My Work History

After my waitressing days and officially done with school, I went into the corporate world to give it a shot. They were so unified and even had their own little language like, “report everything to human resources” or “team player” and my personal favorite, “liquid lunches”. Human resources were any reservations you had left in your body---not bunch of catty women chained to their cubicles handing out demerits and bringing on board scared little soldiers to join “their team”. “You have to be a team player!” they chanted to all who were hired...and of course, eventually fired. They would escort you out of the building with two security men wrapped in each arm of the fired victim like a prisoner. Everybody had their face pressed against the window to watch the humiliated employee see his or her last day in the office of doom.
There’s gotta be something better than this...
And there was...
So I thought...
A call center. A call center for a phone and internet company that seemed to be, ....normal? My interview was even fun. They gave personality tests over the phone. One person would be in the other room and call you up in the little office they provided you with. She tested me on how well I handled a customer. Cool! Here’s the thing: you had to be in the union. All I ever knew and was brainwashed to think in the corporate world was: THE UNION IS EVIL. This is because no company wants a union to take over and dictate. I thought it would be quite the change so I tried it. The training was intensive and the people were very friendly and helpful. Although there were very difficult technical things to learn, they made it fun and after three months, it just clicked. You got it. You were flowing and ready to take 100 calls per day if need be.

When I got home on my 4th day of striking, I came down with pneumonia without pay. This wasn’t my gig. Management started playing musical chairs and we weren’t getting the same humanness that we were used to. I opted out and played the “step game”. Those of you who are in the union know what this is. If you are sick one day, then you are on one step. You are officially allowed to take the entire five working days off and still remain on step one. Step two is if you call in within the next three months, you get another “week off”. Step three is tricky. If you go on this step it means you either may get fired or just a huge warning. So, every three months, I’d take a week off. Company morale was down and so was my tolerance for the inhumane treatment we were getting.
My last day there, I remember it clearly. It was 9am and I had just put my headsets on and booted my computer so I could take the first crabby caller of the day. I was in a pretty good mood, had my fill of coffee and was ready to take on the world. All of the sudden, I kept getting dizzy spells. Everyone kept warning me about the window seat and how the tower next to it outside was cancer causing. This always stuck in my mind...but I pressed on. Then, another dizzy spell came on. I went to my supervisor and asked if I could just take a 15 minute break to get some orange juice or water because I felt like I was going to pass out.
“NO! We are at 80% call volume and we need to be at 99.9%!!! We need you! You can do it!”
So, I tried. I went back, put my headsets on and then, woke up to a bunch of EMT workers putting an oxygen mask on me and slipping me onto a gurney. I was carried out of there---not even escorted out by two security men arm-and-arm. I thought that would be most humiliating, until this happened.
After my past work experience in the cubicle world of hell, I decided to write for a living and work from home. It took me almost 4-5 years to even make a living from it. And although it’s not that much, it sure beats living in a cubicle pod chained to a desk.