Cleaning House

While I wait for the career fairy to come back out of hibernation, I continue to look for employment opportunities outside my field. Before we moved here, I had fantasized about doing something completely different with myself for awhile, maybe working in a coffee shop or a plant nursery or something kind of fun like that.

I had no idea that “something completely different” would end up being sitting on my butt all day playing Farmville, which (surprise, surprise) turns out to not exactly be emotionally or financially fulfilling. (But it is indeed very different for me) So needless to say, I’m ready to return to my career. Due to the state of the economy in Australia – and probably our neighborhood, which thrives on tourism – and probably my immigrant status, I’ve had trouble even finding work at a coffee shop. Or at a grocery store. Or anywhere. Somehow I'm simultaneous under- and overqualified for such positions, as the only non-geology/environmental experience I have is:
a short stint at Subway - I mean really short
a short stint at Chucky Cheese - only a summer
a much longer stint as the Queen of Blockbuster Video in Rolla! yay! (my high point)

So when a friend of Theo’s who owns a cleaning company offered us a chance to work on a job of his, we jumped at it, even though cleaning has got to be my least favorite thing to do in the whole wide world. It was what’s called a “commercial clean” meaning we would be cleaning up after the builders on a new construction. This one happened to be a ginormous home situated on a hill, with views of the Gold Coast all the way down to our area in the very south, up to the north end. The first word that comes to mind is mansion. I'm not sure what stats you have to have to qualify for this, but I think this was close enough. Eight bathrooms - including one with a double shower and double toilet. A movie/media room. A pool, spa, and sauna. Two kitchens on the first floor - the second is actually for BBQ'ing and the windows open up onto the patio/pool area. A kitchenette upstairs in case you don't feel like walking downstairs. Marble floors. Enough square footage to house every person I've ever known. It was a very modern floor plan, very open. The only odd thing about it was the choice of cabinetry. It all looked like it was from Wal-mart... actually Wal-mart of the '60s or '70s. I'm sure they were going for a retro look, but it was cheap and ugly. I was not impressed.

Theo went without me the first day, so I didn't see what a horrible mess the builders left, but on the second day our 4 person team did a lot of scraping paint off of everything, dusting, cleaning windows and frames, and cleaning floors. My lack of discipline in the area of physical exercise lately really showed itself after 10 hours and bending, reaching, and scrubbing. I was completely smashed by the end of the day.

By the time we caught our bus home, it was dark, like it had been on our way there, and we had little energy to do anything but sit and veg out. All I could think about was the people who do this every day. Especially the ones in the States, who would be doing work like this for minimum wage - or less if undocumented. How do they live like this? I remember years ago seeing a TV program about the Clinton era efforts to get welfare moms back to work. I remember the reporter going with one woman to see what a day in her life was like. She got up at the crack of dawn, left her kids at a subsidized/discounted daycare, boarded a bus that took an hour or two to get to her job, she worked all day for minimum wage, and by the time she got back it was time to put her kids to bed. And what did she have to show for it? Not much more than what daycare costs. I'm lucky to not be in that situation. I can only guess at how awful that kind of life is. In Australia, I'll probably get paid $20/hour for what I did (the regular worker gets $30). At the time of that show, she probably got $5.