So, I started another panel, a few weeks ago. Just to keep up to date, now I have Monday and Friday's Dose Response, Tuesday and Thursday are Taste, and now Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Research and Development Mal-odor. It went from "manicure money" to an official job. I'm there five days a week. That's not what this is about, really. I mean, even though I'm about to bitch on the small scale, I really love it, and the money is outstanding.
I've been doing Taste for a few years, and just picked up Dose last January. Both of those involve a group of panelists, but both are way more "individual" than Mal-odor. Like, if I show up late for Taste, I get a "look" from our boss Jian, but I won't ruin anyone's whole damn day. So, it's my (maybe bad) habit to show up a la minute.
Mal-odor is a whole other ballpark, I'm discovering. It doesn't really have to be, but the mentality with that group is really different. I've been trying to figure out why, and I saw it today, I think. It's been an ill fit, with the three of us that are "new" for starters. The group has been together for years, and are the cattiest panel there, as far as I'm concerned. There's a lot of backhanded girl-snark, which is sort of a change for me. This panel already challenges my social anxieties, by forcing me to work with a group. To explain exactly how would take a lot of space describing minutia, but in other panels, I sniff or taste, and rank on a computer or on a piece of paper, in Mal-odor, it's fundamentally the same, only we go in a hallway lined with small rooms, as a group, and the subjects that we're smelling are distributed throughout the rooms, and instead of being stationary at a computer, it involves running up and down a hallway in a choreographed dance. It's weird, and involves a lot of bumping into each other, waiting in line, apologizing, holding others up, trying not to...
Ok, that's still not what I came here to bitch about, I mean, that's one element that I'm forcing myself to deal with, but the women and their personalities... Just. Rude. Not all of them. Some are quiet, some are friendly, the two other girls that are on Taste and Dose with me, the two I started this panel with, are great, but others... All I ever hear about is how "we're only getting paid for an hour!" and no joke, if that panel runs over the hour, it's fucking mutiny. Once, the three of us were late, from Jian's panel, running to that one, and we got there FOUR minutes late, and the bitching...oh my god...they were murderous. "If you plan on being this late all the time, maybe you should drop one of the panels. I mean, we're only getting paid here for an HOUR." This is not my boss speaking. This is some bitch named Vera who thinks she runs the whole goddamned show. This is not the only woman with this attitude, just the most outspoken.
Today, one of the servers went down, and you'd think someone took a shit in the jars we were about to smell. The complaining! The outrage! We're supposed to be there from 11:15 to 12:15. Normally we get done at 11:55. By noon, half the panel were on the phone griping to someone that they would be late, or just complaining in general. In fact, I heard the oft repeated mantra "we're only getting paid for one hour!" Dude. We get paid $25 an hour, under the table. I'm just happy to be there! Sure, I'll wait for an extra few minutes, while the computers get online. In fact, I made it a point to let everyone go ahead of me, because...what the fuck have I got planned? Probably the same as the rest. Get home, eat some lunch, tidy up the kitchen...Guess what time I got out of there? 12:10. Still five minutes early, even pointedly saying "No, after you, you have somewhere important to be." The irony was lost on them all.
Life's way too short to get fluffed about shit like that. But, I suspect that a lot of these self-important bitches on this new panel of mine really honestly can't put it into perspective. I'm ok with that. I'll go last, still get out early, get paid for my hour, and smile, knowing in my heart that I'm not going to be on blood pressure or anxiety meds when I'm 40.
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