Tag Archives: job

Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

Posted on December 10, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Myself Back On Schedule (or At Least This Is A Slow Transition)

For most of this year, I haven’t had too much of a schedule. Once I had my work hours reduced, most of my days were free. When I lost my old customer service job, I did continue to log into our chat systems a few mornings a week to check in with my manager and to see if she needed me to help with anything. I wasn’t being paid to do that, but I also wasn’t really working. I mainly did it so I had something that I needed to do each morning. I didn’t want to get into a bad habit of sleeping in and not doing much each day. So those mornings helped to keep me on track.

Even when I’ve mostly been out of work, I rarely sleep in. There are 2 days a week that I can, but I don’t sleep in that often. Sometimes I’ll sleep in one of those days, but I have been pretty good about making sure I keep my sleep schedule somewhat consistent. The issue has been that I haven’t been going to sleep at the same time that I used to, so that was making me tired. I’ve been working on getting my sleep more on schedule, and I’m slowly getting there.

And now, I actually have a schedule to work with again. It’s not too crazy because  I’m only working a few hours each day, but it’s still something. And my schedule right now isn’t the same every day. It may get that way when I’m done with training and fully working. But right now, my schedule shifts each day to be a different time so I can be trained with different things.

Even with my old work schedule being slightly different each day, having a schedule that isn’t consistent from day to day is still tough to get used to. And because I’ve also been dealing with having almost no schedule for a while, I haven’t been great with time management. I only have had a few things I need to do each day and it didn’t really matter when I did them. So I got pretty lazy with when I was doing stuff. If I didn’t get to something until late at night, that was fine. I could put some things off for a day without it being an issue. I could do the things I wanted to do when I wanted to do them without worrying about a scheduling conflict.

Now, I still have a lot of flexibility, but I also have to be mindful about my schedule and making sure that I don’t start working on something right before I have to focus on something else. It’s not a big deal, but it’s enough of a change for me to really pay attention to what time it is and what I have to do each day. And I’m sure I’ve had this feeling before when I went from being unemployed to having a job, but it’s also a bit different because I’m still not going out to do things and most of the things I’m doing are in my home. So it feels a little less like a schedule than when I would have to go out for things and plan for traffic.

If I got my old job back before I started this new one, I would guess I would struggle almost more. Especially if I was brought back to my full schedule. It’s not easy to go from having almost all the free time in the world to a set schedule. At least with my new job, my schedule is only a few hours so I can still have a lot of the flexibility that I’m used to. I’m easing into the idea of having a schedule again. And I think I’m going to build upon it even more than I need to. While I don’t need to blog at the same time every day, I’d like to have that as a part of my schedule. I’ve also been doing my workouts at different times based on when I get up and going and I know that having a set schedule would be better for me. Especially if I think I might start trying the outdoor workouts. And I want to make my time to watch tv or do other lazy things set times instead of accidentally wasting away most of a day because I’m not focused on making sure I do other things.

I know that it might be a while before I need to have a more set schedule like what I’m thinking of doing, but I have the luxury right now to take my time to get back to that. I don’t have to worry about being on a schedule immediately. I can play around with things and see how it goes. Right now, it’s not a lot that has to be done at a specific time, but there are things that need to be that way. And I need to make other parts of my life work around it. But I see this as a positive thing. I’ve been a bit aimless lately and this will hopefully get me to feel a bit more grounded. Maybe this will help me get other things on track in my life. I don’t know if it will and I’m not expecting it. But it would be something nice if it did happen.

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Another Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training)

Posted on December 9, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training)

My job situation has been not great since March. Even though I was still working my customer service job a bit from March until the beginning of August, I was only working limited hours. There was a point where I was only checking the voicemails and not doing much else with work. And since August, I’ve only been working my data entry job and that is already limited hours.

In normal times, job hunting is tough. Especially for me with trying to find a remote job. But job hunting during a pandemic is another thing. In one sense, almost all jobs are remote so that helps me a bit. But so many people are out of work so it’s been hard to even get to a job interview. I’ve been spending time every day looking for jobs and applying, with no luck. But then recently, a friend let me know about a job opening at their company.

