As some of you know, I've currently got a couple of part-time jobs, one as an office assistant and one at Linens N Things. I was also teaching college biology labs part-time this semester (today was actually my last day of teaching for the semester). A couple of weeks ago, I had a very good interview at the local Dressbarn, but when I didn't hear back from them, I put it out of my mind. Well, guess what? The Dressbarn manager left me a voicemail today, wanting me to call her tomorrow, so I'm assuming that they are hiring me. And I also found out today that I will be teaching a biology lecture class and two labs during the summer term. So now, it looks like I really will be juggling four jobs. Luckily, the summer term doesn't start until early June, so I've got a little leeway to get adjusted.

So why did I post this in Rants and Raves, you ask? Well, I'm ticked off because I'm having to consider dumping the office assistant job, even though it pays the most, other than teaching. The problem with it is that it has very irregular hours. I'm supposed to be working there every Tuesday and Wednesday and every other Friday, but half the time, the hours fall through. Either they don't need me entirely, or they only need me for a couple of hours. For example, this week, they didn't need me on Tuesday or today, and I only worked for about an hour and a half on Wednesday. I'd hate to drop it, because it's SUPER easy stuff (mostly just data entry) and I like the people. Plus, like I said, it pays fairly well for an entry-level part-time job ($10/hour) when I actually am working. It's just getting the hours that's seeming to be a problem.

That's annoying.

I dont know what it is with casual jobs these days, I'm looking for one, but it seems they all want casual - ie. they can terminate you, change your hours etc any time they want. Every single FREAKING thing I've been interviewed for has been yes, its six hours a week BUT you have to be available at the drop of a hat to fill in, work full time etc. Or better yet, its six hours a week but FIRST you'll have to work full time for six weeks to be trained. I applied for a swim teachign position only to be told that it required 60, yes 60 hours of voluntary time over a period of a two weeks before I would *maybe* get the shift a week i wanted. They didnt actually have any available at the moment!

WTF is that? I have 3 kids and am a full time student, I am applying for six hours a week because i want six hours a week. if I could be available for full time hours then I'd be lookign for a full time job wouldnt I? It really is annoying, the casual employee is very exploited these days.

That's annoying.

I dont know what it is with casual jobs these days, I'm looking for one, but it seems they all want casual - ie. they can terminate you, change your hours etc any time they want. Every single FREAKING thing I've been interviewed for has been yes, its six hours a week BUT you have to be available at the drop of a hat to fill in, work full time etc. Or better yet, its six hours a week but FIRST you'll have to work full time for six weeks to be trained. I applied for a swim teachign position only to be told that it required 60, yes 60 hours of voluntary time over a period of a two weeks before I would *maybe* get the shift a week i wanted. They didnt actually have any available at the moment!

WTF is that? I have 3 kids and am a full time student, I am applying for six hours a week because i want six hours a week. if I could be available for full time hours then I'd be lookign for a full time job wouldnt I? It really is annoying, the casual employee is very exploited these days.

That would tick me off to no end. With the Linens N Things job, I really like it (and I really like the employee discount, lol), but what I don't like about it is that I don't have a standard schedule that I work (or at least, I haven't yet). I'll be working 15-20 hours a week there, but I don't know what my schedule is going to be from week to week, which is going to make coordinating my hours at the Dressbarn job difficult.

You need a new job! Trim down from the four and make more money! This may be a stretch, since you don't know me from Adam, but I am recruiting people all over the country to promote an online travel business. In a nutshell, I get paid to help people take vacations and promote the fastest growing company in the country, and I get reduced or free travel along the way. I have had several people on my team quite their jobs because they realized they make a lot more money in their own house primarily on the internet. I'm not offering anybody a get rich quick deal...it's work. But the company I rep is over $50 million strong, and we have a product that nobody else has. I need people who are looking for something new. If you send me an email, I'll send you a link to my site that explains the whole thing. You can then check the company out for yourself and see that it's legit. I would LOVE to recruit the whole community of bandsters...but I don't want to overstep the boundaries of this site. Seriously...you can do a LOT better than $10 on your feet after working all day. You're selling yourself way too short. Please email me and see for yourself.

Blessings to you!

-Jon

The office job sounds like a trap to me. Yes, you get more per hour but you aren't getting more per week and that's what counts. Also, what if you turn down hours at Dress Barn or LnT because it's the time you are supposed to be in the office and then they cancel?

You need a new job! Trim down from the four and make more money! This may be a stretch, since you don't know me from Adam, but I am recruiting people all over the country to promote an online travel business. In a nutshell, I get paid to help people take vacations and promote the fastest growing company in the country, and I get reduced or free travel along the way. I have had several people on my team quite their jobs because they realized they make a lot more money in their own house primarily on the internet. I'm not offering anybody a get rich quick deal...it's work. But the company I rep is over $50 million strong, and we have a product that nobody else has. I need people who are looking for something new. If you send me an email, I'll send you a link to my site that explains the whole thing. You can then check the company out for yourself and see that it's legit. I would LOVE to recruit the whole community of bandsters...but I don't want to overstep the boundaries of this site. Seriously...you can do a LOT better than $10 on your feet after working all day. You're selling yourself way too short. Please email me and see for yourself.

Blessings to you!

-Jon

Oh, I'm not planning on any of these jobs being a career for me. They're mostly just to keep me busy and help me earn a little extra money while I'm finishing up my Master's degree, which I'm hoping to get in December. I doubt I'll be at any of these jobs very long past that. And I'm the type of person that has to be VERY busy in order to get ANYTHING done. The busier and more rushed and stressed I am, the better I work. If I don't stay crushed for time, I put anything and everything off and nothing at all gets done. Rushing around to multiple jobs has actually motivated me to start working on my thesis again, which was actually one of the reasons I started looking for part-time stuff.

The office job sounds like a trap to me. Yes, you get more per hour but you aren't getting more per week and that's what counts. Also, what if you turn down hours at Dress Barn or LnT because it's the time you are supposed to be in the office and then they cancel?

Yeah, I'm starting to think that, too. I think I'll give it a couple more weeks and see if it smooths out. If it doesn't, I'm going to quit.

On the upside, I definitely have four jobs! I called the DB manager today, and she wants me to come in tomorrow, before I start my shift at LnT, to get everything settled.

Edited April 26, 200818 yr by laurend

i consider myself lucky. i have a fairly easy job, get paid well, and have awesome benefits. i was a c-store manager for about 20 yrs. now, instead of stressing about people not showing up for work, worrying about theft, working 70-80 hrs a week i work 40 hrs a week, currently 4 10 hr shift, and i sit and answer phones and help people with the credit card accounts. last night was slow...sometimes 5 minutes between calls.

I think I would personally find out if there was a chance of increasing the hours at either of the retail jobs, and just trying to double my hours with one company as opposed to splitting time between the 2....that way you still get the hours, and are not trying to coordinate between the 2. Which is going to get tricky since they are both retail, and will have the same busy times to fill.

Just my .02!!!!

Good Luck, I would be afraid of running into myself coming and going!!!

Kat

Hi Lauren, I would go with the job that has the most flexible work hours and gives you the most hours as appose to one that you are not sure of. Good luck.