Posted onJuly 4, 2014|Comments Off on No More Playing Victim (or Taking Control)
I realized the other day that I’m starting to act like a victim with many things in my life. My job situation isn’t so great right now, I’m still struggling with food issues, and I have no money.
But acting like a victim isn’t going to get me anywhere in life. Sometimes you need to wallow in how annoying things are in your life for a minute, but after that you need to pick yourself up and start changing things.
While I’m hopeful that I won’t lose my job, I’m preparing for the worst. I spent part of the day yesterday trying to reopen my unemployment claim. I have no idea how long it will take for it to reopen, but I figure starting early can’t hurt. I’ve also taken the advice of everyone who has offered to help me and applied for all the jobs that were suggested. I’m also hoping that the survey coder job will be able to start training me soon so I can do that job, so I’ve made myself very available for those graveyard shifts. And I’ve let my box office job know that my availability might be changing soon, and if that happens they can put me back on the schedule sooner than September.
As far as the money issues go, that’s pretty much related to the job situation. And like I said yesterday, if I’m not making money, then I need to focus on saving money where I can.
And for food, that will be a struggle for a long time, if not for the rest of my life. That’s tough to accept, but it’s my reality. Some people have other struggles for their entire lives so why should I think that my struggle would go away so easily. I’m trying to focus on keeping only “good” foods in my house and limit going out to eat or getting delivery (which helps in the idea of saving money).
While my life isn’t really stable and in control right now, I’m doing my best to make an attempt at control right now. There are things that I can change easily on my own and there are other things that are dependent on others helping me. But knowing what I can control does help me create steps to make sure I’m not acting like a victim but instead getting stuff headed in the right direction.
I mentioned a week or so ago about an interview that I had coming up to do some survey coding work for the movie screening company I tried working with earlier this year. The interview went great for that job and I was hired on the spot. I think perhaps my history with the company worked in my favor. It’s going to be between 10-30 hours of work a week once things get going, but the issue will be when that will be. I first have to train, which will involve 2 or so months of working graveyard shifts.
The sooner I can work those graveyard shifts (and the more I can do each week), the faster I’ll be trained and able to work the daytime hours. I just got my first request for my availability, so hopefully I’ll have my first training session soon.
In the meantime, I’m unsure how stable my future will be with my assistant headhunter job. My boss has always had issues with getting people on the phone (as in they aren’t answering) so that’s one reason he brought me on. But I’m running into the exact same problem that he has had. He’s talked about whether or not this job is working out and yesterday he emailed me to say that he’s considering stopping the phone calls for a while. Pretty much while you are reading this (assuming you are reading this the morning it gets posted) I will be on the phone with my boss to discuss the future.
I don’t want to lose this job, but I understand the frustration. I’m frustrated too. I want to always improve on my work and do the best that I can do, but the problems are things that are out of my control. I can’t force potential people to answer their phone. I’ve tried calling at various times of the day and tried blocking my number to see if that would help, but it doesn’t. I’m lucky if I talk to 5 people over the course of my shift, which is 4 hours long.
So I’m back in the place where I’m looking for another job to add to my job collection. I currently have 6 day jobs (assistant headhunter, substitute teacher, box office staff, babysitting, dog sitting, and survey coder) and that’s not counting my acting career or blogging (which I know I should really try to monetize to help with bills).
I never thought I’d miss my 6 days a week telesales job, but I do. That was steady work that I could count on and it was flexible enough for me to do what I needed to do. I really need to find something else like it, but that’s so difficult.
There are a lot of jobs in Los Angeles that in the job ad will say “NO ACTORS”. And yes, they tend to put that in all capital letters. They assume that actors are flaky, and I agree that many are. But I’m not that way. Yes I might have to take a long lunch or work a weird shift so I can go to my audition, but I always finish my work. If only I could convince an employer of that.
So even though I just got hired for another new part-time job, I’m looking for work again. I can’t trust that my headhunter job will be long-term (even though I want it to be) and I have no idea how many or few hours I will get for the survey coder job.
