Comments (1) Being self employed is tough, and something I still don’t totally have the hang of. Figured I’d share some more links I found useful:
From Lifehacker, some office yoga:
From Life on Michigan Avenue, 29 Ways to Stay Creative. I’m a fan of “Carry a notebook everywhere,” “Don’t give up,” and “Allow yourself to make mistakes.”
And another Lifehacker link, Top Ten Ways to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing. I need to do so much more of number four…
Really? The Tree of Knowledge? That isn't a little, um, racey?
One week ago (when it still looked like the government might shut down) I spoke with someone from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, concerning my getting fired from Neal Math and Science Academy back in September.
I was thrilled to hear form someone in what seemed like a quick turnaround. (Ahh, the slow wheels of justice…) I went over what had happened when I was fired, and she discussed what role the OCR might take in resolving this.
First, she said, they needed to figure out if they were claiming jurisdiction. Because you can fire someone for being trans (at the Federal level) she said they would approach it as sex discrimination, because you can’t fire someone for not looking ‘enough like a woman.’ (And that’s kind of what discussion of ‘too big hands’ or ‘too deep voice’ boils down to.) However, she said she’d need to kick it up to her supervisor, since it was unclear how my being a sub-contractor of a sub-contractor might impact the DOE’s jurisdiction.
I’m sure as hell hoping they do claim jurisdiction. The woman I spoke with said that – if they do claim jurisdiction and then find evidence of wrong-doing – they can require the school district to take appropriate action (training, updating policy, etc) to make sure the problem is resolved.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but also thinking about how I want to handle things if the DOE says “Sorry, can’t help you.”
The class I was supposed to start teaching today – the one to take the place of the class of discrimination and firings – was canceled because of the snow. It’s now supposed to start next week, but I’m beginning to wonder if the God of Teaching doesn’t want this class to run…
This morning, I went to interview with a temping agency in Chicago, to get my resume and info on file for possible temp jobs in the future. This wasn’t something I was excited about doing, but I’m trying to leave myself open to all possibilities for earning money without returning to a fulltime job. I really love the flexibility and creative time I have (for example, I’m currently writing this in a Starbucks, having just come from a yoga class at my gym) but want to be back on slightly firmer financial footing.
The interview process was a new experience for me, coming as I have from primarily non-profit and arts organizations. I was warned beforehand by friends about the ‘proficiency tests’ but they’re really more ridiculous than I expected. MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint mockups, with different tasks like “Open file X” or “Set the template for this document to Y.” Unfortunately, you only had two tries for each instruction, meaning some things I’m sure I could have figured out I still ‘failed’ because I didn’t get them right immediately. Even so, I got 86% right on Powerpoint, 96% right on Word, and 97% right on Excel. That last one, according to the woman who interviewed me, “never happens,” so that felt nice! I also got “really high” typing scores of just around 100 WPM for straight typing, and “very good” and “excellent” typing scores for alphanumeric data entry and pure numerical data entry, respectively.
That said, because I’m teaching Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the temp agency said I might have trouble getting assignments, as there aren’t a ton of one-day assignments these days. But we’ll see!
This is not a political post.
When did I shift my concept of transitioning from “running away from male-ness” to “running toward femaleness”?
At what point does an emigrant become an immigrant?
It’s sort of a silly question, because they’re both always true, and both a matter of perspective. One emigrates from their home country (from the perspective of that country) and immigrates to their new country (from the perspective of their new country). It’s not like there’s a map of the Atlantic ocean with a line down the center, immigrants on one side and emigrants on the other.
At the same time, it’s an important question exactly because that perspective becomes a part of our identity. Am I going away from somewhere, or to somewhere else? Or both? Or neither?
Today seemed to be a day of small victories, and the seeds of larger accomplishments.
First, I got a job interview! I haven’t talked a ton about my dissatisfaction with my current job. I’ll write a longer post at some point, but the short version is that I’m ready to move on. In spite of my job’s laid back atmosphere and a number of really great coworkers, there are some things about it that are driving me nuts and I think it’s time for something else. So on Monday I’ll be having a phone interview with another arts organization in Chicago for an admin position. Nifty!
I’ve started looking for a new job. This was an extremely hard decision for me to come to, as there are lots of things I like about my current job: I’m working in the arts, I really like my immediate coworkers, it’s a pretty laid-back office environment, I have some nice perks (like free classes), and I’m damn good at it. But the drawbacks have started to feel like they outweigh the positives. Namely, my bosses and the fact that I’ve been there since before transitioning, and feel trapped in that history of my pre-transition self.
Today, though, I’m going to try and start thinking about looking for a new job as an opportunity to look for something, rather than run away from something.
mundane
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