Prior to the start of my guard duties, I was already hearing horror stories of how the ICTs are being mistreated by the active soldiers, such as throwing horrible emplacements for them to cover, getting threatened with charges for the smallest mistakes and in general just being a prick to the all the reservist personnel, which has never been an issue when I was still an active solider, so a lot of shit has changed since the last time I went back.
Thankfully, my reservist commanders were nice enough to help us speak to the active commanders and that really helped us a lot in terms of the emplacements we were assigned to guard.
Originally, I wasn't really too bumped about being place in this particular guard house to do my sentry duties because the last time I came back, all the active soldiers I was paired with were all friendly and open to conversation, the 6 hour shift was a pain to go through, but the active soldiers made it very bearable, well, that was last year, this year, I had the unfortunate privilege of doing my very first sentry duties with the most disinterested active I have ever fucking met.
Every time I tried to initiate a conversation, he would reply without attempting to carry on the conversation and every attempt of a joke I make gets responded with a dry laugh. His response are always very deadpan to the point where it just comes across as rude and after the first 5 minutes of doing my duty with him, I knew for sure the next 5 hours and 45 minutes was going to be hell.
I made no attempt at trying to converse with him after the first hour of trying because it was just pointless, it was like talking to a wall that I would like to punch every once in a while and after our duty was over, he just bid adieu to me really awkwardly and left. It was a really long and arduous 6 hours, but I made it through, I'm just really really really hoping I won't get paired with him anymore.
So far, my reservist hasn't really affected my work or at least not in a disruptive manner, during my down time, I was able to get my friend to drive me to my job site to overlook some work and then drive me back to camp right after, which was great. The project is almost coming to an end and I was really expecting to start getting my first commission by the end of the month, but my clients suddenly told me they were only able to get certain items delivered by the end of next month, so fuck my life.
Bad news is I won't be getting paid anytime soon, good news is that I will be able to use their flat as a showroom for all my potential clients for the next 2 months.
A few weeks ago, I was ranting about a customer who stopped responding to my text after I turned down her request to email her the quotation, well, she actually dropped me a text a few days ago asking me when we were going to meet for the 2nd appointment.
Luckily I did not delete her sketch up files off my laptop, but then she did that thing again where she stops responding, which is really confusing.
Her : So have we set a time yet.
Me: We have only decided on the date so far.
Her : I see...
Me : Maybe we can confirm the timing again a week before the appointment?
No response after that.
It wasn't my intention for the last question to be rhetorical, and that "..." at the end of her last message is really quite confusing, it makes her message come across as an expression of disappointment.
If she had just written "I see" without the "..." then it would have come across to me as
"Oh, I see, so we will schedule a time then!"
But because she added that "..." in her reply, it just came across to me as....
"I see... so you couldn't even be bothered to confirm a timing with us."
... and it really is coming across strongly as the latter because of how she chose to completely ignore my last question, that "?" I left at the end of the sentence is my way of asking you to confirm something with me, not to leave me hanging so I can assume you might or might not be interested.
I do have a few more potential clients on hand, but honestly, with the next project starting soon and me realizing how much money I am going to get from that project, I just don't feel like this career would be taking me very far financially.
For this current project, which was closed at $34,000, I am estimated to take in about $2,500, if I'm lucky and don't incur any additional cost.
For my next project, which was closed at $39,000, I am only estimated to take in about $2000, if I'm lucky and don't incur any additional cost.
Those figures are extremely low, especially for the latter project because by right, I should be raking in $3,400 for the first project and $3,900 for the second project, those figures are healthy profit figures and right now, all my current projects are running at an unhealthy profit margin, which is quite dangerous for me financially.
Right now, I can still sustain myself financially from my own savings, but I am now spending way more than I will be earning back and the constant decline in my savings account is starting to worry me. I had told myself in the beginning, should my savings drop to a certain number, then it is probably time to look for a job that offers a stable salary, well, now it is getting really close to that number, so I guess that time is coming soon.
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