Thursday, September 29, 2016
Free time and percentages
It's interesting to walk around and see what happens during the day on a weekday. I went to a daytime yoga class yesterday - I have never done that before. There's an entire other world that goes on while we are all in our offices.
Working can be isolating - I didn't realize how much time I spent at work until I didn't have to go anymore. Objectively I knew how long it was - the 25 or so minutes there, the 7.5 hours at work (plus an hour lunch), the 25 or so minutes home. It doesn't even sound that long! A day has 24 hours, and I spent 9 of them doing something office-related. It's only 37 percent of the day!
When you break it down more, you realize how much time that really is. Starting the day at midnight, I slept until 630am and would go to bed around 1030pm - 33% of the day spent on sleep. That leaves 7 hours for everything else (fun or actual adult stuff).
29% of a day. Technically, if we include the fact that my time from 630 to 7 was getting ready for work, that brings work up to 39.5% and free time down to 27%. My last job was 37.5 hours a week. Most people work for 40 which changes those percentages slightly in favor of work. Those numbers seem so skewed.
Having the entire time of the day when I'm not sleeping to do whatever I want to do is totally freeing. I can daytime grocery shop and have time to spend with my friends without errands in the evenings when everyone else is home. I can see friends who come in from out of town without worrying about how I am going to fit all of this in.
All this free time is also hard to deal with. This week, there have definitely been days where I don't really accomplish anything because I don't have a time frame in which I have to do them. I know that, no matter what time I wake up, I can spend all morning or afternoon getting things done. It almost feels like too much freedom sometimes.
I know that once I get back to the working world, I will have to deal with those percentages again. I hope that I don't waste those hours anymore.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Stuck
I was totally stuck on ideas for what to write today. The most important thing I have done all day is go to the Post Office to mail stuff I sold on Amazon. Then I thought - why does that bother me?
I don't know the last time I had nothing to do. I don't have work, I don't have school, I don't have kids (thank Quetzy). I got up at 11am and job searched until I took myself on a Pokemon walk over to the Post Office. Then I binge watched some OJ: Made in America before making dinner.
Having nothing to do is always seen as bad or being lazy. Why? Today was nice - it was relaxing. I wasn't trying to cram a bunch of errands in on a lunch break after eating food at my desk. I had time to walk over and enjoy the weather.
I haven't had weekday daytime to myself in a very long time. Even when I took vacation days it was because I had something else to do. Even if that something was fun (and it usually was - I'm big on fun), I wasn't listening to myself.
That's probably the scariest part of being funemployed. I have to figure out what I want to be doing. I've been sitting at the computer job searching for the past two days. I don't want a job where I cry multiple times a day or where I spent six months crying over reporting information.
Can there be a Buzzfeed quiz on what I should be doing with my life?
I don't know the last time I had nothing to do. I don't have work, I don't have school, I don't have kids (thank Quetzy). I got up at 11am and job searched until I took myself on a Pokemon walk over to the Post Office. Then I binge watched some OJ: Made in America before making dinner.
Having nothing to do is always seen as bad or being lazy. Why? Today was nice - it was relaxing. I wasn't trying to cram a bunch of errands in on a lunch break after eating food at my desk. I had time to walk over and enjoy the weather.
I haven't had weekday daytime to myself in a very long time. Even when I took vacation days it was because I had something else to do. Even if that something was fun (and it usually was - I'm big on fun), I wasn't listening to myself.
That's probably the scariest part of being funemployed. I have to figure out what I want to be doing. I've been sitting at the computer job searching for the past two days. I don't want a job where I cry multiple times a day or where I spent six months crying over reporting information.
Can there be a Buzzfeed quiz on what I should be doing with my life?
Monday, September 26, 2016
Running
Do people actually like to run? I'm attempting to do a Turkey Trot 5K this year, but I have to work my way up to it. The entire time I am running, all I can think is how much I hate running. When I finish, I realize that's thirty minutes of my life I will never get back (although...all I have is time right now I suppose).
