When I'm really pissed off I ignore it, knowing that the better part of me will make me look at the bright side of the predicament I'm in.
Not today. I'm presently resisting that urge to let it slide.
"Joseph Brent Songgadan Lardizabal,", you ask, "what exactly is 'it'?"
(Inhale)
The jeepney drivers of the Philippines have united again and created some wordy petitions and sugarcoated complaints with the general theme, "WE NEED MORE MONEY!"
Usually I'd understand their pleas for a fare hike because, let's face it, their job isn't exactly the one you'd want if you needed to make the 5th payment for your yacht with the built in olympic size jacuzzi.
But damn it. Circumstance just HAD to be the bitch it is at times at the WRONG fucking time.
Why?
Two Words: SPLIT SHIFT.
Just when you think that resolving extraordinary issues for equally extraterrestrial customers over the phone for 8 hours straight is bad enough, you're faced with the painfully inevitable change of having to do that exact same thing for 4 hours at different times of the day.
Yeah, yeah... 'Brent, don't worry about it... when you think of it, it's a lighter schedule, right?'
DEAD WRONG.
Sure, that's a pro, workwise. But once again, the cons have outnumbered the pros. Fatally, might I add.
Having a split shift means you'd have to spend TWICE on transportation.
When circumstance allows these two innocent changes to occur at the same time, naturally you'd have to pay a whole lot more JUST to get to a place where you'd rather not be. Which I can still stomach, I guess (And for the record I REFUSE to go to the center's sleeping quarters). But noOoOo. See, your conventional call center's automated punch-in system screws up when you have a split shift. So, there's a guarantee that you won't be getting the dinero you deserve just because some program decides to take a gigantic shit on you.
So I'm spending more money and could be getting less money at the same time. Whoopee!
Having a split shift also further nullifies any attempts to update outside relationships. The fact that my weekdays have literally been halved makes way for the other fact that the only time I would have for my girlfriend, family, long lost friends, beer, and blogs would be on weekends.
'Brent, it's a fact of life you have to get used to if you want to survive in this world.'
Okay. So first, they fire my girlfriend for some insanely vague and probably senseless (FUCKED UP is more appropriate, really) reason, THEN they only want me to see her only on weekends, when she's probably busy running her family's laundry business.
Is that part of that fact of life? Or should I be reacting like Calvin?(see strip below)
There. Once again, crisis has been presented and is inhibited in those three sequntial emotions that we are just so familiar with: Frustration, Anger, and Depression. It's just that my creative juices aren't exactly tilted into the poetic side as of the moment....
...How will it be resolved, I wonder?
(Exhale)