FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: pinky on September 10, 2008, 05:58:42 AM
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"They work 8, 10, 12 hours a day, the worst jobs imaginable, there lives are a living nightmare. And this show, if it can give anybody a little bit of comfort from the horror house that is their existence, then I have done my part." Tom Scharpling, yesterday.
I am quitting my job today and have no other job to go to, I am just completely fed up. I have my 4 week notice period to find another job and have never quit one job with out knowing there was some source of income in the future, and I am not confident.
I would love to gleam some extra comfort from the MessageBoard about other people having done the same thing and having extreme levels of success and happiness. Of course any words of warning would be appreciated too.
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"They work 8, 10, 12 hours a day, the worst jobs imaginable, there lives are a living nightmare. And this show, if it can give anybody a little bit of comfort from the horror house that is their existence, then I have done my part." Tom Scharpling, yesterday.
I am quitting my job today and have no other job to go to, I am just completely fed up. I have my 4 week notice period to find another job and have never quit one job with out knowing there was some source of income in the future, and I am not confident.
I would love to gleam some extra comfort from the MessageBoard about other people having done the same thing and having extreme levels of success and happiness. Of course any words of warning would be appreciated too.
Good luck (seriously).
Here's a question you may already be sick of: what are you doing next?
I am pretty disgruntled myself but lack of plan B keeps me pretty firmly where I am. I'm all for the inspirational success stories so hopefully things work out for you.
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Four weeks notice is better than two. At least if you're looking for a new job it'll give you a bit of "wiggle room".
How long have you been at your job?
What are your plans for the future?
Having a crappy job is still better than not having a job at all. (Because you'll get paid)
But taking a leap of faith can be a good life experience / learning lesson.
You may find out what you're truly capable of when you have to "make it work" on your own.
But you may get a tough break and find you are worse off.
It is what you make of it and, ultimately, what you really want.
And your financial situation is key. Can you manage without a job? For how long?
If you quit your job, I recommend using the momentum you gain by walking away to a) do something worthwhile (however you see fit) but also b) seriously look for another job.
If you're looking for work in the "library industry" I'd be happy to send you job ads.
Something that helps me is having an ultimate goal. Like, where you see yourself in the future. But doing what it takes now, to ensure you get there.
Good luck!
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I've done this, and I won't lie - I went through a pretty rough patch immediately afterward. But it had to be done, like ripping off a band-aid, and I don't regret it a bit. In the long term everything definitely worked out for the best.
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I have a definite lack of Plan B, but that has kept me in this job for the last year. I am pretty sure that I can get another crappy job if necessary and at least it will be a change if I do. Definitely ripping of the bandaid!! Its gonna hurt.
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I was absolutely miserable at my first job out of college--too much drudgery, not enough thinking. It's no coincidence that having that job coincided with the rise of my "Best Show" love: I listened to the archives all day at work, trying to make the time pass faster. I took the time I was unhappy there to figure out what I really wanted to do, applied for different jobs, and today have the best job I could have ever imagined for now (despite my complaints sometimes :) ) Quitting my job was the best thing I could have done, but I made sure something else was lined up first. Is there any way you can stick it out until you've got something else on your plate? Do you feel ok about doing temp work if you must, just to generate income?
If you're interested in teaching, message me for some job links!
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I could probably stick it out but I have been there for a long while already and every time I am ready to start looking something happens, like they offer me a bonus or I need to travel for a wedding or something. I am comfortable temping and have found it is good way to get permanent employment, thank you for your offer of the teaching links but I am in the UK so probably one be too helpful.
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pinky, i fully support this with open arms.
ive done this MANY TIMES and like JG, i dont regret it. i was broke and went to less shows, but it didnt hurt to sit outside the venue and listen in. i spent more time working on my music and essays than ever. money hurts but nothing that cant be solved with 99 cent menus, top ramen, and a clean shower/bed if nothing else.
its not for everyone, but my twenties (can i stretch it to my early/mid-thirties?) is the decade i have to do ridiculous things like quit my job, live with three other people, and be broke...but happy.