They work for a social media management company and there was a position open to help with customer engagement. It was only about 1 hour a day, but any work right now is really good. So I sent in my resume and had a phone interview with the owner of the company. I’ve actually met the owner before through my friend, so the interview was pretty casual. I felt pretty good that I would be offered the job because of my background in other social media work. But in my phone interview, the owner and I started talking about my job situation and I mentioned how I was pretty much out of work. The owner had mentioned there might be an opening in their customer care department and I shared some of my stories from my job. He asked if I’d be interested in interviewing for the other position as well, and I said yes.

Last week, I had a Zoom interview for the customer care job. I made sure I was sitting in the spot in my house with the best lighting and I propped up my laptop so that it would be a better angle. I don’t have a stand or anything for my laptop, so I just stacked some books and mail and it worked.

The interview was with their customer care manager and my friend, so it ended up being pretty casual. But I felt really good about things after it and just hoped for the best. And on Monday, I found out I got the customer care job!

Between the 2 jobs, it will still be part-time work, but that’s ok with me. I still have my data entry job and there might be more hours for me in the future. I also still hope that I will be back to my other customer service job once theater shows are safer to go to. But for now, going from pretty much out of work to having a regular part-time job is amazing!

This week I’ll be doing training every day and I’m not sure when I’ll officially be starting with my hours. But I’m not worried about that. I’m just excited that I have a new job since this is something I’ve been working on for a while. And like all the other jobs I’ve had recently, this is another job through a friend. I don’t know why it’s ended up that way, but it is true that you have a better chance of getting a job. And I’ve been lucky that my friends have been referring me to jobs that are perfect for me.

Having a new job is a great way to end this year and start next year. I hope that is a sign of other positive things to come my way! And I’m so happy that not only do I have a new job (which I needed), but it’s a new job I’m excited about. That makes things even better.

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On Hold With Work For Now (or It’s Now A Waiting Game)

Posted on August 5, 2020 | Comments Off on On Hold With Work For Now (or It’s Now A Waiting Game)

When the pandemic hit, I knew my day job doing customer service was going to be affected. And it was affected in stages. First, my hours were cut in half (same as my salary). That went on for a little while. And when that was happening, it was only me and my manager working. My manager did work a little more than I did, but we still pretty much were working together as a team.

Then, my manager had to take leave. I’m not going to go into why because that is her business, but she let me know that she wouldn’t be working and it was going to just be me. And when that happened, my hours and pay got cut even more. I was down to working only 3 hours a week (1 hour a day for 3 days a week) and my pay was cut even more. It was less than my hourly pay would be for 3 hours, but I also understood that the company wasn’t bringing in any money because all of our locations were closed down. So any payments that I could get was nice. And it wasn’t too hard because we also didn’t have a lot of customers. But even though my manager wasn’t working, she would still log in to our chat system to keep me company and to help me out when I needed an extra set of eyes to do some research.

And that’s what my life has been like for the past few months. Minimal work, but I also was collecting unemployment (you can collect to make up what you aren’t earning if you have reduced hours). It wasn’t ideal, but it was what it was and I was grateful to have some schedule and sense of normalcy.

Then things changed again.

Last week, I was put on hold from my customer service job. My manager was going to take over the hours that I was doing (which does make sense as she is the manager and there are some higher-level things they are going to try to work on now). And I was technically out of a job. I do still have my other job doing research, but that is limited hours to begin with. Fortunately, I’m not going to be losing money since I will get it in my unemployment now instead of my paycheck (although we did lose the $600 bump which is something I really needed). And I am going to log into the chat system for the hours I was working to be there for my manager the way that she was there for me. I’m technically not working when I’m logged in, but I’m there so she’s not alone and if she needs help looking something up in the ticketing system I can do so. And just like I was grateful for the limited hours I had to make things feel a bit normal, I’m grateful to be logging in so that I feel like I have a schedule and responsibility.

