I'm not going to let anyone try to take advantage of me. While I'm glad I finally landed a job, I had to call the boss yesterday and tell him I have a real problem with my post assignment.
I was nice about it, of course, but when I applied for the job one of the questions on the application was about how far I was willing to travel to work. I had indicated I wasn't willing to travel more than 5 miles, which is a reasonable distance by bicycle and also well within range of two facilities where we have the security accounts.
He assigned me to a post in the next county over, some 20 miles away. This presents some transportation issues and with the price of gas these days 40 miles every day will add up pretty fast. I decided I just wasn't willing to let him take advantage of my desire for a job.
I let him know that I have a problem with traveling that far when there are two facilities right here in town that are short-handed and I could just as easily be assigned there. He said he understood and would "get in touch with me". He was out of the office when I called him, so this seemed reasonable enough. I am now waiting to see what his response will be today.
Luckily, if he decides to be stubborn about it I know of another security opening here in town that is posted through the state employment office for which I can apply so I have my bases covered either way. I am hoping he will just reassign me to a facility here in town as I would rather work for this company (they are one of the largest security companies in the country), but I have very real transportation issues to consider.
A friend works for the same security company, and she has the same account manager. She had warned me that he's something of a jerk (polite paraphrase of her exact word) and would try to take advantage if he could. I decided it would be best to just establish some boundries right up front. As short handed as the company is, it would be foolish of him to refuse to work with me on this. Especially since I have already made it clear that I don't have any requirement regarding which shift I am assigned to work. Many of the officers are available only for certain shifts or smply refuse to work certain shifts (especially the midnight one).
The posts here in town pay a little less than the one 20 miles away, but when factoring in the cost of gas to commute 40 miles per day, that part is a wash.
So at some point today I'll either be reassigned to a different post or I'll be going down to the state employment office to apply for the other opening in town. Either way I should be working here in town. I just have to do it this way, at least until I can afford to buy a car of some sort which is pretty low on my priority list right now.
Between the many many miles I have driven over the road the past several years and my experience with the wreck which left me pretty badly injured and nearly killed me, driving just isn't really high on my priority list these days.