This post will be long and full of the f word because i need to SCREAM...
We are already in a very tight financial situation. Behind on bills, credit card and student loan debt up the wazoo. And I may be losing my job anytime between now and NOVEMBER 20th. Or I may be forced to take a postition that I don't want in order to stay employed with my horrible employer. This is the great american dream, going to college and never getting to do what you want to do. Yippy Skippy and now it will get worse. I don't know what to do. I need the income to feed my family, yet I will be miserable with the job change. I am miserable now and want out but do not want to face the job economy right now. But then again maybe unemployment couldnt be any worse than what I will be stuck with at work now.
Right now I am employed with an agency that serves mentally handicapped adults. Its not easy work, and its horible pay. However I grew attached to the handicapped people I served or I would have left when I had the oppurtunity before the economy downslide. I also have had the ideal position for me and my family because of the schedule. However the pay has been horrible and led us into the above situation. I currently make minimum wage yep two college degrees and I make minimmum wage the same as a high school drop out lucky enough to get a job, I feel all the hard work was so worht it - NOT...Can I get a refund on my education????. Minimum wage, I made more moeny in school than I do now With no benefits and no raises. My benefit is that I get to sleep at work which as allowed me to work outside of the home yet have all the same benefits as a stay at home mom. WELL THAT BENIEFIT WILL SOON BE NO MORE but WOOPIE I"L get a wage increase, seriously what do these people thing it takes to rasie a family? Because the wage still sucks... Well I knew this getting paid to sleep would not last forever because my agency's director is cheap and thinks paying someone 7.25 and hour to sleep is too much. So for two years they have been converting all the homes to awake night postions. Mine is one of the last ones left. I was told at beginning of the summer that they were starting the meetings to talk about havign my home go awake night. When this happened to other homes they got at least two months notice. I get called Monday to come in and meet to talk about my job being eliminated and what my options are...so I was thinking great, I knew this was coming, I have arrangemnets to make the switch to keep the job and stay awake but it wont happend until after the first of the year...HA They want it to happend by the lastest Nov 20. And to top it off not only are they switching the shift to awake night they changed the schedule of the days to days I CANT and WONT work because I dont have day care or sleeping arrangements and dont want to give up my weekends to work in a god forsaken hell hole...but I guess in this economy one is not supposed to be picky about jobs and take what they can get, even if it makes you feel like scum of the earth because of the way managemtn treats you...They will not budge on the days. So I have to cojnsider my other options and this wonderful fucking hole I work for has presented me with som many options NONE of which I want to take, none of which will work for me and my family, but so mnay GREAT CHOICE that if I turned them down the agency has their out of paying me unemployment. I AM STUCK! WITH NO TIME TO FIND A NEW JOB. AND GUESS WHAT...I HAVE A WEEK TO MAKE MY DECISION as to which one of these life altering crappy jobs to take...A fucking week to plan....when in the past people got at least a month. I mean my job is being eliminated why cant I jsut be LAID OFF!!! Instead I am being forced to take a graveyard shift job becuase I refuse to work second shift because I would like to be able to see my children. And at work they are treating me like I am unreasonable because I am putting my family andm y need to get some sleep first...I didn't have kids and marry thier father just so I could only see them every other weekend. I realize there are people who have to work and dont get to see their kids, I realize that their are poeple with custody arrangments taht dont get to see thier kids but I have my kdis all the time. I have not been one of those people so maybe that makes me spoiled. My kidsa re everything to me. SOme shitty days they are the only good thing going for me so I dont want a job that is going to take that awya form me. I did not go to college to be one of those people. I feel the choice is being taken away from me by my employer and it really sucks ass...And its going to be an even bigger bitch to find a new job when I work graveyard and am sleeping during the day.