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as long you can supply yourself w/ enough food & shelter to last until your next work gig - go for it. life is too short (and stupid) to waste it doing something you hate.
back in '02, i attended a mike watt gig in my town and was fortunate enough to have the man himself crash at my pad after the show. i've always been a fan of his whole "write your own poem, paint your own picture, start your own life" philosophy - so after he and his band shoved off the next morn - i walked down to the nearest payphone (we had no phone,) quit my horrifying job going door to door for the phone company (irony,) and took a job as a bike courier making roughly $85-$135 a week. my wife was making just barely minimum wage at the time, but somehow, we scraped together enough dough for rent, chow (mostly hot dogs and fries,) cigarettes, the occasional beer, birth control pills, and a few other luxuries. it was kind of weird that "sorry, i can't" became my standard response to anyone's inquiries regarding any happenings that required money - but to this day - that really was one of the best times of my life. the less options you have, the more you're able to surprise yourself in terms of what you're capable of.
P.S. - ROY IN '08!
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it was kind of weird that "sorry, i can't" became my standard response to anyone's inquiries regarding any happenings that required money...
ditto. and we reverted back to the old days when we were children and had people over to the house (B.Y.O.B., etc.) and watch television, dvds, play board games, listen to records...it was free and everyone left feeling good.
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Thank you BaronVonTito and Andrew from Philadelphia, that made me feel really good about my decision. I did the deed yesterday and am feeling better already, I gave them 5 weeks notice so I have a bit of time to figure it out yet. Very much appreciated. So mark the date, you will know if I have been unsuccessful if in 5 weeks time I am posting all over this board!!! Thanks again.
PS. Andrew, you are the Water Method Man :)
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pinky, i fully support this with open arms.
ive done this MANY TIMES and like JG, i dont regret it. i was broke and went to less shows, but it didnt hurt to sit outside the venue and listen in. i spent more time working on my music and essays than ever. money hurts but nothing that cant be solved with 99 cent menus, top ramen, and a clean shower/bed if nothing else.
its not for everyone, but my twenties (can i stretch it to my early/mid-thirties?) is the decade i have to do ridiculous things like quit my job, live with three other people, and be broke...but happy.
I decided to knock this sort of thing off around when I turned 27. But that was actually just a year or two after my impulsive job-quitting, so that was mostly just not wanting to scramble again.
Not that anyone asked, but I spent most of that year or two cater-waitering, which is a way to meet a truly insane sector of New York City that you would otherwise never know existed.
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Not that anyone asked, but I spent most of that year or two cater-waitering, which is a way to meet a truly insane sector of New York City that you would otherwise never know existed.
Now that you've brought it up, JG, I'm really curious to hear more about this insane sector you speak of. I've never been a cater waiter, but I'm wondering if what I'm imagining is anything like what you experienced.
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Well, it's not exactly the dregs, but it's people too weird for temping and too ambitious (or something, maybe also too weird) to work full-time in a restaurant: alcoholics and heavy drug users, self-hating dysfunctional gay guys, recent immigrants from South America constantly looking for a hustle (and finding them in places I never would have even thought of), sleazy thuggish white dudes from Queens, and every kind of frustrated artist you could imagine, all in various stages of defeat (this last one included me at the time). The people who had settled into being "captains" and took it way too seriously were by far the most depressing. Lots of people freaking out, like screaming, about completely insignificant crap.
All of this unfolded against odd corners of NY that I'm glad I saw, but it was a weird way to spend my days: one day I'd be serving coffee out of a silver tea service at 7am in a 60th floor office overlooking a helipad, another day I'd be in the bleak tan basement of a law firm, yet another I'd be on some estate in Connecticut owned by a guy so rich he had his own zoo. There were some cool moments - leaning against the Temple of Dendur at the Met after I had put out plates of petit fours, working an all-celebrity party at Jann Wenner's house (Harrison Ford was exactly like his character in Regarding Henry), serving George HW and Barbara Bush on the USS Intrepid (George was totally charming, Barbara was horrible and mean). But mostly I'm glad I never have to do that again (I hope).
