Why I (don't) work

YEAH, I haven't been around in awhile; what of it? I've had a pretty busy summer, including camping or traveling out of town at least half the time, seeing the Brewers at least 6x and (literally) running all over Wisconsin. Not that I'm complaining. In fact, I've still got some pretty awesome stuff coming up in the next few weeks.

I'd say this summer was on it's way to making the top three best ever (#1.) Summer of 2003, after my freshman year of college, and #2.) Last year.) Until July 20, 2009. Dun-dun-dunn.

For those of you not familiar ... I got laid off because of financial cuts at the Company. I've also recently found out that the Company filed for Chapter 11, hoping to clear some of it's debt. But that's probably another post.

Optimistically, being let go has given me the potential opportunity to cut ties from Fort Atkinson and will *hopefully* end up being a blessing in disguise. But before I came to that epiphany, I had a few choice words with myself and the keyboard. So without further ado, and any without editing whatsoever, I give you the "Working Rant."


"The look of pity is the worst part.

It hadn’t hit me. It still might not have. I’m sad, but it’s more like a relationship break-up than a job loss. I’ll miss some of the people I worked with. I’ll miss having something to go to on a daily basis. I’ll miss the actual work. But I won’t miss the bullshit of dealing with corporate red tape and preferential treatment.

The question that keeps going through my mind is, “Why me?” It was a purely economical move, so they said … but could it have been some other underlying issue. Was it really only the numbers? When you have a staff of six running two magazines, and four of those individuals are sales representatives, how will one editor handle all of that work? I hope they at least compensate Brendan for the load of work that will now double. Didn’t they realize the assistants and associates (editors) were the ones that do all the work? They’ll find out.

It may have been that I got to work a few minutes later than everyone else. But I also stayed later. Is it because I asked to arrange some kind of telecommuting procedure for working from home a few days a week? Did they then think I’d being my search for another job, because I didn’t get what I wanted? After that conversation, and after reassessing my financial status, I decided I would continue to live in Fort Atkinson for at least another year. But they didn’t know that. Could it have been that?

My being on editorial focus groups, and helping out for different magazines couldn’t have even been a factor. (err, sarcasm.)

The other issue I’m trying to wrap around my head is that I had been doomed from the start. RV Trade Digest, my initial book, had gone under completely. My one saving grace was leaving that magazine – but I still got left behind.

And to reapply for another editorial position at the same company? (HR called to let me know there was another associate editor position available) Really, to work with Brendan, and have a working relationship with some of the people there again, I’d do in a heartbeat. But not at that same company. Why should I even attempt to give anything to a company that believed I wasn’t an asset to their future? We’ll part ways indefinitely, so I can cauterize this wound, instead of wondering if they’ll rip away bandages over and over again.

I’ve come to terms with the publishing world. It’s not the happy-go-lucky, laid back job I thought it’d be. It’s pure cutthroat.

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy what I do. I take pride in my actual job, and the tasks I complete. Along the way, I meet a few pretty cool people. But in this industry, it’s not what you know. It’s who you know. Networking can be a bitch. If done properly, it’ll get you to the top of the mountain. Not doing it can leave you stranded.

After my mom discussed the possibility of working for Social Security, I thought about it. Why wouldn’t I at least #1: go into a government job, which might have a little more security, and #2. Work in customer service again. I understand the ropes. I also get that it’s treating others the way you’d like to be treated. No more unethical business about running a lax company. I won’t have to deal with the skewed views of middle and upper management trying to handle a financial crisis.

In customer service, at least your job is to help others. That idea is also extended into the workforce. People enjoy helping others, but also enjoy the satisfaction of being treated equally, and with respect based on not only how they interact with their peers, and serve their clientele, but also on their performance. That’s the one thing that distinguishes a service industry career from a media career."


At this point, I'm not sure where I'll go next. I'm still applying for editorial jobs. But I'm applying for more consumer-based publications, or online-focused media. And, I'm keeping my options open.

Goodbye GMA

Almost every weekday morning, I wake up, stumble to the kitchen and start my coffee pot, and turn on the TV. It's usually past 7 AM by the time my omelet's ready, so I end up watching Good Morning America on my favorite news station, WISN-Milwaukee. I dig the local news, but each day I watch GMA, I feel more and more stupid. Literally -- like my brain is turning to mush because of the shit they air.

The only valuable time spent watching that show is from the 90 seconds of actual news Chris Cuomo (mmmm, Chris Cuomo...) usually shares about 15 minutes in. Otherwise, IT'S CRAP.

I don't mind mindless dribble, but I can find that on my own time all over the Internets. I don't need to be hand-fed spoonfuls of feces for breakfast.

I understand it's a morning show, so they're upping the entertainment value, instead of just providing news. But give me a break.

Besides hearing about NY bus drivers who sing opera to passengers, or British toddlers that can name 150+ world capitals, viewers are CONSTANTLY bombarded with DAILY (I'm not kidding...) videos and "news" about the doom of the swine-flu epidemic (including today, when they had a five minute segment about stores running out of hand sanitizer) and Susan Boyle. If I hear another fucking story about Susan Boyle, I'm going to punch someone in the jugular. Her 15 minutes is UP.