I like the idea of running - it's just you and the road and zen and whatever. In practice, it is horrible! I don't even get that "Man, that was so much fun let's do it again!" amnesia I get when I do the MS150 bike ride.
I've used a few apps to try to help - I started with Couch to 5K and now use Zombies, Run!. I would def start with Couch to 5K again, but Zombies, Run! has story line missions that make the time go much faster. ZR! has the bonus of British accents and zombies, so I think I will be sticking with it for a while.
Today isn't exactly a thought provoking blog entry, but it feels like a vacation day - not like I don't have a job right now. I start thinking about all the things I want to do before I have to go to the office tomorrow before I realize I won't be going.
I like the idea of running - it's just you and the road and zen and whatever. In practice, it is horrible! I don't even get that "Man, that was so much fun let's do it again!" amnesia I get when I do the MS150 bike ride.
I've used a few apps to try to help - I started with Couch to 5K and now use Zombies, Run!. I would def start with Couch to 5K again, but Zombies, Run! has story line missions that make the time go much faster. ZR! has the bonus of British accents and zombies, so I think I will be sticking with it for a while.
Today isn't exactly a thought provoking blog entry, but it feels like a vacation day - not like I don't have a job right now. I start thinking about all the things I want to do before I have to go to the office tomorrow before I realize I won't be going.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
The job search marches on...
Why is finding a new job so weird and hard? Searching for one requires a whole skill set that you immediately forget upon finding a new job!
First, you have to think about what you actually know how to do. I have always worked in a Customer Service based world. Soft skills are incredibly hard to explain via a resume or a cover letter. "Hi, I'm great at talking to people and pretending to know what they want until they explain themselves!" doesn't exactly cut it. Even looking at your job description won't help - most people I know don't do anything close to what the job description says. It is just a mishmash of words attempting to tell people why they should hire you.
Once you get to the point where you have a resume that somewhat makes you qualified to do anything in the adult world, you have to search for a job. It isn't just figuring out what sites to search or who to contact, it is figuring out if something is a job or a total scam. Spoiler alert: most are total scams. The two main categories seem to be recruiting/temp agencies with "jobs hiring today in your area!" or a blend of marketing and sales that no one can quite explain to you. (Side note: not all recruiting or temp firms are bad places! I have used them before!) If you have to crowd source whether or not something is a real job, it probably isn't.
Then you get to interviewing. Phone interviews are much bigger since last time I was job hunting which is both good and bad. The good side is that if you hear about it and the job obviously isn't a fit, you really didn't waste too much of anyone's time. Bad side is that it adds another step to the process. You have to walk the fine line between "I'm kinda good at doing stuff and you have stuff that needs to be done" and "I AM THE GREATEST EMPLOYEE EVER" in order to make a company want to hire you. Too far to the former and you're the chump they take advantage of, too far to the latter and you're the arrogant jerk.
If all the above work out (you figure out your skill set, you find a job that isn't a weird scam, and you manage to sell yourself in a non-creepy way), you end up with a job. Where you promptly forget everything that you had to do and know in order to land a job. The next time you end up in the situation of looking for a new job, you have to remember it all over again!
People always say it's easier to find a job when you have a job. Yay!
Tomorrow will be my first "real" day without a job. The weekend has gone on as usual, but tomorrow will be the day that most of the people I know go to work while I stay home. We'll see how that goes.
My adventures as the Funemployed Unchaperoned White Girl will be on Instagram as oryomai
First, you have to think about what you actually know how to do. I have always worked in a Customer Service based world. Soft skills are incredibly hard to explain via a resume or a cover letter. "Hi, I'm great at talking to people and pretending to know what they want until they explain themselves!" doesn't exactly cut it. Even looking at your job description won't help - most people I know don't do anything close to what the job description says. It is just a mishmash of words attempting to tell people why they should hire you.
