Things couldn't be much worse right now.

The BBQ Pit
1

Okay, long story short: seven months ago I gave up a mediocre job in Oregon to move back in with my parents in Ohio. My reasons were legion: the job was high stress/low pay, I missed my family and friends, etc. Ever since I got back I’ve had problems finding steady work. I’ve bounced from one temp job to another, and applied for all kinds of stuff. (Liberal arts degrees are pretty worthless outside their field, I’ve found, and not worth much in it.) I worked at one place as a temp for six months, then they unloaded me. Just two weeks ago I got another temp job with a Fortune 500 top 20 company in the Columbus area. The work was really boring, but I was doing okay, and fitting in. I had been told it may be temp to hire, but regardless, it seemed to be fairly stable for some time to come.
I had also applied for a law-enforcement job near where I lived. I had high hopes for that gig. I jumped through all their hoops, I had a clean record, I scored highly on the Civil Service Exam, etc. The officer who interviewed me told me I was a decent candidate, and few people even made it so far in the process as I did.
So, starting on Tuesday, the following has happened:

  • I called the Police Department in question, since I hadn’t heard from them in two months. The answer? “Oh, they hired an internal candidate.” Gee, thanks for fucking telling me, guys!

  • I then called a friend of mine who runs a car dealership near Cincinnati, who always said I could work for him. We agreed that as soon as I had enough money together, I’d move down there.

  • Wednesday, the temp agency I work for calls my parents’ house at five o’clock, before I’ve even left work, and says my assignment is terminated. They call back an hour later, but I still hadn’t arrived yet. My stepfather asks them if anything was wrong. They refuse to tell him anything. I call them this morning and leave a message for my supervisor. She never calls back.

  • That very same night (Wednesday), my parents leave to visit my sister in Georgia for the rest of the week, leaving me all alone.

  • Today I get an e-mail from the friend in Cincinnati, saying the car company has put him on a hiring freeze. So not only do I now not have work, I have no job to go to, either.

  • Less than 20 minutes ago, a lamp winked out in the living room, where I was watching TV. I get up to see if the bulb is loose, or if it needs to be replaced. There is a squark! noise, and everything else electric in the living room goes off. Lamps, television, ceiling fan, everything. Okay, I think, unfortunate. The circuit breaker must’ve just tripped or something. I put on my shoes, grab my flashlight, and descend into my parents’ Stygian nightmare of a basement to check.
    Huh. Not a single circuit breaker is tripped. They’re not labelled, either, so there’s no way to check out just the one for the living room. I go back upstairs, put a new bulb in the lamp in question, and try to turn it on. Nothing. Try to turn on the ceiling fan. Nothing. I’m stumped.

So, to sum up, I have no job. I have no prospects for one. I might be shit-canned from the pretty-good temp agency I was working for. (I have some idea why, it concerns a conversation I had with a full-time coworker on my last day, but it seems unimaginable that could be it). Now the TV here doesn’t work and I don’t know how to fix it. And I’m alone in this house in the middle of nowhere (literally, a 40-minute drive from anything) until Sunday.
Just great.

2

Man that sucks. I don’t really have any advice other than: keep your head up, try not to let things get to you too bad.

I know where you’re at. After my marriage fell apart, I ended up on my sisters couch 3000 miles from where I had previously been living with no money, no possessions, no job and few friends.

It sucks being down, but it generally doesn’t last – well, hopefully it doesn’t.

Good luck.

3

Learn to dread one day at a time.

4

Hell, man.

You’ve got us.

OK, I know it’s not a panacea, but I’m looking on the bright side here.

5

So what did you do? How did you get out from under? How long did it take?
Many thanks for all support rendered. I sure do need it right now.

6

In reverse order:

Power:

It difficult to tell when some breakers are tripped as they don’t “throw” completely, but just sort of loosen up in place.

1: Unplug the lamp with the flaky lightbulb

2: Turn off the master breaker at the top or side of the panel

3: Flip and reset each breaker individually

Chances are better than even power will return.

