Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Job Hunting Bullshit
Job Hunting Bullshit
Noticed I haven't posted in a while; life'll do that to you.
Anyways, after a trip to Chicago and much general despair about the future I have thrown myself back into the job market--without much success, I might add. But when looking for a job, it's not the recession or lack of opportunity that pisses me off the most; it's dealing with assholes and their bullshit.
Because the amount of bullshit one deals with when finding a job is immense, it has become necessary in the course of human events to categorize them for my blogging ease:
No, dipshit, I didn't ask if you were accepting applications, I asked if you were fucking hiring! But, as my date has pointed out numerous times, managers love to have a backlog of applications sitting in some bottom drawer in their desk so when the time comes that some current employee has has enough of their bullshit they can pull out one of these papers and call up someone who moved on and found another job months ago. Heaven forbid anyone ever tries to call in wanting a job in the near future.
But let's say that, yes, they are indeed hiring and you come to fill out an application. You sit down, take 30 minutes to fill out the same information five separate times, take their stupid test to make sure you're not an obvious subversive, and, well, you're on your way. Chances are, that's the last you'll ever deal with those people. Yep, they want to waste your precious time and effort so you can fill out an application that will most likely end up in a dumpster by the end of the week. Or if they're environmentally conscious they'll tell you to go home and apply online so you don't waste their paper on your sorry job-hunting attempts. And remember, you don't have a job: how the fuck are you paying for all this transportation?
So perhaps my pessimism is misplaced: you came in or called or whatever and they gave you a number. Maybe it's the manager. Maybe it's the hiring associate. Maybe it's Tim the Janitor, how the hell are you supposed to know? And you're thinking, "Damn, this must be good; they probably don't give every applicant a number to call." And so you call--and the person isn't working that day, try two days from now. And then you call two days from now--and the person doesn't work this shift, try calling a bit later. So you call a bit later--and they're really sorry, but that person is really busy right now doing really important stuff. If you'd like, they'll pass your number on to them and they'll give you a call when they have the time. Two weeks later when you're living under a bridge you get a call saying they've accepted someone else for the position but "we're always accepting applications!" And that's if you're lucky; more than likely you'll just never hear from them again.
Is my pessimism still misplaced?
Never, ever, ever think for a second that someone saying they'll call you is a good sign. Maybe they'll call you and all will go well--from my experience it's way to get you to stop calling them so they can forget about you. If they haven't given you a straight answer about coming in for an interview by now chances are they never will.
Nevermind, they actually did call you back! Or maybe they answered when you called. Whatever: point is they want you to come in on so-and-so day and set up an interview. Yes! You're so close, this is it. You start planning to reimburse everyone you borrowed money from, you start thinking about how you can actually pay the cell phone bill this month. You're excited. So-and-so day comes, you go to the interview, you're looking nice and feeling great and----
"Wait, wait, you don't have two years of customer service experience?"
"Yes I do, actually. I telemarketed for about a year and then worked for Chick-fil-A and..."
"No, no, we're sorry. You need two years of customer service experience."
And then it's over. You're back at step one: find job.
Substitute whatever excuse you'd like for the above conversation: don't have a car, don't have whatever certifications, can't work this specific shift, aren't fluent in Japanese. Ideally these things would have come up before they called you in for an interview--you know, like maybe listed in the qualifications or job description. But if the world was ideal then you wouldn't be unemployed in the first place now, would you?
Perhaps these things did come up during the qualifications talk and lo and behold, you're qualified! So they'll give you a call within 24 hours or 48 hours or insert any arbitrary number of hours you like there. 24 hours comes and goes. 48 hours comes and goes. You call (see section 2: "The Contact" above for how that goes). Eventually you reach someone--maybe the person who interviewed you, maybe not. The result is the same: they didn't hire you, sorry. And stop calling us.
Why can't people call when they say they will? Why can't they be reached when they asked you to call? Why can't they tell you upfront what they're looking--and not looking--for? And heaven forbid, is anyone actually hiring and not just accepting applications?! I tell you why: they don't give a fuck. You're one person in a hundred, a thousand, a million to them. What do they care if you can't pay your phone bill that month? Hence all the bullshit--and why it's easy to want to give up despite that fact that you're mother is screaming at you to move the hell out of her basement. Normally I would end this essay with something slightly upbeat or at least a witty aside. All I can say today is: Job is hunting is like life: you're just chasing after the wind.
