Anne’s post on her blog, (yes you should go read it now!) made me think of all the not-so-wonderful jobs in my life. I’ve had a lot of them. Something about being a cockeyed optimist (points for placing that reference) means that I take on all sorts of things that “could be good” but are actually AWFUL.
And I believe in work too, so I found all sorts of wretched things to do with myself from time to time. The worst was definitely when I took on this home instruction case. I was just out of my masters program in teaching and as the program finished at a weird time of year (December), I felt this need to pick up any and all work until jobs opened up in June. I think we were also planning a trip to Europe in the summer and we were broke from paying for my graduate program, so I was desperate to make some money. I took on this autistic kid who had been taken out of the classroom as he was too violent for the teachers to handle. The kid was WAY too young for my expertise. He was probably 7 and obese. He had an aversion to clothing (it hurt his skin), so he generally did his class in a t-shirt (inside out so that the seams wouldn’t bug him) and a diaper. A huge diaper. That is right. He wasn’t toilet trained so he wore a diaper. And the clothing really did bother him. He spent most of class writhing and pulling at the fabric to get it the hell away from his lily white skin. He stayed inside almost all the time. He loved video games and compression underneath his mattress. All these things were awful to me, not because he was awful, (he was just a kid and could even be sort of cute), but because I couldn’t go there and not think about his future, his mother’s future, my future as a teacher, the WORLD’S future, and the big “why?”, as in “why is this poor kid all messed up and this poor mother in this ratty apartment is all alone and having to deal with this poor kid?”. It just felt so hopeless, and I felt so sorry for his mother. Yet I also knew that if my heart were more in the challenge that it wouldn’t be so terrible.
My supervisor was a very kind person, and she realized that this was sort of a horrible job. She gave me all sorts of tricks and patterns for activities to do with the kid. It didn’t matter though. This was an awful job. Each day I went there, I would drive out West 11th in Eugene and think, “If I kept driving today I could go to the beach instead of this kid’s house. Today I am just going to keep on driving.” The other crazy side of me also said, “Well, if I can do this, I can do anything”. (Note to readers, I have also said this about a marathon, natural childbirth (3 times!), and many other foolish ideas whose success I imbue with grandeur. Foolish.)
Luckily, the district recognized that I was working outside my certification and made an extra effort to find an elementary special education teacher for this kid. Not before he took a swipe at me with a pencil. I don’t remember what I did– I think we were doing flash cards and he got frustrated. ”Uhhhhh!” he yelled and stabbed at my eyes with the pencil. I jumped back and avoided perforation of the cornea. I think that was my last day there.
In honor of “If I can do this, I can do ANYTHING!”, tell us all about your worst, most depressing job.
Have a great day! And don’t forget, if you can do this, you can do anything!
7 Comments, Comment or Ping
Hmmm, worst job ever. One summer during college I worked for a temp agency hoping to get an office job. Instead I got placed at a vinyl window factory during swing shift. It would have SUCKED except that another girl who went to BYU got stuck in the same place and she was HILARIOUS. We had such a blast making vinyl windows in a factory full of men every day from 2-10 p.m. So the job itself sucked, but it turned out to be quite fun.
My WORST job was working for the city Recreation Dept in Kettering, Ohio. The job itself was awesome but my boss was psycho. She’d tell me to do something and I’d ask her how she’d like me to do it, and she’d act like I was an idiot for asking her, she’d tell me to just do it. So then I’d spend a ton of time doing it, and then she’d yell at me because I didn’t do it the way she wanted me to do it. And rinse and repeat. I didn’t quit because we were only in Ohio for 1.5 years and I thought I wouldn’t be able to find another job. STUPID. I HATED going in every day. I hadn’t had caffeine throughout college OR 3 years in Vegas (can you imagine, no caffeine in college?) but SHEILA drove me to caffeine again! It was the only way I could make myself go to work. I just got tense thinking about this while I was typing it. I’m going to go do yoga now.
June 9th, 2009
You didn’t put a link to Anne’s blog in there.
June 9th, 2009
When I was down in San Diego recovering from pneumonia I worked for a short * while for John Baker’s Insurance Agency. I had suffered boredom when I worked for Trapp’s Bakery in Multnomah (especially slicing and packaging countless loaves of bread for special order) but there was nothing about insurance that I identified with. I was lost in space for almost three months. Needless to say, the * by short earlier was so I wouldn’t forget that I got fired from that job. John Baker felt awful about it and almost cried when telling me that it just hadn’t worked out. I was quite relieved and vowed never to work in insurance again.
June 9th, 2009
Current job is actually no the worst ever. Probably a good job overall. But then there are those days where kids in diapers try to stab at your eyes with pencils. No, none of that. I just have some lazy asses who want to sleep in my class and I take it personally. Or they talk loudly to each other in Japanese about how they feel about my lesson. “Man, teacher’s such a bitch. Can you believe she actually makes us speak in conversation class? What is she thinking?”
Worst job had to be campaigning for the democratic party knocking on people’s doors trying to get them signed up for some phone service that would call them and remind them to vote. Frankly, I thought I was obnoxious, so I felt awful harassing the decent people of Eugene.
June 9th, 2009
I love that my mother got fired right and left…. well, at least twice that is. That is hilarious, Mom. At least it wasn’t from reading too many insurance papers.
Hey Aaron, I never bothered to learn how to link, but now because you asked, I learned a brand new skill!
June 10th, 2009
I was not fired from TWO jobs! It was just that when I gave my notice at the Multnomah County Library because I was returning to school, Ms. Edwards commented that she would have had to fire me because I did more reading of the new books than cataloguing. That was a great job, I just wasn’t as disciplined as I should have been. Ms. Edwards thought I was great and was trying to find a place where I would work out.
And now we know who “attuned” is!!!
June 10th, 2009
Ugh. After reading that, there is no way I can complain about my job. My job is all lollipops and rainbows compared to that.
June 10th, 2009
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