Parents leaving adult child alone gone is a problem? Don’t understand. You should be happy to have some privacy.

Work Issues:

Get a job selling real estate. Quite good money if you’re disciplined and motivated. Parents can assist you until first sales start and as long as you can sell and behave yourself ethically you are essentially “fireproof”.

7

HEY!

Who are you saying isn’t a panacea? We ARE TOO!!! :smiley:

I know things look awful right now, but think about it. I mean, things aren’t THAT bad. You have a place to live and time to work out your problems with the temp agency. Time to find a new and better job. Time to smell the flowers…hey, maybe you should weed the garden during your TV downtime…it’ll make your mom happy. Yeah, THAT’S the ticket! Your mom will come home and THEY will have to pay the electrician to fix everything…if you weeded her garden, she is less likely to look askance at you for killing their electrical system. [sub] Not that you DID kill the electrical system, but…you know moms…[/sub]

Seriously, things look bad right now, but try not to let them color your perception of the whole rest of your life.

Sending postive thoughts your way. My best to you.

8

Forgot step 4

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by astro *
**In reverse order:

Power:

It difficult to tell when some breakers are tripped as they don’t “throw” completely, but just sort of loosen up in place.

1: Unplug the lamp with the flaky lightbulb

2: Turn off the master breaker at the top or side of the panel

3: Flip and reset each breaker individually

4: Flip master breaker back on

Chances are better than even power will return.

:stuck_out_tongue:

9

The first thing I did was to curse my miserable life and pray for death … but that’s only natural.

Seriously … as cliched as it sounds: One day at a time.
You get up in the morning, you look for a job, you reach out to people, you try to do something to make yourself happy. If you fail that day, you get up tomorrow and you give it another shot.

And it’s not like I’m on easy street, I’m still getting back on my feet and this is now a year and half after returning to Maine.

The bad news is … it takes as long as it takes. Life is a work in progress that doesn’t stop until it stops. So live while you’re alive, ya know.

I don’t know. I really don’t have any answers. You just try not to be miserable.

10

Just imagine how bad it would be without your internet connection.

One thing puzzles me. How on Earth could this:

be news to you.

Haj

11

(I have some idea why, it concerns a conversation I had with a full-time coworker on my last day, but it seems unimaginable that could be it).

What was the conversation about?

Regular employees get temps fired all the time.

12

All I can do is plead ignorance, in that I refused to listen to the people who tried to tell me this before I arranged the events of the last 5 years. So I essentially have no one but myself to blame. :frowning:

13

All isn’t lost. Is Grad School a possibility? There’s always Law School, Business School or teaching.

Haj

14

Hunh, a case where you can literally apply that ‘don’t curse the darkness, light a candle’ thing.

How about becoming an insurance adjuster? My sister, after working for an automotive type company for a while, decided to try becoming an insurance adjuster. It takes a few weeks of training, she did hers in Atlanta, then took a test. Now, she had a deal that her current employers would hire her as an adjuster when/if she passed the test, so that might make things different for you. On the other hand, she says there are jobs available all over the country, not tons and tons, but not impossible either. That may be something you want to look into, she makes a good living, telecommutes about half the week and then sets her own hours for the rest when she goes out into the field. Good luck.

Oh, and don’t become a teacher unless you really have a desire to teach. You’ll be miserable and so might your future students.

15

Focus on what you want to do long term. (Do you want to teach, work in a dealership, sell insurance or real estate?)

Then what you would need to do short term that can help you make it to the long term goal.
Set a time line for yourself: In one year I will be living in an apartment. In one year, I will be half way towards a degree in X.

Get rid of all unnecessary expenses: cable, internet (gasp. but it is free at the library) cell phone. This is the time to live lean.

