In 2008, the Dell office in Ottawa I was working at shut down, giving its employees a bit over a month’s notice. In early to mid 2009, my father’s job with a transport company went from under him as the company itself ended up being bought up. On Friday, my mother was informed as of the moment she was told, she no longer had a job at the local hardware store. And today, I got to learn my uncle, who’d been working at a local vehicle repair shop for at least the last year or two, also no longer has a job. All of these signs the recovery we’re being told is heading our way isn’t actually here yet. fortunately, there’ll always be a demand for mechanics, for technicians of a computer and otherwise variety, for truck drivers–my father’s already found himself a better job than he had. But when of all places, losses start to hit a small-ish city like Pembroke, you know there’s problems. And at times like this, I’m reminded of something I’ve said more than a few times, even before the recession. Economics suck. Plain and simple. And sometimes, they like to remind you they do.

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For approximately 24 hours, I flirted with the prospect of maybe having something that vaguely resembled employment when I got back from Rochester. I received an email from what I assume is an HR person from the Canadian Automobile Asociation (CAA), specificly their north east Ontario branch, requesting an interview. I’d had one with them a bit over a month ago, which ended up going not entirely badly. I figured this would be about the same–possibly a little better, depending on whether or not they were considering it my second in the series of interviews they typically do pre hiring. Since she didn’t say, I assumed she didn’t but there was that possibility.

There was just one very small, minor, niggling little problem. I’m in Rochester until the 24th of the month. Not against my will in the slightest–one tends to be a lot more willing to do things like that when one’s significant other has a crapload of events coming up over the course of the next week or so. The problem arose when I brought that up to miss interview chick. She had her heart set on interviewing everyone, in person, this Friday. And she wanted to interview me, in person, this Friday. Not opposed to that, I told her I’d love to–but I’m out of the country so could we do it by phone instead? Apparently not. “I prefer to do interviews in person,” was her officially and formally written way of telling me it wasn’t really open for negotiation. She included a halfway attempt at appeasing me by offering to try and squeeze me in next week. I told her again, sure, but we’d have to do it over the phone. I got another diplomaticly written response this morning, which escentially translated to thanks but no thanks.

Folks, I’m not hard to work things around as long as I have adequate notice and am not in the middle of other, more important things. I’m not even opposed to shuffling things around so I might be able to fit some new engagement or priority in at near last minute–provided the shuffle won’t result in more of a headache than just leaving it alone. But for all my flexibility and ability to actually survive a schedule that changes more often than I change my socks, I still can’t appear to be in two places at once. If in the course of a conversation I inform you I can’t do what you want when you want due to unavoidable physical limitations–such as, for example, my inability to fly from here to Ottawa for the interview, that should not translate to my saying I’d be more than happy to rewrite a week of already made plans for the sake of what may amount to a 20-minute interview. If I can’t show up until the end of the month, I can’t show up until the end of the month. If there are alternatives, and I provide them, I’m no longer the reason things didn’t get accomplished if you then refuse said alternatives. I prefer to do my interviewing in person too. However, that wasn’t an option for this one. Inability or unwillingness to adapt on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. Now, then. Where’d I put my other applications?

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I keep threatening to do that post about what the hell happened to me since the last time I was actively blogging (Um, LJ-ing, perhaps?). Well, consider this my attempt at doing so. I’ll warn you in advance there will probably be things that get missed–it *has* been about 4 months, after all.

For starters, there were more than a few trips across the Canada/US border between myself and Jessica, who’s rarely updated LJ is over here for anyone who doesn’t already read her. Things in that department I don’t think can get much better. Well, beyond the elimination of the border but eh, that’s coming. Beyond that, I’ve been doing a lot more experimentation with Gentoo, my for the moment linux distribution of choice. I’d messed around very briefly with Debian and Ubuntu, but couldn’t get quite what I wanted out of those distributions. That, plus I rather like a challenge and Gentoo definitely provides that. I kept an old HP laptop around for the purposes of experimentation–and, actually, it was the same laptop I did most of my blogging on in the old days–so I can break it 6 ways from Sunday and not really be set back more than a couple hours’ tinkering. Works perfectly fine for me. In addition to that, I’ve been continuing to pound pavement in hopes of landing me a job. Not an easy thing to do when every day the unemployment line gets longer, but we manage. This in between trips to catch up with family, because… well, you know, they don’t tend to like it when you avoid them for long stretches at a time.

