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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Sometimes Opportunity looks like a roadblock

Good morning!

So yesterday my assistant, a lovely 73 year old lady who really doesn't want to work more hours (It cuts into her God given right to unemployment compensation) and doesn't know much about computers (She has trouble "finding" her email account.) was in to update prices for our websites. All she had to do was type in the part number into our shopping cart, check the price, and either leave it alone or change it to the price on the list I gave her. The only things on that list were the part numbers and prices.

She worked on it for four hours.

She got 1/4 of the way through.

I had to help her every ten minutes.

She royally screwed it up because the ruler she was using to keep her part numbers and prices in line got tilted so she wound up changing several hundred numbers she didn't need to.

And guess who gets to fix this all today?

The bigger news....she's been here two months and gets paid the exact same hourly wage I do...and I've been here more than three years.

So the official start of my new job search was yesterday afternoon after I sent her out the door. I have enough trouble when I mess up and have to go back and redo something. When I have to clean up after someone else, someone who is getting the same wage I am and I'm doing their job, that's no longer a road block to writing time. That's Opportunity kicking me in the shins and screaming at me to get out there and start looking.

Sometimes we look at roadblocks as just roadblocks. We have bills, so we have to work. We have kids, so we have to carpool and go to kid stuff. As writers, there are 10,000 reasons we "can't" write. I haven't been able to write in a week because I'm spending all my time doing my job and the job of my assistant.

Did I mention I'm working sick? Why am I in the office sick as I am? Because Bossman is going on vacation (His fourth of the year.) to Argentina. The assistant I have who is supposed to be able to cover for me if Bossman isn't around, is afraid of the phone and doesn't like the computer. Not great for a computer based business that does a lot of phone orders. So I'm sick. I'm working. And I'm getting scolded by Assistant for working sick and from Bossman for not working hard enough and for working too loudly. (He actually yelled at me yesterday for dropping a priority mail envelop on the floor too loudly. I cannot make this stuff up.)

Why do I hang on to this miserable job? Because it's supposed to allow me writing time. However, more and more roadblocks have come up in the past few months and I'm starting to see that this is no longer a matter of roadblocks. Opportunity is knocking at my door and it's time to see what's on the other side.

So maybe I find a job that involves weekend work. Maybe I don't make as much money. I'm willing to bet I won't be working for a man who goes through my garbage and scolds me for the caloric content of my snack food. I'm willing to bet that I won't be compared to my predecessor, a woman who wanted to sleep with Bossman...and who, as I've been told countless times over the past three years, was "hot enough" for Bossman to be tempted. (Poor him...he has to work with chubby old me.)

Now, the tone of this blog might seem negative, but actually, I'm in a really good headspace. Once you realize that you are going to make a change, actually going through with it is easy. I've already completed three online applications. I don't know what will come of them, but it's a start.

Meanwhile, Bossman and Assistant have become major evil characters in my latest WIP which is a contemporary paranormal dark comedy romance. We'll call it "Suburban Princess" No, I haven't finished "7/8ths" yet, but it's almost done with the first draft and hey, a writer keeps churning out ideas. This one has been rolling around in my head for years, so now I have villains! And....a motive for murder! Whoo hoo!

See, it's not a roadblock...it's opportunity!

2 comments:

  1. I just found my memory stick with half of my current WIP on it. Phew. Now I can come up with another reason not to write.

    Though, I was getting a little nervous over the whole missing half of my manuscript thing...

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  2. Ah, the magic of computers! So much easier when it was paper and pen! Then if you spilled coffee on it...it didn't catch fire and explode!

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