And she is the reason I'm turning off my TV.

In the meantime, I've been slowly turning to NPR in the morning. That way, I can still get bfast ready, and even sit around while I eat. And I can also read while the radio's on.

Ultimately, my argument comes down to offering cable TV stations ala carte. If I could have ESPN, HGTV, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, I'd be a happy lady. Instead I pay $9.95 a month for doubles of Madison's and Milwaukee's basic channels. And subsequently, two Good Morning Americas and Today Shows each morning. And Bob Saget's Funniest Home Videos, which I did end up watching today.

Bills, pills, pills

I started taking the BCP about five months ago, and my doctor said if I had any questions, wanted to switch up the type of prescription or awkwardly talk about the weather with my pants off again, I should give her a call. A few weeks ago, I decided I'd had enough with the current pill and wanted to try something else.

I called the doctor's office to explain what I wanted (a new prescription) and why (because it makes me crazies/go blind/not sleep). The woman on the other end of the line said it was absolutely necessary for me to see the doctor. But not before making me feel like an idiot because my symptoms sounded ludicrous.


*Three weeks later, after hassling with a reschedule.*

I go in for my appointment, tell the Dr. my problems and she goes over the options. We decide on a low-dose BCP. Problem is, there are no generics. That means spending at least 50 percent more for the EXACT SAME THING. (Think Tylenol versus Target brand acetaminophen -- there's no difference, they just use different color dye for the pills.)

Next day, I head to Walgreen's to pick up the prescription. But in exchange for those 28 little baby blockers, they want $60. WHAT?!!? That's more than my food budget for the WEEK. I ask them to call the office back and ask for a prescription of the second option we discussed. But they don't call doctors at Walgreens, they fax them. It's 2009, not 1991. But whatevs. They tell me the request should go through and to come back tomorrow.

Day three: On top of not hearing back from the doctor, Walgreens refuses to call to confirm. I have to call. It's 4:55, the doctor's office closes at 5 PM and I have to get home to look up the number first. UGGH. No dice.

Rather than deal with Walgreen's ineptitude toward customer service, or using any ounce of common sense, I decide to go the mail route and order the pills via NextRX. Although it takes about two weeks to fill, an entire 3-month supply costs $90.

Then a week ago, I got a bill in the mail. (See... ...Medical Bill Errors: Fighting Mistakes, it happens more than you think.)

Because I was, IMHO, forced to make an appointment to see my doctor in person, versus a simple chat on the phone, I have to pay $20. I didn't know that. Funny -- last time I checked, swindling people out of cash was a crime.

Per a conversation with mi madre, it's best to request to talk to the doctor if at all necessary to avoid an extra trip to the clinic. She said I should also be thankful my co-pay's only $20, instead of $200. Yikes.

Or maybe I should just follow the rest of America and bend over while health care takes advantage.

April fool

Tuesday night, I had planned on heading to my friend Kim's house in Milwaukee with Michelle, so we could see a concert at Turner Hall. (Margot& the Nuclear So-and-Sos and Cloud Cult were both amazing.) Kim's apartment has four parking spaces; because her downstairs neighbors have two cars, one parks in the garage next to Kim, and the other usually takes up the entire cement parking slab. Kim said it'd be cool to park on the cement slab in her alley because it was designed for two vehicles.

We get home from the concert around 11:30 PM and start winding down for bed, only to get a knock at the door about a half hour later. The downstairs neighbor just got off of her second shift and wondered why there was someone parked in her spot. Kim explained the situation, apologized and agreed to move her car from the garage out onto the street for the night, so the neighbor could park next to her boyfriend's car in the garage. Cool.

But after Kim took care of the situation and moved her car, we looked out the back window to see the neighbor's car still parked in the alley.

But see, the thing was, it wasn't just parked in the alley -- but perpendicular to my car, parking me in completely.

We were wiped, and headed to bed thinking she might just move it and everything would be taken care of in time to leave for work in the morning.

I previously set up with my editor to work from home yesterday, and had decided I'd head to Gregor's Wednesday morning to work from his computer.

Before Kim and Michelle left for the office, Kim knocked on the neighbor's door around 7 AM. No answer. She wrote a note explaining the situation, asking if they could move the car as soon as the boyfriend was up, seeing as he usually left for work before 9 AM.

I sat around Kim's apartment, checked my work email, got a few things done. Around 8 AM, I went downstairs myself and knocked on the door. The note was still hanging there. Quiet. No answer.

At 9 AM I tried again. I walked downstairs, knocked at three separate times, and rang the doorbell. Then the dog started whimpering on the other side of the door. I rang the doorbell again. The dog barked a few times.

Then I heard a woman's muffled voice, calling the dog away from the door. And that was it. I knocked at least another five times, and rang the doorbell. WTF.

I wasn't sure if maybe she couldn't come to the door. It crossed my mind for a minute that she might be in trouble. No such luck.