The owner of the company did tell me that the plan is to hire me back as soon as they can. But we don’t know when things will be back to normal again. It’s hard when our shows are large crowds in a room sitting at tables together. It’s exactly what you aren’t supposed to be doing right now. There are a few cities that are open and have shows because their case numbers are low enough, but it’s a fraction of what is normally open. But I do feel grateful that the owner said that he was planning on bringing me back. I don’t feel like I was fired. I’m just on hold until I can return to work. I still consider myself an employee of the company and there is no reason for me to think that when work starts up again that I won’t be coming back.

I’m really hoping that the unemployment bump returns because that will make me feel much more comfortable about my situation right now. I am much luckier than most people because I do have some money saved that I was hoping to use for something fun or for a future down payment on a condo, but I can use it for rent and bills if necessary. I also know I can ask my parents for help if I really need it. I’m so grateful for those options, but I hope that I don’t have to use them.

I did work on my resume and update it (and used a new template to make it look better) and I probably will look into other remote jobs that have openings right now. I don’t necessarily want to find a new job, but unless I know the unemployment bump is coming back I will need to figure out how to make money. Maybe I’ll luck out and find something that is remote and temporary and I can go back to my customer service job when that is back. I know there are jobs right now for grocery stores or delivery services because those are needed, but because I do have a higher risk of getting sick I don’t feel like taking one of those would be the best thing. So I’m only looking at openings for remote work.

I know I will get through this time. This is temporary. Things will be reopening again and my job will be coming back. I would love to know exactly when that would be happening or to have an idea of how long this will last, but we really don’t know. I doubt any of us expected to still be in this situation in August. Especially with it being worse than it was before. But eventually, it will be better. And I’ll be back to work and so will my co-workers. I do miss working with them and I can’t wait until we are virtually reunited and back to what we are used to.

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At Least A Little More Work (or Getting My Contract Extended Again)

Posted on February 28, 2020 | Comments Off on At Least A Little More Work (or Getting My Contract Extended Again)

My day job situation has been such an interesting ride lately. I’ve been saying that I needed to find another job, but then I get more work that allows me to make enough money and I push off the job search. That’s been the cycle I have been in for probably a few years now. I’m at least in a slightly better financial situation now where I don’t have to stress if my contract at my data entry job ends, but I also don’t want to take it too easy and find myself in that spot again in the future.

The contract that I’m on for the job now is all about helping to launch a new website. I am doing the same work that I have almost always been doing, but it’s a new site and we are starting from scratch. So all the events that I had entered in the past were not on the site (we couldn’t transfer them to the new site) and I had to enter everything that we wanted on the new site. Types of events were split up so I’m not doing all the same type of work that I did before, but I’m doing a lot of the same stuff. And this new website was supposed to launch a while ago and things got delayed a few times.

None of the delays were things we were in control of and that I felt I was at fault for. The design took longer than expected. The backend system that we needed to use for entering events had glitches. The website wasn’t allowing us to log in. We had to be trained on the new system (and then trained again when the system changed). This was all fine and I wasn’t upset because there was some work I was able to do while waiting for the site to be ready so I was still able to be paid.

We finally were able to start entering events properly last week. And we have been rushing to get as much work done as possible because the site was supposed to launch next month. But I was so relieved when I got an email this week that the launch was being delayed so we had more time to enter events. They wanted the site to have much more information on it before the public was using it. And I completely agree with this idea. Having limited events isn’t going to motivate people to use the site.

The only issue was that my contract was supposed to end at the end of this month. I had hopes that I would get another contract because I knew that they needed on-going help with the site like I did before, but that hadn’t really been discussed yet since the focus was trying to get events up on the site and not a future contract. But I was able to get an extension of my contract so I will continue to work next month (it may go into April as well, but I’m not sure yet). And hopefully soon, I will be told about a new contract so I can continue to work through this year.

