Lately I've been struggling to keep up my normal volume of posting-generally I try to post-at a minimum-3 posts per day-which should leave me with roughly 90 or so posts a month. The high water mark is still August and September 2012 when I got 159 and then 168 posts respectively-an average well over 5 posts per day and getting on to 6.
Of course, those heady times were back when I was totally unemployed-before I became just underemployed. I then went to a job fair at-where else?-the Baldwin Public Library where I would spend the whole day hanging out and blogging and got a part time evening job as an appointment setter at Slomin's oil in Hicksville-for those unfamiliar this is all on Long Island New York.
.
I've managed to usually keep up at least a pretty good rate per day-at worst of 2 and a half per day. Until September. Starting in mid August I've had two jobs-which is what I wanted-but during September between everything I've been so tired and I also spent a weekend at a friends house and didn't blog much there.
So I've been behind. At this point only 39 posts for the month. In any case I'm in the middle of trying to make a big move with work. My goal since I got the Slomin's job was to get a second job as that obviously wasn't enough by itself-$11 an hour but only 20 hours per week.
Jay, the supervisor who had hired me had claimed that once you're with the company for a certain amount of time-3 months or 6 months, it tended to vary from what you heard-then you could be in line for a customer service job within the company that was not only full time but offered plenty of overtime. In any case, he rather oversold this option-after all, he's a telemarketer right?
Any way I was looking elsewhere for a second job. I finally found it in June of this year-so I'd been with Slomins about 10 months when I got hired by a home improvement company in Melville in the mornings working 8:30 to 1:30. So I would do this in the morning and then Slomin's 5 to 9. This worked great-for a whole week. Then Slomin's suddenly fired me. I wasn't Jay but this young kid, Matt, who had taken over for him. Matt claimed that it 'came from the top'-basically the trouble is that I had gotten only 1 lead for the week for 3 successive weeks. No question I was in a slump. It's tough to do telemarketing for too long and never have one but Matt made it cut and dried. Evidently he had his orders and couldn't factor in all the weeks I had produced a good amount of leads.
I get the argument that you can't live off your past numbers but just the same this was a pretty silly decision-whoever made it. While you can say you can't live off my past numbers what about my future numbers? I mean I would have broken out. Ok, I guess they couldn't know that I would but based on my 10 months of performance it's a reasonable guess.
So I was back to one job again-one part time job though this was 5 hours more per week, but $10 an hour. So $45 more per week. Though the company pays biweekly. It's a very small company in Melville-right by the Melville Mall. Just about 6 of us on the phones-7 including Ray, the manager. The owner, Joe had his own office, the company has only been open at least in this incantation since May 2012 though on the phone we tell people it's been open 15 years-this may be technically true in the sense that Joe has had other companies. He's been in home improvement his whole life.
Anyway, for the most part I heave quite enjoyed working there. I was referred there by a fellow I met one night while waiting for the bus on Hempstead Tpke while waiting for the bus coming back from Slomin's one night. However, the trouble is that Joe's expectations may be a little unrealistic. He expects 2 to 3 leads a day but no one has ever really gotten this consistently.
Now the obvious question is whether then it's a wholly realistic goal. However, by July we began to here-from Ray the manager, Joe deals very little with the appointment setters, he spends his time with the sales guys and running his own jobs.
No question things begun to be a little slower in the Summer. However we figured that in September they'd heat up. Actually it's gone south. Again, even in the good times I don't think anyone ever consistently always averaged '2 to 3 leads per day'-the idea being that this will give the 3 sales guys enough leads from 10 to 6.
I had a few weeks where I did or close to it. However, more usually I seemed to average about 1 lead per day. In September we've had a lot of days where the entire room has gotten only 3 leads. Ray is a good guy but the pressure gets to him and he can become a pain in the neck asking for leads. He's on the phone too and knows what it's about.
In any case, even in the best of times I never have really gotten that much money from this job. I get the salary which is about $200 a week give or take. The commissions are 1% of sales. The First 3 months I've averaged about 20,000 in sales so that's just an extra $200 a month-it' still just about $250 a week give or take.
So my feeling has been that I don't need pressure for a $200 a week job. As I mentioned above I got a night job in August-5 to 9 again just like Slomins. It's a mortgage company where you try to get people to refinance or help them purchase a house-or the new thing, reverse mortgages. The pay is only $8 an hour though they do say that if you set up a mortgage application with someone who ends up signing you get a $200 bonus.
Yep, more promises. So this week I've tried to maneuver a big switch-I interviewed for a company that does 'chemical sales.' He hired me Monday but the company week starts on Friday. The cool thing is that it's full time, 9 to 5. It's straight $400 salary per week plus commissions. I've seen this setup before actually at my first sales job in Middle Neck back in 2010 at this company that calls itself Royal Chemical. You call various businesses and try to sell them chemical products-basically cleaning supplies or snow melt or whatever.
