Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Solved!!!

Well I am happy to report that the job dilemma has been solved. Though it wasn't solved by my own choice, it has still been solved. I FINALLY got ahold of my boss today. Here's the conversation:

Me: Hi! How are you????
Boss: Oh I'm good, I've been trying to get ahold of you but I didn't have your number!
Me: Oh. I was just calling to check on the schedule for work.
Boss: Yeah, I'm still working on it. I'm hoping to have it done by the time school starts.
Me: So with budget cuts and all am I going to be on the schedule?
Boss: Do you have any other job options?
Me: Why?
Boss: Because you're not on the schedule.
Me: Oh, okay. That's all I wanted to know.
Boss: But I might need you to sub occasionally for the assistant director.
Me: Okay, I'll think about it.
Boss: Well just come in next week and sign the papers for it so I can put you on the sub list.
Me: ??????? uh...okay.
Boss: But if something changes I'll let you know within the first 3 weeks of the semester. Your number is ***-**** right?
Me: Yeah.
Boss: Okay, bye.
Me: Bye.

Um...okay, so I'm not working for her anymore??????? And the part at the very end was interesting to me...she 'didn't have my number' and then read it off to me. Go figure. Anyways, I'm now trying to work out a schedule with the mom who I'm working for this month. All I have to say is THANK HEAVENS that I had another option! And a plus is that the mom told me that she would pay me MORE than minimum wage because I'm worth more than that! SCORE!!!! Even if it doesn't work out for her to pay me more, it's still a wonderful compliment to get :)

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Job Dilemma

I thought that my job problem was taken care of back in July when I last talked to my boss before our 1 month break from the Center. Basically back in July I wasn't sure if I was going to have a job when school started again in September. The reason for this was because of budget cuts. She assured me I would have a job from September-December and even gave me my work schedule for the entire semester. It amounted to 13 hours a week and I would be the supervisor/lead teacher for the entire time that I worked because I have seniority over all of the other students who are going to be working there in the fall. I would receive roughly $85 a week for my work. Now here is the fun part...

My boss told me last week that she was 'working on the final schedule' for the fall semester. Huh? I thought it was done. She told me she had to 'rework' some things due to some changes. Um....okay....now rewind back to June. That is the same thing that she-(my boss) told the previous afternoon supervisor back in June before she-(my boss again) basically forced the afternoon supervisor out of a job. I say basically forced because my boss only offered the afternoon supervisor 4 hrs. a week cut down from 35 hrs a week. So now I'm worried that I'm being 'basically forced' out of a job in a round about way. And it's just lovely that I'm finding this out NOW, 10 days before school starts. At least it's better than getting the 3 hrs. notice that the previous afternoon supervisor got. Now, keep in mind that this is NOT the first time that my boss has done this to someone. The previous afternoon supervisor was the 2nd person and our boss has been pushing our assistant director out for the past year. Now it's dwindling down to me. So here's the dilemma...

The person I am working for this month-(I'm basically a full time babysitter for one of the kids that was at the Center for 2 years) asked me if I would help her out once school started. I would pick her child up from school and stay with her until the mom gets home after work. The problem was the hours she needed me to watch her child overlapped with my hours that I was given for work during the semester. I originally told her that no, I couldn't do it. I told her that because I have been at the Center for 2 years and my boss was the strongest reference I have and I didn't want to piss her off by leaving during my last year of college--thus possibly losing my best reference because my boss is also my advisor for my current program in college.

So what do I do????? Do I take the risk of losing my best reference and tell the mom I'm currently working for that I will work for her because at least I KNOW I will have a job with her? Or do I wait it out until Friday-(when my boss guaranteed me she would have the schedule done) which is 4 days before school starts for both me and the little girl that I'm watching this month? I wouldn't be getting as much money by working for the mom over the Center. It would equal out to 15 hrs a week but I would only make $38 a week because babysitters don't get paid minimum wage here.

What would you do? Go with the job that I know won't fall through or do I wait it out and hope that my boss doesn't screw me over? And if she does screw me over, scramble to possibly have to get another job because by Friday the mom might have something else figured out for child care for her daughter? I just don't know. Part of me wants to go with the mom because she won't screw me over....but then if I tell her I can work for her and my boss actually gives me my 13 hrs. then I have to tell my boss that I can't work thus pissing her off and losing my best reference. Not to mention that I need her signature on my degree audit to graduate--and she tends to get revenge on those students who piss her off.

So, any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I just don't know what to do. I hate to leave the mom hanging based on my boss because she needs to know where her child is going after school and I don't want to stress her out by asking her to wait it out until my boss gets it together. That's not fair to her and I feel horrible doing that to someone. So, again...any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Because I'm lost and I need some serious HELP on this issue. Thanks in advance!

Friday, August 18, 2006

There Should Be A Law...

That any person, parent or otherwise, is only allowed to make 1 major change in a young child's life once every 3 months. If I was tired last week, then I am WAAAAAY beyond tired after this week. This kid has had 3 major changes in her life in the past 2 weeks. First her dad went back to his home 8 hrs away, then they moved to a new house, then they got a 6 week old puppy. This all happened in a 10 day period. On top of all of that, nothing is really set up in the new house. She has 1 box of toys to play with. None of her books are unpacked, her room isn't set up, she doesn't have a bed yet. Now, some things happened that kind of made it chaotic when they moved, so this isn't a case of negligent parenting, just a case of things went wrong and they had to deal with it. But to get a 6 week old puppy the DAY AFTER YOU MOVE, is insane. Just absolutely insane.