I walked back upstairs, called Kim and explained everything. She decided to call her landlord and get their direct number. She called the guy, who had already left for work and explained to him what was going on.

In the meantime, I decided to try knocking again, rang the back doorbell, and headed to the front, ringing that doorbell too.

Kim called back. The dude neighbor told her, blantantly, that his girlfriend wasn't moving the car. That also meant that he left the house and saw the note, but also refused to be the bigger person by moving his GF's car.

At this point, I'm livid. Not only had we tried to remedy the situation the night before, but this chic was being a crass bitch who refused to move her car out of spite. And was doing it to a complete stranger.

I called Gregor around 9:30, who had called in sick to work (really, because he was sick :(), and told him what happened. He agreed to pick me up, and we'd pick up my car later that afternoon when the neighbor left for her second shift again.

Ugh.

I can't believe that any person would have the audacity to deliberately choose to be that spiteful, or inconsiderate.

All I have to say is, Karma's a bitch.

On Wisconsin

For some reason, I thought Wisconsin's slogan was always "Forward." But that's a motto. I don't know what the difference is.

Anyway, Governor Doyle, et al, enlisted a company to come up with a new state slogan for the Department of Tourism. What'd they come up with? This:

"Live like you mean it." It reminds me of a Killers song. And what's with that dude doing a cartwheel?

Creative? Not really. Catchy? Meh. Scrutinized by the public majority? Oh, you betcha.

Check out what Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnst Jim Stingl has to say about the new slogan:New state slogan raises ridicule to a sport.

What was wrong with the old one, "Life's so Good?" Why fix something that's not broken. Not that that one took much either. Besides, the Department of Tourism already laid off all of the meet-n-greeters at state border visitor centers.

But wait a tick -- this isn't the first time that slogan has been used. Back in 2005, Bacardi came up with a marketing scheme based on that same phrase. Fitting I suppose, since we're known as the state of drunks.

Here are a few examples of other potential slogans I've found on different message boards, or heard on the radio during "Kramp & Adler" on 102.1.

-Wisconsin: The other white state.
-Eat cheese or die.
-Wisconsin, where it's always windy because Minnesota blows and Michigan sucks.
-I love dairy air./Smell our dairy air.
-Honk if you love cheeses

And, my favorite:

-Wisconsin: the state shaped like an oven mit.

Thems the banks...

Rant #2 for the week. SRY.

Read this first: Associated Bank plans its own fiesta after bailout party.

That's right, Wisconsin's own Associated Bank has joined the list of bailout offenders to use federal aid to send 100 employees on a vacation TO A RESORT IN PUERTO RICO.

WTF.

President and CEO of Associated Bank, Paul Beidemann justified not canceling the trip by saying these "top performers" deserved to go, namely because the bank still pulled a profit last quarter.

Wait a tick; I thought I read you received $525 million from the federal government. That's millions of dollars of taxpayers money, being spent for bank employees to spend more than a week drinking watered-down daiquiris and getting sunburnt.

I'm not saying that employees shouldn't be rewarded for a job well done; but there's a time and a place. Give them a weekend getaway to a waterpark in GB, or a $100 gift certificate to Best Buy.

As a preferred stock holder and past employee of the company, I'm a little sore. As far as I'm concerned, the bank has two options:

#1. Take me on a vacation to Puerto Rico too. Or,
#2. Let me sell my stock for the price I initially paid, so I can stop supporting such an inept business.

Throw away your television

As some of you might know, Congress passed a law pushing back the DTV Transition conversion date from Feb. 17 to June 12. What this means is television stations broadcasting in analog will be forced to switch to digital no later than that date. If you want to know more, visit www.dtv.gov.

I'm not going into the differences, or the benefits of either type of broadcasting. Strictly speaking from a societal perspective, postponing the inevitable is just a damn silly idea.

The government has already spent millions of dollars on marketing to notify Americans of the change. Commercial after amateur-quality commercial has littered local stations for the past 18 months. Broadcasters have been advising viewers that they need to make sure they have one of the following:

1. Cable/Dish. If you already have an auxiliary jack flowing precious sitcom after sitcom to your TV, you're fine.

2. A TV that accepts digital broadcasts. I know some retailers have taken advantage of this, but they were forced to put up signs advising customers about the switch, and which TVs support the switch, sometime back in late 2007.

3. A digital conversion box. These are available at retailers too. And, the government will provide you a voucher for reimbursement.

One of the issues pushing the law back was the fact that the government is having trouble reimbursing vouchers for the $40 conversion boxes eligible to every American household. Fine. Hand them out for free then.

The fact is, only your grandma doesn't have cable; and you've probably already gone over to her house to set up her digital conversion box, or brand-new 42" HDTV with a remote she'll think is a telephone.

If by God's grace and having your head stuck up your ass for the last year and a half, you haven't heard the news, you will when you don't get a signal on your TV.

You've already been watching that much TV, so you must have seen the commercials. You should be prepared. I don't want to hear it. Stop wasting time and spending my hard-earned money to cater to a couch-potato society.