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College, Fired, and Shitty Job?
Journal Entry: Fri Jul 25, 2008, 6:26 PM

That's right folks just when I though high school and then went to work in a place...Just like HIGH SCHOOL....

So I was planing on getting a job right working as a Docent. Docent means in the state of a museum: "A professional guide, esp. one who conducts visitors through a museum and delivers a commentary on the exhibitions." I only gave 2 tours the whole season. You know what the chick was on "Night at the Museum" who lead the tour groups through the museum. Well that's what I signed up to be.

I got a letter from the Curator about 3 weeks prior to the museum saying they lost my application saying that I was more then qualified for the job. And she lost it because she quit. That means there's no one for the docent to work under since they work under a curator. Well I went in to reapply and they told me that I'd be working with groups of children and some of the exhibits and tours. I agreed cause I like giving tours to little kids...the only problem was I got slammed into a babysitting program under the title of a "Stipends Volunteer."

At first I was ok with it because we were actually taking them through parts of the museum at first. But when my supervisor suddenly decided that it wasn't fun for the children she decided to make it geared only to the kids. The problem with that is that she had all 4 of the "docents" working with the kids and not helping with the entire museum much to the fluster of the manager and to the desk clerks. So I keep trudging along thinking I'd get a scholarship if I just stuck in there...and that's when all hell broke loose....

My supervisor comes in and complains because I wasn't there at 12:30 when my hours were 1:00 to 3:00 o'clock. She said she had told me and expected me to write it down. See This was the start of the pattern. She kept saying I never got my hours in...when all they had me working was 5 days a week at 3 hours a day. She would also tell me that I was always late for work when my time card says I was there 2-10 minutes early...and I found out that I was in the right because the clock in the school house of the museum...is 10 minutes faster then the clock on the computer. So I must be late for work.

Then she gets mad because I ask for a properly worked out hour by hour minute by minute breakdown of what I am supposed to do in those 3 hours for her. You know a proper schedule...and she says "I don't want to spend the money for the kid's program on a calender just so you know when to show up for work." Well I snuffed that one off to as a, "Maybe I should pay for it." kinda thing. Next came the "I feel like you don't hear what I say" Comment when I told her that I honestly was probably not paying attention because when you leave right after you finish your tasks,like 30 minutes after the program finishes, and I'm heading to do what you told me to do...and you tell me something else...I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN Because I doing what you told me to do and I am set on doing what you told me to do.

Then the "You never call when you aren't coming in" which is a huge load of horse s**t because when I called on the one day I said I was going to be there for the Parade and I got heat stroke...I was calling the phone since 8 in the morning and all I got was a "This number has been disconnected" or a "This number can not be connected as dialed" and a busy signal. I didn't get through most of the time until like 12:30 in the afternoon when I was supposed to be there at 8.

And she'd get mad because they have me Untrained to handle the exhibits in the cabins attempting to clean them. Me a 5'0" short stocky klutz who was told by the manager to do what I can so I don't break the precious exhibits which are older then your mother's mother's grandmother's father's brother's uncle's great grandfather's dog(Yes that's sarcasm) and then complain because you have to redo it so that way everything is cleaned to your ways other then what I had cleaned because I was told to not break anything due to my untrained hands ruining crap.

And to top if off she made 3 fun things that the entire staff had as optional become "2 must be Mandatory for payment" when at the start of the whole thing we were told it would be professionally optional. Screw that idea.

The biggest irk on my nerves came this Tuesday when she decided that "Docent Supervisors" aka me and some other girl, and "Docent trainees" shouldn't exist in the system anymore because the trainees were doing more then the supervisors (Who I need to say that one has 3 jobs...and I take care of my sick father 24/7/365 which makes for a full time job save for the 3 hours I put in for her at the museum as "Voluntary Time" because her kiddy program runs more money out of the museum then rakes it in because it's a free program)and that if all you are here to do is "Kill Time" Then she looked right at me and said "Then leave because I don't want you working here at the museum."

Now then I feel I must explain the phrase here. In proper English Language the Phrase: "To Kill Time" means an activity or task in which time seems to go faster making more time feel like less time thus "killing" time. The phrase: "To Waste Time" means to do something less productive to make time appear to go slower than usual. Now does it sound like all I was doing was wasting time?

And that's when I blew. Every inch of dysfunctional work environments that caused me stress finally reached the peak. I blew up.

