Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 1991)
Given the choice between daily doses of Rush Limbaugh and no job, I’ll take unemployment. This is the decision that led me to my recent state of joblessness. I was going to do deliveries for an on-campus courier service in a car with only an AM radio. The onlv thing I could get (at least on KFOR) was Rush, the conservative Repub lican from hell. I am now jobless, after a lifetime of employment. There has been a steady paycheck with my name on it for the past nine years. My first job was pouring coffee , at a retirement home. Eventually I j worked my way up to meal serv ; ing, but just as I got the hang of • that, a wonderful opportunity ! AAAAAAAAAAAAA opened up at a local grocery store. I spent nine months as a checker in a red apron. I got a little tired of trying to decipher the different kinds of produce, so I requested a change. Anne Steyer I became the first woman stocker in the history of that small store. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a whole lot of money, nor did I get many hours. So I supplemented my in come with a second job at a vintage clothing store. It was a great job, 4*4*42’^—uiaui but the Lied Center needed to be built, so they tore down the build ing. I still have the key. Then I made a great career move and found my niche. I got a job at a video store and began living, breathing and sleeping movies. I left there two weeks ago and I can’t seem to shake the movie bug. I have to go to the movies and eat, so now I am wondering whether I can part with the less listened-to members of my CD collection so I can get some cash. The obvious answer would be to find a new job. But getting a job isn’t easy, especially when you are out of practice. The last job I had, I had for six years. (This is, ofcourse, discounting the one-day love affair with Mr. Limbaugh.) I don’t really know where to look. I always seemed to fall into job opportunities, I never had to actively pursue employment. There is the Student Job Board on the third floor of the Nebraska Union, but I never see anything that appeals to me. So much of it is work study and the ones that aren’t seem mainly to be domestic and child care or kitchen work. The state also prints up a list of job openings every week, but I am never qualified for any of those. They always say “minimum two years secretarial" or “some experi ence preferred.” Sometimes an opening will sound perfect for me, then they throw a loop at the end: “ Bachelor’s degree in speech communication or equiva lent preferred." . I tried the classified ads in the Sunday paper, but 1 think I am too picky. I don’t really want to work with food. I wouldn’t mind work ing in a bar or restaurant as wait staff, but cooking is totally out of the question. I burn toast. A job as a runner for a law firm would be great, especially if I could get in with a firm that allows the runners to take on a little more responsibility than just delivering documents all over town. The contacts might be worth it, but runner jobs are impossible to get. When they are available, the competition is cutthroat. It is al most an absolute prerequisite that you know someone in the office. Actually, any office job would be OK, as long as it didn’t require a typing test. I could never pass one of those minimum 45 words-a minule exams. I type looking at the keyboard. I can’t do phone work and I can’t do any kind of canvassing. Asking for personal information or money is not my idea of a fun or fulfilling job. So where do I go from here? I could give plasma but 1 have a fjiant fear of needles and I don’t ike the vacuum feeling I get when they draw blood. I can’t even imag ine the feeling I’d get when they put the plasma-less blood back in. I could do a Harris Labs study, but I’m not over 45 or post-meno pausal. I am also not a male 19- to 45-years-old. I guess I don’t qualify f— .... u. t „u ivyi an j i lanu i-aiy vy p ^yvy i iu i uti v\y< Maybe I should maintain this state of joblessness. It requires far less energy to be poor than to look for a job. I can always live off my CD collection if 1 have to. But if I sell all my music, I’ll have to listen to the radio. Of course, Rush Limbaugh then would infil trate the FM dial. Steyer Is a junior English major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. Working beats unemployment, entrepreneurship By Bryan Peterson Senior Editor You can read elsewhere in this issue (p. 7 for instance) about all the jobs I have had. But there have also been times when I have not had a job. At first, being jobless always feels great. There are no hours to keep, no uniforms to wear, no alarms to throw against the wall. But after awhile, the money runs out, and you have to start borrow ing and scrimping and saving. A few weeks of that, and being out of work, gets to be more work than actually having a job. Just recently, I tried the other ex treme. Being tired of working for other people, I opened my own business with a partner. It con sumed my entire summer but has been quite rewarding. However, I am not only not getting paid, but have found that owning a business is of course even more work than working for someone else. Either way, it is more work than 1 want to do. ^ vv V V V V’ I For unique gifts: 5 ^ Stocking Staffers, s «| Books, Toys, J ft Games and 3 ^Stuffed Animals... ; Visit s ft The Museum s I Shop _ ? g at Morrill Hall « ft 206 Morrill Hall, City Campus & Open TueS'Sat 9:304:00; Sun 1:304:00 '4t0i0!0i0*jwyf December 14 9!3°-1:0° aisfifaissssrs - (Friday, 1 4 pm • I Infant/Toddler Races Obstacle Course Jello Eating Contest Soccer Shoot Volleyball Serving Frisbee Golf New Games And much more! ■■ 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament Slam Dunk Contest Powerlifting Meet TV Marathon Wallyball Tournament Table Tennis Volleyball And much more! Sponsors Office of Campus Recreation Adventure Golf Center Amigos Domino’s Fanatics Hamburger Patty’s Pepsi Paper Parade TCBY ' Weaver’s 3RD ANNUAL Some tournament play begins at 4pm Intramural Events: Wallyball Tourn, Hackey Sack, Frisbee Skills No Pre-Registration Required! “Greetings, conversationalists across the fruited plain, this is Rush Limbaugh... Amie DeFrain/DN Scribbling much better than working By Mark Baldridge Staff Reporter When I was a senior in high school, I got a little career counsel ing. They told me that I was wast ing my talents scribbling away in my notebooks, which is the only thing I’ve ever been any good at. They said that what I should really be is an indentured servant. I said I wanted to keep my own teeth. I think it is no accident, no mere coincidence, that the Biblical char acter most plagued by God — the one whose life most approximated Purgatory — was named Job. One suffers with the patience of Job. Undergoes the trials of Job. I know I do. And judging by the crankiness of my colleagues, I’m not the only one. Let’s see... there are 24 hours in a day, right? If I spend eight of them at work, polishing the telephone — anything, just so I look busy — that’s a third of my day. Why, if j. work my whole life, that’sa third of my life! Of course it’s not really a third. There are weekends. But 1 dont supposel really havetocountthem if I don’t remember them when they’re done. Then there are two weeks vaca tion and odd days off—sick-leave. There arc the long stretches be tween jobs: unemployment — and worse. Looking for work is worse than See BALDRIDGE on 7