Then there was the move. I’d spent the last year and a half or so on employment insurance while I looked for work, thus enabling to keep my rather nice–even if I do say so myself–apartment in Ottawa’s west end. Not having found anything though, it became necessary for me to find somewhere else to call home lest I end up going very broke very quickly. So, on October 23rd, everything I own and a few things I forgot I owned got stuffed into one box or another, and carted an hour and a half away to this, a basement apartment who’s upstairs neighbour has perhaps one of the creakiest floors I’ve heard in my life. Now, I’m still looking for work, still finding time to do a little geeking, and still–at least, as of about 2 weeks from yesterday–making trips across the border when I have the time, money and transportation. Not a whole lot has changed, save for my mailing address–which I’m still finding things that didn’t get the notification of that change–and the fact some things in life just plain aren’t as convenient as they were a month ago. But, win some, lose some. That be life.

Once I have the space in this apartment, and everything I’ll immediately need to do so out of boxes and set up, I plan to get back into tweeking the laptop and making things work just that much better. And, with a little luck and a small miracle, it might result in me accidentally coming up on a skill or three I can put in a resume. Never hurts to say you can do something, particularly when that something didn’t require you shell out money you don’t have for a college/university education. Of course, if I don’t get that out of it, then maybe I’ll just have a computer I can use should I ever decide to wipe windows off this one. Either way, I can’t find a down side here.

Well, that’s the summer and part of spring in a nutshell. Not very exciting, just… chaotic, really. Semi-organized chaos, but still. And if this is any indication, the next couple months don’t plan to be any different. Which, surprisingly, is how I like it. Can’t very well go researching new and somewhat impressive things to buy if you don’t have time to, after all.

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After Dell’s closure in June of last year, I’ve been devoting much of my time to trying to find something remotely resembling work that I can get into. I’ve had several interviews, but that’s usually about as far as they go. I have another this wednesday for the CAA–I’ve had conversations with them before, so this shouldn’t be entirely too difficult.

I attribute part of my amusement at an observation I made yesterday to boredom, and perhaps to being still a little overtired, but a random stat circulated around Ottawa news outlets yesterday morning put a somewhat ironic smirk on my face. In the month of October, 800 full-time jobs were created. But yet, in that same period, unemployment went up by almost half a percentage point. Guess I’m gonna have more competition for that position than I thought. And the search continues.

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I know Shon (thecrazykiwi) tagged me for some meme-type thinggy earlier, but to be blatantly honest, I don’t even post consecutively in 8-day strings so it’s just not getting done. that having been said, the day was not completely devoid of win. I got up this afternoon (yes, I slept until late afternoon. Sue me.), and found this email in my mailbox.

Hi James,

Please call me when you are available and we can schedule an interview.

Best regards,

Natalie

So, as soon as I can get this chicky to actually answer her phone, I’ll schedule my interview for this coming Tuesday (it’s when my wheels will actually be able to be my wheels). So to answer the unasked question of at least one person as to why I would dare to be so ungreatful/insensitive/whatever as to not change my return date so I might be able to stay in rochester longer (someone actually tried giving me that lecture before I left), that’s why. Get over it, and yourself, plz. Kthx.

The interview is for a temp agency that Trish actually dropped my name in for reference purposes with a couple days after I fled the country. I’ve been trying to get a steady line of communication going with them since then, and they just now managed to respond to my email. tomorrow means phone calls, scheduling, and hopefully, god willing, employment. Or at least another door to open. Oh yes, and putting my foot in the asses of certain nosey people whom I barely know and who should, for that and other reasons, stay the hell out of my business. But that’s for a whole other rant when I actually feel like ranting.

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That’s at least according to this article, which goes into some detail as to how a man who ended up getting laid off from his previous job found himself moving to Texas to take up a publishing job with a different company. As long-time readers of this piece of randomness know, I’m a tweeter. But I, er, rather, never thought for a second about using it as a means of winding up gainfully employed. Perhaps I aught to start?

