Second Jobs

I have posted before about getting a second job. It's also one of the reasons for my scarce presence in blogland these days.

I haven't said what this second job entails, what it is I'm actually doing. I spent two months scouring the job boards. I had to find something that worked around my insane schedule. One week I'm foot loose and fancy free after 5:00pm - the next week I have kid pick up and everything that goes with having kids afoot - cooking, cleaning, homework blah blah blah blah. Retail was out because of scheduling. Waitressing or bartending was the same. I couldn't work till 1:00 in the morning and then get up at 5:00am to get ready for my real job. Working as an escort was out because I don't have the temperment. Don't laugh, I actually considered it.

So what am I doing? Market research, via the telephone, from home. I'm one of those annoying people that call just as you're sitting down to supper asking you to complete a survey.

(Hangs head in shame and listens intently as her followers drop like flies)

The thing is, I have never ever worked at a job that I'm not proud of doing. Let's be real though, no one likes a surveyer. I refuse to call myself a telemarketer because the company I work for does not sell shit. They do surveys for large companies and business - mostly customer satisfaction surveys. However, to the general masses, there is no distinction between what I do and a telemarketer.

Do you know what the other kick in the arse is? I'm really fucking good at it. I've been told by several people at the end of a survey that I have a "lovely voice" and "if every telemarketer (See? No distinction) that called sounded like you do I'd complete more of these surveys". That comment actually made me think I should be doing 1-900 calls instead of surveying. The comment was made by a woman.

The job allows me to work from home, there's no travel and I make up my own schedule. If there's days I can't work, I simply don't. Shift start and end times are at my discretion. For this reason alone the job is ideal. The pay is really decent. But I'm still ashamed to say I'm doing this. A very select few of my friends know that I have this second job.

Here's where you come in. This secrecy around this new job is playing on me. Am I being retarded? Ok ok - we all know the answer to that but am I being retarded when it comes to this? I need your HONEST opinion. I keep telling myself I could resort to theivery (I do look good in black) and prostitution to make my car payment and that would be a helluva lot worse than surveying, right?

Also, the next time you get one of those annoying phone calls at dinner, keep in mind that a "I'm sorry I really don't want to do this" is so much nicer than a "fuck you". The person on the other end of the line could simply be trying to feed her kids or make her car payment.