Finally a new post!

Yes, yes, I know. I haven't even HAD a blog that long, and already I have let weeks lapse without a single post. Well, I have been updating the little gas thingie off to the side, but that can get depressing. The good news is that, as of this post, crude is back below $80 a barrel.

More good news

I have recently been made a permanent employee here at American. I've been a temp for over three months, so it's a great stride forward to finally be a "real" employee. The temps here are only given six months to find permanent placement before they're booted out the door. You have no benefits or flight privileges, no overtime and no sick leave. And you only get $9.25 an hour, regardless of what you do.

Most temps move from department to department, filling roles in whatever capacity is needed using their limited access to apply for internal jobs. It's the same as pounding the pavement, handing out resumes and getting interviewed, except you are actually working here while applying to various vacancies within the company itself. They try to get you to limit yourself to three applications a week, as you aren't paid for interview time and it takes away from your temp duties to go and vie for positions. It's also very aggressive - there's over a hundred people in the temp pool, and typically about five to ten positions a week accepting applications.

I got lucky, though. There was a spot open the day I came on as a temp, working as a staff assistant for the HR-Finance director and his direct staff. He needed someone to fill the position immediately, but the job hadn't posted yet on the internal network. The director wanted someone to work the position as a provisional until he knew whether or not they fit with himself and the team. It was tricky because if he decided I wasn't what he was looking for in a secretary, he could cut me loose without a warning, sending me back into the ever-shifting currents of the temp pool, and I'd have lost the time I was working for him against my six months, leaving me with less opportunity to find something permanent.

It was nerve-wracking for awhile. I sat here for over 12 weeks with no indication from him as to my future status. Then he finally posted the job, and I applied, one amongst seven others who leapt on the chance to fill this spot. It came down to two after the initial interviews, and the other one bombed her interview (she wore something slinky and suggestive, as potential secretaries sometimes do, thinking to portray herself as eye-candy to the man she'd be working for everyday... but that doesn't work on a man who is, shall we say, deeply committed to his life-partner - she just came off as cheap and sleazy).

So here I am. Making a lot more now than $9.25 an hour, finally eligible for flight privileges and in less than a month, health insurance for the first time in years. You could probably hear my sighs of relief there in (insert your location here).

And hopefully, it won't be three weeks before I post again.

One more thing...

My little boy got glasses! Pictures coming soon. ((I PROMISE!))