Technically, I don't start until next week, but it's a gig that I've had before, so I shall answer this in the present tense as if I was already working.
My employer is a company that specializes in mid-scale gift items and sells a lot of junk food and I toil somewhere in the belly of the beast, putting together gift towers. It's a strictly seasonal gig with slim-to-nil room for advancement and <1% chance of landing anything long-term, but I'm as happy here doing this as I have been anywhere else. And this company has put my ass to work at times when no one else in the area would give me the time of day, so I owe them a debt of gratitude.
Much like just about any job, it's a mixed bag. On the up side, the hours are ironclad, meaning no scheduling rollercoasters, I get paid extra just for working the swing shift, incentive opportunities are plentiful, the production floor isn't suffocatingly hot, I get eight guaranteed hours away from screens every night, there aren't any bitchy customers to deal with and I don't have to wear a damn uniform. The work itself isn't too rough either, even if it is manual labor.
On the down side, the hours are fixed and not up for negotiation, which means that I can't make enough wiggle room in my schedule to pick up a second job somewhere else or study on the side, I'm not bringing in enough money to support myself even with all the bonuses, our supervisor is such a non-presence on the floor that the some of the line leaders have started to see themselves as the boss(es), promotions to management are based less on leadership abilities and more on how fast you are on the line or who your friends in the company are, meaning that some of the team leaders -- i.e. the one I worked with last time out -- are Dilbertian putzes with no social skills who will fuck something up on a royal scale (like maybe starting the wrong order at the wrong time, making too few or too many of one thing or putting Miscellaneous Item X on Gift Set Y in the wrong version of Package Z, meaning that the whole line will have to stop what it's doing and fix that, costing us time and bonuses) and then act like it was all
your fault later, white-hat camaraderie is so low that lines function less as single teams and more like splintered cliques operating with minimal concern for the others, the higher-ups in this department have organization and communication skills comparable to the owners of Paddy's Pub and because the company will hire just about anyone with a pulse, sometimes you run into people who use a limited or lack of English proficiency as an excuse to not pull their weight* or who are just fucking stupid (and you never know, that one guy in the other building might literally be a Nazi).
* - A pre-emptive response to anyone crying "racist!": The vast majority of the Mexicans I know and have worked with are industrious and hard-working people, but I have had to deal with stragglers hiding behind language barriers on the job before.
keniakittykat said:
But The job I have now just SUCKS, I'm stuck in a post-order helpdesk office all day, answering emails and phone calls from angry assholes who don't have any patience or don't actually want a solution to their problem, but just want to yell at something!
Customer service work has appeared. It's the killer. Do not die.
I used to do call-center work. I know firsthand how stupid and/or flat-out mendacious people can be. I have stories to tell that'll make your jaw hit the floor. For the sake of brevity, let's just say that there are reasons why I went right back to general labor after years of trying to break into customer service and leave it at that.