I’m even more optimistic that there may be another contract coming up for me because I have a potential new job I can do coming up. I don’t know much about it (I have a conference call to discuss it today), but it may give me another 5-10 hours of work a week. Right now, I’m doing about 15 hours a week on entering things into the new site, but once the site is live that will probably go down to 10 hours or under a week. So having another job I can do to add more hours will be a really good thing!

I have no idea about this new job and what the timeline is for it. I can hope that it’s something on-going so I can have a long contract with a lot of work. But even if it’s only for a few months, that’s a few months of making more money and I will be grateful for that.

I know eventually, I need to figure out a better job situation. Even if that means I have to stop working my customer service job because I find a full-time job that has the flexibility I need. But at least for now, I am working enough and that should continue for a little while. So I can be picky about finding a new job and not just applying for anything because I am desperate. I would love to find a new job that has a bit more flexibility than the jobs I have now. It would be amazing if I could find a way to work 4 days a week instead of 5 because I could work longer hours on those days. And now I have the luxury of searching for a job that fits exactly what I want and hopefully I will find it. And when that happens, I guess I’ll just have to see what will come from it.

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Back To Back Work Fails (or Attempting To Be Productive)

Posted on February 19, 2020 | Comments Off on Back To Back Work Fails (or Attempting To Be Productive)

Considering how long I’ve been working from home, I’ve been pretty lucky with my work systems and not having too many issues. From time to time, there have been some glitches, but for the most part, I can log in and do my work when I need to. The only big issue I remember is when our website went down for an entire day for my customer service job.

But lately, I’ve had some more work issues and it’s frustrating since I want to be able to work. For my customer service job, it’s not as bad since I am paid for the hours I’m logged in, no matter what. So even if I can’t do any work, I still get paid. That’s nice, but it’s also frustrating when all I can tell customers is that I cannot help them and that I’m sorry. For my other job doing data entry and event updates online, I only get paid when I can work. And being able to work has been tough lately.

Some of the issues with being able to work have been my issue. I couldn’t work the data entry job last week because it was so busy with my customer service job. I usually do my work between my customers, but there was honestly no time between customers. I was on the phone with one customer and using our chat feature with a few others for almost the entire shift each day. We know that Valentine’s Day is usually one of the busiest times and I think it was made even busier because of it being on a Friday and the start of a long weekend. So I just didn’t have the time to work and I was exhausted by the end of my shift and didn’t want to sit at my computer any longer. I explained the situation to my manager at that job and she completely understood.

And I think part of the reason she understood was that there have been so many things preventing me from working that job that were out of my control. I’m helping to enter events on a new version of a website and that website wasn’t built until recently. Then, once it was done we couldn’t enter any events because it wouldn’t accept any way we could enter times in the form. That issue was finally corrected at the beginning of last week, but I wasn’t working last week due to the craziness with the customer service work. I finally got back to it on Monday, and now it looks like I can’t log in to enter events and there may be an issue with my access to the backend of the site. I’m still waiting for an answer on how I can do my work, but I really hope I can get back to it soon so I can get some hours in.

And if that wasn’t enough, yesterday I had to deal with the website for my customer service job being down. Fortunately, it was resolved within the first few hours of work, but it was still frustrating that whenever a customer called we weren’t able to tell them much. We couldn’t even tell them if there were shows on the nights they were asking about because we couldn’t see the schedule. Most customers were understanding when we said our website was down and we couldn’t tell them much, but there were a few that questioned how we could be a legit business if we couldn’t answer basic questions. I understand why they wondered about us, but it was hard to try to explain why we need our website to see information when they refused to believe that I didn’t have everything printed out and updated or something. I’m just glad that the issue didn’t take the entire day like it did last time and we were quickly able to get back to normal.

I guess these issues are things you encounter when you work from home. But I’ve been spoiled with not having issues that often. I am used to my work systems to be working exactly how I need them to work and I don’t have a lot of options when they aren’t working. I don’t have somewhere that I can go in to do my work or a workaround that allows me to bypass the issue. I’m stuck waiting for someone to fix what I need to be fixed and I don’t have any control over it. I guess it’s a good lesson in letting go and not freaking out, but because it’s my job and I depend on the money it’s not easy to stay calm.