Oh, also I got to see a whole bunch of original Picassos in some guy's apartment, and the Gold Record of Laura Branigan's "Gloria."
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Sure, I've done this plenty of times with relative success.
Though there was this one time I did wind up sleeping on the streets in a strange city for a few weeks, so perhaps I'm not the ideal respondant. :-X
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i hold any and all respect for someone who has lived on the street but now lives in a nice, cozy apartment filled with possessions they spent hard-earned money on. the worst ive ever been off is no electricity and no food for intermitten months.
i get a panic attack thinking about being homeless.
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I just started doing what I wanted to do at my old job and waited to find a new job before I quit. Like if they tell you that you have to work on a day you should have off, say no. There is a lot they have to do to fire you and you can find a new job by that time.
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That is some pretty interesting material there, Grote. Have you considered writing about it? No joke -- writing's obviously something you have a great talent for, even if you might not remember those days very fondly.
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That is some pretty interesting material there, Grote. Have you considered writing about it? No joke -- writing's obviously something you have a great talent for, even if you might not remember those days very fondly.
I once wrote an incredibly shitty ten-minute play about it, but that was back when I was actually doing it. So I was both a little too close to it, and not a very good writer at the time (like any good hardhat slob, I think writing is a skill to be learned and not a natural talent). I might revisit it someday. I'm half-working on a romantic comedy screenplay about a Brooklyn slob who finds himself in the middle of Cocaine Heights and fakes a life as a hipster in order to impress an arty girl, which indirectly touches on those times and my anxieties about it.
Also, thanks for the kind words!
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I love it! Can you make it instructional?
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Harrison Ford was exactly like his character in Regarding Henry
Before or after the incident?
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Maybe with more distance from it you can write a better, more objective 10 minute play about it. The screenplay sounds good. Try to work in some digs against the Brooklyn Vegans.
That is some pretty interesting material there, Grote. Have you considered writing about it? No joke -- writing's obviously something you have a great talent for, even if you might not remember those days very fondly.
I once wrote an incredibly shitty ten-minute play about it, but that was back when I was actually doing it. So I was both a little too close to it, and not a very good writer at the time (like any good hardhat slob, I think writing is a skill to be learned and not a natural talent). I might revisit it someday. I'm half-working on a romantic comedy screenplay about a Brooklyn slob who finds himself in the middle of Cocaine Heights and fakes a life as a hipster in order to impress an arty girl, which indirectly touches on those times and my anxieties about it.
Also, thanks for the kind words!
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Maybe with more distance from it you can write a better, more objective 10 minute play about it. The screenplay sounds good. Try to work in some digs against the Brooklyn Vegans.
Yeah, I've actually been working on versions of it on and off since grad school, but I'm trying not to subconsciously rip off Tom's great Williamsburg rants.
I think I'm done with 10 minute plays, though, unless it's for a charity event or someone is paying me to write one. I kind of hate the form. I would argue that theater doesn't deserve the bad rap it gets (except when it does, which is often), but I challenge anyone to name an awesome, memorable evening of 10-minute plays. Most of them are like bad SNL sketches with no punchline. I've since used plenty of my hardhat resentment in other work - I wrote a play about Walmart for this labor theater in NY and channeled every bad boss I ever had.
Harrison Ford was exactly like his character in Regarding Henry
Before or after the incident?
I assume you mean Henry (did Harrison Ford undergo an incident?), so definitely after. He would stare at the trays of hors d'ouvres as if he had never seen them and didn't know what he was supposed to do in that situation, then very slowly and contemplatively take one. I think he might have been on painkillers or something.
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Of course I meant Henry. That Harrison Ford was like him post-brain injury makes me like him.
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i get a panic attack thinking about being homeless.
I didn't get them until after. In fact, I'd say that at least in my case, survival mode takes over and shorts out inconvenient emotions, etc. So I held up well, but once I got out of the situation I had a full blown nervous breakdown and have had anxiety problems for years since.
