Skevin's Journal: Job Rants, part deux

I finally settled down with something close to home. Not too terribly close, mind you, but close enough. Only problem is, they're also terribly cheap. Have you ever worked for someone so cheap they ask you to bring your own computers on the first day? And I'm not talking about the way it is with previous contracting jobs where I use my laptop everywhere I go. This is full-blown "We need you to use a distinctly separate monitor and keyboard so we can see what you're doing at all times." They don't want to supply any equipment or stationery because theft of personal property is rampant here. Employee parking is in a narrow alley, and anyone who gets here after 8:30 is out of luck and has to park in a nearby for-pay lot - those who actually get alley parking don't fare much better because scratches and dents become a way of life. Bathrooms are the same as the customer bathrooms, which in the presence of hordes of screaming offspring of our physical clientele, are always dirty and there's perpetually pee all over the floor. The office is pretty dusty - not a day goes by that massive dustbunnies don't congregate all over the torn and missing linoleum tiles under my desk. Climate control is broken: our HR says to "just bring a little fan to tide you over". In response, I bought one of those industrial fans that need to be bolted down and can rip photographs and calendars off walls in adjacent cubicles.

I am unfathomably grateful for the invention of earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones; we're right next to LAX.