Craigslist has long been a go-to place for me to find jobs, even though I'm trying to break the habit due to the majority of posts being telemarketing/sales/commission crapshit jobs. Which makes sense: it's craigslist and they just need some dipshit--any dipshit--to do menial gruntwork that no other self-respecting jobseeker would do. Craigslist is for the desperate on both sides, employers and employees.
However, in my adventures on craigslist there always seems to be these crabby sons-of-bitches posting things such as the following on craigslist:
And then he has the balls to post this afterwards:
A good pressman leads by example not by command.
Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be a helluva lot of commands in the previous short paragraph. Here's a bastard using craigslist to hopefully find someone with very specific skills, a willingness to work overtime, a lot of experience, sights towards a career, and is apparently okay with being his bitch. There was a name and number posted as well, but because I try to avoid being a total bitch I left it out (besides, you can always google it if you're that concerned). But let's just call the guy who posted this Bob. Bob does note that he is short-staffed. Dear Bob: with a post like this you'll remain short-staffed! I mean the guy writes "you should be willing to learn how to do what we do the way we do it." Yeah, because anti-innovation and lack of self-direction always motivates me to apply for a job.
And then there's the dickheads on craigslist asking for bachelor degrees or higher as part of the job qualifications. Which would seem well enough--people with bachelor degrees do search craigslist for jobs--but they're almost always for shit jobs like receptionist or office associate or wiping snot off two-year-olds' noses. If I have a fucking bachelor's degree then why the fuck am I going to come in and be your gopher-lackey? I often feel very compelled to contact these companies with the reply: "Have you ever thought about why, perhaps, you currently have a vacancy for this position? Because you expect way too much for much too little."
When I'm queen of the world, these are the rules I would set down for posting a job ad on craigslist:
Anyways, after a trip to Chicago and much general despair about the future I have thrown myself back into the job market--without much success, I might add. But when looking for a job, it's not the recession or lack of opportunity that pisses me off the most; it's dealing with assholes and their bullshit.
Because the amount of bullshit one deals with when finding a job is immense, it has become necessary in the course of human events to categorize them for my blogging ease:
1. The Application
Forget the interview: first things first, it helps to know if a business is even hiring. Unfortunately, instead of a simple yes or no, jobs have become notorious for the following:
Jobseeker: Are you hiring?
Well-Meaning Asshole: We're always accepting applications.
No, dipshit, I didn't ask if you were accepting applications, I asked if you were fucking hiring! But, as my date has pointed out numerous times, managers love to have a backlog of applications sitting in some bottom drawer in their desk so when the time comes that some current employee has has enough of their bullshit they can pull out one of these papers and call up someone who moved on and found another job months ago. Heaven forbid anyone ever tries to call in wanting a job in the near future.
But let's say that, yes, they are indeed hiring and you come to fill out an application. You sit down, take 30 minutes to fill out the same information five separate times, take their stupid test to make sure you're not an obvious subversive, and, well, you're on your way. Chances are, that's the last you'll ever deal with those people. Yep, they want to waste your precious time and effort so you can fill out an application that will most likely end up in a dumpster by the end of the week. Or if they're environmentally conscious they'll tell you to go home and apply online so you don't waste their paper on your sorry job-hunting attempts. And remember, you don't have a job: how the fuck are you paying for all this transportation?
2. The Contact
So perhaps my pessimism is misplaced: you came in or called or whatever and they gave you a number. Maybe it's the manager. Maybe it's the hiring associate. Maybe it's Tim the Janitor, how the hell are you supposed to know? And you're thinking, "Damn, this must be good; they probably don't give every applicant a number to call." And so you call--and the person isn't working that day, try two days from now. And then you call two days from now--and the person doesn't work this shift, try calling a bit later. So you call a bit later--and they're really sorry, but that person is really busy right now doing really important stuff. If you'd like, they'll pass your number on to them and they'll give you a call when they have the time. Two weeks later when you're living under a bridge you get a call saying they've accepted someone else for the position but "we're always accepting applications!" And that's if you're lucky; more than likely you'll just never hear from them again.
Is my pessimism still misplaced?
Never, ever, ever think for a second that someone saying they'll call you is a good sign. Maybe they'll call you and all will go well--from my experience it's way to get you to stop calling them so they can forget about you. If they haven't given you a straight answer about coming in for an interview by now chances are they never will.
3. The Interview
Nevermind, they actually did call you back! Or maybe they answered when you called. Whatever: point is they want you to come in on so-and-so day and set up an interview. Yes! You're so close, this is it. You start planning to reimburse everyone you borrowed money from, you start thinking about how you can actually pay the cell phone bill this month. You're excited. So-and-so day comes, you go to the interview, you're looking nice and feeling great and----
"Wait, wait, you don't have two years of customer service experience?"
