Second jobs?

I tried this last summer. Thought it would be good to pay off debt. Ended up at an overnight job since I work basically a 10-6 at the paper except for one night a week. So it pretty much had to be my weekend and no more than 2-3 nights a week. At first it was fine, but then I couldn't sleep and I was spending what little free time I had at home trying to nap. I quit after about three months. I hadn't really made that much and I think it would have done me in after a while. But that's just me maybe.

If you're young and don't have kids, it might work better for you.

 

Consider working with a local temp agency like Express Personnel, Manpower or Kelly. It can be hit or miss, but it doesn't hurt to look into it.

 

When I got divorced, I needed a second job to pay my child support to the ex.

I work at a weekly paper, which calls for me to be in the office all day two days a week, half a day one other day, and for the rest of the week, I am out in the field covering games, writing features, etc.

That has left me four other days to work at a grocery store stocking produce. Do I enjoy it? Not particularly. I often think what else I could be doing with those 32 hours per week. But it pays my support, and that's the No. 1 priority. I've been doing it for 11 months, and with the exception of being a little tired every now and then, it has not been as awful as I imagined it would be when I started.

 

Refs that make good calls tend to not be harassed.

When I blew a whistle, there were a couple refs that I knew going in would give me a tough game because they would just blow one call after another, and the hate coming from the stands would make its way towards me.

 

Second this. A buddy of mine at the ex-paper made more money off his days of subbing than his regular desk slave wage after a couple months.

I always found it frustrating that a professional job, requiring either college degrees or hefty commiserate experience, long hours and a high degree of personal efficacy, paid such abysmal dick wages, even for folks who'd been plugging away at a paper for some time. As a kid out of college, I (perhaps naively) didn't mind the $9-$10 starting wage. But when I looked around and saw dedicated guys in the newsroom, who'd been there five years and still weren't even pulling down $30,000...I don't know. That's pretty appalling to me.

It's not about the money but, when it's a matter of not being able to pay your rent on time or buy groceries every week without a second job, it becomes about the money.

 

I don't know. I've been to enough h.s. games where I feel like some asshole parents think they are "helping the team" by riding the officials. The quality of the officiating is almost irrelevant to them.

 

I agree. Like the dads that stand behind the hoop and count 3 seconds every possession.

 

Man, I would stop the game and call the cops.

Most of the leagues have codes of conducts for fans.

 

Nowadays, you have to have worked there at least six months before you get insurance. Not to mention, you also have to work there at least 20 hours a week. </says the guy who has a friend who works at a Starbucks in British Columbia>

 

I don't care whether it's a typo or a Freudian slip, it's a lovely word choice.

 

Glad to see a lot of responses, and helpful ones at that. Was worried when I started the thread that it'd draw crickets, but I think it's something that's coming up with other writers I've been talking with.

And absolutely, substitute teaching is nearly ideal -- in my area, you get a call at 6 a.m. and can simply decide to take the job or not, as flexible a schedule as you can ask for. Unfortunately, my two closest counties have too many current and former journalists already lined up, so they're not hiring subs until the fall ...