Pride Doesn't Pay The Bills

You know, so far I like my new job. There’s just one small, minor negative that’s proving there’s good and bad in every situation. As I mentioned before, a couple of the guys in my dept. apparently are rather politically conservative. Which would be fine if they’d just keep their close-minded, idiotic views to themselves. But no. They feel the need to share. It started with the bashing of the European political systems as I've mentioned before; then they started bashing the new progressive talk show network, Air America Radio which has launched in Portland on AM 620 this week. E & D listen for a short while then criticize that "you'd think they could hire better producers - it sounds like high school radio"; "They just sound bitter and angry"; and "isn't that the same thing they were talking about yesterday" you know - I could say the same and worse about conservative talk radio hosts; from Limbaugh to fucking Dr. Laura but I don't.

Then tooday E. was talking to one of our branch offices about whoknowswhat; and after he got off the phone he says “Wow – did you know Will* (the owner/Pres) has a rule that we can’t hire people for temp jobs if they haven’t worked in 6 months? I can understand that if they have a criminal background, or maybe if we had low unemployment, but Oregon’s still got the highest unemployment rates in the country. So this branch has already lost two of their biggest customers who are now using another temp agency that does hire these people”. Yeah – I’d say that’s whacked. Doesn’t bode well for the business intelligence of management. But then, here’s the annoying part. I add that why no, that doesn’t seem very smart – people will often only turn to temp work after all hopes of finding work in their chosen field is gone, which can often be more than 6 months; or even wait until their unemployment benefits run out – because if you take a lower paying job you’re screwed not just financially; but then you have no time to devote to a job search – and it looks bad on a resume when you do try to go back to your old field. To which D. replied with a rather sneering “yeah, why would anybody want to work instead of enjoying a paid vacation??. I’d never take unemployment”. I replied that I’d always had the same attitude until I was put in that situation (didn’t mention Hubby’s extended involuntary “vacation”) and decided that those funds had been paid in for a great many years on my behalf and I might as well use them. Since D. has a wife & 3 kids; his attitude was rather surprising. E asked him “why not?” “I’ve got my pride” was D’s reply; clearly indicating I should be ashamed for dipping into the socialist welfare system.

Yeah, well – pride doesn’t pay the mortgage, put food on the table or shoes on your kids’ feet, dickwad. I’ve worked damned hard to get where I am career-wise and I’m not going to watch all that hard work get flushed down the toilet just because people like you, who have probably never had to bust your ass working 3 menial jobs at a time think it’s “shameful”. Talk to me about pride when you lose your fucking house and are moonlighting as a pump jockey because you were too good to “go on the dole”. Bet the kids will be real proud of Daddy then, won’t they?