What more can I say?  I work all weekend long.  I worked today.  I work tomorrow.  And guess what?  I even work on Sunday!

Part time jobs suck.  Making 130 dollars a week sucks.  Not being able to have any sense of independence sucks.  Heck.  I work too hard to get paid so little.  Friday started out slow, but when dinner came around, it hit where it hurts.  Why should I be slaving around at this pizza pit?  I’m better than this!  College educated, I’m more goal-oriented than half of the people there.  Granted, some of them are working on their college degrees but I’m done with mine.  Where is my ship?  Where is my opportunity?

Let me make this very clear.  I am sick on my frickin’ job!  I hate working there, making the same damn pizzas over and over again!  Hell.  The only one who really benefits from this at all is the franchise owner, who makes WAY more than the store manager.

Last night at a Toastmasters meeting, someone coined the 22nd Irrefutable law of leadership, adding to John C. Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership – The Law of Urgency.

Just how urgent is my situation right now?  I have been out of college for six years and I am still working at a stupid dead-end job.  Why do you think I joined Toastmasters?  Yes, it was to learn to communicate better.  Yes, it was to learn better leadership skills.  But there is also another reason for it.  And that is the most important one for me – networking.  This is how you get jobs.   This is how you get leads.  By knowing people.

So what good is it if I’m coaching a struggling club with the highest award in communication, with a handful of leadership experience?  Hell.  The people at the pizza pit could care less if I got my DTM.  They don’t even know what Toastmasters is, let alone what a DTM is.

This brings me to a point that I have managed to proven.  Toastmasters is made for careers, not jobs.  Toastmasters is where leaders are made, not grunts flipping burgers somewhere.

What good is advancement if the only ones who recognize that advancement are ones within the organization?  To outsiders in the world of food service, their only concern is filling the dinner orders.  There’s no advancement.  Maybe just a dime raise to spit in your face.   But other than that, it’s just a pat on the back and the common closing – “See you tomorrow”.

To any of you who have a REAL job and are in Toastmasters, you are currently reaping the benefits.  I am not.  If any of you have seen any degree of improvement in your career track, congratulations.  Enjoy that cozy raise.

Now Toastmasters does mention that table topics can help improve interviewing skills.  I think that they included this to justify the audience of unemployed and underemployed who are not thriving in their career-focused program.  I have had an interview a few months ago, and I did not get the job.  I didn’t even get a call back.  Was I lacking in any experience that they thought that I didn’t have?  It must have been, because I was very good at the interview.  Was it my body language?  Whatever it was, I just wasn’t given the chance.

What I have right now is two worlds.  In one world, I am a great leader.  I have gained a lot of useful experience from an organization that has given me so much.  And some leaders have gone out of their way to grant me the success that they think I deserve.

If only Toastmasters could pay me for such experience!  I have done just about everything that they have to offer in their Educational Program.  And have I received any form of payment?  I haven’t.

In the other world, I am a slave.  A slave to a cruel and indifferent machine that demands continuous production of gluten laden pies, consisting of tomato sauce, cheese and meat.  I am paid a pitiful pittance, and I am miserable there.  My sanity is tested to its very limit and I often think to myself:  “Is there something better than this?”

And that’s the conflict.  The two worlds don’t match.  It’s like Spiderman and Peter Parker.  In one world, he’s this amazing hero.  In another world, he’s just an ordinary guy, scraping a living by taking pictures for The Daily Bugle.

How do I eliminate the world that I so loathe?  I am sick of minimum wage and it sucks.  It kills my morale and my sanity is constantly tested.  Especially on Fridays.  What I need is a chance, and someone needs to give me that chance.

I am not talking about Toastmasters.  Toastmasters is giving me all kinds of chances that no one else is giving.  Can any employer see the same kind of potential that a leader in Toastmasters is able to see in me?  Do these employers even exist?  I’m just wondering, because I am a quasi-guru in Toastmasters leadership, and I have no other place to practice this.

So everyone with those careers, enjoy those raises that Toastmasters is able to provide for you.  In the meantime, I will be pondering, thinking, hoping and praying.  Praying that someone doesn’t see their world as too small to include a few more.  And I’ll be working on my New Year’s Resolution – Moving out of my parent’s house.

 

Muse:  Just give it a chance.

Be quiet!  I am trying and you’re not helping!

Muse:  But….

Shh!  Today’s high was 25 degrees and the silver lining was getting some shopping done.  To all of you who are content in your careers, I hope that you all have a fantastic day.

 

Muse:  If only he could see the great things that await him…. *sigh*