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A Little Job Update (or It Was Silly To Be Scared)

Posted on October 31, 2019 | Comments Off on A Little Job Update (or It Was Silly To Be Scared)

Even though I’ve had the same jobs for a while now, I still am always terrified that I will be fired. I don’t know if I will ever get over that feeling. I wish I could, but there is just something in my head that makes me think that I’m always a moment away from being fired. I feel much more secure in my customer service job, but I think that’s because it is a much more consistent job and I have constant communication with my manager (but when my boss needs to talk to me, it scares me so much).

With my research/data entry job, I have a little reason to be nervous. I shouldn’t be scared that I will be randomly fired, but I never know if I’ll have another contract. It started out much more stable, but now I am on temporary contracts when they can have me working. I’ve been lucky this year with the contracts I was put on, but it’s still a bit scary.

The one thing that helped me with the fear with that job was that I knew my boss well. She and I met in a workout and then I worked for her with another company. When she had an opening with the company she moved to, she hired me. So I didn’t have to worry too much about what my boss felt about me since I knew her well and knew that she would talk to me if there were any issues. For example, there was an issue a while back with my work on the website not showing up. It turned out that there was an issue with how the data was being saved and we were able to fix it. To her, it might have looked like I wasn’t working. But she was able to ask me about it and I could clear up an issue before she felt like I shouldn’t be working for her.

That boss has now left that company. She was offered an amazing opportunity with another company in another state. I’m sad she left, but I’m so happy for her because I know this is really great for her and her family. And she will be working with me a bit still because she is going to be put on contracts as I have been. So even though she won’t be my boss, I can still ask for help from her from time to time.

I’m currently on a new contract for that job, and it’s doing work that I’ve never done before. This is more about website design work and eventually some writing/blogging work. When I was offered the contract, there wasn’t a lot known about specifics because the website was still being worked on. There were ideas of what I would be doing, but not the date that work would start. Until I was able to start that work, I was told there were a few random tasks I could help with to get some hours. So I started working on those and when I finished I was waiting for what was next.

I realized last week that a lot of time had passed and I didn’t have an update on any new work. And because I was working with a different boss, I was terrified to email her to check in. I finally had the courage to do it and didn’t hear anything back. I was so scared that because I hadn’t been able to work that they were ending my contract or something. But I decided to try to stay positive and sent a follow-up email a few days after that just checking in.

I’m so glad I stayed calm and positive because my second follow-up had an almost immediate response. My first email hadn’t been received and that’s why I didn’t get a response. And my boss completely understood why I hadn’t been working because things had been delayed on her end. We had a big catch up call last week to figure out some things and I have been able to work a few hours here and there since then.

My lack of hours was not because I was being flakey or slacking on work. It was just about not having assignments to work on. And I’m so grateful that my boss understood that and didn’t assume something else about me. I hate that my mind was telling me that she would be thinking something bad about me and that was making me worry about sending an email. I know how silly it is that I think like that, but I have come to accept that I might feel like that forever with work.

Fortunately, now I feel like I can email my boss more and check in without fear of her thinking I’m not working hard enough or enough hours. I hope that it will make working on this contract easier and hopefully she will be happy enough with my work to put me on another contract after this one ends. It’s a little scary that my old boss isn’t there because I know she pushed for me to get work there. But I just need to work on making sure I have my new boss in my corner so she will think of me as a hard worker and someone that she wants to have working as often as they can hire me.

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Gearing Up For Another Temp Job (or At Least It’s More Work)

Posted on August 22, 2019 | Comments Off on Gearing Up For Another Temp Job (or At Least It’s More Work)

When my temp job ended with my old boss, she let me know that there may be another temp job coming up in a few months for me. It wouldn’t be the old contract that they used to offer me (I don’t think that contract is ever coming back), but it would be something similar. It would be creating content for the website like I used to do for them. But instead of creating content within the events section of the website like I did on my old contracts, this would be more writing work. My old boss wasn’t too sure when the work would start, but I knew that she would tell me as soon as she knew.

