That’s what my colleague here in the office called it, the hour between 10 and 11 am. Must have been something she just said as an excuse to slip off to a meeting and leave me alone here with a phone ringing at a rate of once every three minutes. If only all hours at work could be quiet hours. But then again, that would probably leave us with less work and the day would pass by even more slowly than it does already.
Don’t get me wrong: I love my job and I have every reason in the world to do so. I spend a mere 37,5 hours a week in an office with poor ventilation doing something so simple that a child could easily be taught up to do the same thing. And for that I earn about 21-something bucks an hour, which again turns into $156 a day. After all I should be glad I have a job at all. Nearly a year after I graduated from the Uni and I still haven’t found anything permanent. All I have is this part-time job and this upcoming summer I’ve been present here in the office for the past 6 years of my life. Part-time riiiight? Still, there are plenty of advantages. Such as the high salary(considering how simple the job really is) and the fact that I’m familiar enough with the routines to perform each and every one of them blindfolded.
Then comes the disadvantages. One of those is not knowing for how long I’m keeping the job. Yes, I know I am to go out job-hunting, but for as long as you’re keeping your head above water(i.e. you have a job and an income) it’s easy to just postpone things. I’m at least confident that I would be guaranteed work here up until August/September. The question is: do I want to? Over the past years while I’ve been studying I’ve worked maybe tops five-six days in one month. Some months there’s been no work for me whatsoever. But ever since I walked out of the faculty with my diploma last July I’ve been offerede more and more work here. I’ve practically worked on a permanent basis, five days a week, since November(bar my five weeks-vacation in the US december/january).
Another disadvantage is the discomfort of getting up before 06 am every day. Yeah, yeah…who am I kidding right? Think of all the people who get up way earlier or all the people who don’t have the priviledge of having a job to go to every morning. It’s true and I’m not denying it: a lot of people are way worse off than I am. But this is, to be quite frank, no the first thing that goes through my mind as I’m torn out of sweet slumber by the sound of an alarm clock piercing through the air after less than six hours of beauty-sleep.
My colleague was so definitely wrong about the quiet hour. The phone has been ringing non-stop while she was gone. And the fax machine has broken down….again. Everything is just like it’s supposed to be on a mild Tuesday afternoon in March. And tomorrow is payday:)
