I am the floater at work. This means that because I am not assigned to a classroom, I am not eligible to do any prep work for the anticipated return, and clock in a few hours a week.
There’s a limit to the number of people who can be in the building at a time, so even the people who are assigned to rooms are only going in for like, two hours a week, gathering stuff they can take home, and clocking in a few more hours at home, but still, 10 hours a week is better than 0 hours a week.
I’m a little hostile about that. Yes, it was my choice to be the floater, and not be assigned to a classroom, and there were some “perks” from that. I have two “on-call” days where they have the right to call me by 9:30am and say “Come in,” and I can’t refuse, but if they don’t call me, I am free, and still get paid 2 hours. They occasionally call me after 9:30, and I go in about 75% of the time-- I only refuse if I have made an doctor/dentist/vet appointment, or the like, need to take my car in, etc. They call me before 9:30, I’d say, about 4 out of 5 days, and after 9:30 about 1/3 of the days that are left.
I actually go in two other days, and Fridays, which is the slow day (I have no idea why, just fewer kids that day), they can call me, but I can refuse, and I don’t get paid unless I go in.
I really wish they’d offered me 4 hrs. pay a week. That would be extremely helpful. Even two would be 1/4 of our rent. But I’m getting nothing.
I’m not hostile, exactly, just a little resentful. I get it that with the rabbi, the assistant rabbi, the preschool director, the synagogue executive director, the religious school director, and a couple of maintenance people, there’s only room for two teachers, to total nine people in the building, and they are trying to limit the occupancy to 10. They want to have one “opening” in case a congregant come in with a problem. That means there’s room for one head teacher and one classroom aide.
But Geez, I could drive up, pick up some prep work in my car, and drive off, without going in the building.
Oh well. We have savings. I don’t like living off of them, though, and watching them dwindle, so I am looking into the possibility of getting a temp job in one of the places that is actually being swamped with customers-- grocery stores and food delivery. I’m checking with Uber to see if I can sign up for only Uber Eats, or if I have to drive people as well; I’m looking into Amazon flex; and I may put in an app at some place like Walmart/Kroger/Meijier. I’m actually very hirable for customer service, because I know both Spanish and American Sign Language.
I just need to bring in about $500/month. Our expenses have actually gone down during this period. And I don’t mind using a small amount of savings-- I mind depleting them. I also don’t mind running up a credit debt of a few hundred dollars. I mind running up a debt of a few thousand.
My parents got stuck in a credit card situation, when my father got stuck in Moscow, because he was there during the coup, when Communism fell. He was supposed to leave the following week, but couldn’t leave for six weeks, and didn’t have enough money, so he had to use credit cards, including buying traveler’s checks on his American Express. He had to buy like, $2000 in traveler’s checks, then my parents had to use the Visa to pay the American Express (back them, AE didn’t have a limit, but you had to pay the balance every month). They had another charge card too, which my father had charged a lot to. His grant wouldn’t extend his stay, and he had to pay for his own hotel the five weeks he was stuck.
Took my parents like, 8 or 10 months to get out from under that debt. At least lots of people were asking my father to write articles and give lectures about his experience during the coup, and that brought in extra money to help pay the cards off.
