t/weren’t working. But I used the time to pretty well thrash my place.

Job thing. January 5th is our last day in the buildings here. Still haven’t heard anything from the new company. I’m really hoping with the new year and new budgets there’s some hiring opening up. There’s not a whole lot I’m seeing and I’m not qualified for most of it. Boss has interviews lined up, but he’s got an electrical license, which is a big plus. Not to mention a (sigh) driver’s license. I’m thinking end of January. I’ll give up and (sigh) get my license at the end of January, depending on the weather. I’ve been looking since October, mid-October I think and have only found a few jobs I was even qualified for. If I could drive there would have been a lot more. My lease is up in March and if I still don’t have a job then I’ll get my CFC license (so I can buy Freon) and see about getting a job with a service company.

Apparently the owner has committed in writing to paying our 2008 bonuses, which will be pretty sweet. The office is optimistic about getting our 2009 vacation cashed out also. I’ll count the money when I see the check.

If anyone has any NYE plans, preferably ones that don’t involve a ton of money, you all probably know how to get a hold of me.

How Alanis Morrisette.

If you’re curious, this is the deliciously ironic possibility I suggested way back when I first blogged about my employment sitch.

Numbertwo is all pissed off because we didn’t get any more notice than 30 days. But I don’t think the building owner was sharing with anyone onsite. Either way, I’ve known for a while what was coming. Boss is pretty devastated, he’s used to flying pretty high. Uberboss, I dunno, we’ve had hints he was trying to get out of here for a while. He’ll probably land on his feet, as is usual with the higher ups.