Category: work

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I Did What?: My Sordid Job History, Volume 4

Temple University’s Paley Library

Since I was a six-year old runt trying to keep up with my seven-year old superstar sister, I have been reading books, and lots of them. I remember my mother showing me how to tell what grade level the book was for, and I would always go after the ones at least three grade levels above my own. Of course I wouldn’t always know every single meaning to every single word, so I would have my old red Dictionary handy to look them up. If I didn’t understand the definitions I would see my mom about it, and hope she knew. Otherwise, I would have to skip over them. And the glory of those books was that I could have a plethora of them whenever I wanted. Because that was the same year I discovered the library.

From that point on what I wanted to do was work in a library, but I never thought it would be possible. It seemed to me like everyone who worked in a library had to be middle aged or a woman, and I was neither, so I sucked it up and said it wouldn’t happen. Then I grew up and went to college, a place beyond my wildest dreams that had an incredible library of its own. As luck would have it, my mother’s friend worked in the campus library and put in a good word for me. Before I knew it, I was working the job I thought I would never have, a job in the library. Continue reading “I Did What?: My Sordid Job History, Volume 4”

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I Did What?: My Sordid Job History, Volume 3

Ah, the memories.

I never thought it was possible to make less than minimum wage, that the word “minimum” truly meant what it said and I would be guaranteed at least that wage or higher. By the way, minimum wage in 1999 was $4.85 an hour, but in that same year I got a job that paid me $2.13 an hour, and I was happy to have it. For a number of reasons.

When I first arrived in Tennessee, I knew I would have to find a job, but I had absolutely no real experience, no real schooling, and no idea what the job market was like. I know, that sounds like a recipe for success, but after three months of living in Knoxville I still hadn’t found anything suitable for me. I had applied to office buildings, to mall stores, and even to a hotel in the area, but nothing panned out. The office buildings weren’t actually hiring, the mall stores weren’t in the middle of the holiday rush so they weren’t hiring either, and the hotel wanted me to have some business experience.

Finally, I just got up one day, walked down to “The Strip,” and was hired straightaway — without interview, mind you — at O’Charley’s Sports Grille and Bar as a server. I hadn’t even expected to get a job after so much failure, but I guess I should have recognized what it meant that they hired me right away and wanted me to start the very next day. After I accepted the job they told me that I would be making $2.13 an hour — and, oh yeah, plus tips. What they didn’t say was that tips were split equally between each server on the same shift, so even if I got a $100 dollar tip I wouldn’t pocket $100 dollars. Ouch. Continue reading “I Did What?: My Sordid Job History, Volume 3”

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I Did What?: My Sordid Job History, Volume 2

The dog chased me down the street, his mouth afroth, drooling and flinging his foam and spittle every which way as he closed in. My sneakers seemed to make impressions in the sidewalk as I literally flew down across the avenue, but he was gaining. And I was tiring. I dodged into the nearest alley, wheezing and panting for my life. My messenger bag had somehow flung wide open during my journey, and a stream of papers had flown out, falling pell mell in the street, on the sidewalk, and in the yards and bushes that punctuated my escape route. I think I finally lost him, too, with that last sprint. But it had been raining, and all the flyers were ruined. Oh well. That was how I ended my first job.

We all remember our first jobs. Well, most of us, anyway. Some of us were barely ten, raking lawns for the neighbors to get a little pocket change. Others were given odd jobs by people in the neighborhood who needed odd jobs done. Still others were babysitters for kids who were nearly as old as they were. I wasn’t allowed to do any of that, so my first job actually came when I was 16, when I began working for the Philadelphia Vision Center passing out flyers. I discussed it briefly here, about the year I was Santa Claus, but there was a lot more to it than that. Continue reading “I Did What?: My Sordid Job History, Volume 2”

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Keeping it Brand, Part 10

*I work at Target. You know, the store. And I’ve worked at Target for the past ten years, on and off. During my experience at Target I’ve learned so many different things about the store, about people who work there, about people who shop there, and how it is so much different from all the other retail stores out there. We aren’t employees; we are all team members. And we don’t serve customers; we serve guests. The biggest difference is the culture, the language, and the atmosphere of the store, which I’ve expounded about in this series. It’s all about Keeping it Brand.

I told someone about the coupon faeries the other day at work, and they looked at me like I had just grown three additional heads. Then a new team member asked me to help her with a guest who needed to find something. Later on that same day I had a rousing discussion about the new signing we had gotten in to highlight the summer experience (even though we’re setting Back to School within the next couple of weeks). Those are the discussions I love to have, with guests, with fellow (and female) team members, and with other people about the experiences I have. Continue reading “Keeping it Brand, Part 10”