Let's collect and report our Neptune/Chiron/Pisces experiences this week here

[magical thyme]

119. ok, I am ready to quit my job

emotionally, I am DONE with these gd mf bastards.

When I interviewed last spring, I said that working 3rd shift would be *very* difficult for me, that I could *only* do it in dire emergencies. The Lab manager said she thought that would be ok, that they have 2nd shift people who are willing to sometimes stay over. This was before I even knew that night shift is 12 hours, which I REALLY CANNOT DO.

Then before I was there even 6 months, they scheduled me for night shift throughout December. I was bullied, threatened (her husband is a lawyer) and essentially forced into it. She lied and said she would never and had never said any such thing. I have since learned that she has a track record of 1. bullying and 2. lying, and I was advised by other techs to never, ever meet alone with her. The staff, it turns out, hates and fears her. They always bring a "witness" to meetings with her, for protection from the bullying and the lying. The company loves her, although due to the number of complaints they did send her on anger management training once.

During that time was when Algiers' symptoms first started to appear, but I was so exhausted, with swollen glands and sleeping throughout the days, that it was not until early January that I was able to recognize that something was wrong with him.

I thought at least the night shift shit was over until next winter, by which time I intended to be gone. Today I discovered they've put me back on nights the week of March 4th.

My job is "per diem," giving up any and all benefits, based on my supposed ability to not necessarily be available for work. They schedule me when they need me. I don't have regular hours, a minimum number of hours, holiday pay, vacation pay, sick pay, healthcare, matching retirement or any benefits at all. I don't even qualify for unemployment, since they don't have to lay me off...just stop scheduling me. In exchange -- and there is supposed to be *something* in exchange -- I supposedly work when *I* am available.

Instead, I was threatened and bullied, and my horse ultimately killed by my failure to see his symptoms in time when I was made physically ill by the job.

That's the bad news. The good news is yesterday in the mail I got my "Income Based Repayment" schedule for my student loans. I am in the program, which knocks $300/month off the payments for the next 12 months. Each year, I must re-apply and my payments are re-determined based on my income. In 25 years, when I'm 83, any unpaid loan is forgiven and I owe income taxes on the forgiven portion.

So effective immediately, I'm looking for another job. Being out from under that oversized payment, that I took on based on a salary range I was lied to about, means I take take a slightly lower paying job (believe it or not, the supermarket and Home Depot pay almost as much as I'm getting now) for the same number of hours, or a much lower paying job for more hours, and still get by.

I'm past any hope of financial recovery, unless I'm able to sell my house for enough to pay off the effing student loans and start over somewhere else.

grrrrrrrr......