The Gauntlet of Employment Part II

Are you sitting in your cubicle or an actual office, annoyed that you are not able to work from home. You saved your life, mileage and money for lunch by working from home during the pandemic. Now, every day at work, you are back to worrying about someone abducting your lunch, putting mileage on the car, finding a parking space less than a sherpa hikes while trying to avoid Mildred's incessant conversation about her birds.

Management is so happy that you are back at work. A new pizza place for our weekly parties to boost morale and build team spirit. Home in my pajamas, deleting and answering the same dim witted email would be so much better for my physical, mental and emotional health. Alas, I am trapped in my casual clothes work uniform that is ill fitting as I find the email that I saved in a folder to answer your same ridiculous question for the millionth time.

I could get back into the job market. There are plenty of new sites for remote jobs like RemoteOk.com, Toptal.com or JustRemote.com. I'm definitely going to check them out because I need to save money instead of giving it to the dog walker. I could also go back to the legacy job sites like LinkedIn or Indeed and look for a remote or hybrid opportunity. My resume is updated and I don't want to post on a platform for the world to review. Plus I heard that there are too many hackers and scammers with ghost jobs that are contributing to the havoc in searching for a job. Some companies including the Fortune 500 have disclaimers on their company website and Careers/Hiring page regarding their specific hiring practices, due to the hiring grifters that are lurking online.

For those of you of a certain vintage, remember when you could get hired on the spot or within a week? Well, those days are extinct. Now it takes at least a month, with at least two interviews, background checks, fingerprinting and paperwork before you are hired. Once you are hired, your onboarding/orientation experience includes compliance, sexual harassment training, policies, procedures and uniform (if applicable).

For all of you retirees, Congratulations! What is your favorite industry or workplace suggestion/referral? All of us that are still working, let us know what place or industry is awesome or not so much. No one has better insight than a current or former employee. Thanks for all of your input and stay cool.

Work lunch boxPhoto byCarol Durant