Once you get to the point where you have a resume that somewhat makes you qualified to do anything in the adult world, you have to search for a job. It isn't just figuring out what sites to search or who to contact, it is figuring out if something is a job or a total scam. Spoiler alert: most are total scams. The two main categories seem to be recruiting/temp agencies with "jobs hiring today in your area!" or a blend of marketing and sales that no one can quite explain to you. (Side note: not all recruiting or temp firms are bad places! I have used them before!) If you have to crowd source whether or not something is a real job, it probably isn't.
Then you get to interviewing. Phone interviews are much bigger since last time I was job hunting which is both good and bad. The good side is that if you hear about it and the job obviously isn't a fit, you really didn't waste too much of anyone's time. Bad side is that it adds another step to the process. You have to walk the fine line between "I'm kinda good at doing stuff and you have stuff that needs to be done" and "I AM THE GREATEST EMPLOYEE EVER" in order to make a company want to hire you. Too far to the former and you're the chump they take advantage of, too far to the latter and you're the arrogant jerk.
If all the above work out (you figure out your skill set, you find a job that isn't a weird scam, and you manage to sell yourself in a non-creepy way), you end up with a job. Where you promptly forget everything that you had to do and know in order to land a job. The next time you end up in the situation of looking for a new job, you have to remember it all over again!
People always say it's easier to find a job when you have a job. Yay!
Tomorrow will be my first "real" day without a job. The weekend has gone on as usual, but tomorrow will be the day that most of the people I know go to work while I stay home. We'll see how that goes.
My adventures as the Funemployed Unchaperoned White Girl will be on Instagram as oryomai
Friday, September 23, 2016
The Unchaperoned White Girl is now also the Funemployed White Girl
Today ended up being my last day at a job I had worked at for a little over 5 years. I wasn't aware it was going to be my last day, but that is how the day ended. Morning really - I got the news at about 10am. I was in my car with all my things by 11.
This is the first time in my life that have ever had my position eliminated. I have been working since I was about 16 (so 14 years...ugh that is way too long). I went from working at a dentist's office to retail to work study jobs to CBC to QBE to TJS (I only work at places with three initials apparently). I took a bit of time off between CBC and QBE, but I worked my last day at QBE on a Friday and started at TJS on a Monday.
I always thought I would be more upset about it. I always thought if I left somewhere in a way that wasn't my own terms, I would completely fall apart. I was wrong.
I came home, had some home brewed beer (a Session IPA), went grocery shopping, and am going to go to happy hour. The world kept spinning. I was going to reference a comic I once saw about how can the world still spin after someone you love dies (obviously this is a much less serious level), but my Google searching is only bringing up Negan. I don't need him right now!
This probably won't feel real until Monday anyway. What I am doing right now is what I would have been doing on a "normal" day. When I don't have to get up at 630 on Monday morning to drive through horrific traffic to dodge a closed Liberty Bridge, then it may feel different.
This wasn't exactly the first post I had in mind, but it was interesting.
This is the first time in my life that have ever had my position eliminated. I have been working since I was about 16 (so 14 years...ugh that is way too long). I went from working at a dentist's office to retail to work study jobs to CBC to QBE to TJS (I only work at places with three initials apparently). I took a bit of time off between CBC and QBE, but I worked my last day at QBE on a Friday and started at TJS on a Monday.
I always thought I would be more upset about it. I always thought if I left somewhere in a way that wasn't my own terms, I would completely fall apart. I was wrong.
I came home, had some home brewed beer (a Session IPA), went grocery shopping, and am going to go to happy hour. The world kept spinning. I was going to reference a comic I once saw about how can the world still spin after someone you love dies (obviously this is a much less serious level), but my Google searching is only bringing up Negan. I don't need him right now!
This probably won't feel real until Monday anyway. What I am doing right now is what I would have been doing on a "normal" day. When I don't have to get up at 630 on Monday morning to drive through horrific traffic to dodge a closed Liberty Bridge, then it may feel different.
This wasn't exactly the first post I had in mind, but it was interesting.
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