What do you do? - Page 2

I am a stay at home Mom to 3 kids, My oldest is 20, she has a lot special needs. My son is 13 He is also a high needs kid. My youngest is 7 so far she seems ok. All of my children are adopted. They were all children in care. In the last few months I have been overwhelmed with more and more diagnosises with my 2 older children. I have started to go to counseling. I am trying very hard to stay strong, but dealing with the fact that my oldest will never be able to live independantly, is breaking my heart.

There are days I ask myself what it is that I do. Mostly the days where it seems like I haven't gotten anything done. (That's a lot of days...) But then I see my happy, healthy, clean and well fed toddler and I sort of remember.

So I'm a stay at home Mom and wife! I do love it! It's the job I always wanted! It's harder than I ever imagined; but it's definitely the most rewarding. Pays in hugs and wet kisses; but I'll take em!

To be debbie downer...

I'm an overworked/underpaid retail freight person. I put the merchandise out in the store after unpacking/sorting it. I relocate tables/fixtures, mark things down, etc. About 2 days/week I work in a cash wrap. 6 days a week working & can't imagine I could hate my job/life more. Slim pickings for jobs, just thankful even if I am "trapped" where I am that I have a roof over my head.

I'm on my last term of university! Will receive a Bachelor's in Fine Arts.
You can browse through my work here: www.aprilyim.com

I'm on my last term at college too, about to get a bachelor's in history. I've been avoiding this thread because I'm also looking for part time work for the summer and it's soo hard to find a decent part time job, something I don't even want to be reminded of Jake doesn't mind though..

Office Manager

Sounds like everyone here has an interesting life!

I work for the Candian federal goverment in a division of Service Canada called Employment Insurance. We are the people you go to if you lose your job and need financial support. We also have sickness, maternity, parental and compassionate care leave (6 weeks to care of a loved one at risk of imminent death).

I get the difficult and contentious issues. I review the files that had issues that could disqualify someone from payments. i am on the phone all day dealing with clients and their former employers. I usually deal with quits, fireds, self employed, etc. About 70% of the time I can allow benefits. 30% of the time I have to call and tell someone that their 1 hope of financial support has been denied.

I get a lot of screamers and a lot of criers. I can handle the screamers no problem. Can't stand the criers. I have had people threaten suicide, threaten to come in and kill staff members at front end. And many people asking how they are going to be able to keep a roof over their head and food in their families mouths. Some days are rough. But I love my job. I love to feel like I am helping Canadians.

I'm a Land Use Planner for my county. I review subdivision plans and land development plans and work with engineers and surveyors to help get those plan approved by the county planning commission. Sometimes it's a simple subdivision plan for property to be added-on to other property. Sometimes it's a more difficult land developement for a new grocery store or such. Or a 12-lot subdivision plan, which means infrastructure, improvement guarantees, stormwater facilities maintenance agreements, and the like.

Sometimes it's a great job because I feel that I'm helping people. Other times, when there's an applicant screaming at me over the phone because the plan wasn't done properly and now it has to be disapproved (and, of course, it's all my fault....naturally), I would like to go home, crawl into bed, throw the bedcovers over my head, and hibernate for a week or so.

I have to attend planning commission meetings, both at the County and at the Municipal levels. I go out on-site to review stormwater facilities for projects, sometimes with an engineer, sometimes by myself. There can be an incredible amount of paperwork. Whoever envisioned a paperless office years ago did not have planning in mind!

I do like my job, but it can get really stressful at times. And since I majored in Geography with a concentration in Environmental Planning in college, I'm lucky in that I found a job in my field.

After being outsourced from a 20 year career 5 fyears ago I started my own landscaping business. Its seasonal of course here in Wisconsin. I have commercial and residential clients. I make up seasonal container plantings, grow vegetable for small business, weed, prune,apply bark mulch, plant and also remove invasive plants. I also sell hostas and extra fruits and vegetables.

About 2.5 years ago a applied for a pt job at a artisan bread bakery. About a year ago I was promoted to retail store (operations) manager. I work on scheduling, ordering ancillary products and advise the owners on quantities of the "sweeter" items to bake as well as handling all donation/fundraising requests. I get to work the counter and fun jobs like dishes, laundry, bathroom cleaning and other stuff that needs to be done to.
Last week I got to yell at someone "stealing" several days old bread from the dumpster!
Its never a boring job.

Great Question and it is certainly so fun to see what everyone does, other than loving and caring for out cats

I do mid-day dog walking. I do enjoy it but when the weather is bad, it is absolutely no fun but most of my dogs seem to love their walks no matter what the weather. I am a very active person, so it suits me just fine. I also ride and train dressage horses. I recently sold my upper level dressage horse and taking a bit of a break of horse ownership and barn work. I am still riding two horses during the week and usually do that in the early mornings. I also volunteer at a local shelter helping with cats. Since I have been home a bit more now since selling the horse, I have been spending more time cooking, so DH is happy about that.....

