Many people build their careers in the restaurant industry and they're in it for life. They pay their medical bills, rent, mortgage, children's college, etc. with the money they make from bussing tables, serving tables, tending bar, etc. The majority of their income...
Dear Americans, Please don’t shop on Thanksgiving Day. It only encourages big corporations to make their employees miserable on the one day every American should be able to relax. There's a nasty trend of stores beginning their Black Friday sales on the evening...
(A fictional story, although stuff like this happens all the time.) Bob the restaurant manager checked the weather one more time. It was 8:00 a.m. and while Chicago was tricky, he tried his best to predict the temperatures each day. "Warm and sunny. Great!" Bob said...
One of the odd things about my marriage is how little our work schedules sync up. We don't even have the same days off. I work a regular paper-pushing job with business hours. Bob works in a restaurant that's open 365 days a year (no holidays off) and his days off are...
This Friday, July 29 is System Administrator Appreciation Day. A system administrator, or sysadmin, is the person who (from the http://www.sysadminday.com/ website): ...plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to...
When I clean the toilet, I close my eyes. I go into a deep state of denial about what I'm doing and imagine that I'm scrubbing an already sparkling clean toilet. I work hard on every inch to guarantee that when I do open my eyes, all I'll see is a gleaming surface.I...
My husband, Bob, and I had lunch with a friend recently. I talked about Rotary International and what I do there. I mentioned that it's a rather low-status job, but I like the lighter workload and the people."And that's all right with you?" my husband's friend from...
Has it been 12 days since I last blogged? That's terrible.I don't know why working 37.5 hours a week as a waitress left me so much more time to blog than working 37.5 hours a week as an office worker, but I guess it did. Or maybe my level of unhappiness kept me...
A very good employee has a perfectly fine performance record. One day, she becomes aware of a task that needs to be done at her company. It's a money task and she wasn't hired to handle money. Maybe she mentions it in passing to her supervisor, who takes no action. So...
Finally!I finally have a job! A real, permanent, full-time, salaried position at an international, historical, stable, not-for-profit organization that exists only to do good in the world. My job? To support the staff of the polio eradication division.I'm supporting...
I feel stressed out by my continuing unemployed state. I'm still temping, but there's only a month left of that job. I've been in and out of unemployment my whole life and have never had such a hard time finding a job. It might seem good that I just got married...
Now that I'm past the initial flush of wifehood (wifedom? wifitude?), I'm turning my attention back to my job situation. For five weeks now I've been working at a temporary job, cleaning up the frequent diner membership database at a restaurant company. Yes, I was...
Last week -- from one of those by-chance connections through friends -- I had an interview with the publishing division of a communications group. It's a job it wouldn't have occurred to me to apply for, but a friend put in a good word for me and they asked for my...
It's over. My last waitressing shift was Saturday night, and my three-year career as a restaurant server is over.My final shifts on Friday and Saturday nights weren't easy. It's almost as if the general manager wanted to make sure I would really go. She scheduled me...
I live on the border of Chicago and Evanston, the suburb to the north. I want to start working on the northside of Chicago or Evanston since the commute downtown takes at least an hour and public transportation is unreliable these days. I'd like to ease back into...