The potential seems good though for some reason you only start receiving commissions checks after roughly 3 to five months. So this week the big question for me was how do I tell my bosses at the home improvement and mortgage jobs?
I finally settled on: making stuff up that gives me an excuse to take about a week off. So I can always come back-hopefully-if things don't work out. I actually told Ray today that I have a very sick family member and I will be gone tomorrow and don't know when I'll be back but that it will likely be about a week.
The weird thing is I almost feel bad as I really do like Ray. Yet, my thing is that Slomin's really left me with a bad taste in my mouth that they would dump me that quickly. I do kind of feel like I don't want to feel like that again-kind of like yesterday's toilet paper at Penn Station in Manhattan. They used me until they had taken everything-or so they thought-then threw me over board. In truth all those leads are valuable for them-after all what's more important and tougher to get than cold leads. Even those which didn't get sold will be useful for them in the future.
So today, it was on. I managed to keep to my plan. I went it to Melville this morning and had a great day actually my best ever-4 leads. Partly because I went through all those sheets of the homeowners who had previously been leads-often with other companies. Then when I left I took those sheets with me. If I do go back I don't want anyone using them while I'm out.
So I didn't want to get shafted like at Slomin's. However, I also need to actually get ahead which is hardly happening at these two jobs. At least this new 'chemical sales' job is ful time and I can finish work at 5 rather than starting up a new shift here in Lindenhurst at 5.
The pay is at least as good-even assuming none of the commissions every materialize-which I don't believe.
So here's the latest from what Phillip Mirowski calls the "Neoliberal economy.'
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/09/is-better-world-possible-neoliberals.html
Right now the sales jobs are a place that has a low barrier to entry. However, in exchange you don't exactly get job security. My thing is avoiding being disposed of yet again.
P.S. Wish me luck tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some real blogging in this weekend. Again, getting out at 5 will hopefully allow me to really crank them out.
Of course, those heady times were back when I was totally unemployed-before I became just underemployed. I then went to a job fair at-where else?-the Baldwin Public Library where I would spend the whole day hanging out and blogging and got a part time evening job as an appointment setter at Slomin's oil in Hicksville-for those unfamiliar this is all on Long Island New York.
.
I've managed to usually keep up at least a pretty good rate per day-at worst of 2 and a half per day. Until September. Starting in mid August I've had two jobs-which is what I wanted-but during September between everything I've been so tired and I also spent a weekend at a friends house and didn't blog much there.
So I've been behind. At this point only 39 posts for the month. In any case I'm in the middle of trying to make a big move with work. My goal since I got the Slomin's job was to get a second job as that obviously wasn't enough by itself-$11 an hour but only 20 hours per week.
Jay, the supervisor who had hired me had claimed that once you're with the company for a certain amount of time-3 months or 6 months, it tended to vary from what you heard-then you could be in line for a customer service job within the company that was not only full time but offered plenty of overtime. In any case, he rather oversold this option-after all, he's a telemarketer right?
Any way I was looking elsewhere for a second job. I finally found it in June of this year-so I'd been with Slomins about 10 months when I got hired by a home improvement company in Melville in the mornings working 8:30 to 1:30. So I would do this in the morning and then Slomin's 5 to 9. This worked great-for a whole week. Then Slomin's suddenly fired me. I wasn't Jay but this young kid, Matt, who had taken over for him. Matt claimed that it 'came from the top'-basically the trouble is that I had gotten only 1 lead for the week for 3 successive weeks. No question I was in a slump. It's tough to do telemarketing for too long and never have one but Matt made it cut and dried. Evidently he had his orders and couldn't factor in all the weeks I had produced a good amount of leads.
I get the argument that you can't live off your past numbers but just the same this was a pretty silly decision-whoever made it. While you can say you can't live off my past numbers what about my future numbers? I mean I would have broken out. Ok, I guess they couldn't know that I would but based on my 10 months of performance it's a reasonable guess.
So I was back to one job again-one part time job though this was 5 hours more per week, but $10 an hour. So $45 more per week. Though the company pays biweekly. It's a very small company in Melville-right by the Melville Mall. Just about 6 of us on the phones-7 including Ray, the manager. The owner, Joe had his own office, the company has only been open at least in this incantation since May 2012 though on the phone we tell people it's been open 15 years-this may be technically true in the sense that Joe has had other companies. He's been in home improvement his whole life.
Anyway, for the most part I heave quite enjoyed working there. I was referred there by a fellow I met one night while waiting for the bus on Hempstead Tpke while waiting for the bus coming back from Slomin's one night. However, the trouble is that Joe's expectations may be a little unrealistic. He expects 2 to 3 leads a day but no one has ever really gotten this consistently.