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Or maybe not, but work with me here, dammit. Jessica (samari76) just kicked the royal shit out of her latest test, but I’ll let her tell whoever she pleases all the gory details of that one. And in slightly more w00t style news, I can has repeat job opportunity plz? I wrote a while back about a job I’d applied for with a company owned by Momentus ltd, that I of course ended up not getting (stupid being overqualified and all that crapola). They told me then to keep an eye out, as they’d probably be looking to fill positions in the not too distant future that my qualifications would be more suited for. I wouldn’t call it necessarily a position needing to be filled in the *immediate* future, but… hey, 8 months later isn’t half bad in today’s economy. This one’s actually labled as a tech support job, so we shall see if that makes it automaticly within my realm of qualifications/abilities/skills/whatever and go from there. As for right now, Jess should be just about done with class and on her way home, and from there, I do believe we have some cellebrating to do.

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On the bright side, I wasn’t left chasing this chick for upwards of a month like I have been other times. On the not so bright side, though…

Good Afternoon,

Unfortunately we have just received word that our client has filled the allotted unilingual English opportunities with them and will only be considering bilingual French and English or unilingual French candidates going forward.

Any candidates who have already been interviewed with Bell will still be in consideration however those who are pending resume review or interviews with our office will not be able to be considered further.

You will remain in our pool of qualified technical representatives and we will continue to consider you for future opportunities with our other clients.

Please keep an eye on our website; Adecco.ca for future opportunities and be sure to check JobBank, Workopolis and Monster and to apply with other agencies as well.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Well, I guess that just leaves me with only one option. Who on that side of the border wants to put up with me for a couple weeks?

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Well, sort of. Y’see, I’m slowly beginning my exit from the coughy mchackencough school of hell, and instead I’ve enrolled in sniffle mcsneezy university. What 2 days ago was a semi-irritating chest thing is apparently morphing into a wicked evil head cold of d00m. Same thing happened with the motherling, which only confirms whatever this thing is was obtained either directly from or at the same time as her. Fortunately, this phase of whatever it is I got stuck with waited until now to show itself, as opposed to Thursday, so I didn’t need to go into the interview with a pocket full of tissues and a constant appology. Also in slightly bright-side-ish news, I usually kill colds relatively quickly. So whatever it is that’s making the rounds probably has another day or two at most. Which is just awesome, because while it’s not the cold itself that usually bothers me, it’s being restricted to remain near a source of tissue of some variety that does. I don’t often wind up sick with anything, but when I do, it’s usually one hell of a knockout punch. I think I’ve managed the worst of it though. Now if we can just convince the rest of it to get the hell out of me a little tiny bit faster, I’ll be absolutely extatic.

And, in unrelated news, because this entry can’t *all* be whining about the fact I have become sniffle mcsneezy, I’ve heard absolutely nothing thus far regarding said interview. I was supposed to hear something by end of day yesterday, but that didn’t end up happening. Figure I’ll give them a little bit more time, and if I hear nothing still, there will be a bus ticket purchased, and a girlfriend paid long overdue attention to. As for right now, though? I believe I need a coke.

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Energy is at a premium right now, so this will be a short one. The interview went relatively well. They’d already filled one of the positions they were hiring for (figures it’d be the one that pays more), but I was able to stick my name on the list for the second. Yes, it’s downtown and pays a little less, and yes it’s for the *other* evil empire, but… eh. It’s a paycheck that doesn’t come from the government. *And* it’s a permanent position (not bad for a temp agency). Which means said paycheck doesn’t necessarily have a time limit. I’d of just liked to get my foot in the door with the other one at the same time. Ah well, can’t have everything. But I can sure whine about not having everything.

My trip to Pembroke didn’t leave me completely emptyhanded, though. I came back with some kind of congesty coughy hacky thing. Mom and I both ended up with it, though we haven’t a clue where from (I blame her just on basic principle). I’m hoping I’m over it in the next couple days, though. I’d hate for a possible interview next week to be slightly made a tad more irritating than it needs to be by this damn thing. It’s kicking mom’s ass pretty good though. After dropping me off here post-interview, she headed it up back home. Where she promptly passed out on the coutch. She called me at a bit after 5 or so… or maybe it was 6… eh, one of those, anyway. And, I imagine, she probably went back to sleep not long after that. Which is what certain individuals say I should do, but… eh. I’m home now. Back to the keeping of odd hours. Plus, I’m kind of expecting groceries to come knocking. Even if they are about half an hour past when they were supposed to be here. So instead, I shall go attempt to find my lung. I think I left it in the bedroom…

