"People" jobs

Well, well, well. It's been such a long time since I lasted posted, hasn't it? You know, my problem is that when I do want to make a blog entry, it's when I have nothing to talk about. But, when I don't or I forget, it's when I do have stuff to talk about. Well, to begin with, I got that job that I wanted at this call center. You know, that job I mentioned that I wanted so badly? The job where I call people and ask them to take surveys? I went t the orientation about three weeks ago. The orientation went OK. There was nothing spectacular about it. It was a two day orientation. The orientation is 8 hours, so if they have an orientation during the week, the break it up. My original orientation was on a Saturday, but they didn't let me in. Why? because I was ten minutes late. The lady that was doing the orientation told me that they covered a lot of material. How much "material" could you have covered in eight little minutes? Was I wrong for being late? Of course. No doubt about it, even though I don't think it was entirely my fault. OK, here's the deal, I don't have my own transportation as of right now. So, I have to rely on public transportation. Yeah, it sucks. No doubt that one, either. The only convenience is that I don't have to deal with the high ass gas prices vs if I had my own car. But, But, other than that, I sure do miss the convenience of having my own car. You have no idea. But, I digress. I had to take public transportation to the orientation on Saturday. Well, the buses run HELLA slow (Cali lingo. Oh, how I miss you, Cali). But, I thought that I got up early enough to take the buses and get there on time. But, the bus that I had to take to transfer on ANOTHER bus was late. And, because of that, I ended up late to the orientation. See? Not entirely my fault. But, it still wasn't right. Still, I was only ten minutes late (the lady that was doing the orientation said fifteen, but I beg a differ). So then, I had to take the bus back home. I was pissed off that she turned me away, but there wasn't anything that I could do about it. I re-scheduled for another orientation (yes, at this place you can do that). So, that's when I went during the week. The reason why I wanted my orientation to be on Saturday is because of two reasons: 1) I didn't not want to haul my big but on the bus for two days or orientation when I could have just gotten it over with all in one day. And 2) I have my bible class on the day and time that that orientation was going on. I didn't want to miss that. But, I guess it just wasn't meant for me to go that Saturday.



Well, like I said, that was three weeks ago. Ever since then (except for one day) they have been canceling my shifts. Ironic, huh? They hire you and have no work for you to do. I'm not really complaining. I know, I should be incensed, but, the truth is, I realized that this job isn't really for me, anyway. I actually just found this out about myself a few days ago. It's not that I don't want to work, it's just that I don't want to work "people" jobs. You know, where your job is to cater to the public (i.e.: cashiering, waitressing, outbound and inbound call centers, etc). Those are the kind of jobs where you your job is people. Thing is, I'm not too much of a people person. For one, I am a very reclusive person. So, that means that I don't hang out with people too much. Second of all, I'm in introvert. I wasn't always that way. I was very outgoing when I was a child. I had a lot of "friends" when I was in Elementary school and part of middle school. I don't know what happened, but something in me switched. All of a sudden I became reclusive and introverted. Maybe it started in high school? I don't know. All I know is that I love jobs that aren't "people" jobs. I used to be a stocker 3rd shift in a store here in the Midwest. The store wasn't close when we had to stock because the store is open twenty-four hours a day. I loved that job. I really did. Now, even though I was a stocker in a store that was open for twenty-four hours a day, it wasn't a "people" job. Yes, I did accommodate customer whenever ever they needed assistance the best way I could. That would be part of my job. But, my job wasn't "people". It was part of the job, but it wasn't the main job I had to do. My job was to stock health and beauty items. That was my job. My job wasn't waiting on people or calling people, or ringing up people at the check-out lane ("people" jobs), it was stocking items. I really did love that job, and I worked hard at it. I was pricing items and putting them on the shelves. So, because it wasn't a "people" job, I enjoyed. Another example is when I was working this data entry job in Carlsbad in California. I loved that job. Not only because it was data entry and I love to type, but also because it wasn't a "people" job. All I did was sit at a computer and type data into the computer. And the best thing about it was that we were allowed to listen to music while we work. You can bring your own music to work and put it into the computer (that is if you brung cds). All you need was your music and some headphones. And, most of the time, THEY provided the headphones for you to use while you work. I loved it. It was a relief for me especially because, before that job, I was working at Blockbuster Video (a people job). I hated that job. The co-workers there got on my last nerves (except for a select few). There was so much tension among all of us co-workers. I don't think that anyone there really liked each other. I know, I know, you're not there to make friends and stuff, but the more lay back the environment, the better you can work. At least, that's what I think. There the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. And, on top of that, we had to pressure customers to try out Blockbuster online. That's another thing that made me very uncomfortable about the job. Having to sell to people who don't want to buy or try it out. When I was working at Blockbuster there as a two week free trial. Now, I thought that was a good deal. 2 weeks of free movies. Hell, if you come in often, or even moderately, than I don't see why someone shouldn't take advantage of that. But, that's just me. But, anyway, it was high pressure to promote blockbuster online. I hated having to attempt to sell it to every customer. I sounded so timid when promoting it, mainly because I was nervous while promoting it. The only times I enjoyed working at Blockbuster is when I had task that didn't require catering to someone. Like, checking in the movies in the drop box, putting the movies back on the shelves after they were checked in, and vacuuming. That was it. Those were the only things I enjoyed about the job. Other than that, I hated it. Another example of a job that I liked was another data entry job. It wasn't exactly data entry like the last job, but it was somewhat. No, I didn't love the job like the last one, but I did like it. I had to sit at a table and sort papers so they could be scanned. Then, there were days where I had to be at a computer and verify what was being scanned. So, I liked it. It was decent. The only thing that I didn't like was that, after I got off the bus (my car wasn't working anymore), I had to walk so damn far to get to the building in the scorching California heat. I was a one location there for a few weeks until they had me transfer to closer location. It was the same company but it was smaller and they did things differently. I guess I didn't catch on quick enough because they let me go a week later. The papers that I had to sort there and what pile to sort them in was very different than at the last location I was at. But, like I said, I liked the job. And now I have this job at this marketing company calling people to ask them to do surveys. I will admit that they are great as far as call centers go. They don't have quotas, so you won't get fired if you don't get a certain number of surveys. You can go to break anytime you want after you are there for an hour and a half. You don't have to tell your supervisor that you are going on your break or lunch. You can just go. The only thing that I don't like is that we are paid semi-monthly. So I'm looking for another job. One that isn't a "people" job. And, if I get one, I am going to stick to it. I really hope that I can find a job like that. It could be an office job. Where, contacting people is required, BUT that is not you only source of work the majority of time. Like, other times will be typing stuff up, faxing, copying, etc. Or a general labor job. That would be nice.