Public transportation. Sounds like a good idea, but its rarely implimented properly. Especially around the Philadelphia region.Here's a perfect example: I don't have a license because it costs to fucking much to pay for insurance around here. So I rely on SEPTA to provide transportation to and from college, and anywhere else I need to go that I can't get a ride to. Well on campus a UPS rep tried to get me to start a part time job working at the UPS Phila Air Hub as a package handler, because they provide tuition reimbursment.
So I figured I'd check it out because I needed a little help with paying for my tuiton. She was all like, yeah take SEPTA, they go right to the hub, what she didn't tell me was that it would take 3 buses and 3 hours to get to the hub!!!
In a car, it would take at most an hour to get there, but with SEPTA it would take almost as long as it would take for me to walk there? I'm sorry, but that's just fucked up.
So I basically told UPS to shove their part time job, because there is absolutely no sense at all in busting my balls and spending 6 hours or more a day on public transportation for 3 hrs of work, that pays only Ű.50 per hour, and provides only ū grand a year in tuition reimbursment!!!
When I worked it all out, including the time spent traveling and paying for septa fares, it would be equivalent to earning slightly over ũ.75 per hour. Thats like a slap in the face considering the type of work they'd be expecting me to do! Its like working fulltime job and getting paid for less than 1/4 of your hours. Then when am I supposed to study and have a life?
On top of that you're not really getting Ű.50 per hour because the fucking teamster's union is gonna rob you of ษ per week of your 财 gross pay before taxes in union dues!
Then they have the gall to advertise that they offer benefits for part time workers when none of us would have made seniority before the end of the year, would have probably been laid off, and even if not, would not have been eligible for any benefits until about 8 or 9 months after starting working.
What pissed me off even more was the way the interviewer at UPS was talking down to all the new recruits saying things like, I've got ŪG invested in you already you should be priviledged to work for a company with as good a reputation as UPS, and I don't care if you find out that it won't work for you, as if he was the only person that was putting out initially. What kind of way is that to talk to broke college students who are giving up a good portion of their already busy day to investigate something that isn't gonna put a single penny in their pocket because you've made promises you can't keep!!
So in general, if something sounds good it probably isn't, and if a recruiter asks you to work for their company and is offering all kinds of so-called college aid, make sure you check it out, because there's almost always a cloud in the middle of their silver lining.
Now its back to the old job search. Fortunately that wasn't the only option that was open to me, I might be able to get in on the Work Study program on campus.
To give you an idea, if I had started working for UPS, my typical day would have looked like this: get up at 6, get ready for school and walk 1.5 miles to 69th street station (its faster to walk than take the bus) take the bus to campus get to campus at 9 AM, start clases. Grab something to eat between classes, get done at 2. get on the bus to 69th street, get on bus # 2, go to PNC building near the airport. Wait 45 mins for bus # 3, get to UPS hub at 10 after 5, start work at 5:30 if its a training night, els at 6, get done at 9-9:30, hopefully catch the bus at 9:30 so I don't have to wait till the 3:00 bus to take me back to 69th street, get back at either 11:00 or 4:30, walk home (no alternative, the bus that goes by my house doesn't operate at either of those times) get home grab something to eat and crash, repeat cycle next day. What kind of fucked up way to live is that?
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Old farts never die, they just get blown away.
