A sign of the times

The project I am on really sucks, and I let the agency know I would be gone at the first opportunity. The first opportunity, by definition, would be something with a higher rate, more hours and/or a longer projected duration. While I am not normally a big fan of jumping -- I had been in this business for years before I first jumped from a project -- I told the agency straight up that, because I was lied to about the hours, I had no intention of staying with this project. Much to my chagrin, despite numerous projects being posted in the last couple weeks, not a single one has met the criteria for me to jump. All have had a lower rate (just by a dollar, but that's 40 bucks a week, kids). All have also been only 40 hours. And all have had a shorter projected duration.

This causes two separate reactions in me. First, I am stunned that the market is active enough that I have seen so many projects starting up in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This usually is a really bad time of year to be looking for work, even shitty work. Second, I cannot believe I am so well and truly fucked as to be entering my third full week on this project with no prospect of getting out until after New Year's. Lord, how have I offended thee? OK, never mind that -- neither one of us really has the time to get into it.

Well, here's an upside

As mentioned previously, this project is limited to 40 hours per week. This is, of course, slow starvation. No one living in the DC metro area who is not single can live on 40 hours a week. Most single folks around here can't live on 40 hours a week, especially with student loans. The cost of living is simply too high. So 40-hour projects really suck. You're making good money nationwide standards, but not by local standards. So it sucks.

The only good thing about a 40-hour week is if you can do it in 4 days. Fortunately, that is the case with this project. In fact, we can work the daily cap, which is 11.5 hours each day, and hit 40 hours at about 1:30 pm every Thursday. Some folks do that, some don't. I always aim to finish my 40 by about 7 pm Thursday, though, so I get a three-day weekend. It's a small fringe benefit, but I guess it has intangible value. Given the paucity of benefits in this work, I'll take it. It cuts my commute expenses by 20 percent, after all. So that's something.