"Yes I do, actually. I telemarketed for about a year and then worked for Chick-fil-A and..."
"No, no, we're sorry. You need two years of customer service experience."
And then it's over. You're back at step one: find job.
Substitute whatever excuse you'd like for the above conversation: don't have a car, don't have whatever certifications, can't work this specific shift, aren't fluent in Japanese. Ideally these things would have come up before they called you in for an interview--you know, like maybe listed in the qualifications or job description. But if the world was ideal then you wouldn't be unemployed in the first place now, would you?
Perhaps these things did come up during the qualifications talk and lo and behold, you're qualified! So they'll give you a call within 24 hours or 48 hours or insert any arbitrary number of hours you like there. 24 hours comes and goes. 48 hours comes and goes. You call (see section 2: "The Contact" above for how that goes). Eventually you reach someone--maybe the person who interviewed you, maybe not. The result is the same: they didn't hire you, sorry. And stop calling us.
Why can't people call when they say they will? Why can't they be reached when they asked you to call? Why can't they tell you upfront what they're looking--and not looking--for? And heaven forbid, is anyone actually hiring and not just accepting applications?! I tell you why: they don't give a fuck. You're one person in a hundred, a thousand, a million to them. What do they care if you can't pay your phone bill that month? Hence all the bullshit--and why it's easy to want to give up despite that fact that you're mother is screaming at you to move the hell out of her basement. Normally I would end this essay with something slightly upbeat or at least a witty aside. All I can say today is: Job is hunting is like life: you're just chasing after the wind.
And a Special Aside for Craigslist Job Posts
Craigslist has long been a go-to place for me to find jobs, even though I'm trying to break the habit due to the majority of posts being telemarketing/sales/commission crapshit jobs. Which makes sense: it's craigslist and they just need some dipshit--any dipshit--to do menial gruntwork that no other self-respecting jobseeker would do. Craigslist is for the desperate on both sides, employers and employees.
I am seeking a Screen Print Pressman. You must be able to prove you know how to run an automatic press and print manually as well.
I am currently short staffed and need someone who can show up on time and stay late when needed. (we pay overtime rates for this)
We print the very best t-shirts so you should be willing to learn how to do what we do the way we do it.
If you have the skills and the knowledge to lead we can teach the rest but I need someone who is seeking a long term job, who takes pride in their craft.
Don't wast my time if you don't know anything about t-shirt printing.
The perfect candidate should look like this:
2 years or more experience running an automatic 12 color press. Is mature enough to have a good work ethic. Pays attention to the schedule and tries to meet deadlines.
Stays late to finish when its needed to make the deadlines. Helps other be more than they are. Takes instruction well, remembers instruction well
I am currently short staffed and need someone who can show up on time and stay late when needed. (we pay overtime rates for this)
We print the very best t-shirts so you should be willing to learn how to do what we do the way we do it.
If you have the skills and the knowledge to lead we can teach the rest but I need someone who is seeking a long term job, who takes pride in their craft.
Don't wast my time if you don't know anything about t-shirt printing.
The perfect candidate should look like this:
2 years or more experience running an automatic 12 color press. Is mature enough to have a good work ethic. Pays attention to the schedule and tries to meet deadlines.
Stays late to finish when its needed to make the deadlines. Helps other be more than they are. Takes instruction well, remembers instruction well
And then he has the balls to post this afterwards:
A good pressman leads by example not by command.
Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be a helluva lot of commands in the previous short paragraph. Here's a bastard using craigslist to hopefully find someone with very specific skills, a willingness to work overtime, a lot of experience, sights towards a career, and is apparently okay with being his bitch. There was a name and number posted as well, but because I try to avoid being a total bitch I left it out (besides, you can always google it if you're that concerned). But let's just call the guy who posted this Bob. Bob does note that he is short-staffed. Dear Bob: with a post like this you'll remain short-staffed! I mean the guy writes "you should be willing to learn how to do what we do the way we do it." Yeah, because anti-innovation and lack of self-direction always motivates me to apply for a job.
And then there's the dickheads on craigslist asking for bachelor degrees or higher as part of the job qualifications. Which would seem well enough--people with bachelor degrees do search craigslist for jobs--but they're almost always for shit jobs like receptionist or office associate or wiping snot off two-year-olds' noses. If I have a fucking bachelor's degree then why the fuck am I going to come in and be your gopher-lackey? I often feel very compelled to contact these companies with the reply: "Have you ever thought about why, perhaps, you currently have a vacancy for this position? Because you expect way too much for much too little."
