The Part-Time Job

Days Unemployed: 232
Weeks of Unemployment Insurance Remaining: 1 and then on to the extension
Jobs Applied To Date: 81
Phone Interviews To Date: 1
In-Person Interviews To Date: 3
Pounds Gained To Date: 9
Entertainment of the Day: Sex & The City, S5 E1-3, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, sleep
Lunch of the Day: Rotisserie Chicken w/mashed yams and Andouille sausage

Part-time jobs suck. In addition to working for less than a third the hourly wage I was making before is the complete lack of a stake in what happens there. I seriously could not care less how much scented water we sell at more than $50/ounce. To many of the women there, who apparently have been full time associates since 1985, the women's fragrance counter is the whole world. Nothing is more important than the new Vera Wang gift with purchase or the Hanai Mori $5 spiff. Nothing more tragic than the mean customer on the phone or the bitch working the Chanel counter. They get upset about the smallest, stupidest things! But these bitch sessions and major dramas are just chicken scratches. Now, granted, I like perfume. Particularly Prada Milano and the new True Religion. But selling it is not rocket science and we're definitely not curing cancer. I used to raise money for breast cancer research, run programs for teen development, plan parties for 3 year olds with Lymphoma. I did important things. I made a difference to real people who were grateful for our help. I helped a major corporation give away Millions and Millions of dollars to literally hundreds of charities. I fed the poor with my bare hands, made the sick feel better, built something where nothing existed before. Now I sell perfume.

Unemployment article of the week:
Unemployment statistic of the week: $25.8 Billion: that's how much less employees were paid in the month of January