The Rat Race

[Mustang Sally]

Today at 9 a.m., I officially joined the "rat race." Yes, I started my first permanent, full-time, career-related job.

What a weird, weird feeling. I have to get up by 7 a.m. every weekday morning in the foreseeable future! I'll have to consistently go to bed before midnight! I'm a night owl by nature, so it's going to be difficult. Plus, I've already decided I despise getting home at 6 p.m. All of you who have been there for years are shrugging and saying "So?"

It seems to me that the future suddenly got much narrower, when I expected to feel like it was wide open. I'm that lab rat, and I've just been dropped into my maze.

But really, I'm very happy. LOL

 

[SeXy ReDHeD]

Congratulations? I'm sorry? Both are appropriate, I suppose...

Anyway, hey--if you start saving money now you might be able to retire early so that you can get unused to the rat race!

 

[Samuari]

Welcome to being an adult LOL. I hope that you allways find your work rewarding and challenging. And from an Irish Blessing: "May the road rise up to meet you."

 

[Lost Soul]

Maybe you will win the lottery and not have to work for too long.

Anyway, that is what I keep telling myself.

 

[BrainyBeauty]

Congrats and welcome to the real world!

Here's some time-tested tips for you...

Keys to Business Success

1. Never walk down the hall without a document in your hands. People with documents in their hands look like hardworking employees heading for important meetings. People with nothing in their hands look like they're heading for the cafeteria. People with the newspaper in their hands look like they're heading for the bathroom. Above all, make sure you carry loads of stuff home with you at night, thus generating the false impression that you work longer hours than you do.

2. Use computers to look busy. Any time you use a computer, it looks like work to the casual observer. You can send and receive personal e-mail, calculate your finances and generally have a blast without doing anything remotely related to work. These aren't exactly the societal benefits that everybody from the computer revolution expected but they're not bad either. When you get caught by your boss -- and you will get caught--your best defense is to claim you're teaching yourself to use the new software, thus saving valuable training dollars. You're not a loafer, you're a self-starter. Offer to show your boss what you learned. That will make your boss scurry away like a frightened salamander.

3. Messy desk. Top management can get away with a clean desk. For the rest of us, it looks like you're not working hard enough. Build huge piles of documents around your workspace. To the observer, last year's work looks the same as today's work; it's volume that counts. Pile them high and wide. If you know somebody is coming to your cubicle, bury the document you'll need halfway down in an existing stack and rummage for it when he/she arrives.

4. Voice mail. Never answer your phone if you have voice mail. People don't call you just because they want to give you something for nothing -- they call because they want YOU to do work for THEM. That's the way to live. Screen all your calls through voice mail. If somebody leaves a voice mail message for you and it sounds like impending work, respond during lunch hour. That way, you're hardworking and conscientious even though you're being a devious weasel. If you diligently employ the method of screening incoming calls and then returning calls when nobody is there, this will greatly increase the odds that they will give up or look for a solution that doesn't involve you. The sweetest voice mail message you can ever hear is "Ignore my last message. I took care of it." If your voice mailbox has a limit on the number of messages it can hold, make sure you reach that limit frequently. One way to do that is to never erase any incoming messages. If that takes too long, send yourself a few messages. Your callers will hear a recorded message that says, "Sorry, this mailbox is full" -- a sure sign that you are a hardworking employee in high demand.

 

[Cheyenne]

Brainy Beauty- that is the most accurate post I've seen at Lit in a long time! LOL

As for joining the working world, just wait until it is Spring break, or summer, and you don't get time off. You're expected to work all year long!
And as for getting home at 6 pm? I'd love it. I don't remember the last time I got home that early.

 

[Merelan]

May one, in a general, non-stalking manner, ask what you are doing? Interested to hear.
Congratulations!!!!! Remember to eat breakfast, wash behind your ears and wear clean undies. The elevator guy might be a cutie and maybe it will break down between floors and the two of you get trapped.
Hmmmm... Where do you work again?

 

[Juspar Emvan]

Mustang Sally

Good stuff babe.

I hope you enjoy it. Make sure you don't forget us though.

 

[Cheyenne]

Remember to eat breakfast, wash behind your ears and wear clean undies.

Ditto on the advice. Except skip the undies. Took me too many years to realize it is more fun to go to work bare. Really bare.

 

[Merelan]

Completely naked? Woah.

 

[Cheyenne]

Completely naked? Woah.

Yup. And don't forget the bare part! It's Magic!

 

[Ambrosious]

And then, there are jobs like mine. Yes I still have to get up and go in everyday, but I do get to play here too.

Can't beat it.

Ok, except for the occasional bomb threat, home invasion, heart attack, and child hurt calls. Then it's pretty intense here.

But I do look busy as hell, typing all these posts here at Lit; one lady even commented that I worked harder than anyone else they had here. LOL It is all about perception.


We have stories?

 

[Samuari]

Completely naked? Woah.

Yup. And don't forget the bare part! It's Magic!

Damn, where do you work? Got any openings?

 

[Mustang Sally]

May one, in a general, non-stalking manner, ask what you are doing? Interested to hear.

I am a proofreader for a huge online legal database. So far I'm overwhelmed by the reams of new information I have to learn. My desk is always a mess, BB, because I'm constantly rifling through the piles of reference handouts they gave me.

I feel like a complete computer illiterate; nothing I already knew applies here. The company uses WordPerfect 5.1 - I use WP 9 at home. It's not even recognizable as the same program! They also use an internal email system that was created in the 1960's. And today I got training on how to search the database I'm helping produce - wow. There's a freaking lot of stuff. So, yeah. I'm overwhelmed.

Oh, and about the elevator, there are 60+ floors in this building. Lots of potential "ride" time, although I'm only on the ninth (damn!). LOL