And it wasn’t that long after that last job ended that I got an email that it should be starting up pretty soon. Things were still being finalized, but she knew it would be in the next few months and that I should expect to get a contract soon and at least have an idea for how much the contract was for (my contracts are for a total funding amount and then we base the hours on that). I did get my contract and I was so happy to see that it was for more money than I was expecting! I really expected just a little money, but this is enough to help me get through the rest of this year (which is how long the contract should last for).

I had a meeting with my old boss and the woman who will be my direct supervisor for this new contract. I don’t have my exact start date, but they wanted to go over some of the basics with what myself and the other woman doing the same work will be doing. Fortunately for me, the work is actually very similar to writing this blog! The subjects will be very different, but the technical work will be familiar to me which will be helpful. And hopefully, I will have either a list of topics to write about or will have lots of inspiration (I’m not completely sure on how that part of the job will work just yet). With most of the jobs I’ve done with this company, the job is still a little abstract to me and will be like that until I can start playing around with the work systems. But they know that’s how I work and I should have a chance to start working with things soon. And since this work isn’t with a very strict deadline, I should have time to get comfortable and not feel rushed and risk making mistakes.

And even though this job isn’t permanent, I’m still so grateful for it. Any temporary work is good because it brings in money that I know I need. And I do hope that somehow there is a more permanent contract they can find for me. Even if it’s just another 1-year contract like I used to have. Knowing I have a job for a year would be a huge relief for me.

I’m still doing my job searching like I’ve been doing for a while, but it hasn’t been as intense as it could be. The election has been taking up a lot of my time and energy lately. After next week, that won’t be that way so I should have more time to job hunt and I am looking forward to that. I don’t like feeling like I’m slacking on doing something that I know I should be doing.

But I’m also slacking a bit because I have another job opportunity that could be something good. I don’t want to share too much just yet, but a friend of mine offered me an opportunity to help them with their business. It would let me work from home, but it is commission only. I know this sounds like an MLM or a pyramid scheme, but it’s not. It’s more sales type of work, but I’m being vague because I don’t want to share too much about a job that I haven’t started yet. We both have agreed that it would be something to try out because we don’t know how it would work out for both of us. But I told them I had to wait until after the election to try it out because again, I have no time just now.

I don’t want to say things are turning around for me just yet, but I’m cautiously optimistic. Being hopeful is a nice thing and I’m glad I can feel that way.

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Time Flies (or I Didn’t Realize I Would Be Here So Soon)

Posted on June 18, 2019 | Comments Off on Time Flies (or I Didn’t Realize I Would Be Here So Soon)

I’ve written about time moving quickly multiple times. I know that’s part of getting older. Someone once said that it happens because each year you get old a single year represents a smaller portion of your overall life. That makes so much sense to me even though it doesn’t help with making time go by slower. I try to be mindful every day so time doesn’t slip away, but it seems like that still doesn’t help all the time.

Sometimes it’s almost embarrassing when I realize how long it’s been since I’ve seen a friend or talked to them in person or on the phone. Texting and social media do help me stay in touch with people, but I know I need more than that to maintain my relationships. I recently texted a friend to say happy birthday and mentioned how we were very overdue for a catchup phone call. Then I realized that it might have been almost a year since we talked on the phone! We’ve texted and messaged in the past year, but I should be better about having more regular phone call routines.

Another place where time has just flown by has been with the temporary job I have been doing for my old boss. This has flown by in a few ways. First, I can’t believe that I’m in my last 2 weeks with the job. I have been working very hard since it started because there was so much work that I had to do. I think being that busy has made things fly by and I didn’t really focus on more than just getting the work done that day. I didn’t think about how it’s been a few weeks or a month. I knew that it was going to go quickly because it was a temporary job, but I guess I didn’t think it would feel this quickly.