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I should know within the week…ish, if all goes according to plan. I applied for a position advertised by Adecco, another local temp agency in these here parts, at about the end of last week. I’ve been in almost constant contact with them since Monday about that and one other position they think, based on my resume, I just might qualify for. And, after a lot of back and forth over the phoneand through email, I now officially have yet another interview with yet another temp agency tomorrow morning. Both jobs I’m up for consideration for will be covered in the interview, seeing as they’re both fairly identical with the exception that one’s doing IT support for employees of a company, whereas the other’s putting me back in a position more similar to my days working for Dell. They both pay roughly the same base rate as well, so it ends up working out in the long run regardless which job I end up landing. The only real difference other than the end user to be supported? One’s close to where the old office was, the other’s downtown. So it looks like there will be a definite return to Ottawa tomorrow, now for two reasons. My return home, and my possible (as in, good lord I hope so) return to employment. Yes, it does mean I had to sort of postpone the seeing of the girlfriend if I land either job, but we both agree it’s more than worth it in the long run. Just means I might be working rather than sleeping on easter Sunday. I’ll get over it. As long as it means I’ll be working.

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It’s been a pretty close to uneventful week this week, both on a personal front and, as per usual, on an employment front. Still looking, still applying, still not getting people calling. So I pretty well decided today is the day of escape. I’m spending the weekend (well, plus tonight) at the parents’ place, and will probably wind up going back to Ottawa somewhere in the neighbourhood of Monday-ish. Mom and aunt Holly dropped by this morning, at about 11:00 or so. Almost exactly when I expected to see them. What I didn’t know they planned on doing, however, was coming back to Pembroke via the casino. I had absolutely no money for casinoing, and really wasn’t in a casino mood today to begin with. Probably because of the afore mentioned lack of money. But, apparently, they had their hearts set on going. So mom gave me $10 and it was donated in an hour. Of course, then aunt Holly was all in a panic because she might not make it back to Pembroke in time for her to go to work. Dear family: I love ya, but you fail epically at this whole planning and organization thing.

We ended up making it though, even if she was 15 minutes late for work and pretty well had to be dropped off there. Which probably didn’t sit all that well with her either, but she’ll get over it. Mom and I came back here, where I was promptly damn near run over by dogs. I pesterred them for a bit while she went to pick something up for supper. Queen dramatus persona decided to drop by for a bit while we were eating, and sort of stuck to us until aunt Holly was off work. Then she went to pick her up, dropped her back here, and promptly fucked off back home. We all sat around talking for a bit, then drove her back home so she could do what she needed to before bed, seeing as she’d been up and on the road since 7:30–see, Jessica (samari76), I knew even if they left at 7:00 or so like they planned they wouldn’t get to my place before noonish. And now I’m sitting here, hoping this computer doesn’t go sideways while I go through email and bother folks on LJ.

I did have an interesting time though with getting to know Gina (nightdrake) beyond the realm of LJ, being that she’s staying at jessica’s place at least until Sunday or so. I had a few conversations both over IM and over the phone with her, which kind of alternated from amusing to downright hillarious. They both seem quite comfortable together, minus the fact methinks 13-hour days are starting to catch up with one of them. I did suggest a long weekend should be taken at some point so that the favour can be returned, and she at least seemed to consider it, so we’ll see what happens in that regard.

As for now, though, I should probably go attempt to rejoin the land of the halfway living. I may or may not be back at the computer later, and MSN, at least, will probably be up if I am. Right now it’s still signed in from home if it’s signed in at all, so folks IMing me there just aren’t gonna get an answer. Sorry. Anyone looking to get a hold of me on AIM or Yahoo, stick to MSN. This computer may catch fire if I install those two. I shall return, at some point. And anyone I am owing comments to will receive their comments. Maybe.

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Absolutely jack shit planned today, with the exception of looking for and filing job applications, as per usual (total filed thus far today: 1… I fail). Aside from that, continuing to get things sorted out, or rather try to get things sorted out, so I can actually file my income tax before April this year. And, unlike last year’s rather way beyond irritating governmental fuck up, I should actually be able to figure my way through doing it without having to get both parents and a small miracle involved in processing the return. Or, I’ll have a justifiable excuse for completely going apeshit on the first customer service moron to pick up the phone. Again. As for right now? Hmm. I’ll figure that out when I feel like moving.