Tuesday July 20th, 2008, at work my boss was pulling the same stuff as before the whole month this July the, "I feel like you guys just tune me out when I try and tell you what to do." When she doesn't realize that we do work and when we try and ask one of the Trainees to do something for us she replies “That’s not what Julie said you’re supposed to do, I’m not supposed to do what you say.” She says "I'm paying you and you don't get your hours in" When I work Later then her and I finish the tasks she gives me. "You never follow directions when I give them to you" When we made the mistake of painting the paper we Gessoed by mistake and "I told you that Tropical Fish were another day and I told you to get the dolphins instead of the fish" When all she said "Use the Foamy animals that I've set on the shelf for the dolphins and fish and stuff" then didn't leave the right box out

"You're never here on time" When she doesn't have a Proper Schedule which I asked her for and she said “I don’t want to spend money on a calendar just so you know what time to come to work that’s not the issue.”And she gets mad because I never called in when I’m going to be late or not show up because when I do call I get a busy signal or a “This call cannot be connected as dialed because this number has been disconnected” and she never believes me. So than she said "Well if all you are here for is to ‘kill time’ then Leave I don't want you working here at the museum." Looking right at me. So I was getting up to leave and she was like "I didn't mean for it to be like this But I don't want someone who is just here to kill time for no reason."

And I turned around cause that was the last straw and I had told her I was having parental issues and said to her "I'm here to kill time because my parents are arguing and any thing that keeps me out of the house longer is "Killing" the time I have to spend at home in a war zone. I sit here and do everything and more then what you tell me too and you sit and think that we do nothing because you're never here to watch us get it done simply because we didn't just Gesso the paper and made a mistake on the fish you have no right to get mad at us." Because I figured she needed a better definition of the phrase “Killing Time.”

And then I stormed out and slammed the door on her which I’d like to point out she does to me when I go to ask her to clarify her instructions because she does leave about 2-3 hours before I do. Which I apologize for but when working conditions aren’t met I get stressed out and it builds up until the wrong thing is said at the wrong time. I was on Probation for "Unacceptable Behavior" over a "personality Conflict" which never once was there because I like the personalities I just cannot work under someone that doesn't make it a job because she doesn’t know how to make it a job by giving a proper description the new job other then what we had to type up which is bogus and working schedule other then the "Agenda" book which is not a scheduled break down of hours but of what the kids are going to do.

SO today they "Fired" me...which I really don't get since I volunteered my time. So I turned around and said "Screw that I quiet 2 weeks notice" and she said "Not two Weeks Now" Which technically is illegal...but then you have to remember that I am not even a freaking employee and in all honest of the terms and of the definitions...a Volunteer can't really be fired because to "Volunteer" Means you give them your time in a bases for which you have a schedule for...and not on what they want...and because it is "voluntary" time...you have the right to say no. We also got the names of the other bored members who some really really need an excuse to fire her.

So we got my time cards...I've only been late 4 times...been on time 2 or 3 times and the rest of the time over the coarse of 2 months...I was early. So what does that tell you. It tells you this:

1: If they don't have a Curator then I technically didn't have a Job as a Docent.

2: I never got On the Job Training for my newly appointed position or on how to clean sensitive objects so thus I don't know what I am doing.

3: No posted schedule for shift or time changes.

4: No notification of the above like promised

5: No proper application for "Docent" position

6: No Communications by any means from the workers in the museum during museum hours.

7: No understanding of who's in charge.

8: False accusations of incompetence (AKA let's Blame the docents because I can't give a proper order if my life depended on it.)

9. Un-Synchronized clocks to verify times that match on the time cards (Because the clock in the school room is off as stated)

and 10: FREE ADMISSIONS IS LIKE TELLING PARENTS IT'S FREE EFFING BABYSITTING!!!

And before people start to get let this sink in here's the last thing I said today as I walked out of the museum to my mom. I said "I'm relieved I no longer have to work for something I'm over qualified for" and the Supervisor said "You're not qualified for anything" and right on the button I told her "I was trained to be a Secretary." Which I was. I know how to be a secretary which makes me a really really really organized person and working as a babysitter when I could have been helping the office of the museum (as I should have been) as a secretary...It makes me sick.

This small town is filled with Nepotism. The Supervisor I worked for...was the daughter of the board president that doesn't know anything she's doing either. Neither of them ever ran a museum before and they never moved to hire a new curator because the money for the employees is all going into buying supplies for a Free Kid's Program which if I remember correctly, is meant to keep children interested in museums when the usually never take children through the museum.

All I got to say about that is it's messed up. You can't support to be paying hundreds of dollars on paint, paper, and books if you are turning down tour group offers because it "Clashes with the kid's hour" and "We're understaffed" even though you have 4 volunteers listed as DOCENTS. It's their own faults that they are running themselves into the ground. I'm so happy I am off the roller coaster. I mean ******** man....GET TRAINING. Now what the hell you are doing...before you go to do it.

If I have learned anything from this is that some people are stupid. They waste time getting unprofessional with issues when an employee is disgruntled rather than doing as the employee asks so that way the issues never have to deal with this. I know now that I will do a check on how the people work in that museum before I even think of working in another one.

Oh...and I leave for college in 29 some odd days...Wish me luck ^^.

SORRY THIS IS SO LONG I LUV JOO ALL EEF JOO RED DIS!!!

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