When I'm queen of the world, these are the rules I would set down for posting a job ad on craigslist:
- If you're not desperate, look elsewhere.
- If you require specialized, uncommon skills, look elsewhere.
- If you want a fucking certified teacher to babysit at your daycare, please look the fuck elsewhere!
- If the only way potential candidates can contact you is by fax number, please buy a computer or cell phone--and use it.
- If you don't want people to call or email you, don't fucking put a phone number or email address in your post.
- And to you motherfuckers who don't want email attachments: stop. Just stop.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Atlanta
Atlanta
My mother and I moved to Atlanta, GA when I was six and a half years old. At such a young age I didn't quite fully understand the idea of city versus suburb but the concept of a neighborhood full of houses and houses only--subdivisions--completely baffled me. Even to this day they still make me uneasy. But coming from Chicago, it wasn't just the urban/suburban split that jolted me; it was the horror that is the city of Atlanta.
12 years later this forsaken place still hasn't grown on me.
Just a quick rundown of why Atlanta sucks:
Come to realize practically nothing, since the city of Atlanta has passed a ban on people under 21 entering nightclubs.
In a city where you can't learn to drive in school but using public transit makes you want to shoot yourself for lack of a car, there's no waterfronts and nothing on the caliber of Navy Pier for any real entertainment, the last thing they could have done was force the 18- to 20-year-old populace into a choice between Stone Mountain or staying their asses at home and bitching on a blog every Friday night for the next three years of their lives.
Dear City of Atlanta: please go fuck yourself.
12 years later this forsaken place still hasn't grown on me.
Just a quick rundown of why Atlanta sucks:
- Shitty public transit
- No lakes
- Nothing interesting to do/see
- No under 21 nightlife
- No real culture
- Not enough people or opportunities
- Driving isn't taught in school but a car is pretty much a necessity
- There's only one major art museum and science museum
- The only good schools are Emory, Tech, and Agnes Scott
- Chick-fil-A
- Cheaper than many larger cities
Come to realize practically nothing, since the city of Atlanta has passed a ban on people under 21 entering nightclubs.
In a city where you can't learn to drive in school but using public transit makes you want to shoot yourself for lack of a car, there's no waterfronts and nothing on the caliber of Navy Pier for any real entertainment, the last thing they could have done was force the 18- to 20-year-old populace into a choice between Stone Mountain or staying their asses at home and bitching on a blog every Friday night for the next three years of their lives.
Dear City of Atlanta: please go fuck yourself.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Really important things that cost way too damn much
Really important things that cost way too damn much
There's a lot that could fit under this category, but right now I have the following two in mind:
Anyone who has attended high school since the 21st century began can probably attest to the mantra constantly drilled into students' brains: go to college. Go to college to make more money, go to college to enhance your education, go to college to experience new things, go to college to make the right connections, go to college to meet your future spouse, go to college to escape from the parents--there's lots of reasons people go to college. Which I personally do not have anything against; I, for one, would love to go to college and fully intend to.
What I am against is the price tag.
Also important to note is that all colleges are not created equal. Of course you'd expect the local Main Street Junior College to be a bit more price-friendly than, say, Yale. (Hell, with all the endowments and financial aid they can afford to provide, many Ivy League-caliber schools are actually becoming more affordable than their smaller (read: poorer) counterparts. The trick with these schools is getting admitted.) But for the majority of us who want something more elite than DeVry but aren't exactly Harvard material, the game becomes much harder to play. I myself was looking for a writing-intensive liberal arts school, and found it in the much-respected institution of Sarah Lawrence. Price Tag: $58,700 a year--the most expensive school in the US. Of all the schools in all the towns in all the country, I choose the most expensive one.
Just to put that in perspective, here's a few other things you can buy with $58,700:
I'm not knocking the school, really--it's a great school for what I want. Lack of emphasis on grades, lots of writing, tiny student-teacher ratio, the conference system; google it if you're curious. Besides, they paid about 2/3 of the price, which was more than generous. So why am I still bitching? Because it isn't Sarah Lawrence that's the problem: it's the expectation that any school can and should charge that much for tuition and room & board. Believe me, if my family had $58,000 to spare I wouldn't be sitting here writing this.