Do every thing you can to just make your parents as happy as a clam that you are home with them. Clean up after yourself, tidy up the garage. Empty the clean dishes out of the dishwasher. Mow the lawn. Any over and above the usual call of usual stuff. You don’t want them to start giving you lectures. Treat the house as if you were a guest visiting. Suck up to them like you have never sucked before. *This will probably be the last chance you have in your life to free load off of them *and pretty much, anyone.

Focus on your goal.

Good luck. You may seem like you are living in the Valley and it’s raining shit, but one day, you will make the long walk to the top and realize, “Hey, the shit’s cleared up. Whew…when did that happen?”

16

When my last long-term relationship ended, about four years ago, I was far from home in a city I was rapidly coming to loathe, with no job, no money, and no place to live once the lease ran out (and a master’s degree in English lit–sounds like a punchline, but it’s true). I couldn’t even get temp work; I was totally qualified, but in that area there just wasn’t any.

I lived cheap for a while and did any work I could find including remodeling a friend’s basement for him, for which he paid me some standard rate, and carpet-bombed the area with resumes. No bites at all.

So for about six months I saved as much money as I possibly could, then I packed up my stuff and came back to Memphis (not my original home), because I knew I had a safety net of friends here, plus I had arranged a job teaching part-time at the university where I got my MA. At age 28 I got a cheap apartment in which I had so little furniture that I would sit on the floor and use a big dictionary as a “table” to eat my ramen noodles off of.

After teaching part-time for a while, and meeting as many people as I could, I got a full-time job as an editor. I did that for a year, building my Web skills as much as possible, then got my current job, which, while the hours aren’t what I’d choose in a job, pays me far better than an English major has any right to expect. I’ve been doing this for two years now, and I’ve got a great apartment, great friends, and a generally satisfying life.

Keep your chin up and keep busy, Lizard; I hate to fall back on cliche, but it’s true: good things come to him who waits, as long as he hustles while he waits. You’ll be fine, and in a couple years you’ll tell the story of this time with the attitude of someone showing off a really cool scar.

17

[Monty Python]

At my house we woulda given anything for a big dictionary to eat our noodles off of. We had only door mat to use as our table, and it doubled as our bed. Fer all seven of us. Not complainin’ mind you, we were happy! Oh so happy!

[/monty python]

18

:smiley:

Yeah, that’s the problem with those “I was so poor” stories. The difference, though, is that I will never, ever pretend I was happier then than I am now.

19

I tried astro’s suggestion, and it worked! I’m so relieved!

I hear ya’ll about keeping busy. Over the last few years I feel like I’ve just bounced from one totally unprecedented situation to another. So many times I have found myself scratching my head, wondering what to do next. It’s been a real learning/growing process, and I don’t feel like I’m anywhere near done with it. There have been times when I’ve truly despaired, but I’m slowly realizing the difference between not having things “great” and having them truly bad. In the grand scheme of things, I really don’t have it so bad. Even with the huge student loans and the string of $9/hr. jobs, there are still people who have it much worse. And I am also slowly realizing that my own attitude about this can be either my single greatest hindrance or my single greatest source of strength.

Right now, probably my biggest problem is that I just don’t know what I want to do. My one universal requirement is that I want to make enough money to pay off my student loans. Beyond that. . . ?

20

Lizard, nearly a decade ago, I gave up trying to make it in Hawaii, left my old career and a broken engagement behind me, swallowed my pride (there was a lot of it), moved back home, moved in with my folks, and started temping. I remember walking through the streets of my city in February with $7 in my bank account, no driver’s license, no car, the folks off in Hilton Head, and very little hope. I wound up getting a temp job a mile and a half from home, which turned permanent and paid for me to go back to school for a degree in Computer Science.

Hang in there, even if you feel like a kitten clinging for dear life to a tree trunk. Vent if you need to; we’re here. The right thing will turn up. A year after that February I described, not only did I have a job, I had a convertible! :smiley:

I’ll be in your neck of the woods next month. E-mail me if you’d like to get together.

CJ