So I’m asking for help again on here. If anyone knows of any flexible work, I’m looking. I’m happy to send anyone my resume, but to summarize it I have assistant, data entry, sales, coordinating, and writing skills. Plus I’d be interested in any babysitting and dog sitting work. If any of you could help me out, I’d be so incredibly grateful.
I’m actually shocked to say that she has not contacted me again. Maybe she realized that I wasn’t falling for anything she said. Maybe she had no job openings and was just goofing off on the phone. Or maybe she actually read the post that I wrote about her and crossed me off her list.
Whatever the reason, I don’t think that I will ever hear from her again. I did tell my friend’s aunt that she’s more likely to see her before I will. And maybe if that happens, my friend’s aunt could find out more information about her and pass it on to me.
As much as I wanted to see who this person was so I could warn other people about her, I have to let it go. I really do need to find another job to fill in my schedule and I have to only focus on real possibilities.
Until September, I won’t be able to get more work at my box office job. I’ve talked to my supervisor about it and we did have a pretty serious talk. But the way things are set up right now, there is only room for one part-time employee to work each day. And that is going to go to someone who can work the entire shift (unless there’s some weird reason that nobody could and then maybe I would get a chance). We are still discussing any other possibilities for me to come in, but I also understand the reality of the situation.
But I do have a job interview for another job next week, and I’m actually pretty excited about it. It’s for the company I worked for earlier this year doing recruiting for movie screenings. Even though I’m a pretty outgoing person, it turned out that I was just too shy and timid to work the recruiting job. But I saw a posting on craigslist that they needed someone to do coding/data entry. It would eventually be work from home, but for several months I would have to do on-site training and it would be during graveyard shift hours (11pm-6am).
While I don’t want to work a graveyard shift job, I am willing to train during those hours if it leads to a great work from home job. My interview is on Tuesday and I feel good about going in for it. I know the company from working there as a recruiter and I left on good terms (at least I think I did). When I left, I was very honest that I just didn’t think that the job was the right fit for me. But I told them that if there were any other job openings in the future I’d love to work with them again.
I’m trying not to get my hopes up about this job interview. There’s a chance that they won’t want to hire me since I did work for them briefly in the past. So I’m still spending a few hours a day searching online for jobs and applying for everything that seems right (and pays decently enough).
Hopefully soon I’ll have another job and I can finally start relaxing about paying my bills.
Posted onJune 19, 2014|Comments Off on Happy Hour Party (or Getting To See Co-Workers Again)
This week was the end of the year party for the theater I work at. We had a party last year at the end of the season, but that was when I was still working in telesales and I was working 6 days a week.
Now that I’m in the box office, I’m lucky if I’m there 1 day a week. And even though I’ve been back for a while, some people didn’t know that I was back until a staff meeting that we had last month. Everyone works in an office building across the street from the theater except for the box office staff. We, obviously, work in the box office that is attached to the theater. So unless someone is coming over to the box office for some reason, they never see us.
I’m still getting used to being back. It’s weird to work in a job that is so similar yet so different from what I’m used to doing. While I do know some things, there are so many things that in telesales we couldn’t do. So I’m still learning a lot every day.
Also, I’m used to this time being the busiest (and most profitable for me) time of the year. But in the box office, we maybe get 1 phone call over a 3 hour shift. We don’t have tickets on sale yet to the public, so we don’t have a ton of work we have to do.
Anyway, back to the party.
Before the party, there was a staff meeting and then we all headed over to Bodega (yes, where my 30th birthday party was last year). Bodega is only about 3 blocks from the theater, so it’s super convenient. I used to go to Bodega all the time. But that was also when I worked in telesales until 5:30 on Wednesdays and wanted to wait out rush hour traffic. Since being laid off from telesales, I haven’t been back.
It was free food and drinks for everyone, which made it pretty fun. I only had 1 cocktail since it was only 2pm and I knew I had work to do at my house later.
We played some random games like get-to-know-you BINGO where it turns out I’m the only person who works at the theater who has been to Africa. But honestly, it was just a nice time to get to chat with people who I don’t really get to see at work. Again, some people forgot that I had been brought back to work in the box office. I’m the only person from the telesales team who is back.