It's ironic, really, remembering that it wasn't until fairly recently--I'm thinking post-WWII--when middle-class students started going to college as a regular thing. As the privilege of the upper-class you would expect college to be expensive, but as college has become more and more of a near expectation, it has gotten, not cheaper, but even more expensive--twice the rate of inflation, according to this NY Times article. Also according to this article is the influence of competition among colleges--yes, higher education has become a business, the dreaded B word. Hence nobody lifts a finger when a college asks for $58,000 (that's $232,000 for the whole four years, mind you).
At first my father refused to pay for my college; apparently he and mother didn't communicate well about it, but a few months later mother said they'd help. For reasons in addition to finances I still will not be attending Sarah Lawrence College. But part of moving out of your parents' house and making it on your own should be taking charge of your life, including your college. And there's no way any average high school graduate has $58,000 just sitting around for higher education. The expectation is that the parents are somehow obligated to pay for their kid's college expenses when the real expectation should be that colleges will charge a reasonable price for their services.
So where am I going to end up? GA State, most likely. To be honest, it isn't a completely shabby school; I certainly can't fault their philosophy or music departments. And although GA State's tuition plus room/board is $16,600 a year when living on campus--actually more than the amount my family would be coming up with for me to attend Sarah Lawrence this year--Georgia's Hope Scholarship will pay for the entire tuition and just over $1000 in books and random other fees, leaving me only the price of on-campus housing and $1600 in miscellaneous costs. Federal student loans can easily cover that $1600. And if I should choose to live off campus? I'm effectively going to college for free at that point. Mind you, this is even if GA State gives me absolutely no aid of their own; if they do, I'd have even more options, like paying for the meal plan. When there's a good chance you can go to a university for free, there ain't much room to complain. But having visited the school myself yesterday I can tell you one thing:
It ain't encouraging to know that money is the only thing keeping me from going somewhere better.
I know there's people out there who say that healthcare isn't a right. I've never knowingly met one so I can't actually give you a break down of how they argue that position, but where's a break down of how to argue against that position:
Anyone who believes healthcare is a privilege should try being coughed on by public transit riders or homeless people. Bet you'd be wishing they had seen a doctor about their staph infection then.
I suppose the reasoning is that people don't want their tax dollars going to treat Jose the Immigrant's cancer, or that there's already free clinics for those who need them, or that the high cost of healthcare is what keeps it high-quality. From my experiences these are all bullshit reasoning:
I woke up this morning with a horrible pain in my throat. Upon calling my doctor's office to see about an appointment, the woman on the phone promptly told me that they would appreciate it if I stopped asking them to charge the co-pay on my parent's account. (I'm on my parent's insurance because I damn well can't afford my own). The main thing stopping me from telling the woman to go fuck herself was the fact that the doctor probably will do something about my throat, especially since I went to the office a few days ago for the same problem. However, the co-pay will cost me all the spare cash I have on-hand.
They better find something really fucking wrong with my throat.
College
Anyone who has attended high school since the 21st century began can probably attest to the mantra constantly drilled into students' brains: go to college. Go to college to make more money, go to college to enhance your education, go to college to experience new things, go to college to make the right connections, go to college to meet your future spouse, go to college to escape from the parents--there's lots of reasons people go to college. Which I personally do not have anything against; I, for one, would love to go to college and fully intend to.
What I am against is the price tag.
Also important to note is that all colleges are not created equal. Of course you'd expect the local Main Street Junior College to be a bit more price-friendly than, say, Yale. (Hell, with all the endowments and financial aid they can afford to provide, many Ivy League-caliber schools are actually becoming more affordable than their smaller (read: poorer) counterparts. The trick with these schools is getting admitted.) But for the majority of us who want something more elite than DeVry but aren't exactly Harvard material, the game becomes much harder to play. I myself was looking for a writing-intensive liberal arts school, and found it in the much-respected institution of Sarah Lawrence. Price Tag: $58,700 a year--the most expensive school in the US. Of all the schools in all the towns in all the country, I choose the most expensive one.
Just to put that in perspective, here's a few other things you can buy with $58,700:
- a new Porsche Boxster ($47,600 - $58,000)
- a cheap house in Atlanta ($55,000 - $58,000)
- your own 1958 Beechcraft airplane ($30,000)
- a commerical crab boat ($49,900)
- cruise and month-long vacation for two to Europe (c. $15,000-$20,000)
I'm not knocking the school, really--it's a great school for what I want. Lack of emphasis on grades, lots of writing, tiny student-teacher ratio, the conference system; google it if you're curious. Besides, they paid about 2/3 of the price, which was more than generous. So why am I still bitching? Because it isn't Sarah Lawrence that's the problem: it's the expectation that any school can and should charge that much for tuition and room & board. Believe me, if my family had $58,000 to spare I wouldn't be sitting here writing this.
