Grain of salt

Gratitude is something that I have been trying to work on this year. I've been thankful for the snow even though it adds another 45 minutes to my commute. I've even been thankful for my dog even though he went crazy the other day and tore up the house. But right now I having trouble being thankful for my job. Sure its employment when there are so many people out there looking for a job. Sure it gives me something to do during the day, and I've been able to meet some really nice people. And sure it allowed me to bring back tie tuesdays.

The part that I'm having a hard time with though is the fact that in the 3 months that i have worked here, I have only done 10 projects that relate to the position I was hired for. The rest of the time I have been working on uploading content for the new website. Which don't kid yourself, is way more boring than it sounds.

Imagine creating a constant blog of over 50,000 real estate listings. Uploading prices, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, sq footage, stories, available upgrades, local amenities, pictures of the outside and inside, and a hundred other little things. Sounds fun I know.

But even that was not enough to keep me from being grateful. Although it did make it a little difficult some days. What really set me off is the fact that even after the website launched, I am still down here in a computer lab making changes and corrections to the website and don't forget, I'm a PRINT designer. PRINT.

Today after finishing my stack of corrections, I surfaced from my computer lair and asked my boss (the guy who actually hired me to do print design) if there was anything I could help him finish up. His answer was "not really. We brought in a freelancer to help us with the workload so I think we are doing okay right now."

What? WHAT?! Let me get this straight. You hire someone to do print design. Then make him do data entry, a job that any brain dead high school dropout could do, and then hire a freelancer to do that persons design work? And pay the freelancer more? Is it just me or is that messed up? Why in the world would you hire someone to replace the person you just hired to do the job you hired them to do because your having them do something else?

I'm sorry this post is getting so long and I've probably lost a few of you on the way, or scared you away from reading it in the first place. After reading back thru this, I realize that I am maybe making too much of this. Maybe its because I'm tired and want to go home that its getting under my skin. So feel free to take this as a grain of salt and let me just end by saying this. I've learned a lot because of this job, and for that I'm thankful. As for the rest of it. . . the hell with it.