The Day Job (at night) a Follow up
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I received a message from a friend and former coworker at Bethany Village yesterday that metaphorically blew my fucking mind. Please allow me to set the stage before telling you what went down.
When I left the job at Bethany on Christmas Eve it was NOT under good circumstances. After my supervisor Kelly left in the spring things went to shit. Before that I have to be honest and admit my position at Bethany was the best “Regular Job” I’d ever had. The hours fit me perfectly, the lack of other coworkers and supervision on my shit was freeing, and being trusted to do my job right because I had the most experience and skill in the department (except for Jim) was a good feeling.
It didn’t last.
After Kelly quit things went to shit. The Department manager decided to take direct control of our area until a new supervisor was picked. This control continued after she picked a new supervisor in a way which directly went against the way she was supposed to. The job was never posted for interviews and applications instead she just picked someone she thought she could control. After that the job became one irritating bit of juvenile bullshit after another.
I’ve chronicled most of this, including the straw that broke the camels back, in earlier essays and I just don’t have it in me to rehash all that soggy stale crap again. Suffice it to say I was far from the last person to split from the company and I’m positive most of them left because of the same bullshit I left over. No one wants to work for below subsistence wages in place where they’re treated like brain damaged paraplegics. We were constantly made aware that we should be thanking their god that we had the job and that we could be replaced at the drop of a hat. So we should shut up about the shitty pay, crappy benefits, and horrid work atmosphere and take it.
Last night all of my feelings were validated. Kelly, now just my friend and not my supervisor, texted me the most awesome thing I’ve seen in quite awhile.
Cleaner - Floor Technician - $1,000 SIGN-ON BONUS!!!! (Full Time)
Location: Dayton
Full-time (6:30am-3:00pm; every other weekend): Position primarily responsible for shampooing, spot cleaning and vacuuming rugs, sweeping, mopping and refinishing hard surface floors, trash removal, cleaning common areas, event set-ups and other duties as assigned. Previous experience in housekeeping or janitorial field preferred, but will consider applicants with excellent work and attendance history. High school diploma or GED required.
Sign-On Bonus information:
Must apply before 6/30/15. $1,000 sign-on bonus (gross amount) will be paid out on 12/3/15.
That was my position people, not the same hours but the exact same position. There were supposed to eight CLEANERS in the Housekeeping department and when I left they were already two down, I made three. Things are so bad that they’re offering a one thousand dollar bonus!!!
I am still gob smacked by this.
I loved most of the people who live at Bethany and there are a few coworkers I miss seeing every day. But they could offer me a ten thousand dollar bonus to come back and I’d tell them to shove it up their ass. At one time the place was an amazing place to work not it’s just another place where squeezing every penny is more important than anything else. I miss the Bethany Village I hired into six years ago, I don’t even begin to recognize this bastardized version of what used to be a wonderful institution.
What I do now doesn’t pay as well, yet, but we’re growing every day. I love what I do and I wouldn’t trade more money with all the headaches for the freedom and fulfillment I have now. I can sit at my computer cranking wordage, editing, formatting, and doing administrative work for twelve hours in a day and not feel like I’ve worked one. I spent the last twenty years of my life telling people I was a Janitor, even when I was writing at full tilt but still working at Bethany I identified as a Janitor and there was nothing wrong with that. Being a Janitor is a perfectly respectable job and anyone who tells you its easy has never actually done it.
That being said, fuck you Bethany Village I’m not a Janitor I’m a Writer.
- Josh
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