It's ironic, really, remembering that it wasn't until fairly recently--I'm thinking post-WWII--when middle-class students started going to college as a regular thing. As the privilege of the upper-class you would expect college to be expensive, but as college has become more and more of a near expectation, it has gotten, not cheaper, but even more expensive--twice the rate of inflation, according to this NY Times article. Also according to this article is the influence of competition among colleges--yes, higher education has become a business, the dreaded B word. Hence nobody lifts a finger when a college asks for $58,000 (that's $232,000 for the whole four years, mind you).
At first my father refused to pay for my college; apparently he and mother didn't communicate well about it, but a few months later mother said they'd help. For reasons in addition to finances I still will not be attending Sarah Lawrence College. But part of moving out of your parents' house and making it on your own should be taking charge of your life, including your college. And there's no way any average high school graduate has $58,000 just sitting around for higher education. The expectation is that the parents are somehow obligated to pay for their kid's college expenses when the real expectation should be that colleges will charge a reasonable price for their services.
So where am I going to end up? GA State, most likely. To be honest, it isn't a completely shabby school; I certainly can't fault their philosophy or music departments. And although GA State's tuition plus room/board is $16,600 a year when living on campus--actually more than the amount my family would be coming up with for me to attend Sarah Lawrence this year--Georgia's Hope Scholarship will pay for the entire tuition and just over $1000 in books and random other fees, leaving me only the price of on-campus housing and $1600 in miscellaneous costs. Federal student loans can easily cover that $1600. And if I should choose to live off campus? I'm effectively going to college for free at that point. Mind you, this is even if GA State gives me absolutely no aid of their own; if they do, I'd have even more options, like paying for the meal plan. When there's a good chance you can go to a university for free, there ain't much room to complain. But having visited the school myself yesterday I can tell you one thing:
It ain't encouraging to know that money is the only thing keeping me from going somewhere better.
Healthcare
I know there's people out there who say that healthcare isn't a right. I've never knowingly met one so I can't actually give you a break down of how they argue that position, but where's a break down of how to argue against that position:
Person A: Healthcare's not a right.
Person B: You're wrong. (walks away)
Anyone who believes healthcare is a privilege should try being coughed on by public transit riders or homeless people. Bet you'd be wishing they had seen a doctor about their staph infection then.
I suppose the reasoning is that people don't want their tax dollars going to treat Jose the Immigrant's cancer, or that there's already free clinics for those who need them, or that the high cost of healthcare is what keeps it high-quality. From my experiences these are all bullshit reasoning:
- Your tax dollars are going to random people's healthcare no matter what. The only difference is whether it's for Jose's checkup to catch his cancer early enough to control it or for his emergency stay at the public hospital once his cancer gets out of hand. Your guess as to which is more expensive.
- I actually tried to use a free clinic for the specific purpose of saving money on healthcare. The reality is that these clinics are full of bureaucracy, staffed by god knows who, and actually aren't truly free. Pay is usually based on your income level and includes whatever administrative fees, and you'll still have to pay for specialized stuff like lab tests or x-rays. I'm not saying these clinics don't work for some people, but at a certain point it's just more convenient to either try and get insurance or have none at all.
- Any doctor motivated purely by money is a charlatan, not a doctor. If money were their chief concern, all the people wanting to be doctors could just as easily be lawyers or research scientists or business execs or college professors or fucking drug lords if it really came down to it. As long, hard, and expensive as medical school is, I'm sure it weeds out most the students just there for the future paycheck. Not saying there aren't doctors out there who would quit if they were making a penny less, but I feel they're not as numerous as people like to think. Besides, high malpractice fees do a lot to keep doctors on their toes when compared to the salary.
I woke up this morning with a horrible pain in my throat. Upon calling my doctor's office to see about an appointment, the woman on the phone promptly told me that they would appreciate it if I stopped asking them to charge the co-pay on my parent's account. (I'm on my parent's insurance because I damn well can't afford my own). The main thing stopping me from telling the woman to go fuck herself was the fact that the doctor probably will do something about my throat, especially since I went to the office a few days ago for the same problem. However, the co-pay will cost me all the spare cash I have on-hand.
They better find something really fucking wrong with my throat.
