Perpetual Ruminations

Tuesday

Another full day coming to an end. Both Rhonda and I had today off, so we enjoyed sleeping in a bit, but still got up early enough to enjoy the cool morning. We had coffee on the patio, then called and set up an interview with another prospective employee. While we got ready, he called back and said he had taken a different job. Kind of odd, to find another job in about an hour.

It's just my opinion, but I think that many of these people who put in applications for work, then don't ever return calls, or leave numbers other than their own, are just fulfilling the requirements of applying for work to stay on unemployment. If I knew of a way to verify this suspicion, and to turn them in for cheating the system, I would. It is just a big waste of my time.

There are some who just don't even fill out the entire application, or indicate in their applications that they are not likely candidates to hire. These don't bother me, because they don't take up much time. It only takes a couple minutes to look through an application and see that the person didn't take any time to answer, and did not care if they were hired or not. But the ones who fill out the entire application, indicate they are serious about working, but don't even call back, well they just waste a great deal of my time and energy.

It's like this, I get the application back and look through it. If it looks like the person is serious about filling it out correctly, I check past work history, and contact references. If things still look and sound good, I call and set up an time to meet and do an interview. I have already invested at least an hour or more in the person, so if they do not return my call, it's been a complete waste of my time. Yes, I do call a few times, just in case they do not get my message. What's even worse, is they leave a phone number that is not answered at all, but the persons name for the voice mail is not the same as the person who applied.

Sure, they may not have a phone and need to use a message phone, and this is fine. But I'm talking about getting someone's voice mail that I have no idea who they are. I leave a brief message as to who I am and why I'm calling, and to have so-&-so return my call. Only I never hear anything back. It makes me wonder if they even know who so-&-so is. It gets worse, too.

There are those who do call back, or answer when I call. They take up another ten minutes while I talk to them and set up an interview. This means I need to schedule my personal activities around the interview time, since I have to do them on my time, not at work. Then they don't even show up. That's the case with the person today. I was suppose to meet them yesterday, but they did not show.

When I got home, they had left a message, so today I gave a return call and granted them a second interview. Then, while taking to dogs out right before I leave to go in and meet him, he calls back. This is about one hour, or less, from when I called and set up the time to meet. Their is no message, just a notice that I missed the call, so I call him back to see why he called. That's when he tells me he took a different job. What, in just under an hour? Like I said, I think it's someone who has to apply for so many jobs a week to keep getting unemployment, and has no desire to take any job at all, until the unemployment runs out.

Anyway, now that I vented on that pet peeve, I should get back to my full day. Since I didn't have the interview, I took a little longer to get into town and buy the rest of the stuff we need to finish the patio. We just want to put a privacy section up around the area and needed a little more mulch and sand. So, two hundred bucks later we have all the items we need and are trying to stuff four by eight foot sections of privacy lattice into our mini van. It's about two foot short for them to fit, but they are flexible enough to bend and fit. They are also just as wide as the inside of the van, so it's a tight squeeze to get them in. Where the seat fits in, it is a little to narrow to fit them, so we put all the boards on the bottom and then the panels in just barely being in the four foot wide area. It was tight but they fit. One more inch long or a half an inch wider and they would not have gone in.

By the time we got home it was too late to start on the project, so tomorrow will have to do. We both have tomorrow off, too, so it should work out fine. Then, once this part is done, all we have left is to put the pond in. We will have to get a few patio blocks and edgers to cap off the wall around the patio, but that can wait a bit, too. Hopefully by our next paychecks, we can get the pond liner and get that installed, and maybe even get the blocks to cap the wall. Then, we will have the entire project done; the patio, the privacy wall, and the pond.

Now, it's time to go out and enjoy a fire, then off to bed. Tomorrow will be another full day, and I need to get up and get started early.