Unfortunately, it is my circus - help me make the least bad work choice

Post date: 2021-12-04 12:26:54
Views: 69
I have tried, for the past several years, to find work at, let us say, a circus. It is the type of job that doesn't pay well, but lots of people want to do it. Over these years, I have volunteered at the circus and worked temp positions. I am currently being offered and sort-of-offered two very short temp positions under circumstances that mean that no matter what I do, I am going to let people down, people will be angry, and basically no good is going to come to me. More stupid details inside.

So, straining the metaphor here, this circus belongs to the city. It is a city that is particularly bad in terms of bureaucracy and things generally being set up to impede anyone trying to actually get something done effectively. Competence-based hiring is...optional. The circus in question is the only game in town - there are pretty much no amusement parks, fairs, or other circus-type jobs.

In my time with the circus, I have been completely and repeatedly unable to get hired for a permanent position, for a variety of reasons. However, in my temp jobs and volunteering I have established friendly relations and goodwill with many circus workers.

Currently, I am volunteering with, let us say, the lion taming act. They are very short-staffed, because half of the lion tamers are out for medical reasons. The city declined to extend my temp employment because of budget and Covid, but did let me come back to work for free, and the lion act is getting by that way. They have been, for some time, requesting a temp position so they could pay me again. These are the people I know best at the circus; I see some of them socially outside work. It is extremely unlikely that they could ever hire me permanently, because I don't have a...lion taming certificate.

There is another act, the trained horse act. I have never worked for them for pay, but volunteered for them for quite a while. I like most of the horse act people. A couple months ago, the horse act supervisor asked me if I was interested in a three month half-time temp position, ending at the end of the year, as they are also very short-staffed. I felt bad leaving the lion tamers in the lurch, but even they agreed that it was unfair to expect me to work for free if I could work for pay. The horse act temp job might be renewed for some period in the new year, and eventually they will hire a permanent horse trainer. (One would think that if I did well as a temp that could be me, but they had several previous chances to hire me while I was volunteering and chose otherwise, so I suspect it would not be me.)

The way temp jobs work in this city, the period of the job starts at the moment it is approved by the city. This means that even if you have a candidate in mind and do your best to fast-track the whole process, you are going to lose some of the job period.

It is now December. The process is finally starting to install me in the horse act temp job. It's not totally impossible that I could start next week, but it could be the week after. This job ends at the end of December.

The director of the circus now tells the lion tamers that their request for a temp position is probably going to come through. However, there's no way to know for certain, or when. This job would end in February.

Apparently (according to lion tamer who talked to Circus Director) the overall animal act supervisor is going to call me and tell me that it's up to me to choose whether to take the horse act job or turn it down and wait in hopes of a lion taming job. The horse act people were rumored to have a second candidate (did they? who knows?) who they would be extremely unlikely to be able to install before the end of the year if I bail on them. The lion tamers don't have anyone else suitable, as far as I can tell. If I turn down the horse act people, that would presumably take the odds that they'd hire me permanently down from 3% to 0%, and the horse act workers will be mad at me for not coming to help lighten the horse poop shoveling workload.

The only possible solutions I have thought of so far are:

1) Move far away so I never have to see anyone I know from the circus again.
Downside: rude to my husband.

2) Burn all of my bridges at once by sending a polite email to the circus director, the animal act supervisor, the horse act supervisor, and the lion tamer supervisor pointing out that this is not a reasonable situation to put me in and asking if they would like to get together and choose the best allocation of resources for the good of the circus.
Downside: this is what I would do in a sensible, professional situation, but this is not a sensible, professional situation. At least some of these people would probably be annoyed, and none of them are likely to have a suggestion other than "it's on you to decide".

3) Take the horse act job and hope the lion tamer job isn't approved until after the end of the year, at which point I could go take it for a few weeks.
Downside: city will probably somehow manage to approve the lion tamer job promptly. Horse act people will still be mad if I bail on a possible extension.

Please help me think of a choice 4 that is not going to ruin everything between me and the circus. I have worked very hard to try to join the circus, and this is all making me miserable.
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