I started this job after leaving my last job with no plan due to a toxic work environment. Evidently I know how to pick 'em, because I started this job without looking around the building at all during my “interview”. Let's start there.
I was asked to come in because the owner had printed a poster I designed for a local client of mine. He liked the work, so he asked to meet with me to discuss “more work”. I'm a freelancer on the side, so I obliged and met. I'd just quit my job, so stress was fresh on my mind for consistent income. Luckily, my current situation is relatively simple so not having a job for a short time was a possibility (it just didn't seem like it at the time). I went to the meeting, which turned out to be an interview, and he offered me a job—I'm thrilled.
On my first day, red flags started getting thrown like there was a ref strike. No exaggeration: zero organization. I'm told that my job “doesn't make him any money” which was extremely off-putting, and I'm also told that he “doesn't really know what to have me do yet.”. I am a senior level graphic designer, and extremely overqualified for a local print shop job of this scale due to the nature of my past experience.
Long story short, over the past few weeks my eyes have been opening up as I sit, bored in my 1990s desk chair. If I lean to the left, the air is let out and it abruptly falls to the floor. There are boxes of trash covered in dust all around me, I'm working on a Windows 7 computer from 2009, and am handed sticky notes throughout the day with random little job notes on them from the owner that I'm expected to decipher. I'm talking zero customer contact information; only sizes and quantities. Every process lives in his head, as does every bit of order information he's taken himself. I leave every day with a plan for the next day, but he works until 9pm because he is awful with time management. My plans are gone as I show up to a desk full of those sticky notes.
Just a vent session for me. I have a job interview on Monday at a new company, but I'm horrified that I won't get it. If I don't, there is no possible way I can stay with this company for much longer. I think about quitting every day, all day. I intentionally drink a shit-ton of water so I can escape to the bathroom more. OH, and I make just above minimum wage while my boss shows up in a different car nearly every day of the week.
What a wild life we all live.