MakeeDru

As a fellow musician that plays the violin, but never sought to further a career in music due to awful pay, how do you survive? I know it is a touchy topic with musicians, but are there special bonuses working for an orchestra? At one point I was a fill in for a pretty big philharmonic, but it was a role call sort of thing, where you'd be called that week to practice three nights and give a concert, be paid for the concert. It was maybe $200 in pocket, if I recall. It was also an understanding that the more you filled in, the more you'd be considered being hired. It was tough.

Hi there, I am a female who was sexually harassed by an older (35+ my senior) female co-work several times. I let it go at first, trying to handle it myself, then eventually reported it to HR - MORE THAN THREE TIMES. Nothing was ever done, she would joke about me with other women after her boss spoke with her. For example, it started out discussing books in the break room, she'd bring up "50 Shades of Grey". I would change the topic because I didn't want to discuss that with her . She escalated to talking about her sexual activity with her husband instead, then would ask me about my own sex life. Always when we wound up alone at break after others would leave. I would tell her to stop talking to me about these things and walk away, sometimes cutting my break short to where eventually I would leave the office for my lunch. After i reported her, she also started to comment about how sexy I looked, no matter what I wore. Furthermore, I eventually started wearing only pants and over sized shirts (didn't deter her) and wound up completely avoiding her section of the corporate office.

If I saw her, I would straight up turn around and walk away, I never responded to her hello or good morning, and this only seemed to make her advances worse.

My question, I guess, is if nothing was ever done by HR, what can I do in the future if this happens elsewhere? FYI, I resigned due to something completely unrelated to her, but it was a stress relief to not have to worry about where I was in the office or what I wore. I believe it was not taken seriously because I was a young woman and she was an older lady who had been with the company for 20-ish years.

Also - friends who still work there tell me that she still acts the same way and nothing is ever done ....

As I've gotten older, I've realized that where you live matters, and finding individuals soaked in the music scene always helps. Occasionally I will play venues and weddings, bur not as often as I'd like. How did you get into being a Luither? Are you an apprentice?

That's fantastic. Much luck to you, and thanks for doing this AMA.

My Mother died and I had to quit my job to take care of her estate, I've been unemployed since April and don't have insurance. COBRA was about 1k a month, which I opted out. I applied for assistance online but my monthly rate was about $600 for what I needed so I decided against it. I've had to relocate and will be moving soon, I'm in uni What can I do in regards to this? I dont have a steady income, but what I made in the first quarter of the year made me ineligible for any assistance, it seems.