Now the obvious question is whether then it's a wholly realistic goal. However, by July we began to here-from Ray the manager, Joe deals very little with the appointment setters, he spends his time with the sales guys and running his own jobs.
No question things begun to be a little slower in the Summer. However we figured that in September they'd heat up. Actually it's gone south. Again, even in the good times I don't think anyone ever consistently always averaged '2 to 3 leads per day'-the idea being that this will give the 3 sales guys enough leads from 10 to 6.
I had a few weeks where I did or close to it. However, more usually I seemed to average about 1 lead per day. In September we've had a lot of days where the entire room has gotten only 3 leads. Ray is a good guy but the pressure gets to him and he can become a pain in the neck asking for leads. He's on the phone too and knows what it's about.
In any case, even in the best of times I never have really gotten that much money from this job. I get the salary which is about $200 a week give or take. The commissions are 1% of sales. The First 3 months I've averaged about 20,000 in sales so that's just an extra $200 a month-it' still just about $250 a week give or take.
So my feeling has been that I don't need pressure for a $200 a week job. As I mentioned above I got a night job in August-5 to 9 again just like Slomins. It's a mortgage company where you try to get people to refinance or help them purchase a house-or the new thing, reverse mortgages. The pay is only $8 an hour though they do say that if you set up a mortgage application with someone who ends up signing you get a $200 bonus.
Yep, more promises. So this week I've tried to maneuver a big switch-I interviewed for a company that does 'chemical sales.' He hired me Monday but the company week starts on Friday. The cool thing is that it's full time, 9 to 5. It's straight $400 salary per week plus commissions. I've seen this setup before actually at my first sales job in Middle Neck back in 2010 at this company that calls itself Royal Chemical. You call various businesses and try to sell them chemical products-basically cleaning supplies or snow melt or whatever.
The potential seems good though for some reason you only start receiving commissions checks after roughly 3 to five months. So this week the big question for me was how do I tell my bosses at the home improvement and mortgage jobs?
I finally settled on: making stuff up that gives me an excuse to take about a week off. So I can always come back-hopefully-if things don't work out. I actually told Ray today that I have a very sick family member and I will be gone tomorrow and don't know when I'll be back but that it will likely be about a week.
The weird thing is I almost feel bad as I really do like Ray. Yet, my thing is that Slomin's really left me with a bad taste in my mouth that they would dump me that quickly. I do kind of feel like I don't want to feel like that again-kind of like yesterday's toilet paper at Penn Station in Manhattan. They used me until they had taken everything-or so they thought-then threw me over board. In truth all those leads are valuable for them-after all what's more important and tougher to get than cold leads. Even those which didn't get sold will be useful for them in the future.
So today, it was on. I managed to keep to my plan. I went it to Melville this morning and had a great day actually my best ever-4 leads. Partly because I went through all those sheets of the homeowners who had previously been leads-often with other companies. Then when I left I took those sheets with me. If I do go back I don't want anyone using them while I'm out.
So I didn't want to get shafted like at Slomin's. However, I also need to actually get ahead which is hardly happening at these two jobs. At least this new 'chemical sales' job is ful time and I can finish work at 5 rather than starting up a new shift here in Lindenhurst at 5.
The pay is at least as good-even assuming none of the commissions every materialize-which I don't believe.
So here's the latest from what Phillip Mirowski calls the "Neoliberal economy.'
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/09/is-better-world-possible-neoliberals.html
Right now the sales jobs are a place that has a low barrier to entry. However, in exchange you don't exactly get job security. My thing is avoiding being disposed of yet again.
P.S. Wish me luck tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some real blogging in this weekend. Again, getting out at 5 will hopefully allow me to really crank them out.
Hey Mike
ReplyDeleteDont know how you do it really. Run all over the place for these near minimum wage jobs and still come home and write for hours too? And your not just writing fluff pieces, you take on some heady subjects that take a lot of background reading and thinking.
Unfortunately I think our job creators want a world where there are lot more Mike Sax's. Promising you very little, ready to let you go as soon as "productivity" drops and replacing you with another hungry guy just wanting something... anything he can do to help make ends meet. Meanwhile the ends are getting furhter and further apart.
I think they want a bunch of free agents that pay for their own benefits and cost them nothing to let go. We need to get a strong labor movement before its too late and the middle class disappears.
Here here Greg. II mean even Ray who I mentioned above is a pretty nice guy. He was saying the other day how much fun he had growing up-back in the 60s. He was saying that things sure have gotten worse-people are so unpleasant now. That's actually what inspired my chat with you about how 'social justice' has gone up while 'economic justice' has gone down while with less social trust our social life is often very unsatisfying
ReplyDelete