Sell Out

Taxes are coming up in a couple of months and I have been going over all of the money that I made last year. I was surprised at how little I made. I mean really surprised. For a thirty-year old college graduate who is reasonably intelligent, I made no money. I would have made as much money if I worked at a fast food joint over the last year.

Taking a look at what I made, what I owed in credit cards and what I would continue to make if I kept temping, I had to bite the bullet and get a decent paying full time job. I found one that will allow me to make enough money to live and enough left over to pay all of my credit card debt that I have racked up over the last 7 months living here.

The job I got is working at a company that is a wholesale distributor of electronics. Their office is right outside downtown L.A. on the top floor of a warehouse. Right across the street is a scrap metal business and all over are trucking companies. Basically it is a shit box.

The owners of the business are 4 brothers from Israel. All of the other people working there are either from China, the Philippines, or the one guy who is Russian. That does not bother me at all. What bothers me is that everyone speaks in their native language except when they are talking to me. The problem is when they are talking in the hall way my name will come up. I think they are talking to me, so I go into the hallway and say “Yes” to which they always tell me they are not talking to me. This happens about 4 times a day.

The Russian guy is named Igor. Yes, I work with a person named Igor. He sits in the back and fixes equipment. He watches movies or Christian programming on TV while he is working. He tried to get me to attend his church, because I said yes when he asked me if I was a Christian. I am sure that it is going to come up again. Oh, and he looks EXACTLY like a poor man’s Ivan Drago, the bad guy in Rocky 4.

I hate every moment I am there. I hate that they really don’t know what I am doing. The guy that worked in the position before me did a lot of stuff for them. Fixed computers, sold product, invoiced product, talked to clients, talked to customers, answered the phones for technical support, and shipped defective products back to the producer. They really don’t know HOW he did this, but they expect me to do it. I am not trained at all on anything that I am supposed to do. The woman who is “training” me wants to go on vacation in a month, FOR a month. She will be going back to the Philippines. So every time that they ask her how I am doing she keeps telling them that I am doing great, and I am having no problem with any part of the job. I keep telling her that I don’t know what I am doing, but she keeps insisting that I am doing great.

And I also just found out that the only let people take vacation after working there for one year. And then you get 5 days. 5 DAYS. That is unheard of! Also we work 9 hours a day. In California there is a law that you pay people overtime after 8 hours every day. But it does not matter to them because everyone is salaried. So that is the kind of company it is. I hate it. I hate that I have to work there for at least a couple of months, but most of all I hate myself because I have to do this.

Nothing is going on acting wise. Not that it would matter, because these guys would never let me go anywhere during the day anyway. So I will have to get by with just doing my improv classes and hoping that I can perform soon. Or maybe I can get another job that is better and then I won’t dread getting up in the morning every day.