Last night at work, I resumed additional duties at the 8th grade building. The new employee - a woman in her 50's or early 60's - was there for 2 days before she decided she couldn't hack it anymore. When I arrived on campus, the first thing I had to do was meet her so she could give me her building keys. Before she left, she asked me if I could clean the building around/under 4 hours like she was asked to (it's a part-time gig). I said, "Yes, but mostly it's closer to 3 - 3 1/2 hours and it depends on the mess". I could tell she couldn't believe that.

She clearly wanted to get out of there (but wasn't rude at all) so I didn't waste time telling her what I knew would fall upon deaf ears: You'd be able to complete the task in that time after you've been around long enough to get a understanding of the building and develop a routine and you can't do that in 2 days. Maybe a week at least. I don't know why you didn't leave or accept the job after you were shown the building and all of the duties involved. I don't know why you wasted our time. I don't know why you are another in a long line of people that we've given a chance for work only to have them throw the job back into our faces for a variety of reasons: You don't pull your own weight (and you should more often); You see this job as a long-term prison sentence (and it isn't); You feel this work is beneath you and you deserve something better.

As for that last point: I've worked at this job for nearly 9 years now. If I truly hated it or felt trapped, I would've left long ago. Any job that you can live off on (pay the bills, shelter and feed yourself) is NEVER beneath you; millions of unemployed people who want work know the value of that. As for deserving something better, get in line. It's been said that this is a generation of entitlement (and it's true) but that's a product of a society that inspires that thinking across all ages. If there was something that you truly were going to do, why aren't you doing it? Because you were never going to do it anyway. You'd have to bust your ass regardless.

So you look down at a job like this. And you probably can't think too highly about the people who do it for a living. Whatever. I pay my bills, my taxes. I'm able to travel, to eat, to dress myself and to enjoy the many creature comforts. There are many in this country who would like to be able to do the same. If you just wait around for the thing you want, it'll never come to you. You have to go after it and get it.

As I said before, this has happened before on the job. Lots of people came and went, giving up for similar reasons, wasting our time, causing myself or my boss to check on their work and give it another pass so that we wouldn't hear complaints the next day. If you don't understand the stakes involved in the job you apply for (even if it's just short term), you shouldn't get involved. If you do, you also shouldn't quit so easily.