After 3 hours of hanging out with everyone, I headed back home. It’s nice to be social with co-workers and I feel like the fact that I was social before is one of the reasons that I was asked to come back to work. Building relationships with people always helps and I’m glad that when I was let go I had left a positive enough impression for them to want me back.
Posted onJune 16, 2014|Comments Off on Being Smart But Playing Dumb (or Adventures In Job Hunting)
I’m still on the lookout for another day job to help pay the bills. Until the season starts at my box office job, I’m only going to get a few shifts a month (hopefully during the season it will be more like 2 or so a week).
I’m applying a lot through various websites and I’ve been letting people know that I’m still looking. Sometimes other people know of jobs that I can’t find out about elsewhere.
And that’s what has happened over the past few days. The aunt of a friend of mine was at a store and overheard a woman saying that she really needed to hire an assistant and fill some other job openings that she had. So my friend’s aunt sent me a message on Facebook telling me that I should email this woman (I’m not saying her name because I don’t want it to come up if someone searches for this person online). I felt weird emailing someone when I had no idea if they were looking for full-time or part-time employees or even what they were paying, so my friend’s aunt called me so I could talk to the woman on the phone.
For the first few seconds she was very nice. Then she asked me if I was looking for a job. I was very upfront with her and said that I was looking for a flexible day job because I was an actor. I said that I wanted to be honest with her in case she needed someone to work more stable hours.
That’s when the call went bad. She told me that I was putting my negativity on her and that I should never assume that a job wasn’t going to be flexible. I apologized and said that I just didn’t want to waste her time if I wasn’t what she needed, and since I had literally zero information about the job I didn’t know what she was looking for. I tried to get some more information out of her, but she said that she was very busy and wasn’t expected to be on a phone call about the job (which I understood) so she asked me to submit my resume to her. She then kept saying to me that I needed to understand that she wasn’t offering me a job at that moment but offering me a chance to apply for a job. That was weird. Of course she wasn’t offering me a job. I had no idea what the job was yet!
I submitted my resume to her and figured that maybe I wouldn’t hear back from her. I tried to look her up online (she said that she had done a lot of film and tv work and was creating her own tv show), but there was nothing online under her name. Not just nothing useful, nothing at all. I figured that maybe I had the name written down wrong or she used a different name publicly, so I let it go.
Then the next morning, she called me at 9am as I was about to run an errand. She asked me if I could talk and I told her that I had 20 minutes.
She was very upset with me for telling her I only had 20 minutes. She said that if Oprah had called me that I wouldn’t tell her that. I responded by saying that I would and I would hope that Oprah would respect me enough to not take up time that I didn’t have.
She said that I had a lot of education and experience but that I wasn’t a very smart person as far as street smarts go. She called me classless and without grace. She didn’t want me to talk for a while on the phone so I just listened. She never said anything about the job or what her show was about.
Finally, I had a chance to talk and explained how I tried to look her up online the night before so I could become more familiar with her work. She told me that her team was a very powerful group of people and that they removed her from being in online searches so she could re-brand herself. She didn’t want anyone to know that she used to be a successful actress.
That’s when I started to realize that this woman wasn’t being truthful with me. You can’t erase everything about you from the internet. If she was in a lot of film and TV work, you would be on IMDb and have reviews about your projects. You can’t delete everything.
I specifically asked her about IMDb. I asked her why she wasn’t on there. She said that her team was able to take her entire page down.
I’m sorry, but that’s not really possible. There was recently a lawsuit about someone trying to get their birth year taken off of IMDb and that woman lost her lawsuit because IMDb said that they are an information site and have a right to show truthful information about people. So for one person to claim that they had their entire IMDb page deleted to re-brand themselves seems pretty much impossible.
At that point in the phone call, I decided to start playing dumb like I didn’t know that what she was saying was pretty much false information. She told me that I just couldn’t understand because I’m not on her level.