I am an executive assistant, personal assistant and IT consultant. (I have my hand in a few cookie jars) lol

I drive a cab. I took the job out of desperation when I was let go fro my job at the cable company, and now I cannot imagine doing anything else. I have had to cut way back on my hours since I am now considered disabled, but I still like it. I drive mostly Marines back and forth from bases to town or to the airport, and people going to doctor's appointments. I have met some very interesting people and had some wonderful conversations.

Right now I am unemployed . When I do work I am an executive/administrative assistant. I am trying to figure out what to do next since I am not having any luck finding a job. I would like to change jobs but don't know what to do next.

I am a case worker for the elderly in our county. We are a property tax funded program providing in home services to those over 60, with the intent to keep them in their homes as long as possible, and avoid nursing home placement. It is my job to assess the clients need and set up the services for them. We provide services like home delivered meals, emergency response systems, personal care, homemaking, medical transportation, companion, benefit advocates (someone to help pay bills and apply for programs such as insurance and prescription discounts) and also provide medical equipment and home repairs for accessibility (tub cut outs, ramps). We serve appx 4,000 in our county, and I have a caseload of appx 125. Our program is often the only program the elderly are eligible for based on their needs. Passport which is a medicaid funded program requires an extremely high physical need as well as low income financial status.

It has been extremely rewarding, though heartbreaking.

Leslie

I'm a researcher at a national lab. Right now, I'm in a temporary position that's contracted for one year with the option to extend it up to two more. I'm hoping to get hired on as permanent staff at the end of this year or the next.

My specialty is running computer simulations of the transport of uncharged particles (photons and neutrons) and the response they create in detectors. Typically, my days are spent in front of my computer building models, running simulations, writing small programs to extract the mountains of data and put it in a usable format, and then analyzing it. I also have to write papers with the results, write proposals for future work, and review other people's papers. Occasionally, I get into the lab to actually test the results of my simulations, but that can be a bit frustrating since I don't do it very often. It typically takes me three days to do a measurement that one of the "lab bunnies" can do in one because I have to run around looking for equipment and then putting it into the configuration that I need.

I am a nurse, both in the civilian sector and in the Army Reserves. I'm also a full time Master's student and a soon to be mom

Wow this is fascinating! What a huge variety of different things we do!

I work in a museum as an educator, running school visits for primary aged children in a Tudor farmhouse. I spend my days dressed as a 16th Century farmer's wife!

I'm also doing a Masters in Museum Learning.

I am a banker and I dislike it right now. Its not the job but the lack of advancement opportunities at the institution I am at. What I would like to do, there is no money in it and I need that to support the household.

I am also a mom of two kids and take care of my 85 year old dad. Along with that...I have six fur babies.

Actually, I have read of many businesses that throw food out instead of donating it. There was a huge thing a few years back about how Speedway was throwing out food and the employees were forbidden to donate it to the hungry. I think Wal-Mart's hot food deli is the same.

I think its sad that so much food goes to waste.

They throw the food away rather than donating it because often it doesn't get given to the people until is actually quite stale -- and this reflects poorly on the business. This is actually quite common with bakeries.

For example if Gail's bakery donated to a shelter and then workers there asked where the food came from and the bakery was named. They would possibly not go there after seeing how stale the food is whatever. Just an example. It's sad, but businesses have to protect their competitive methods.

I'm a full time day night/night shift manager at Burger Fuel - which is a NZ owned company.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Hospitality Management in 2010 and I need to start looking for another job soon.

I'm also a Longhair Cat Judge with the NZCF and travel all over NZ judging cats!

I study 18th century Native American/ Colonial Ameican history/ ethnohistory.

@ LDG - yes I will look for a tenure-track teaching position (Assistant Professor) at a University once am done. I would like to teach and do research. In our field we have to publish a book within 5 years, among other things, to get tenure. Most people turn their dissertation into a book.

Mostly I occupy space.

I'm a teacher. I moved from Kindergarten to Grade 1/2 this year and I'm having a bit of a difficult time, despite having a pretty nice group of kids. It's been a lot of work teaching a split and a lot of learning...and I feel a bit like a first year teacher again. I also find it's harder to ignore all the "mandated" stuff in this grade, which takes away from teaching the way I want to teach. In the end though, it's a good job and something I enjoy most of the time.

I'm technically still an occasional teacher (or substitute/supply)...I'm currently covering a maternity leave. The teacher is due to return at the beginning of June, so I will be back to daily supplying. 5 years of this and I'm REALLY ready for someone to hire me.