The Cutter Rambles

Ten Years on the Job

January 25, 2011 at 1:18 pm | Posted in Weekcap | 1 Comment

It’s shocking how fast time can pass you by sometimes.

Saturday marked my tenth anniversary of working a full-time job.  It is hard to believe that I’ve been a full-time employee for ten whole years now, especially considering how much I fought entering the workplace to begin with.

Back in 2001, I was unemployed and happy.  It was a care free life, full of sleeping past noon, random internet surfing, and watching The Price is Right. 

Sadly, things could not stay that way forever.  While some people I know have found ways to avoid regular employment, most of us have found it necessary in order to live.  I was catching some flack from my parents (even though I was paying my own way thanks to various temp jobs) but more importantly, I was running out of money. 

As Peter Gibbons learned in Office Space, eventually bills have to be paid.  My landlord was relatively laid back, but he would have gotten a bit upset if I simply stopped paying rent.

So I managed to find myself a job.  Armed with a college degree and no real applicable real world knowledge, I was hired as a paid intern with the understanding that I would eventually be made a full-time employee.

Soon enough, I was a full-time employee – complete with health benefits! – and stayed there nearly seven years.  After that, I moved on to my current job where I have been for over three years now.

Ten years go by quickly if you don’t pay attention.  I have to look back and wonder what exactly I have to show for all that time spent at the job.

Well, I made a decent amount of money – although probably not as much as I potentially could have if I was more aggressive in my career.  Condos, cars, and other material goods certainly aren’t free, so you’ve got to pay for them somehow.  I’ve also accumulated a decent amount of savings so that the Cutlet won’t have to support me when I’m old and feeble.

And along the way, I have met some friends at the job.  So I guess the time wasn’t wasted.

Still, I’ve decided that the next ten years won’t necessarily be spent the same way as the last ten years.  I plan on continuing to make money, but I hope to do so in a way that doesn’t involve sitting in an office for eight hours a day.

Then again, knowing my less than stellar work ethic, there’s a good chance that ten years from now, you’ll be reading a blog post about my twentieth anniversary.

Random Thought of the Week

Yesterday, I was at the gym, and I wondered for a second: Why is it so crowded?  Then I remembered.  It’s January!  The gym always sucks in January.

The place is filled with “New Years Resolutioners” who are determined to start a new lifestyle, even though most of them won’t still be around in a couple of months.

The additional crowd is bad enough, but these people are especially annoying because being new to the gym, they generally don’t know where they’re going or how to operate the equipment.  This leads to quite a few “aimless warriors” who spend half their time standing around looking confused, and getting in my way.

Random Image Found on the Web

That is a close up of a maggot.  If you thought they were disgusting creatures before, this probably doesn’t improve your opinion.

One Hit Wonder of the Week

This week’s one hit wonder is “Mickey” by Toni Basil.  This song was huge back in the 80s.  Just about everyone was singing “Oh Mickey, you’re so fine.  You’re so fine, you blow my mind.  Hey Mickey!”  *clap clap clap* 

The video featured the singer in a cheerleader outfit, which nowadays would probably make her into a huge star.  In fact, I’m kind of confused how it didn’t happen back then.  I can’t tell if her look would have been considered hot back in the 80s.  Remember, the 80s were strange times.

I was pretty young at the time, so my grandfather had me convinced that the song was about Mickey Mouse.  When I later found out that it wasn’t, I think a small piece of my childhood died.

Top Five of the Week

I’ll go over my Top Five Job Related Moments.

5. Winning the Baby Ruth award - At my old company, for our intracompany softball games, a Baby Ruth bar was awarded to the player deemed the star of the game.  I managed to win the award in both the first and last games I ever played.

Sadly, I played rather poorly in most of the games in between.

4. Company Trip to Washington and New York – Every five years, my company would take all of its employees on a trip.  But they wouldn’t reveal the destination until the day of the trip.  In 2002, the company decided to visit the two cities hurt the most by 9/11.  While the trip wasn’t as exciting as it could have been (we were hoping to go somewhere, not just stay in town) it was still pretty cool.

They even got K.C. and the Sunshine Band for a live concert!

3. The Day of No Work - On July 2nd, 2004, it was the last day before a three day holiday weekend.  The office was just about abandoned, so I think I came in early, took a couple of extended breaks, and left early.  I may have done five minutes work, and nobody noticed.

2. When I had Squinty pick up my 1-800-Contacts box - Trust me, it was hilarious.

1. Company Trip to San Francisco - In 2007, the company took another mystery trip, this time to San Francisco.  Despite a rough start to the trip – our plane had technical difficulties and my co-workers might think Mrs. Cutter and I have some issues – once we got to SanFran, it was an amazing time.