She also told me that I should have my IMDb page deleted and that actors at my level should not have a page yet. My page was not created by me. I was in a show and the producers submitted my information. That’s how a lot of information gets on IMDb. This woman told me that showing the world the stepping stones of my acting career is not going to help me at all. It’s only going to show people that I’m not worthy of a big career.
I could go on and on about what this woman said to me, but honestly I realized in the end that she was pretty much saying lie after lie. Or maybe she honestly believes it but I know that it’s not correct information.
She asked me if I still wanted to interview with her and I said yes. Not because I want to work for her. But because I’m wondering if she’s running some sort of scam that more naive actors might fall for. I don’t know if she’s trying to get people to work unpaid or something, but something isn’t right about this. Even after the second phone call, which lasted about 45 minutes, I still don’t know what jobs she’s hiring for, how much they pay, what the hours would be like, or anything else.
I posted this story on my Facebook page on Saturday after the second phone call. I got a lot of responses from people. Some people want me to go to the interview to see what her deal is and to turn it down in person (I even have some friends who want to come with me and see what happens). I have other friends who said I should just drop this whole thing and not to waste my time with her.
If I do meet her, it’s going to be in a super public place like a coffee shop. I would never meet someone who I don’t know (and who technically doesn’t exist on the internet) somewhere where there aren’t other people around.
And now that I’m thinking about it, she might end up googling my name and finding this blog and this post (don’t worry, I did some research online and there’s no way she can sue me for libel because I didn’t use her name or any identifying details about her so there is no way I’m ruining her good name). And she might decide that she doesn’t want to talk to me again. And if you are reading this, I’m sorry if I wasted your time on the phone. I really was interested in a job at first, but I can’t work for someone who insults me on the phone several times and lies about things.
I actually have a very busy week this week and pretty much no time to go to an interview, so chances are I will never get to meet whoever this person really is and decline the job in person. I have a feeling when I tell her that I can’t meet her this week, she will say that I should be willing to cancel my plans to meet her. I’m not willing to not go to a paying job to meet her to turn down her job in person.
But I’m hoping that even without saying this woman’s name (or at least the name that she gave to me) or saying really any identifying details that this story will be a warning to others. I’m sure that she has spoken to other people about the jobs that she’s hiring for. She said that craigslist is not a good place to find people (which I don’t believe) so she won’t post the jobs on there. So I have no idea how she is finding people.
But if this story sounds familiar to you, this is my warning. There is no shame in asking someone questions. If you get shamed, there is something that they are hiding. When I had asked about IMDb and wanting to do some research about her, her response was that I would be so embarrassed that I ever questions who she is when I meet her. People who are really that famous or in that position don’t need to talk themselves up like that.
I’ve had so many horrible jobs and job interview situations in the past. I’m just glad that know I have this blog to document them on and hopefully give you all a good laugh. And if you want to read some more about what happened on the second phone call (I typed out some direct quotes), they are on my Facebook page.
Posted onMay 28, 2014|Comments Off on Weekend Catchup (or Getting In My Dog Fix)
First of all, a quick update on the job situation. That one shift I was scheduled for next week was cancelled as they were overstaffed. When I asked if there was another shift I could work, they said that since I was unavailable one day next week and that was the only day they could fit me in, there were no more shifts available to me. When the shows start back up again in September there will be evening and weekend shifts for me, but I need something to get me through the summer.
Ok, moving on from that unpleasantness.
This past weekend I got to do some dog sitting. My only dog sitting client right now is my friend Erin (who does my hair). But that’s nice because her dog Auto is an easy dog to watch.
As soon as I got to Erin’s house Auto was so excited to see me! He had spent the day by himself (don’t worry, he has access to go outside to go to the bathroom, he was just lonely) and he was so happy to have a buddy in his house. He’s got some problem with his leg, so he is limping right now. But that didn’t stop him from trying to tackle me to the ground so he could attack me with love (keep in mind that this is a dog that probably weighs about 15 pounds).
Since I was going to spend the night there dog sitting, I made myself comfortable on the couch. Erin has Amazon Prime and Netflix so I settled in for a night of watching movies with Auto. And he got comfortable right away.
When I took that picture, he was both snoring and farting on me at the same time. Clearly, he loves me.
