TLDR: I'm unemployed, struggle to pay for life expense. I managed to find a terrible job, got into an accident during work. Now I have to face a $2000 bill.
Hi there, quick warning, this might be a long post.
- A little something about me:
I'm from Viet Nam, living in Australia at the moment. I've been a lurker of this sub for a while so here's my chance to thanks to all your life advice. I graduated Bachelor of IT last December (Don't worry, that's the only thing I can brag in this post). I'm 24 so please excuse my lack of life experience. My guardians believe that I should live on my own now that I can easily get a job with a bachelor degree which understandable. I like talking to people and I have IT knowledge, what could go wrong? (Might have jinxed myself with that question)
- Before the incident:
Unfortunately, I can't get any IT-related jobs. Since I'm just a graduate, I thought I should not be picky so I applied to all fields of IT, especially simple ones such as junior roles or tier 1 customer support. Apparently, a bachelor degree is not enough to even get an interview for a customer support. Most jobs require experience (I guess that should be expected) which can be gained with internship. Most of the internship with salary is offer to Australian citizens only and owning a car/driver licence. Being a poor idiot I am, I thought not getting a car would be a good idea because I would support public service, doesn't require a car park and avoid paying for insurance + car maintenance (well, i manage to avoid one of them). Now, I do not mind taking the new trend of doing free labor for a job lottery ticket when I live with my guardians but since I moved out, I can hardly pay for my expense. I cook my own food own and use public transport or walk (like I said, this sub lurker) to minimize my expense. My only source of income is being an IT freelancer (install windows, delete virus troubleshoot software,... for my friends and friends' customer) and doing short-term casual jobs: housekeeper, warehouse worker, pork roller seller. The salaries are usually $15/h so they're quite nice. I don't hate this type of work but I don't want to waste 3.5 years I spend in uni and I love working with computers. I can spend all day/night typing on Words, writing functions on Excel and coding on Sublime or Notepad++. Beside, I'm physically weak and I want my boss to get the best product or most efficient service so I tend to introduce my friends to the job if they are more suitable or help the owner looking for more employees. Yes, I'm a bit stupid when it comes to that but I plan to work temporary and I don't want my employer to spend time training me just so I quit a month later. Plus, it tends to end in good terms between me and my employees.
- Where things go wrong:
So I got hired by the coffee shop owners on the train station (sorry if it is vague, I want to keep their identities secret for now) to works 3 days a week, the job requires me to resupply items from the storage, making sandwiches, and cashier. Once I started working there, they added to the list of job requirements: making coffee and helping the owner with her shopping. By helping with shopping, i mean pushing Wollies trolley containing huge amount of cheap shop supplies from Woolies to the shop to sell with higher prices. All those for the sweet sweat salary of $12/hour. She also told me to lie that we were paid $18/hour whenever the station employees ask about it. Me, being the idiot I am, offered to work for $11/hour on the 1st week because I was still in training. I also told her that I can work 5 days a week. When I worked for them, I got yell at frequently: Why can't I work as efficiently as the guy who worked there for months; why can't I remember all the prices in the shop after the 1st day even though they didn't let me stay to note down all the price (I asked for the shop price list, turn out they just memorize it); why did I give the normal price when she want to jack the price up (the victims usually are white people or anyone who might be late for their train); I'll never stop being poor if I stay this stupid (It's funny hearing from her but in a way, she ain't wrong, still a strange way to start a conversation though). I'm used to the common criticism but this place makes me miss working at retail. In that one cursed week, I got into an accident (next part), I broke my phone, got a backache (first time), charged multiple times to my opal card for entering and leaving the station due to "helping with shopping". I lost 10 times the amount of money I earn during that job. In the end I got fired after the owner ask me to work on weekends, too. I refused because I said that I can only work 5 days a week and I want to spend those 2 days working as an IT freelancer. She told the other employee I was too much of a lazy piece of shit to work on weekends.
- The accident: (To reduce the exhaustion and annoyance of this long tragedy, I'll try to make this more entertaining for you)
During 1 of the time I have to push the overweight...eerr.... I mean, "plus size" trolley cart from Woolies (yes, for that ^ job), I encountered her, that special someone who would change my life forever. She was driving a Hyudai, such a fine choice for a fine women. I sweated nervously (or maybe I was just tired AF) as I push the cart across the road. She stopped, right in front of the pedestrian crossing, staring at me intensively (probably wondering why is this guy pushing a cart double his size).