And because the time flew by, I made a mistake that I said I wasn’t going to do again. I stopped focusing as hard as I should have on my job hunting. Fortunately, I am in a better spot than I was before because the money I made with the temporary job will hold me over for a little bit. But it won’t last forever. And I told myself I wouldn’t wait until the job ended to work on job hunting. But that’s exactly what happened. And now I’ve got only a few more days of work without a clear plan on what to do next.

I am grateful that I have a lot of job hunting sites that I was using before so I don’t have to worry about finding where to look for work. That doesn’t make finding a new job easier, but at least the prep time won’t be needed again. I just have to find the time to really focus on job hunting so I can find something soon.

But the other problem with time flying by with this job is going to affect my ability to job hunt. I knew how many hours my contract was when I started it. I obviously want to do every hour in my contract so I earn all the money I can. And I thought I had a good plan with how to split up the hours each week so that I would be able to finish them all. I know there were a few days where I couldn’t work due to how I was feeling, but I honestly thought I had made up for what I had missed. But when I looked at the hours I have to do for this final paycheck, it’s significantly more than I expected. I will be able to get them all done, but I need to work more hours than I have ever done for this job and I may also need to work on the weekend. It’s not what I expected to have to do, but it’s what I would do.

Because of all the hours I need to work, I know that I won’t be doing the job searching like I should be doing (and should have been doing this entire time). I guess I can’t be too upset since I haven’t really been doing what I said I’d do. So missing another week or so it’s going to ruin too much. But I am upset that I didn’t do it this entire time and now I know I’ll be worried about work again. I’m putting my feelers out again and I also hope that maybe there will be another temporary job I can do. I’m trying to stay optimistic that I won’t have a huge gap in work, but I also know I can’t depend on my optimism and that I have to put in the work.

With time going so quickly, I just have to hope that it won’t be a long time before I do find that new job. I don’t want months to fly by and I realize I’m out of money. I don’t have as much control in this situation as I would like, but I know that I have more control than what I have been doing so far.

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A Job Hunting Update (or Making Sure I Don’t Repeat My Financial Year Again)

Posted on March 29, 2019 | Comments Off on A Job Hunting Update (or Making Sure I Don’t Repeat My Financial Year Again)

Even though I haven’t been writing about looking for a job lately, I’ve still been doing that on almost a daily basis. My job hunt isn’t quite as intense as it was before because I do have the temporary job with my old work. And through that temporary job I will actually be making more money than I did all of last year with that job, so I should be ok for a while as long as I budget correctly (which is why budgeting again is so important for me).

I would love for there to be more temporary jobs for me to do with this old job throughout the year because it really is a great job for me. I can do it between my customers at my box office job (both bosses at both jobs are aware that I do this) and it’s easy enough for me to do. It does take a bit of time because of the work I have to do to confirm the data, but it’s not difficult. I feel very confident that I can do the work well and quickly and that always helps me feel better about work.

And of course, I love that this temporary job as well as my main job are remote. There are lots of benefits for me to work from home and I will admit that I have gotten spoiled by being able to do so. It allows me to work from another location if I’m out of town so I don’t have to miss as much work as I would when I leave LA to be with my family for Thanksgiving. I don’t have to worry about a commute or the cost of gas and wear and tear on my car. I don’t have to worry about planning for lunches because I’m home and can make whatever I have in my fridge. And of course, I can work when I’m not feeling well.

Working while sick isn’t always fun, but I’m grateful that I can do it. I don’t get sick that often, but when I do get sick it’s usually pretty bad. And I know that I shouldn’t be around other people. So working while sick is a benefit to me. But it’s not just when I’m sick with a cold or bug of some type, it’s also a benefit when I’m nauseous.

I honestly don’t know what I would do if I had to work at an office while nauseous. I’m sure that I would find some way to deal with it, but with how I feel now I just don’t want to think about it. I like having all my medications and remedies nearby when I need them. I don’t have to worry about using a public bathroom when I’m sick or that there isn’t an empty bathroom near me. And I don’t have to explain myself to anyone who sees me at my worst.

