Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Wanted: New Perfect Part Time Job

This recession is taking all the fun out of my job. I used to love my job. Now I would rather stick hot pokers in my eyes! Okay, it is not that bad. But, it just isn't fun anymore. In the beginning, I was grateful to be back to work on a part time basis. After all, I had been home for almost 18 years raising our kids. Sprinkle in moving 4 times for my husband's job and living in 5 different houses and with each move there was a lot of "life rebuilding" going on. I was busy. And when I finally got a grip on things I started playing tennis. A lot of tennis. You would think with all the tennis I played that I would have grown at least a couple more inches taller and a few pounds lighter but that didn't' happen. All that happened was that I started to hate tennis and got burned out.




My motto most of my life has been "If you don't like your situation....change it." And that is what I tried to do when I set about finding myself what I thought would be the perfect part time job. I thought I found it when I saw the job posting for "Cheese Specialist" with a flexible 20 hours per week and no nights or weekends. I applied, got the interview, and was hired! I was a happy girl with a big learning curve ahead of me but I dove in and tried to learn everything I could about the world of cheese. And believe me there is a lot to learn and a lot of it is fascinating. In the beginning I went to cheese seminars and cheese tastings. I learned that cheese about to pass it's expiration date was perfectly fine to eat and to buy at huge discount. Free cheese was even better. Passing out free cheese to all your friends can add greatly to one's popularity. I learned how to cut 75 pound wheels of Parmesan Reggiano with real cheese tools. I got to help set up and open new stores. I learned how to merchandise a cheese case and make it look real pretty. They paid me mileage! I was getting paycheck for the first time in long time. It was fun and low stress.



Then the recession hit. Bye bye cheese seminars. No more cheese tastings for you! Free cheese...not going to happen. There is lots of crabbin' and complainin' and bitchin" and moanin" going on in all my stores. They all hate their jobs and feel compelled to tell me all about who did them wrong today. "Thank yous" are in short supply. None of my stores are ordering cheese like in the old days so there isn't much to work with and it's difficult making their display cases look pretty when there is no product to display. And the fly's. My God the flys. I hate flys and flys like to take naps in the cheese case in the summertime. Wake up and shooooooo! Gag...Gag... Enough said.



So at this point, I am casually looking for a new and perfect part time job that pays big money. I am currently grossly "underemployed" and capable of sooooo much more. I am not looking to go back to the stress filled days I had back when I had a real "career" job in Telecom back before my kids were born but the clock is ticking. So hurry up recession. I want my old fun part time job as a Cheese Specialist back. Not this new one that I didn't ask for where everybody is mean and nasty. And in the meantime, I will try to hang in there and find other ways to amuse myself. Like blogging. :)

4 comments:

~Country Lady~ said...

Lisa, my thoughts are with you. I can't say that I feel your pain but my husband feels your pain. Hang in there....hopefully this too shall pass before you need to find another job filled with lots of stress and chores you dislike. Keep the faith!

Lisa@Pickles and Cheese said...

Thanks Country Lady. Can you tell I had a bad day at work???!!! :)

Anonymous said...

Lisa--your job has inspired me to eat more cheese and GOOD cheese.:) Actually, your entire blog has inspired me! I spray painted my brass fireplace insert and it looks SO much better! keep on blogging--we're having the martinis tomorrow! :)

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