In case my subject line isn’t clear, I’m looking each poster to name at least one really wonderful thing about his/her job; at least one thing that, alone, would keep the job from being perfect; and a third thing that, if unchecked, will eventually lead to the poster going on a spree of murder, vandalism, and coyote evisceration at the office. Let’s be very broad on what we consider a job; anything done on a regular basis for the money qualifies, whether you have an employer or are working freelance, whether it’s your primary means of support or whether you actually put beans on the table in a different way.
I have two, but I don’t feel like talking about the writing this moment, so I’ll focus on the regularly-scheduled, health & dental care providing position: Internet Relay Operator. This involves making telephone communication accessible to persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled; such persons log onto a web site and IM their part of the conversation to me, while I make the actual telephonic connection, read aloud what the disabled person has typed to the voice person, and type the responses for benefit of the disabled person.
The Good: Conversations between family members. Nice, boring calls where mothers and fathers discuss utterly trivial matters with daughters and sons. Once I would have hated it, but since my mother’s death last fall, these types of calls are incredibly comforting to me. They make me miss my mother less, not more.
Also the medical, dental, educational, and other benefits are excellent.
**The Bad: ** The pay. It’s lucky the insurance is so good, because the hourly rate, while better than that you get for slinging hamburgers, is only a pittance. I’m lucky to have the writing–not that it’s all that much more lucrative, but together the two allow me a measure of security.
The Ugly: Fraud calls. A lot of Nigerian scam artists abuse the anonymity and freeness of the IP relay service to pull scams, and there is very little an individual operator can do to interfere. This can cause no little frustration. The ones to big business – say, Western Union or Bank of America – are an exception, as the intended victim is almost always hip to what is going on and is either waiting for an excuse to disconnect or toying with the scam artist for their own amusement. But the calls to people selling puppies, or to lonely middle-aged men who think the person on the other end of the line is actually in love with them and needs to be rescued by them, are distressing, because not infrequently the scams succeed.
Anybody else?