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Today, after pretty much getting caught up on admin stuff that needed catching up on, and dealing with a few more LJ children, I finally got a chance to head out and figure out exactly how much weight I’d be losing trying to get myself to and from my potential job site. It actually isn’t a whole lot different from the route I’d of taken were I still working for Dell. Except, of course, for the fact it’s on the complete and total opposite side of town, but still. It takes just as long to get from here to there by bus, and by the looks of it, the layout of the area I get off the bus is pretty similar. There are, of course, a few subtle differences in how the actual property is structured, but still, if I do wind up getting this job, shouldn’t take me a whole lot of effort to get used to that. It’s a bit of a longer walk to get from the apartment to my stop, but if I *really* wanted to play the lazy card, one of my usual stops does service a bus that stops at the new one anyway. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be any more complicated than that. Of course, that would probably require I wait upwards of half an hour for that bus, as opposed to just leaving a little earlier and waiting like 10 minutes for the one I actually have to catch, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. I think I’ll head out again on Thursday, just tomake sure I’ve got everything squared away mentally. Assuming they don’t call me between now and then with an offer of a position, but methinks that would be getting a little tiny bit ahead of me. If it turns out not to be something I’ll immediately use, I still know the city that much more than I did 24 hours ago. Still no loss on that front.

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As I sort of hinted at earlier this week, I wound up with an interview scheduled for this past Wednesday. Which, actually, was rather convenient since that was my planned return home date anyway. Mom had a doctor’s appointment that morning, though apparently on a whim she decided it’d be much more fun to skip that. I dunno, I’m smart enough not to try getting inside her head. We *planned* to be on the road about 8:00 or so. Instead, it ended up being closer to 9:30 or 10:00 before we even got as far as the gas station. After that, though, it was pretty well clear sailing to Ottawa. We swung past my apartment so I could pick up a couple things, then headed for the interview. Got there 5 minutes late, but largely because the directions we followed to get to said place had us going out past city limits, then coming back in. Google, you disappoint me. The interview itself lasted maybe half an hour. He basicly quizzed me on all manner of customer servicey type stuff, sort of “what would you do/how would you react if…” type situations. He asked me to bring references with me, which near the end of the interview he said he’d be contacting. Apparently, there’s 15 contract positions he’s trying to fill that are due to expire in mid march. From those 15, he says, 6 of them will more than likely move on to occupy permanent positions. I sort of semi-like my chances of getting on permanently with those numbers, not that I expect it to be something I’d stick with permanently. But, as I told a few people after getting out of that interview, it’s something to fill the gap between several months of unemployment and that job that actually happens to be in my field. If something comes up that makes me think maybe, even if it happens to be halfway through the contract position, I’m sure as hell still going for the interview. Absolute worst case at that point, my start date is effective the monday after the termination of my contract, permanent offer or no. And the beauty of working here, even if it turns out to be on a full time basis, is theytry to keep a 2 days on, 2 days off rotation. So I can still work my ass off, and schedule an interview for one of my free weekdays. So, while I’m still unemployed, there’s now a questionmark next to it. As opposed to the questionmark being beside length of unemployment. Which… well, there’s still one there, but oh well. Can’t have everything going my way all at once now.

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I’ve actually had several, but the one I think I’d of most liked to get into if I was able to would be to manage a sports team. Ideally, hockey or baseball, but just something to do with that aspect of life. Something to be said for actually having a say in the potential outcome of the game. Yes, I love watching both hockey *and* baseball. But I think I’d like to actually be behind the scenes, of sorts, for a pro team. I know there are several things I’d of done differently last season if I were managing my baseball team of choice. A couple players I’d of not bothered signing, a few players I’d of tried a touch harder to get. Oh, and I’d of ripped out 3/4 of their current starting rotation. Perhaps that’s why I’ve kind of been drawn to simulated baseball games like the previously mentioned Sim Dynasty…

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Hello,

I would like to set up an interview with you to further discuss employment with CAA.
I am holding Interviews on Wednesday February 11 and Thursday February 12.
Interviews will be between 09:00-1:00, Please let me know what time from works best
for you and I will confirm an exact time.

