I'm feeling pretty crappy at the moment. I just finished my second full week working installing/migrating/configuring computers and still haven't gotten paid yet. So that's actually the first partial week and then 2 full weeks pay they owe me. We were told so many different stories about when we'd be paid that I've gone thru all the stages of annoyance to anger to despair. The latest story is that they were delayed and rolled the first partial week's pay into the first full week's pay and then after being told several times that the checks were being processed and sent out, finally, in writing, told tthe checks were mailed out Thursday and should be here Saturday. Yeah, right. It's Saturday and the mail came and, what a surprise, no check.

FUCK!

Possibly it will be here in Monday's mail. The post office has been VERY slow delivering mail the past few weeks. My postlady claimed it was the massive amount of Xmas mail starting early. This is also bullshit.

I don't know what it is but it seems to me the bullshit level of life has recently increased to impossible levels. I don't think it's just that I'm looking at things through jaundiced eyes because I'm depressed. I think it's really so. All around me I see people just going through the motions. Doing as little as possible, as slowly as possible, with as little thought or effort as possible. This infuriates me because I sincerely always try to give what I do my best effort. Perhaps I should change my style and start becoming a slacker, too?

Anyway, I'm terribly upset at not being paid yet. Mind you, it's a 90 minute commute to work in New Jersey and the transportation costs me about $15 round trip each day. And this is to work that awful 5pm to 12 midnight period that screws up your sleep and wrecks your day. So my personal and financial costs for this job are a daily strain.

Arrgh, I don't usually rant quite like this. But this is simply awful. Simply awful. I feel like I'm no longer looking into the abyss but IN it. Damn, someone has to help me find a better job, a real job.

The work situation in New York City is really terrible. There are just so many people looking for work and so many companies laying off people. We are becoming a society of migrant cyber-workers. Buy us by the dozen, we're anonymous hands. Buy us by the hour and toss us away when finished. New hands always available. Easy-peasy. No wonder companies are getting away with forcing their staff into unpaid 60+ hour wook weeks. I've lived with that myself. Full time, permanant staff are all classified as exempt (ie no overtime) by a series of sleazy manouvers and ebnding definitions and rules. Snap, people routinely working 9am - 8pm and later, working weekends, working, working, working. So easy for companies to use/abuse workers now. So easy to outsource. Anyone who says outsourcing doesn't hurt the economy, doesn't hurt American workers is not just a liar, they're a damn liar. And they know it.

Yes, I'm ranting again. But the middle class is shrinking. The sides are pulling apart. And the ugly consequences are becoming very visible.

Hope your lives are more settled and positive. We now return you to your own realities.