One of the best things about dog sitting is just being able to hang out with an awesome dog. I haven’t seen Tucker in a few months (although I will get to see him in a few weeks!) so I really miss being around a dog. And as long as I live in my current place, I can’t have a dog of my own. So dog sitting helps me get in my dog fix.
It was an easy weekend job. Although Auto feels like when I’m there he always has to be touching a part of my body (not through my clothing). So while I slept on the couch, he was by my feet touching my toes with his front paws.
But I don’t mind that. When I starting dog sitting him he used to sleep on my stomach and try to use it as a trampoline. A dog holding onto my feet isn’t bad at all.
Posted onMay 27, 2014|Comments Off on Double Shift Days (or Hoping To Make Enough Money By Payday)
I’ve been lucky that recently I’ve had more double shift days than usual (although as I typed this blog post I got my schedule for this week which says I’m not working at the box office job at all this week and only for 3 hours next week). I know I’ve said before that I’m finally getting used to it, and again, I’ll say that it’s starting to feel a bit more normal.
Last week was the members only announcement for the next season at my box office job. I had worked that event last year, but it was as a telesales member then (which meant I made commissions). Even though this year I didn’t get any commissions on all my sales, it was still a successful evening. I worked more hours that day between my two jobs than I had any other day since being laid off from the telesales job. And I really have fun with my box office co-workers. This event ended up being only women working from the box office.
And that particular event is fun too. I get to see so many people who I’ve only talked to on the phone before. And since this will be my 3rd season at the theater, many people know who I am.
But people knowing who I am also took a weird turn this year. This customers are used to me calling them to renew their memberships, and that a telesales job not a box office job. I’m trying to be politically correct while talking with the members so I just say that I switched from working telesales to box office. And when they asked me to say hello to my old boss or my former co-workers, I just told them that I would.
While money is still extremely tight for me right now, I’ve been very fortunate being able to make ends meet somehow. I even managed to pay my rent early for June. But now I’m down to less than $20 to get me through the end of the month.
I’m still on the lookout for day job #3. But it’s hard because I can only work evenings and I still want to make myself available for the box office job (even if they do only use me once a week). I’m looking for maybe another work from home job, but one that doesn’t depend on being done during business hours. That way I could do it in the mornings before I make my recruiting calls or in the evenings when I’m not at the box office (or even after that job in the late evening).
So I’m putting it out here (since you were all so helpful with sports bra advice). If anyone knows of another job for me, please let me know. While I’m doing ok with paying all my bills right now, I have no idea what the next month has in store for me.
I’ve had what seems like hundreds of day jobs since I moved to LA. I started as a nanny and after-school teacher while I was in college and it’s moved on to more stable (and rent paying) jobs since graduating.
Of those many day jobs, most of them have been pretty horrible. I’ve had jobs where my boss was verbally abusive (he said that I was a horrible person and I deserved to die). I’ve also had a boss who called me fat and undateable. And I’ve had jobs that were just so bad that I had to quit after less than a month.
With all of these jobs under my belt, I get a little scared that I’m always on the verge of having to look for another job. I’ve been fired in the past, and it’s always in the back of my mind. When I worked my telesales job, for the first year whenever my boss called me in to his office, I started to shake and freak out that he was about to fire me. My boss thought it was kind of funny that my mind automatically goes to being fired when most of the time when he brought me into his office it was for good things.
I’ve compared my feelings about my day jobs to how an abused puppy must feel when they finally get into a good home. While it seems too good to be true, I’m always scared that everything is going to disappear and I’ll be back to where I started.
So when my recruiting job boss sent me an email saying that we needed to talk on the phone about how things were working out, my first thought was that he was disappointed on how things were going for me. The email happened on Friday and he wanted to chat on Monday, so I spent lots of time this weekend looking for another job. I was so sure that he was going to fire me.
When we talked yesterday, he wasn’t concerned about my results, he was just worried because after I talk to candidates, he sometimes has a hard time reaching them. So we just need to work out a system so he can try to call them the same day instead of waiting a day or two.