Just for the benefit of being able to work without worrying about others when nauseous makes me really focus my job searching on remote positions. I’m aware that finding a remote job is not as easy as finding a job working in an office. But it does feel like it is an important thing for me to find so that I don’t have to worry about what will happen when I’m not feeling my best.

And for right now, I can be a little bit picky. I am good for at least the next few months. Of course, making more money is better because I can put it toward things like paying off my credit card or building some savings. So while I’m being choosy, I’m still looking for a new job every day. It’s something I spend time doing each day, but I don’t stress about it the same way. I’m probably spending 10-15 minutes a day searching on various job hunting sites and applying for anything that seems right for me. I do still look at non-remote jobs, but I don’t apply to them as often as I do with remote jobs.

I’m hoping I find something before my temporary job ends so that I don’t have to stress about things. I’m trying to remind myself that even if I don’t find a new job by then, I should be ok as long as I am careful with my money. I don’t want to be in the same position as I was at the end of last year, and I know there are things I can do to make sure of that no matter my job situation. But it will take a lot of hard work and staying on top of things. And if I find a new job before I have to worry about it, then all this detail work will just benefit me with budgeting the new job.

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Feeling A Bit More Luck (or Hopefully This Was Just A Bad Phase)

Posted on January 24, 2019 | Comments Off on Feeling A Bit More Luck (or Hopefully This Was Just A Bad Phase)

I’m aware that several of my posts lately have been a negative lately. I hate when they are like that, but I also believe in being real and honest on here. When I’m going through a tough time, I don’t want to lie and pretend that everything is great. I know that people do that on social media by only showing the best parts of themselves and that can actually make other people worse. If you are only seeing amazing things from other people and you are struggling, you can feel alone. I know that feeling and I don’t want anyone to ever feel that way because of something I’ve posted.

A lot of my negativity has been around my job situation. It’s horrible when you feel like things are finally going your way and then the rug gets pulled out from you. And I’m aware that I was not setting myself up for this possibility and was not in a good financial place to lose about half of my income. I don’t know if anyone is really ready for that, but I do know that most people at least try to have  an emergency fund to tide them over. I didn’t have that since any extra money I have goes to my credit card.

While I have been offered a new temporary job, it hasn’t started just yet. Originally it was supposed to start at the beginning of the week, but it’s been a bit delayed. I’m trying to not think anything horrible like the contract has been canceled because I have seen my contract (it’s just not the version to sign, it only has the terms on it), but it’s hard not to slip back into that mindset. But I know that soon enough I will have everything ready so I can start that job and I will be making the money that I need to cover my bills.

I haven’t slowed down on my job hunting because I know that job is only for a few months, but it’s been tough finding legitimate jobs that are what they claim to be. There was one job to be a virtual assistant for a company that I was referred to by a friend. It seemed like the perfect job for me and my phone interview ended up being over an hour because the owner and I really connected and enjoyed talking to each other. When I didn’t get that job, I was a bit sad because it seemed so perfect for me. But I knew that it must not have been meant for me.

But I did hear back from the owner saying that she wanted me to reach out to her again to discuss things. She told me that she did hire someone else for that job who had a bit more experience with the specific things she needs, but she enjoyed talking to me as much as I enjoyed talking to her. And while she doesn’t have a job for me right now, she wants to hire me for something in the future. It may just be temporary jobs or a few hours here and there, but I would be so grateful for anything I could get!

Obviously, I would have been so happy to get the job I interviewed for and that would have been incredible. But to know that I impressed the owner enough in my interview that she wants to find a way to work with me really gave me a confidence boost that I needed. I was feeling so down after encountering so many scam job posts and it was hard not to feel hopeless. And when I didn’t get this job that feeling was coming back. But knowing that she does see a future where we could work together gave me that hope back and we have a plan to check in with each other soon when she thinks she may have work for me.

I know I can’t rely on temporary or unreliable jobs, but anything I can get right now helps. I still have to work on job hunting until I have another job that has some stability, but there is a chance that one of the temporary jobs will become that job. I want to leave myself open to that possibility but also to make sure that I don’t get myself into the same situation that I’m in right now again.

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