Time for another chapter in the story of me to close. For the past six months I have been under the employment of a Canadian company, the Yellow Pages Group. Sound familiar? Yep, it is pretty much the same thing as the Yellow Pages of our country. I would describe my job to you, but I'd feel like that guy in Office Space trying to explain the idiosyncracies of the Y2K computer fiasco. My job is only slightly more interesting than that and I am happy to be done with it.
One funny thing about my job, or my whole office rather, is that we are outsourced. Isn't it funny to think of being an outsourced American? And we are outsourced in every sense of the word: we are underpaid, have crappier facilities, worse benefits packages, and our opinions of how the work should be handled are generally ignored. Now, I am sure that the third world countries we outsource to probably have it worse than we do, but you get the idea. When I make phone calls to our customers in Canada I have to try and avoid answering the question of where I am from, due to previous outrage by "pro-Canada" customers. That's right, Canadians can hate seeing Canadian jobs going to Americans, just as some Americans don't like seeing American jobs go to Indians or anyone else outside of the country. There is a popular backpacker phrase that you see on lots of grungy traveler's t-shirts: "Same, same, but different." The older I get, the more I get that phrase.
So what is my opinion of office work now that I have spent 1/50 of my life working in one? Sucks, to be honest. I am not a fan of doing the same thing, over and over, day after day, sitting in the same cubicle, writing up the same reports, and, worst of all, staring at a computer ALL day. I don't even like computers. Why do think I write so sporadically on my blog? I have lots of thoughts, I just have a hard time bringing myself to sit down at my computer at home after being here all day. Hopefully now that I won't be doing this any more, I will find more motivation to write to you guys out there in internet land.
I know that in every profession you find people that hate their lives, and maybe it is the fluorescent lighting or the excess grays and blues and whites of the office decor, but man, some people here just look so lifeless and miserable. I don't do data entry, but that is what the majority of the office is dedicated to, and I could see how years of that kind of mindless work could be somewhat draining. Maybe I really shouldn't generalize, though. It just makes me so sad to see people who are always angry, or annoyed, complaining endlessly about the people who spill sugar near the coffee machine or don't refill the ice trays. Valid complaints though they may be, I just don't want something like that to ruin my day.
So now I am pursuing my Master's degree with the hopes of maybe teaching highschool English, while also trying to get some writing out there. I have mentioned to people before that I hate the politics and beaurocracy that go with working in a corporate environment as I do now. They usually follow that with, "And you want to be a TEACHER?" Ok, I KNOW there is a ton of BS you have to deal with, especially in the public school system, ESPECIALLY in a crappy economy, but that is fine. I have never been one to take the easy road (foolish as that has been on occasion) and I don't mind putting up with crap if it means I can at least try to represent the needs of students. I think it totally sucks that some kids are screwed from the start because their school has no funding, exhausted teachers and whatever other obstacles kids just shouldn't have to deal with at that age. But I digress, education is a blog post all on its own, one I will address sometime later when I have a more educated opinion on the matter.
For now, I will be happily serving food and drink to the patrons of Molly Maguire's, a pseudo-Irish pub in lovely Lansdale, while I study and try to figure out a life for me and my wonderful boyfriend. It is 11:15 am on Friday the 12th of August. I am cleaning up my open accounts, manning the phone lines while my soon-to-be-former colleagues are in training all day, and listening to bagpipe music on YouTube (don't ask why, I have no real answer). My last day in an office. Feels about the same as my first.
"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." ~ Rabindranath Tagore