I felt so silly thinking that I was about to be fired. I don’t think that this boss would fire me without warning or trying something else first. But in my head, I’m still thinking about all those other jobs where I was fired with no notice.
Again, like I’ve said a million times, I’m trying to focus on thinking positively and that my life is getting better every day. And I’m becoming a better employee every day and that employers should want to keep me on staff. Hopefully, one day in the future I won’t automatically think that I’m being fired when a boss wants to talk to me.
Posted onMay 19, 2014|Comments Off on Small World (or Always Speak Positively)
This post is both a funny story and a lesson that my mom taught me when I was little.
To start with the lesson, my mom has always said that you should only speak positive and nice things about people. You never know who knows someone.
And here’s the story that reminded me of that lesson.
I was working in the office of my bosses for my recruiting job on Friday. I only work in the office about once every other week helping my bosses (who are husband and wife) organize their files. Also right now, I’m helping them pack things up as they are moving into an office building (instead of the home office that they have now). It’s not tough work at all, so a lot of the time I’m chatting with either John (my main boss) or Kris (his wife).
This past Friday I was helping Kris throw out old paperwork that they didn’t need to transfer when they move to the new office. Some of the paperwork was for the country club that they belong to. I recognized the name of the country club as a place that my second cousin, Wendy, mentioned when I was over at her house for Passover.
I mentioned to John and Kris that I thought my second cousin might belong to the same country club as they do. They asked me what my cousin’s name is and I told them. Both John and Kris had a look of shock on their faces and I asked them if they knew my second cousin.
Turns out, John dated Wendy in college and he and Kris are responsible for introducing her to her husband! They are very very close friends!
After the shock wore off, we all started to laugh. What were the chances of this?!? I showed them the picture from Passover and they told me that they were supposed to be at that Passover dinner, but they ended up having to be somewhere else.
Of course, I thought my cousin Wendy would get a kick out of hearing this story, so John sent her an email. She thought it was pretty funny as well. After I was done with work, I sent her an email myself.
And I also thought my mom would find the story awesome as well. So I gave her a call and relayed the whole thing to her. And of course, the first thing she said to me was to remind me of the lesson about always saying nice things about others.
I might not always say only nice things about people, but I do try hard to do so. And things like my bosses knowing my second cousin (and a lot of my other extended family members as well) remind me of how important it is to try even harder to never burn bridges or gossip about others.
It’s so true that it’s a small world and things will get back to people even if you don’t think people know each other.
While I do have several friends who are bloggers, lately I’ve been feeling a little isolated as a blogger. I feel like my progress on here has stopped (although I’m a little unsure on how I should really be measuring my progress). And I’m sure some of you have noticed that my blogs aren’t always as interesting as they’ve been in the past.
I was part of a blogger group that did the Blognic and the cookie exchange, but that group has kind of ended. We have a FB group for us, but nobody has been active on it for a while.
And I’m not just feeling stalled on this blog, I’m having issues coming up with topics for the two otherblogs that I freelance on. I’ve hit a bit of a slump and I’m working my way out of it.
So I’m working on becoming more active in the blogging community. For the first time, I have a day job that is allowing me to do that (at least for now until I find another job to keep me from being underemployed). So I’ve joined FB groups, been commenting on other blogs to get information, and based on the recommendation of some women in one of the blogging FB groups I’ve also downloaded a couple of blogging podcasts.
Before I started blogging, I had a friend who encouraged me to do it as a way of supporting myself. This particular blogger was living off of the money that she made from her blog. If I had gone in with only that idea, I would have quit a long time ago. Even though I have ads on my blog, I have only made 2 cents (and I haven’t been paid because there is a $20 minimum to get paid on ads). I’m starting to realize that success does not equal money (or getting a blog post to go viral).
Success is now being part of a community that supports each other. Success is me sharing my story and hopefully inspiring or encouraging someone else. Success is being able to vent on here instead of burdening my friends and family.
And if those things really do equal success in my mind, I’m truly on the path of being a very successful blogger.
Unemployed Again (or Trying To Not Make It Feel Like Summer Break)
