No Good Deed

For the next two weeks, I'll be reaping the benefits of my hard, quality work; an hour long commute to corporate headquarters where I'll be grinding through mind-numbing work for the HR department all day without stopping. Normally, I have a good bit of free time on my hand or at the very least, no one constantly watching over my shoulder to make sure I'm on task. This affords me a few liberties to check emails, other websites, and write at my leisure (and pass the benefits on to you guys). Not so for these next few grueling weeks. I'm not only sharing an office with my temporary superior, but the work itself is the very definition of boring; grinding through hundreds of resumes written in the language of corporate BS to fill positions I don't fully comprehend for a contract I'm not allowed to understand.

How did this happen, you ask? Well, you see, I made a big mistake. I unintentionally 0broke the first law in the Slacker's Guide to Easy Living (coming soon!). If You Don't Want to Do Something, Do a Poor Job. I was asked to help the HR department fill some positions that had opened up through the company by wading through some online resume sites. This work is, as I said before, mind-numbingly boring, so I made every effort to do poorly...you know, because I'm not exactly cool with spending 3 hours a day torturing myself. I thought I was doing a poor job, but no matter how much I tried to fail, the HR department kept applauding my work. Day after day, I received nothing but praise. Finally, I got an email yesterday (Tuesday) saying that I would be spending the next two weeks doing this work at corporate until we had filled all the open positions. Lucky me.

My first day was today. Good, sweet Lord, I thought I was going to die. I don't see how people put themselves through this kind of thing day after day. Furthermore, I don't see how companies put people through this and expect loyalty and happiness from their people. The thing that sucks most about this isn't the wearisome work, but the fact that I'm not getting paid any more for this. Nevermind the fact that I'm driving 2 hours and 16 extra miles to the office each day to do work I'm not exactly cut out for. The only possibility for extra compensation is if I'm forced to work weekends (which is a distinct possibility). I can't think of any way to spin this into a positive...I can't conceive a way to take advantage of the situation. All I can do is endure and hope that this is over soon. ARGH!!