It’s time for a new personal aside. I haven’t done one about
the job in a long while and that’s mostly because I was in that adjustment
period in which I am starting the new one and learning the “necessary”
information to do it “effectively.” That said, I’ve been at the new place for
roughly a month with at least two weeks under my belt of actually working after
two weeks of training (of which I probably needed more). So now that I’ve been
here for a bit, I feel I can start talking about it and figuring things out
from there.
I don’t like it. I left HyVee not because of the people or
even, necessarily, the work. It’s just not what I wanted to do with my life and
I didn’t want to stay there longer and end up being stuck there for years
because I couldn’t get into the field I wanted. Namely, I want to do something
creative or in relation to creative fields. It was basically customer service,
which is nowhere near where I want to be and the job I have now is basically
customer service. The only difference here is that unlike HyVee, I can’t go in
back and work on production, caterings, or be on a grill and let other people
deal with that. Here, all I can do is basic customer service… and that’s not
anywhere in my interest of things to do.
And, you know what, I could handle customer service if it
was on a product or service that I had working knowledge in. HyVee was simple
because I liked food and I liked to cook (at home at least) so learning and
gaining knowledge of that material was actually really simple and somewhat
enriching. But at TransAmerica? We handle insurance, specifically (where I’m
at) life insurance. I have little interest in how that works nor any need to
learn it outside of my job (which is still only temporary and ends at the end
of June). Therefore, outside of being at TransAmerica (currently) having
working knowledge of how insurance works does me no good. It’s the same level
of useless to me as it is to know all the names of the Naruto characters.
What drives me insane the most is the amount of bullshit
red-tape that our job has too. So much has to be done a certain way to the
right people on particular cases and if not we have to send stuff back and
demand things be done that certain way or we can’t do anything. And I get a lot
of this has to do with the law and state regulations. But a lot of it makes it
difficult for anything to get done at an expedient manner. But a lot of that
also falls on the agents we have to deal with on a regular basis.
For starters, guys, when you are getting life insurance,
fill out all the paper work necessary (and there’s a list for our products at
least on our website that will tell you all the forms needed for a given
product in any state). And when you fill out that paper work, be as honest and
open as possible. The information you share will be classified, so hiding it
only hinders the process and makes it impossible for us to actually do our job
at any reasonable rate. No one will judge you on whatever information we find
out, so don’t waste our time.
Next, be patient and (to agents) develop a good relationship
with the clients. Agents get freaked whenever they have to ask the clients to
come back and sign something or verify something because there’s some
underlying logic that any time they have to go back to a costumer, there’s a
chance the costumer will just say, “Fuck it. I don’t want this anymore.” And
then they get no commission for the time wasted. And while I get that, such a
thing wouldn’t be a problem if you developed good relations with the client so
they are happy to come back and work with you.
But, mostly, the job isn’t fun in any sense of the word. At
least, at the old job, for as bullshit as the work was and for as asinine as
the management of the store was, we had moments at work I could uncharitably
call “fun.” And I get work isn’t supposed to be fun, but having moments where
fun occurs makes being at a dreary place you grow to hate more bearable than it
not being fun at all. And due to a lack of genuine interaction with teammates,
I don’t really know anyone there I work with beyond what they teach me about
what I’m doing. Making me feel rather alone while I’m there. At least at HyVee
there as interaction with your co-workers in the department. Here, there really
aren’t moments like that. If I’m going to be on a team, I want to feel like a
team and not whatever the hell this really is.
Thank Christ this job is only for another five months, but
at the same time… Oh Christ! Five more months of this bullshit before I can
pack it in because of a bullshit Temp-Contract. But I’ve learned quite a bit
from this experience. First, Temp-Agencies, while providing a great service
aren’t necessarily reliable for getting you the job you want to do or getting
you something within your actual skillset. Yes, I can use computers. And yes,
my job uses computers. But in no way do my computer skills actually impact this
job in any real way. But thanks for trying.
So come May, I’ll probably be looking for something else (if
I haven’t already by the time this goes up). And I’ll diligently stick harder
to the field of interest I have rather than settle for some Temp-Agency
bullshit that sticks me in another job that offers me nothing in what I want to
do. If only I could go back in time a month and tell my past self that you
shouldn’t just jump ship so eagerly when you don’t know what kind of stuff you’re
jumping into. But here I am and now I have to jump back out and into something
else entirely. This will likely be the song and dance for at least the next
year until I know what I can actually get.
Not going to lie, I have a slight interest in the field of
teaching. Teaching would help me better learn how to handle children so when I
eventually have some of my own I’ll be “somewhat prepared” for it. I would love
a tech-job that actually is about dealing with tech and not just using tech for
an otherwise non-tech job. I’m all for avoiding retail, but working in a game
store (video or tabletop) would be just fine for me since that’s something I at
least give a shit about. And, as we all know, I’m still fascinated by the idea
of a writing or creative job (writing being either journalistic or creative
too). But that one has been hard to land anything in because that’s not a job
that’s exactly easy to find.
But… yeah. Back to this again. I’m sure the guys at Hy-Vee
would love for me to come back, but I won’t. Come back after quitting and
realizing that I didn’t go to greener pastures, but pastures that were, in
fact, just a slightly different shade of brown? It’s not so much that I’d be
embarrassed as that I would just not want to go back and be stuck with that
mentality of “I can’t do better.” Which is why I’m going to work harder to find
something I can enjoy and be passionate about, and not just because it’s a new
job that isn’t what I’m currently doing.
Now I’m tired of writing this. So I’m going to go play a
game after a long day of work and then tomorrow will begin the hunt.