I applied for this job a couple weeks ago. That email just came in less than an hour ago. I am made of win. Yes, it’s temporary. Yes, it’s a little out of my field. But, it’s a paycheck. And I’ve been thinking about temping anyway.

The position is an inbound call centre, taking emergency road service calls. It is a
contract until March 15, 2009, with a possibility of being hired on as a permanent
staff member.
This is a full time position working 12 hour shifts, schedule is a two week
rotation, first week you work Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday. Second week is
Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Shifts range from 6am-6pm to noon to midnight.

Worst case, it extends my employment insurance another couple weeks. Best case, One of the other positions I applied for still needs filling and they ring me up. So so case, I get hired on permanently. Either way, I come out a tiny bit farther ahead now than I was 24 hours ago. Of course, it’s just as likely one of us (either me or the guy doing the interview) decides I just wouldn’t work with this outfit. At which point, I cash out my income tax refund and plot my next trip across the border. I still win. In short? You just can’t ruin my mood today. Suck it up, buttercup.

ETA: When I posted this entry earlier, apparently, I failed at HTML. Damn me.

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New day, new routine, same old habbits. Except I actually remembered this thing two days in a row. Bloody miracle, that. Aunt Holly and queen Dramatus Persona are over here now, shooting the shit with mom in the kitchen. I was out there for a bit, but came in here to see a mailbox about a job application. Still nothing on that front, but I are not surprised. I did drop a line in to Employment Ontario with the intention of getting something set up so they can possibly help cover costs for courses, that way I can go get me some education during my extended and so far indefinite vacation. It only got me as far as pick a day, bring a resume, and bother the Ottawa office for an assessment, but it’s something. So now we just have to figure out when the hell I can get in to do that. It more than likely won’t end up being Friday. Not if we’re going with aunt Holly, at any rate. She’s got an appointment for a consultation for her weakening eyes, and god only knows how long that’ll take. The place keeps some unusual hours (what government office closes at 2:00 in the afternoon, for christ’s sake), so it’s almost one of those things you have to specificly intend to drop by while in town, or you’ll never make it there. Mom’s still trying to suggest I should look for something here, either a course or a job or something, and just stay here during the week. Thanks, mom, but no. Really, no. I pay 770 or so dollars a month for an apartment. I’m not gonna spend in the neighbourhood of 2 days out of 7 at the most in said apartment and the rest of that time here. Nice place to visit, but no way in hell I’m willingly living here again.

In unrelated news, there is no unrelated news. We thought we might have plans today, and instead we have company. So I suppose I should probably consider wandering back in that general direction. I need more coffee anyway.

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Well, it’s official. I can, in fact, go from nothing to all kinds of something in just a couple days. I’m sitting in Pembroke right now, where I’ve been since this past Friday, because… well… I really can’t think of a very good reason, other than because the mother thing picked up asking me when I was coming down on average once every 2 or 3 days. Well, that, plus no bus service in Ottawa means I’d need cab fair to get me from here to there, and being unemployed, that’s a little bit scarce. So I said screw it, and came here. Bright side, though, the bus strike is in fact over. Down side? I still don’t expect to see a bus on the road until this coming Friday at the earliest. And neither does anyone else I’ve talked to.

I fired off about a dozen more applications over the last week or so, including 3 yesterday; the most in a single day for me in… a couple months. That has to say something. Still haven’t received any kind of feedback for the applications I submitted during the actual week, but such would be life.

It’s actually been semi-decent outside this weekend. Warm enough that I was about to take my father’s dust mop of a dog out for a good 15 minutes or so without him freezing to death. So I got him nice and tired out, and now he’s by the sounds of it found himself somewhere in the living room to pass out. Probably in behind my mother’s knees or something, as usual. Anyway, the randomness stops here. I had nothing of any real substance to offer, but that’s never stopped me before.

PS: Anyone trying to IM me, I’m not home. I’m not signed into IM over here, and probably won’t be. Sorry. Gonna have to settle for phone/text/email. You’ll live.

