Hello my readers, I've quit my job August 31, 2017. I held my mobile x-ray technician job for 2 full years without any real vacation time or sick days. I was making about $21 - $23 an hour. I would make about $32 an hour for overtime. After paying two state taxes New Jersey and New York, I would only take home about $1400 on average (bi-weekly paycheck). If I was lucky, I would be seeing $1500. If I covered for someone else's day(s), the most I would see is right under $2000. Long story short, it's about $50,000 - $55,000 a year.
Well, the truth is it was really something. It was Hell on Earth to have to wake up, get out of bed, drive to some random nursing home (30 min - 3 hours) and take some x-rays for a patient or two. You think that's all? Nope, sometimes the same facility would call up to 3 or 4 times in any given day. Basically, the company has clients to serve that is a laundry list of over 1000 different doctors and nursing home/private home/apartments locations. I've spent 14 hours driving around from nursing home to nursing home both New Jersey and New York. They don't care if you burnout and die over this job. It's just another day, another dollar to them. To make matters worse, you're dealing with patients and the social environment is always set on SENSITIVE. Patients have family, nurses, doctors, etc. surrounding them all the time. You have to be very careful not to upset anyone or else they can kick you out. In a nut shell, you have to possess all the time in the world, be able to work with people and patients, take x-rays, drive around everywhere in all kinds of unimaginable weather and conditions, take care of the van and equipment, and come home late at night. They also wanted us to perform EKG's as well. Unfortunately, some of these nursing homes don't have EKG's onsite and will hire a mobile service. For whatever reason, they don't want an EKG onsite probably because they want to rack up more charges on the patient's medicare/medicaid bill to make more money for business expenditures. Whatever the reason is, it's really f*cked up. I would drive up to 11 different locations in any given day of the week. On average, it's about 8 nursing home. If I was really lucky, I'd only have to do 6 minimum. Each destination can vary from 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, 2 hours, and even 3+ hours. Driving around Staten Island, Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, Astoria, Uptown, and then back here to New Jersey is no easy task. After a while it makes you really, really want to quit this job. The money is decent for a recent grad, but it's just not worth it anymore. I've paid all my student loans and the mortgage for the home I'm currently residing in. No, I may not have my own place; but I can get out and find an apartment for about $1000/month here for myself if I really wanted to. Sometimes they would send me to a place and the patient wouldn't even be present. Basically, I would drive around, sit in traffic, and look for someone who didn't even give a f*ck. I'm sorry, but I can't do a job where the other person doesn't even care about himself/herself to even show up. To make matters worse, the roads and the traffic are just bad. It's New York traffic, the worst on the planet. I just couldn't deal with all the drama and baggage anymore. I'm glad I left.
I am thankful that I wrote my letter of resignation. I am thankful that I submitted my letter of resignation. I am thankful that I executed a prompt exit strategy without anything or anyone blowing up. I am grateful for such an opportunity, the bounty I have received with having a job, and continuing with my life having just quit after two years.
So what's life after you quit the grind? I mean, I've been so accustomed to just wake up, walk out of the door, work all day, and come home late at night. I've been conditioned to be a robot and respond to text messages on my phone for assignments. Well, it looks like it's up to me to use my imagination and creativity to figure out how I want my "new life" to be setup and lived accordingly; or would I just prefer spontaneous randomness? I guess it's a mixture of two as life is always changing. What I don't want to see myself doing is playing video games all day that is unless I'm streaming, amass a large audience, and make money off of it. Yes, back to making money. What the hell am I going to do for money? Now, I work at a local urgent care center, not to far from my home. I have been given only 2 days a week, but I'm happy with my hours for now. No, I'm not making mad money as I use to; but I feel much more comfortable and caring for my situation. There's a large deal of emotional intelligence that goes into all this that needs to be respected. Do you want a job that pays a lot of money but will make you miserable; or do you want a job that pays less that you'd actually enjoy or at a minimum "like". I wouldn't know that myself unless I've actually done it, and I have. My last mobile x-ray job did give me a jolt of more money for what it's worth, but I hated it. I hated waking up to any given day when I was on call. Spending my time to drive to some dingy nursing home was the last thing I ever wanted to do on this Earth. I don't even like visiting my grandma, how is it possible I'd enjoy seeing other elderly people? It was a living hell hole. I'm glad I'm gone.
So I left my old job that was paying me a livable wage, and now I'm currently working at a local urgent care center for two days a week. Please, enough with the make more money thing 24/7. I hated it okay? If I can provide a service or product to potential customers and buyers that I actually like doing, it'd be well worth my time. I really want a positive attitude facing the challenges of holding onto a job. I don't want to step into a nursing home for work and be like "I don't want to f*cking be here". I want to play things off my positive emotions and attitude and not have to be so disgruntled and negative towards my job environment. I would have a much better time and life doing something I like than doing something I hate. What is money worth if you are miserable doing the job you hate? I'd use that money to find or educate myself to do something I prefer and/or actually like doing. I'm very grateful for leaving my old mobile x-ray job. I am thankful for the paychecks that have come in for the past two years. I will try and make the best of my time here. I will not consider going back into a field I'd hate just for the money. I want to have a positive attitude and make money all at the same time.
Thank you for coming and reading my blog. I can't thank my audience enough. Until next time!
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