Methusalen's first rant...

So, I've finally broken down and have decided to take up a little corner of the interwebs to use to either talk about or bitch about my life. Do I plan on telling anyone in particular about it? Not really... I've always heard that it's theraputic to write a letter to someone, but then not send it; so I've decided to do that, only on the internet -where everyone can see it....

Yeah, it doesn't sound like I've thought my cunning plan through very well, have I?

Anyways, I've decided to start off my first blog post about work. -You see, nobody in particular; I have been working for "The Big Blue Box" since I started as an Occasional/Seasonal employee for the 2005 holiday season. I was lucky to be asked to stay on after the season ended, worked as a part-time employee in the Warehouse, moved to Loss Prevention, took a full-time position in Media, went back to part-time after my wife started having medical issues (to which I had to repeatedly call into work to bring her into the clinic).

Recently, however; I have been moved from the Media salesfloor back to a Merchandising position after The Big Blue Box decided they had to reorganize their staffing. Since that time, I have gone from 15-20+ hours a week down to 4-15. Yes, you read that right; there have been 3 times where I can count the total number of hours for the week on one hand. Two other weeks I can count the total hours on both hands, without taking off my shoes to continue...

If things weren't hard enough lately, the bills are starting to get backed up, the money's just not coming in anymore, and there's not a lot I can do about it. I've brought it up to my store's General Manager, but shortly after I brought it to his attention, he transfered to another store! *facepalm* I've spoken to a person in Admin, as well as my new Supervisor; but I haven't heard anything back from either of them yet, nor do I honestly expect to...

My loyalty to the company is as low as it's ever been. I was once kind of proud to say that I worked for "The Big Blue Box", as I really enjoyed helping people find solutions to either their technical problems (w/o having to drag the Geeks into anything), or getting the person the device/gaming system/software that fit their needs... People are happy if you treat them right, and I thought I was damned good at what I did.

However, I can't stay loyal to an employer who won't be loyal to *me*. Plenty of people have told me to look into Unemployment, since there's a good chance that I can collect something because of the lack of hours I've been getting lately. That might help, but I've been putting it off, thinking that the hours will pick back up... After all, the money for Payroll should be there now, right? I mean, we eliminated all those well-paid management positions, my previous (really cool) Supervisor's job position was eliminated and he left (leaving the money that they were paying HIM available for someone else), so where the hell are the hours??? Fuck if I know!

Well, tommorrow is it... I'm going to putter around on the Minnesota Unemployment website and see if I can qualify for unemployment insurance, and then start looking around to see who is hiring in my area... With luck, I just might find something I'll enjoy doing...