Socially enterprising type seeks position that offers the possibility of doing investigative work...

Just got to take a personality test for my class. "Please don't throw me in briar patch!" cried the Brer Rabbit.

It was great. I love that crap. Maybe this is why I have such an unwavering idea of who I am -- because of my addiction to personality tests.

I know, who knew I had anything TO test right? No one is more surprised than I!

I feel particularly smug because my current career is SO in line with "my type." Which is probably why I don't hate my job and basically feel pretty content most of the time. At least one third of your life is spent at your job and if you hate it then 1/3 of your life sucks. Considering that another 1/3 is spent sleeping, thereby making it a "non-thing" then you have only your play time left as the last 1/3. Well, how often is your play time marred because you're thinking about your job you hate? If this is you -- it's time to make a change, friends!

Bad jobs or at least bad jobs for YOU are like bad relationships. We've all been in bad relationships, haven't we? After we get out of them, we look back and we think :::phew::: that was close! And yet, while you're in the relationship you just don't see how poisonous it is. How your friends have slipped away and how you feel so miserable all the time that you can't even remember what it was like just to be genuinely happy. And then something happens, the straw that breaks the camel's back and you get out and you look back and think, "Holy Cheese and rice how did I endure all of THAT?!"

It's the same thing with bad jobs. They're like bad boyfriends (or husbands) that you make excuses for time and time again. You keep pointing out how this one thing is good or that thing is good and how this other thing even happens sometimes. You remember the days in the beginning of your job, when things were a lot different than they are now. You remember all the promises that your bosses made to you. You try to forget that those promises didn't come through. "It's rough out there" you think. Job hunting is like dating -- I've said this before. You gotta dress up, you gotta act a certain way, you gotta hide stuff about your past at first.

But let me tell y'all something -- I've been in the bad relationship and I've been in the bad job. They both suck. And it IS better to be alone than with someone who makes you so miserable you can't breathe. And it IS better to take a substantial paycut to work at a job that doesn't make you wish you had eaten glass for breakfast rather than make that drive in again. If you are in a bad relationship -- GET OUT, it's not going to get better. He's not going to remember your birthday THIS year and he's not going to stop making derisive remarks about the girth of your hips and he IS going to keep cheating on you. If you're in a bad job -- GET OUT! Your boss does not care if you have worked there for 10 years or 10 days, you're just a buffer to delay the time before he/she gets fired. You are not going to get the raise you deserve because they've already demonstrated that they can run over you time and time again and you're just going to lie down with welcome on your back and take it. And you're going to be stressed out every day of your life wondering if today is going to be the day that they cancel the clearance on your little security badge and you can't get in the door. Get out!

All right. Does anyone need a soapbox? I seem to have found one under my feet here...

-HP