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I'm learning now that politics and power plays within the upper ranks at one's work place have more effect on how one's own contributions are accepted, implemented, or appreciated than one might ever actually know. I'm constantly in these binds where one department of the school over enrolls, the other under enrolls, necessitating the over-enrolled department to borrow resources from the under endrolled dept. And of course this is part of some grand design whereby the over-enrolled are compensating for the tuition of the under-enrolled, but the under-enrolled department doesn't want to share any of their resources but rather to bask in the luxury that their defecit of enrollment allows them (i.e. actually having a spare studio for storage or meetings or something). Meanwhile, there's a third department which is also intentionally cashing out all its resources in order to force the issue of creating more resources for it on the school itself. And so on, to infinity. I'm in the position of actually assigning some of these resources and every decision I make will effect one department "negatively" and another "positively". Consequently most of my ideas for streamlining, simplifying, or making things more pleasant are greeted positively but end up on the cutting room floor in favor of, well, favors to different department heads. I simply end up trying to make my supervisors as happy as I can and basically everyone else has to suffer; that's how the job is designed, you can't fuck with that. It's just part of the game of having a job and nothing to take personally. Also, sorry for the incredibly boring few sentences in this paragraph. But yeah, luckily all these resource-vying people are basically friendly and not assholes. If they weren't even nice to me then I'd have been gone a long time ago. You need to know people have your back.
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Consequently most of my ideas for streamlining, simplifying, or making things more pleasant are greeted positively but end up on the cutting room floor in favor of, well, favors to different department heads.
that was my friday last week.
edit: and this morning.
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i've never quit a job. what a weird thing to realize. nevermind, thought of the job i quit as soon as i pressed "submit."
but i was laid off due to cutbacks twice in my 20s, and the only recommendation i have is not to live off credit cards. if you can't make ends meet, can't find a job, and savings are gone, suck it up and mooch off someone for a little bit. family doesn't charge you interest.
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i've never quit a job. what a weird thing to realize. nevermind, thought of the job i quit as soon as i pressed "submit."
but i was laid off due to cutbacks twice in my 20s, and the only recommendation i have is not to live off credit cards. if you can't make ends meet, can't find a job, and savings are gone, suck it up and mooch off someone for a little bit. family doesn't charge you interest.
That is very good advice!!
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I once walked off a job at 1:00 (no notice given), went to an interview at 2:00, and had a job offer the following day.
Ah, the 90s.....
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You need to know people have your back.
Right on, brotha. Good words.
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I once walked off a job at 1:00 (no notice given), went to an interview at 2:00, and had a job offer the following day.
Ah, the 90s.....
I was thinking this would be the case for me untill yesterday when Lehman Bros collapsed. I am in london and now I am s%&ting it!
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Yeah my girlfriend is in grad school right now and she gets out in May. No way in Hell I'm walking off this job. God only knows how long I'll have to hold down the household after she graduates.
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For those of you who are interested to find out what has happened to me since quitting without another job.
I am happy to say, as it has worked out quite well, that with 3 days to go before my last day at work I was asked if I wanted to be transferred to our New York office (I live in London) to take on a new role. I did not have another job lined up and was staring down the barrel of unemployment until yesterday and now I am moving to New York City!!!, or possibly Jersey :)
It is hard to say whether the fact that I quit had anything to do with it but it has certainly worked out well. Sorry to boast
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Boast away!
Congratulations.
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yes, congrats.
this is also a good lesson about not burning bridges. you appear to have done the right thing by giving them notice and not just walking out and it ended up paying off for you.
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Boast on! What great news! Now you'll have a whole new adventure - way to go!
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Great news, Pinky. I'm really glad to hear that. Welcome to the tri-state area, wherever you settle. I hope you have a smooth transition.
C
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Solid news, Pinky. Good for you!
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Thanks everybody. Now I get to join in all the fun, am doing a listener hour and going to the Yo La Tengo/Feelies New Years eve gig. Will be a good first week there!!
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Good to hear this story turned out well. I was actually wondering about this the other day, for real.