Monday, September 12, 2016
A Silent 9 to 5(er)
This has been a very long, unintended, break from blogging and I do apologise. Sort of. I mean, I'm still adjusting to this whole adulting thing so cut me some slack. :DAs always, I hope this post finds you well!
So I thought I would start off by giving you my employment history, or what I can remember of my employment history lol! You should know for privacy reasons I have altered the names of the companies I have worked for. Except one...
Pell and Bales - Age 18 - Experience: Terrible
Awful place. Awful awful. No exaggeration here, hence why I've put up the name of the place. My first paid job. Call centre. Outbound. "Telefundraising". Ugh! Need I say more? To be fair I did meet some pretty nice people but if you've ever worked in an outbound call centre AKA cold calling the British public all hours of the day, then you will understand my struggle. It just felt wrong, literally berating people until they gave money or hung up (usually the latter) for charity. Long story short, I got fired after 3 weeks. Blessing in disguise!
Disclaimer: There's absolutely nothing wrong with working for charities or on behalf of them but please do your research and make sure that most if not all proceeds are actually going towards the cause!
Call Centre Scam - Age 18/19 - Experience: Forgettable
It was forgettable because I was there for one day! Have you ever been out and some guy or girl approaches you talking about some wonderful modelling experience you could get. You get a "free" photoshoot for you and a friend. Make-up done, hair done, fancy clothes provided. All you had to do was provide your contact details and if you were selected, you would then have to pay a small deposit of £50 which you would get back once you arrived to the photoshoot. Ever experienced that? They're usually lurking outside shopping centres. Anyways I somehow managed to get a job as the "caller" who would contact the lucky person (which was everyone who provided their contact details) and inform them that they were specially selected to do the photoshoot and pressurise them into paying the £50 deposit otherwise it would be given away. Oh, did I mention it was a commission based role? Yeah, NEXT!
Some IT b2b Call Centre - Age 19 - Experience: Boring
So boring I can't even bring myself to talk about the role.
Taxi Dispatcher Place - Age 20 - Experience: Interesting
As you can see, during my teen years I was very drawn to telephone based roles. Why? It was easy money, flexible and usually doesn't require much experience. I met some awesome people at this place. Very interesting role because unbeknownst to me at the time (way before the likes of Uber surfaced) it was a very big taxi company. So they had a very big clientele, ranging from fun, quirky Americans to not-so-fun celebs using unimaginative pseudonyms.
Fun Place - Age 21 - Experience: So much fun skjdh'sjfbsujkfghdkufhdkhubf!!!!!!
Yeah, I really enjoyed my time here. I laughed, met super cool people, ate cake, got to see celebs perform... Ah, I was living the dream until reality hit. I realised very painfully that one cannot live off a zero contracted hours job when one has moved out of one's family home. Regrets? None.
That Time I Did Hospitality Agency Work - Age 20/21 - Experience: Unforgettable
Unforgettable for the wrong reasons though. Long hours, minimum wages. Not ideal. Great place to meet young, hip, people looking to make ends meet. I did learn a thing or two here so it wasn't a complete waste!
Current Place - Age 23 - Experience: TBC
So my first, super adult, full-time, 9-5 role. This role was the game changer for many reasons and I'll explain why.
- I was super broke, like no money to buy ANYTHING broke, to the point where I couldn't afford to pay for my travel home from work (previous place).
- I made it a point when I had started looking for jobs, to never go for a salary below that of my previous role, which was lucky for me as my first job paid £7ph and since then I have never worked for anything less than that. So I had grown accustomed to working for the £7-9ph roles and was content until I got this role and jumped to £13ph.
- Remember when Notorious said "mo money, mo problems" well ain't that the fucking truth! Once you start receiving fat, monthly pay checks, you develop a certain taste for the more expensive things and why shouldn't you? You worked damn hard for that money! Having expensive habits just becomes part of your life, now an expensive habit doesn't mean buying a new YSL lipstick every weekend, it simply means that £800 per month flat share seems more affordable now.
- Being the youngest person in the office (by like 15+ years) makes the office environment that little bit more awkward. Don't know that famous guy they're talking about? Yeah, that's because you weren't even alive that day he did that crazy thing on television.
- I was in it for the long-haul, even though I didn't know how long that was going to be.
So, as expected, my life did a full 360 and my independence blossomed. I was finally able to be my own person without any financial constraints which of course came at a cost. Free time. Where is it and how can I fit it around my work life? Now, don't get me wrong. The IT b2b job was 9-5 as well so I had some full time experience but this was different. Different because for the first time in my work life I chose to willingly stay behind and get work done. I'd wake up Monday morning, blink and then it would be Friday and I'd be hearing that all too familiar sentence "have a nice weekend".
This became my routine and I was content with my 'living for the weekend' life. This is not living. We are given 24 hours in a day, whilst 16-20 hours is spent on sleep, work and travel, we have a good 4-5 hours to do whatever so why waste it wishing your life away thinking about your plans for the weekend?
One of the worst things about the concept of time is how the novelty of certain things wear off quick and somehow you're left dreading each day as it comes. You spend so much time convincing yourself that this is where you're supposed to be and this is the thing that's going to help you get to the next step that you essentially lose yourself. You slowly slip into the mundane-ness of life. Nothing excites you anymore, being active becomes a chore and all you want to do is slip into an alcohol induced sleep.
What do you do when you get to that point? Well for me, the solution was fairly simple, but getting to it was the hard part because being an adult means dealing with your responsibilities especially where others are concerned, kids, siblings... parents.
So, I eventually resigned and it felt good... on to the next one!
Monday, July 25, 2016
Black Lives Matter
#BLMI don't know how many more people need to die
Before the world will open its eyes and hear our cry for change
Running my mind through history and all this shit seems so backdated
I would look into their eyes and all I see is hatred
Taking me to times when all you see in the papers
Is another black man lynched just because they hate us
And they'll say it was lawful just to degrade us
I'm sad, I'm angry, it's frustrating, it's depressing
To have history repeating itself in the era that we live in
They'll say "be colour blind, racism is over, it's ended
So stop pulling the race card and don't get so offended"
But don't keep your head down and accept the lies that they're feeding us
Don't let your mind absorb the bullshit you see in the media
Believe in your melanin, stay winning, remain victorious
Don't let them make you a victim because you are a warrior
Lest we forget what our parents used to teach us,
That we need to work twice as hard just so that they could see us
To keep our head down, be obedient so that they're not suspicious
Don't talk back, don't aggravate them, don't give them a reason
To use their hands to pull the trigger, to stop us from breathing
We won't let this continue, for racism and hatred to have so much power
For time will come for the world to know that BLACK LIVES DO MATTER
So hear our chants, hear our cries running through the streets
As we continue to fight for love, equality and peace!