Needless to say, I am wiped out. Actually, I am beyond wiped out. Between not being able to be more than 10 feet away from the kid, and having to clean up 10 + accidents that the puppy has each day, my mind is shot. The little girl has been a koala bear...attached to me. She had 3 meltdowns this week that just came on randomly. I feel bad for her, I really do. I want to fix it, but I can't. All I can say is thank heavens that I have next week off. Then the mom can actually deal with the new puppy that she only sees for 4 hrs. a day...so she really has no clue what I've been through. K...I'll post more tomorrow, when my mind is sorta back to normal.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Workaholics Annonymous...

Yes folks, I've turned into a workaholic. I only worked 3 days this week but it amounted to 36 hours-(Tues=14 hrs, Wed=12 hrs, and Thur=10 hrs.) Hence the reason I disappeared this week from my blog. But alas, it is now the weekend for me and here I am.

The week at work went okay. The biggest problem I've been facing is that by about 3pm me and the kid I'm watching run out of things to do. We've done all the parks around here multiple times, painted, done arts & crafts gallore, run errands, gone swimming, have been to see the ships pass through the Locks many times, gone window shopping, gotten ice cream, gone out to eat, played with her toys, watched movies, played hide & seek, played tickle monster, read books, made our own books, played with bubbles A LOT, drawn with chalk, painted with sidewalk paint, colored, played with friends, bought a new fish for me, played outside, went to the fire station, run errands, and jammed on the guitar & piano. Yeah...we've done a lot, but it still doesn't fill up a whole week.
There's no zoo's or museums around here, so that's not an option. We would go to the library more often but seeing as how the building is NOT air conditioned and they insists on keeping every door and window closed, it is WAY WAY too hot in there to really have any fun. We more or less wait until rainy days to go to the library because it's cooler and much more enjoyable. I get the feeling that next week is going to be a LOOOOOOONG week because I have her for 55 hours. We're going to go Putt-Putt golfing one of these days when it's not blistering hot outside because there's no shade at the mini-golf course. Any ideas on what else we can do are GREATLY appreciated because we're both bored and when we get bored we get crabby. I'm out of ideas and out of energy.

Until the next time I have enough energy to post.......

Saturday, August 05, 2006

My Day...

I learned something today. Something interesting that I had never thought of before. Maybe I'm just young and naive, or maybe I never had a reason to think about it. But today I found out that planning to have a 'veg day'-(read: sit and do nothing in your pj's all day)-is like giving a preschooler caffeine at dinner and expecting them to go to bed on time. It never ends up the way you want it to.

My day started by being woken up at 7 am by my mother who was frantically packing because she "overslept." She was traveling from my apartment in Northern Michigan to her home in Southwest Michigan. There wasn't a specific time she had to leave, or arrive at her home, she just wanted to leave 'early.' Now for me, anything before 9am is 'early.' Apparently that wasn't the case for her. So she packed what few things she took out of her suitcase when she arrived yesterday, and left around 8am. At this point, my only plans for the day were eat, watch some cartoons and take a nap. The food and the cartoon's happened, the nap did not. And this is why....

I got bored. After having some way to expensive coffee and some extremely unhealthy Burger King breakfast-(I knew I shouldn't have moved next door to the breakfast king)-I messed around on my computer a bit, checked out the shows on tv, and became bored. A nap at this point was futile because I had 2 shots of espresso in my cafe mocha and was wide awake. Hence, the boredom set in. After watching infomercials for about an hour, I looked in the spare bedroom and saw my camera sitting there. My old 1970's Minolta camera that was my Uncle Keith's before he died in a plane crash. I realized that I hadn't taken a picture with it in over 2 years so I got some 35mm film and hopped in my car. I didn't know where I was going, I just knew I had a camera and a full tank of gas. My travel's took me to a local cross country ski trail--which was only 5 miles away.

I parked, hopped out of my car and headed down the trail. I looked at my camera hanging around my neck and realized that I really didn't remember a lot about the settings for the different kinds of pictures. I fiddled with it for a little while and figured the film only cost me $12 and developing would cost me around $8 so I'd only be out $20 if the pictures sucked. Then I walked through the woods with my camera around my neck, my cell phone in my pocket, and a bottle of water in my hand.

I stopped and took pictures along the way while I trekked through the woods on the trail and about 30-40 minutes down the trail I decided to turn around and head back because I was hungry and it was hot. It should've taken me about 30 minutes to get back to my car, but of course thanks to good ole' Murphy, it took me 90 minutes. It took me 90 minutes to get back because 1) The map I had sucked and 2) I apparently turned onto another trail somewhere during my trek. So I finally made it back to my car, in one piece. I made the short trip home and then....

My neighbor called about 30 minutes after I walked in the door. She needed a babysitter. I went and took care of the world's cutest baby for 3 hours. As I was leaving to go to my apartment-(we live in the same building)-she asked me if I could come back at 10pm and stay until 2am. I figured why not, I can always use the money. So that's how my 'veg day' turned out. It kind of reminds me of the 1 day I had nothing to do when I was in London and we ended up getting lost and getting back to the hotel well after curfew. It just never works out the way you want it to.