As I was pushing the cart over the ramp, the cart (being such a bro it is) tried to create an opportunity for me to talk to her by started turning 90 degree to the right and start pushing me back to the road. As if destiny tried to brought us together, she stopped her car exactly right behind me. She could just continue driving. She could simply wait for me to finish getting to the other side. Despite all of those options, her heart told her to move EXACTLY 3 meters and stopped so I may uncontrollably fell to her vehicle embrace. My heart skipped a beat (fearing my boss fruits, 3 bags of Woolworths bread, 5 packs of ale and 40 bottles of Dare would fall off the cart) as i heard the cart hitting something behind me. I turned around to find out that the trolley had given her car a hickey. Most of the item on the trolley tried to escape thanks to the love pump. Surprisingly, none of them touch the car (Thank god! I wouldn't want to scratch that precious Hyudai with the banana, or worse, the breads).
I pulled and push the cart over the ramp while wondering why did this car choose to stop right here. Behind me. On the pedestrian crossing of all places. Suddenly, she rushed out of her vehicle with that concerned look on her basic face, walked toward me, checking if her car was alright. As I turn around to collect the fallen item, I was welcome with her bosom (okay, just kidding, she was pointing her ass at me). There's something about her give me this familiar tingling sensation. It took me only a second to realize she reminded me of every single woman who asked to see my manager. Being the law-binding citizen I am, I chose not to book it (by now you can probably guess my ability to make horrible life decision). After I finished collecting everything, I noticed she took out her phone. I hope she's not doing what I think she's doing. Mustering up all her courage, she open her dried lips to ask me those magic words "Can I have your number?". It was at that moment, ladies and gentlemen, that I knew, I was fucked. There are not many moments in a man life when a woman ask him this question and brighten his entire fucking week. This... is not one of those.
Looking at the dent, it was hardly noticeable as it took her forever to see it. You may think that any sane person could just use a hair dryer or hot water or a plunger to simply fix it but this woman is not any normal person. She's a special snowflake adding to my already frozen body. She started asking me about my insurance company, I gave her an unwelcome smile and foolishly replied I don't have one and I immediately regretted my answer. So you see, that's where the trouble began. That smile. That damn smile. Realizing there's something special between us, she continued this breathtaking conversation by getting to know more about me. Again, the opportunity of a woman voluntarily learn more about you to occur very rarely and if I memory serve me well, I am about to lose a lot of money again. The guilt of falling my job and making someone else beside me miserable from this terrible job drove me to give her all the information she need with a friendly attitude and hoped she has mercy on me. Of course, like always, there was none. She said good bye with a promise that she will contact me via her insurance company. My facial expression changed, from being sad to disconnected. Her ephemeral existence was no more. I could still feel her grin as she drove away. After work, I spent the rest of my miserable day thinking about the woman I met at noon.
- Fallout:
2 days later, her company called me, ask me for more information. I told them the story (without all the cheesy craps I put in here of course) but half-way through it, the connection was lost. I tried to call them back but it was a private number. My phone broke during work the day after. Strangely, there wasn't a single call from them when I bought a new second-hand one.
2 weeks later, the company, which turn out to be NRMA (Do I get any money from marketing?), send me a letter on behalf of their precious client. They want to hold me responsible for the dreadful and life scarring incident I inflicted upon their respectable client and her fragile Hyundai during that motor vehicle incident. Being unemployed with only $150 left in my pocket, I try to reply to the email in the letter they sent me. I manage to finish the full story this time and try to stop thinking about it like the rest of my self-doubts and problems.
Today 15/5/2018, I found the letter from NRMA asking me to pay $2018 (I guess their humor is a bit more sadistic than mine). I'm currently owned my friend $300 and still unemployed. I can't pay for a lawyer if I want to bring this to court. So I decide to stop being a lurker and ask for your wisdom to guide me through this dark time.
Submitted May 15, 2018 at 09:53AM by anhquan0707 https://ift.tt/2Ijz1yy
