Monday, January 31, 2011

The pros and cons of being employed

I am, it has been well documented, a bizarre person leading an interesting life (or, at least, a boring life that I hype up). This, alongside my severe laziness and lack of commitment to writing adventures, explains my lack of posting in the past...several months. However, there is another factor that has a hand in this, and that is my employment status. As you may know, I previously earned my keep doing menial, unenjoyable tasks at a hairdressing salon. This job was ripped away from me in a fashion I'd rather not delve into, and suddenly I was left with free time, improved eating habits and lowered stress levels. Unfortunately, thanks to my unavoidable need for money, and my grandmother's meddling, I have been working for the past two months in a new job, at a small skincare shop.

This job has many things causing it to trump my last - for one thing, I love the people I'm working with (and I am actually working with other people, which is always a bonus). I have endured many an emotional time with the girls, and really, we're all very close. I love the products we sell, and the freebies are always a bonus. It's convenient, the pay is better, I actually get lunch breaks, the clientele are less commonly miserable and/or irritable. As with all jobs, there are some things that are less fun than others, but I tend to make the most of even the menial things - using the hot glue gun is always more fun when pretending it's a real gun. In general, though, it's a great place to work. That being said, there are certain things about the mere having of a job that fall into both positive and negative categories.

Pros

- Less of the "sitting on my arse and doing nothing". Having a job gives me a reason to get up, put on nice clothes, actually try and make myself presentable, go out and be forced into social contact with people. I just in general feel better about myself when I'm working.
- More money - because who wouldn't welcome that? More money also generally means more freedom, and nicer things. I welcome nicer things whenever possible. I can support my lavish lifestyle more freely.
- A sense of superiority over my jobless friends. I'm the first to admit that I'm a terrible person.
- Relationships with people I haven't seen every single day of my life. It's the ability to be myself (and tell all my old stories) to a completely new group of people, without the effort of throwing myself into terrifying new social situation.

Cons

- My eating habits go to hell, even with an overly health-conscious coworker who refuses to allow me to eat unhealthily. This tends to lead to a great deal more sneaking around with chocolates and cans of coke, discreet skittles and more.
- As does my social life.
- As does my self-esteem - I'm sensitive, okay?
- As does my confidence in my ability to function normally around other people.

I'm pretty pathetic.

On another note, my mother has plans to make a blog. I suspect that she intends to do this in order to beat me, because I suspect it is my mother's goal to be more liked on the internet than I am, hence her dedication to Twitter. It's only a matter of time before she's responding to creepy non-questions on Formspring or gaining a legion of Tumblr followers. I know that she also believes she would be a better blogger than some she reads, and this is probably true - I have inherited my skewed, strange view on the world from her. 
However, despite all this, I do love her, and will direct you there when this blog comes into being.