so i’m going to try to be like plantastic and try to post in here every day for the next 3 weeks since i feel like i’ve been neglecting lj a bit in favor of the glenn fitzpatrick times and twitter.

i really need to find a new job. things at work are just frustrating me too much, and i’ve been noticing that when i go to bed on a worknight i feel like i’ve got too much rage about the next day at work and getting ready for bed usually involves me punching the air in frustration and muttering words and phrases containing the word “fuck” under my breath.

what really frustrates me is that the economy’s in the shitter, and even though i’ve now got my degree it’s rather difficult to find something new to do.

at work the other day, one of my coworkers in my cubicle row asked a few of us if it was worth it to get your degree, and we all replied at the exact same time: “no!” our reasoning was unanimous because:

– the company doesn’t give you much of an incentive to finish your degree, you don’t get a raise or even a bonus for your new education level

– because you don’t have any incentive, once you finish your degree you basically get a pat on your back from your coworkers, and then you go back to work at your current position… where the person next to you might still have just a high school diploma, and chances are they’re making as much as you are (or perhaps even more!)

– few positions that open up at work require a college degree, they’re all about who you know

the way i see it, i didn’t spend 8 years of my life getting my degree just so i could keep putting numbers into a spreadsheet and simply be an excel jockey — i’d so rather be doing something where i could be putting my skills to use to actually do something instead of just putting out fires all the freakin’ time, fires caused by people who are compensated a lot more than yours truly.

plus, i’ve got student loans that now are beginning to need to be repaid, and the money i’m making at work isn’t going to cut it — like i said, no financial incentive for finishing my degree. so, while things are ok for moving back at home for the time being, i need to make more money if i want to move back out of the basement (away from these crickets that drive me nuts, at the very least) and try to get in a position to get a place of my own. i’m not going to get up in the workforce doing what i’d much prefer doing and being paid what i need and feel i deserve if i stay where i am. and while i could move elsewhere in the company, i’m not interested in doing that and i haven’t seen any positions i want (most of the IT positions are in the headquarters locations in new jersey, and the positions i’ve seen aren’t what i’m interested in at all).

so, i’ve been trying to find a new position elsewhere. i’ve applied a several different places so far, talked up recruiters at the campus job fair, etc., etc…. but like everybody knows, the economy is in the shitter, and that doesn’t make things easy pickings. so i keep cruising job posting boards and researching companies and positions that appeal to me, trying to find someplace else to jump to.

if i can make it until the end of 2008, then i’m entitled to my year-end bonus. it’s still something like 55 days away, but that’s a few thousand dollars that i’d rather not walk away from if i can help it. it’s going to be difficult, though. why? because of on-the-job politics:

we privately wonder at work why management in general wonders why the morale is low, and then we see ridiculous things happen, or things going on that we don’t agree with. for example: moving a whole department to an automated system, and then a few months back telling the department that they have until december 15 to find new jobs elsewhere within the company, or leave with severance, or be fired… one of my lunchtime buddies is now at a position with the company up in new jersey because of that (though he actually wanted to go back up to NJ since he’s got family up there), but it still sucks in general. another example: a few weeks ago on a friday, we were all asked to remove our stuff from a portion of our desks and from our cubicle walls, because facilities was going to be cleaning these surfaces. so we did, and on monday we put our stuff back up. the following friday we got another message to remove ALL of our stuff from our entire desks until further notice, supposedly because they still had to clean. suspicions are that they’re never going to tell us we can put our stuff back up because the new vice president for federal accounts was supposedly seen telling people to take down certain items from their desks because the items in question were not work-related, and apparently similar requests had been made in the past at the other local call center and as a result they really can’t personalize their cubes at all.

meanwhile, they’ve found time to paint some of the walls in the office, and i’ve seen some of the cleaning staff scrubbing the baseboards on some mucky-muck’s request. is it really that serious??

the latest annoyance is because our team is having our seats moved and rearranged. normally i wouldn’t really care, but i enjoy the people that i sit near, i like being next to the printer since i have to print out so many damn things to type into spreadsheets all day long, and i don’t want to have to sit across from… well, i’ll call him “horkin”.

“horkin” is this guy on my team who — i don’t know if it’s because of chronic sinus trouble or injury or personal habit or what — CONSTANTLY snorts and horks and sounds like he’s trying to redistribute mucus through his nasal passages. it’s seriously gross, and nobody on the team seems to care for it one bit… one of my coworkers commented on his “horkin and snorkin” and later referred to him as “horkin hears a who”, referencing a certain dr seuss book. where i sit now, i can barely hear it, and with my headphones on i can’t hear him doing it at all. but once we move our seats, guess who gets to sit at the cube next to him? i’m going to be totally disgusted as long as i have to remain there.

plus we got word today that our supervisor was considering not allowing us to listen to our tunes while we work, and considering it helps most of us concentrate (as well as block out any nasal retentive calliope music coming from horkin’s nose), we managed to convince her that was something we weren’t prepared to give up. but still, these office politics are going to make the next 55 days or so a pain in the ass.

all this, and the way i’ve been trying to own my career, it all actually makes me think of this willie and joe comic by bill mauldin — coincides with veterans day, too! — but with one small change to the quote:

“Th’ hell this ain’t th’ most important hole cubicle in th’ world. I’m in it.”

i am so tempted to print that up and pin it to my cube, you have NO IDEA.

an extra bit of trickiness is that january 11 is the deadline for applying to the UMBC online master’s program for information systems. i’d really like to be all set up in a new job (with tuition reimbursement!) before then so i can sign up for classes with the new tuition program, instead of starting classes and having to pay back the tuition that was only just recently paid by my old program through my current job. so there’s an unofficial deadline riding on this, too.

i was going to apply to the handful of jobs i found tonight, but i think that’ll have to wait until tomorrow night. maybe i’ll rant about my student loans issue then.