This was supposed to be a blog about Orange County living but it turns out there is precious little Orange County living going on because my temporary part-time job has completely eaten my life. And yesterday I just about reached my breaking point.
My boss is utterly convinced that everything I do I can do off a laptop, and technically, he's right. In practice however, it's nearly impossible for countless reasons. Let's start with the obvious: at home my monitor is 30 inches, my laptop is only 13. Once I open any of the software I normally use, there are so many palettes and control panels taking up real estate that I'm left with a work area smaller than my phone. Now, I'll admit that our months living here in Tinytown have taught me how to work creatively in small spaces, but this is beyond my abilities. I've repeatedly pointed this and other complications out to the boss, who could give a shit. He still expects me in the office every Monday for our pointless staff meetings.
The meeting is at 11am, so to make it on-time I need to leave by 9:30 at the very latest. Knowing there were various projects out in various stages of the approval process, around 8:30 I sent out an email to everyone ( we'll use marketing bullshit and refer to them as "stakeholders" ) explaining that I would be leaving in an hour and if anything needed revisions they should speak now or forever hold their peace. Or at least hold their peace until later that afternoon.
I heard nothing from no one.
At 9:30 I left for L.A.
At 10am, somewhere near Norwalk, my cell phone rang.
There were revisions.
Many revisions.
Due by 11am.
"Do you have the files with you?" my boss asked.
Even if I did, which I didn't, how exactly did he think I would accomplish this while driving on the fucking 105?
"Do you want me to turn around?" I offered. I wasn't yet even halfway into the office.
"No" he said. "We'll sort it out when you get here."
I arrived at the office at 10:55.
I poked my head into the boss's office to say hello and he returned the favor by saying...
"You need to turn around and go back."
Didn't even stay long enough to get one of the complimentary danish.
I finally got home around 1:15
Nearly four hours wasted, half the day gone.
This morning I'm looking for a new job.