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It’s been a fairly uneventful week plus in this screwed up reality in which I live. Not a whole lot new going on with the exception of the fact I’m noticing a steady increase in the number of available job postings in Ottawa. Not necessarily an increase in the number of jobs I’d be caught dead applying for, but no sense in splitting hairs where everywhere you look there’s at least one person screaming second depression. I did end up applying for a tech support job with Cyberus Online, which is basicly a lesser heard of ISP. Of course, they have yet to actually call me back, but if I focused on that I’d be a lot more insane than I’ve been accused of being. I applied for a few more jobs, too, including a temporary one until March or so for the northeastern Ontario branch of the CAA. No, don’t worry, it doesn’t involve driving; just sitting behind a desk taking calls and dispatching people to do the towing of people’s vehicles. So, roughly translated, emergency roadside asistance operator. Nothing to throw my hands in the air and scream from a rooftop about, but at this stage of the game, even if it stretches employment insurance out for another month or two, I’m not saying no. Employers might, but I sure as hell won’t. What I will do, though, is that thing where I see about maybe possibly kinda sorta getting my day semi-started. Hey, anyone wanna entertain me while I go a-hunting? I can has work, plz? Kthx.

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Cross-posted to arinoch and techsupport.

This post Puts me in mind of my year and a half working for Dell. I spent most of it working nights, and my manager just so happened to be about as blatantly honest as they come. To agents, to customers, whatever. If you’re a complete fucking moron, he’d call you a complete fucking moron. And if you were a customer, he’d do it in such a way you had absolutely no idea you were just called a complete fucking moron. We had a couple folks on our team with definite middle-eastern accents. One of these guys happened to be Lebonese, I believe. So anyway, enough background.

About 3:30 EST on a Saturday night, when you’d think most people would either be sleeping or getting absolutely smashed rather than trying to fix their computer so they can go back to their porn, we just so happened to be getting completely and totally slammed. There was all of 1 person on average not on a call for probably the better part of 2 hours. At about that time, the Lebonese dood happened to be that guy. He sat like right behind me, so I got pretty much a front row seat to what went on. This New York sounding dood calls up, and for obvious reasons, ends up talking to mister Lebonese. Except he’d really rather not. No sooner does the guy get halfway through “thank you for calling Dell” does the guy hang up. Couple seconds later, he calls back. Gets the same agent. Hangs up again. This time, he at least has the good sense to wait a minute or two. Then again, he calls back. Third time’s a charm. The guy behind me gets the call again, and yet again the caller drops it.

Now, by this time I’ve got the customer I’m working with restarting his computer, so I mute the thing, and call over my manager. I give him the 30-second run down on what’s going on, manager dood tells the agent to hand over his headset for a sec. We’re laying bets at this point he’s moronic enough to try it again. And sure enough, no sooner does the manager get the headset on then this guy calls in again. This time, manager dood goes through our thanks for calling opening. Customer then goes into about a 2 or 3 minute “thank God I finally got someone who speaks English” shpeel here. Manager mutes the phone, looks over at me and just sort of giggles a little. If anyone’s worked with this guy for any period of time, you just know he’s mentally taking notes, and as soon as customer dood comes up for air, he’s gonna be nailed to the wall. The manager just so happened to be black, and Louisiana born. So in other words, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone more American sounding in that call center. Customer finally stops yapping long enough for my manager to get a word in, and he ever so politely advises him that he is, in fact, not a tech support person (he’s technical, but they didn’t pay him to fix customers’ shit… that’s what we’re for), he’s a supervisor. Customer’s all “I don’t care, I’m just glad you speak my language.”

Caller then tries to get my manager to fix his problem anyway. Finally, after about another 15 minutes or so of back and forth, this happens. “Okay, sir, I’m gonna stop you, right there. No, just stop talking for a second. Now, here’s what’s happening. We’re incredibly busy tonight. The agent you just hung up on 4 times is the only one we’ve got not on a call right now. So, your choices are this. You can let him fix your problem so you can enjoy the rest of your night, or you can hang up right now and call back in the morning. If you call back tonight, you’re gonna be talking to me again. And if we have to have this conversation a second time, I’ll note in your account that you’ve repeatedly called in to and hung up on our agents, and you won’t be getting support from anyone. The choice is yours, and I’ll even give you a couple seconds to make it.”

