February 28th, the last day of summer

The last entry I wrote here was almost exclusively about how annoying my job was. At risk of sounding like a broken record, my job is dead annoying.

"When it's busy, help put stuff away, because the waitresses are busy serving, you know? Because it's busy."
Wait, what? Can you run that by me again? It's busy, so... I need to... Wait, why would I need to put stuff away? Why can't she? Oh, right! Because it's busy! So she doesn't have as much time to put stuff away... Hold on, surely if it's busy then I don't have as much time eith-

"I know you're a glove fiend, but look, you're using too many pairs of gloves. You need to reuse them."
What? They're disposable gloves. When you take them off they go inside out. They are designed specifically not to be put back on again. And I'M wasteful? You just throw all the glass bottles in the general wast- 

"Don't put this on a wet surface. I don't want it getting wet."
I didn't! That wasn't me! That wa-
"I don't like a dibby dobber."
What?
"Someone who tells tales on someone else."
But I didn't do anything wrong and you're telling me off! This is just as infuriating as it was when I was in primary sch- 

"Go and get the newspapers."
Hey, so you didn't actually give me enough money to buy the- 

"Don't chop the tomatoes like that. You're squashing them."
I really don't know what that even mea- 

"Don't peel the eggs over the bin. Get a bowl. That way if you drop them then they're not lost."
Ok, that makes sense. 

"Why are you peeling the carrots over a bowl? Peel them over the bin."
 Oh, right, ok, someone just told me not to do that with eggs so I thought I would do the same thing with the ca- 

"You're not laying the bacon out on the trays properly. Here, let me do it."
You know, you could just tell me what I did wrong so I'd know for next time rather than wrench all control out of my hands as if I'm completely incompe- oh, well, what do I know. Fuck it.


There is one important lesson that I have learned from both this job and the one I had working for a faceless corporation whose name rhymes with "Schlamazon". It is that if you treat your employees like idiots or drones - basically as people who are completely expendable, who have no choice but to submit to your your broken and/or arbitrary way of doing things, then they are not going to put any effort into the job. They will do the bare minimum, "living for the weekend" because they have immediately clicked that their efforts aren't appreciated. The job is a bit shit and the higher ups seemingly think that by occasionally providing you with free food, you might not notice. (Schlamazon had a bizarre day where they treated us to lots of circular things - Hula Hoops, Polos, cans of Coke - to mark the launch of a new button.)

You might have clicked that the extent to which I'm being patronised at work has led me to stop trying reasonably quickly. Considering I'm currently living on the breadline I was going to ask if I could get more shifts each week, but whenever I'm there I get so frustrated with the way I'm being treated that I tell myself "You know what? No. You can get by without having to grovel to these guys." Trying to convince myself that my poverty is a result of my own self-respect makes me feel slightly better about myself, but reinforces the fact that I'm kind of a dick and I probably need to suck it up and get another job.

In fairness, I was signed up to do a class at the University of Sydney for a couple of months - but then it was cancelled because the teacher was ill. (I told Landlady this, and she said "Well, you know, sometimes they cancel classes because they don't have enough students." I reiterated that that was not the reason, that "medical reasons" were cited, and in fact the class had been fully booked. She looked at me blankly and didn't say anything.) And, in even more fairness, I am potentially going to get some work as a research assistant in the near future. I just don't know how near, because of the time it takes to submit and approve projects. In all honesty I'm just kind of looking forward to the day I can tell the cafe staff I'm unavailable for a shift because I have to go to my other job at the university: my own dickish way of saying I AM NOT A MORON.

Until then, though, I am probably going to continue sitting in my room listening to the same songs on repeat like an autistic child, eating cereal and wondering how many cockroaches there are hiding underneath my bed.