The manager didn’t say a thing after that. He just handed it back to my coworker, and his problem was solved like 10 minutes later. And for like the next week, we all took turns immitating this idiot out of extreme boredom (Saturday was apparently fix your computer day that month, it was dead for the rest of the week). Sometimes, the stuff that goes on even manages to surprise me. And that doesn’t happen often.

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Well, it’s official. One day down, one to go, and i only have a slightly
smallish twitch in one eye. Not bad, considering a lot of trips home
usually result in stress up the wazu. So far though, things seem to be
going about as well as they could be. I pulled in here about 8:30 or so
last night, and Trish and the husband hung around for the better part of
an hour or so. Their dog, pictures of whom will make it to the LJ at
some point when I’m sure Trish won’t shoot me for it, pretty much did
circles around me, mom, and everyone else playing with our other 3 muts.
Today was pretty much spent being all manner of lazy until about 11:30
or so when I finally haulled my ass out of bed. Dad had gone to bring
mom a coffee, so while he was out he brought back breakfast for me.
Good, since I was so not in any kind of mood to put forth the effort
required to actually find something. Then we went to say hello to the
grandparents, and to pick up some flee medication for the 4-legged ones
since aunt Holly had called over earlier this morning all cautious like
after finding out from the vet that her dog had flees. And, since that
mut’s been over here a time or 6 with her, we figured it couldn’t hurt.
Then we came back here, I unburied myself from email, and fired off an
application or two for yet more jobs. STill nothing on that front, but
I’m not suicidal yet. Murderous, but not suicidal. And now, supper’s
about ready to be done, so ’tis time that I go drag my lazy self
kitchenwards.

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List format, because I’m lazy and everyone’s heard me curse enough on this thing this month.

• Fired off an application for Convergys on Monday evening.
• Called back on Tuesday (unusual, given it’s rememberence day), right at the ass crack of 9:00. Gave the usual I are blindy shpeel.
• Was supposed to hear back from them tuesday afternoon regarding screenreaders and such, didn’t happen. Craptastic.
• Fired off a couple more applications while waiting. They haven’t so much as said thanks yet.
• Convergys finally called back. No go on the screenreader. Thanks for coming out.
• Phoned in another application, emailed them my resume, and actually got an email in return; it was an automated form letter, but I’ll take it.
• Oh yeah, and Greyhound refused to do, like, anything I want all week. Figures.
• Dear life: fuck you.

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They shut down the Ottawa office at the end of June, and now in its latest attempt at saving money, Dell’s asking the employees that are still there if they maybe kinda sorta wouldn’t mind helping themselves to some unpaid time off. Now, uh, I’m just as shakey about this slow economy business and the effect it has on creating new jobs as the next guy. But good jesus criminy, this “oh, just take a week off and let us not pay you, it’s good for you” crap has to go. Like wo. I’m tellin’ ya, if yall didn’t make some pretty rock solid machines (I’ve been sitting in front of this one for coming on 2 years now), I’d be a whole lot more pissed off than I already am. Of course, if I don’t soon get hired somewhere I’m probably gonna be anyway. But in that case it would be Dell’s own fault.

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Well, as hinted at in my last post, I returned back to Ottawa on Monday and dropped Jessica (samari76) off at the bus station, after a hell of an awesome weekend. She came up to cellebrate the thanks giving weekend with me and the family, and we all seemed to rather enjoy ourselves. Mom’s dinner selections were, as usual, absolutely perfect. The girl loves to cook, and it more than definitely shows. Other than that, the weekend was pretty well spent relaxing, introducing Jessica to more of my family, and just enjoying spending time with her. She loves my family, and I can tell just by watching them around her they feel the same way. Now, we’re sort of talking about me going the other direction for her thanks giving, if I can figure out what the hell I’m doing so far as employment, or a possible living situation should the employment question not be answered. But in the meantime, the weekend was loads of fun, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Speaking of the whole employment thing, I found a couple more jobs to apply for over the last couple days, and they’ve subsequently been all kinds of fired applications. I don’t know if I’ll hear anything from them, but hey, I haven’t called it quits. Which says something right there, I dare say. Of course it’s entirely likely I’ll wind up doing a sales-related gig (*gag cringe die*), but at the moment, it’d still be better than the already impressive $0/hour I’m getting now. Now, here’s hoping it actually winds up happening. I’d hate to have an excuse to go postal on the job market.

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