Wisdom from the Bus Stop
Originally, I was planning on posting something pertaining to an all-night Chrono-a-thon, but something happened today that made me reconsider what exactly I'd blog about.
For those who don't know, I spent a year working for Showcase Cinemas in Randolph, MA. Considering that I'd been unemployed the last 6 months or so of high school, upon graduating, it was finally time to get my ass a job to support school and whatever video-games I needed. Since my mom has worked for showcase in Dedham for so many years, she called in a favor, and I had a job faster than I knew it. By the time I started working, I had taken to the place really well, considering my former boss used to bust my ass with various cleaning duties, I was a godsend to this hell-hole. I won't go so far as to say that I was the only one who cleaned anything, but I was the only one who cleaned well. It didn't take long for management to realize that not only was I good at my job, but I was willing to work for them as well.
Given my work habits, management was looking forward for me to turn 18 to give me more hours and therefore more responsibilities. So after my 18th birthday hit, I returned to work and was asked to supervise on numerous occasions. After doing this for a while, I was promised a promotion and a raise; keep in mind, this was 2 or 3 months into the job.
Everything was well and good until Christmas rolled around. Being a movie theater, we're open 365, no exceptions, so when I ended up working Christmas and Thanksgiving, that came as no surprise to me. The reality of the situation, is that I didn't have a huge qualm with working on Christmas, but the fact that nobody gave a shit about the fact that I was doing them a favor by coming in on a Holiday without so much as a "Merry Christmas" really got me thinking "What the hell is wrong with these idiots?" In fact, "Merry Christmas" was later replaced with "Get these things for downstairs, and don't forget to get me a coffee when you go on break." Yeah right, I was so glad to be at the beckon call of some movie theater manager with the intelligence of a brick and the personality of a potato chip.
The next few months went on as usual until April rolled around and I withdrew from school. I had been in a bit of a funk considering that my entire lifestyle changed, but that didn't stop them from upping my hours and taking away every ounce of free time that I used to have. I didn't mind at first, but then as one particular new employee came in, it seemed that my time at my job would be wearing short. Needless to say, they had me train him, so I showed him all my tricks; how to get everything done correctly at a quick pace. Now there were two people who could do the job intelligently. Again, needless to say, management noticed that their new employee was the hardworking individual they had been praying for, and I would be playing second fiddle to him from here on. Normally this wouldn't have bothered me, except nobody had followed through on anything that they had been promising me for the past six months... Go figure.
It was around this time that I had developed an extraordinary amount of apathy towards my job, and my work habits began to wane. Simple things like serving customers became huge projects to me. But in all fairness, the job created such a miserable atmosphere, what did they expect from me? Never in another job had I feared going to work, because I know as soon as I did, I'd be miserable, and that I'd leave miserable. So I did what any sane person would; slept in past the time when my shift would start and go to work 45 minutes to an hour late. Eventually this earned me a suspension and a review in which I requested that they changed my schedule, where they refused, because it wasn't "convenient for them." Imagine that, a job where I'm available when they need me to be... See you later personal life.
After that event, I came back for a week and was suspended again for being late by about 15 mins. It seemed that I was skating on thin ice for the last incident, and they were so far up my ass, anyone could get away with anything it seemed. So I went on my second suspension and came back for another review and just barely kept my job. I came back for one more shift where I recalled my entire employment for this company and again, I went home feeling like shit.
I went home and fell asleep and awoke the next morning to the sound of my alarm clock. 8:00 it read, time to get ready for work. At that point, it hit me I thought of everything that you may or may not have just read and then went back to sleep. About an hour later my cell phone rings, at which point, I answer it. It's work, they're wondering where I am. I laugh and hangup, looks like I don't work there anymore.
believe it or not, that's the introduction to a much shorter story. It's funny how that doesn't happen more often. This is the part where the "Something happened today..." Part comes in.
I was on my way home from work when I saw a former co-worker from the movie theater and we struck up a conversation. Not surprising to anyone, we started talking about work, and sure enough he hated it too. He told me about how he got fired because management had some personal vendetta against him, even though he did all of his work and never caused any problems. It made me think about how different a person I am now and how much my life has changed since 2004. It just makes me so glad to know that I don't work for a company that will discriminate against people for immature reasons and treat their employees like anything less than human beings. I'm pretty sure, that in the last 2 years or so, things have only gotten better for me. I know that I've been in shitty situations, but not only have I not let them get the best of me, I've overcome all the obstacles that life's thrown at me. I may not know much, but I do know this; my next beer is for Mark.
For those who don't know, I spent a year working for Showcase Cinemas in Randolph, MA. Considering that I'd been unemployed the last 6 months or so of high school, upon graduating, it was finally time to get my ass a job to support school and whatever video-games I needed. Since my mom has worked for showcase in Dedham for so many years, she called in a favor, and I had a job faster than I knew it. By the time I started working, I had taken to the place really well, considering my former boss used to bust my ass with various cleaning duties, I was a godsend to this hell-hole. I won't go so far as to say that I was the only one who cleaned anything, but I was the only one who cleaned well. It didn't take long for management to realize that not only was I good at my job, but I was willing to work for them as well.
Given my work habits, management was looking forward for me to turn 18 to give me more hours and therefore more responsibilities. So after my 18th birthday hit, I returned to work and was asked to supervise on numerous occasions. After doing this for a while, I was promised a promotion and a raise; keep in mind, this was 2 or 3 months into the job.
Everything was well and good until Christmas rolled around. Being a movie theater, we're open 365, no exceptions, so when I ended up working Christmas and Thanksgiving, that came as no surprise to me. The reality of the situation, is that I didn't have a huge qualm with working on Christmas, but the fact that nobody gave a shit about the fact that I was doing them a favor by coming in on a Holiday without so much as a "Merry Christmas" really got me thinking "What the hell is wrong with these idiots?" In fact, "Merry Christmas" was later replaced with "Get these things for downstairs, and don't forget to get me a coffee when you go on break." Yeah right, I was so glad to be at the beckon call of some movie theater manager with the intelligence of a brick and the personality of a potato chip.
The next few months went on as usual until April rolled around and I withdrew from school. I had been in a bit of a funk considering that my entire lifestyle changed, but that didn't stop them from upping my hours and taking away every ounce of free time that I used to have. I didn't mind at first, but then as one particular new employee came in, it seemed that my time at my job would be wearing short. Needless to say, they had me train him, so I showed him all my tricks; how to get everything done correctly at a quick pace. Now there were two people who could do the job intelligently. Again, needless to say, management noticed that their new employee was the hardworking individual they had been praying for, and I would be playing second fiddle to him from here on. Normally this wouldn't have bothered me, except nobody had followed through on anything that they had been promising me for the past six months... Go figure.
It was around this time that I had developed an extraordinary amount of apathy towards my job, and my work habits began to wane. Simple things like serving customers became huge projects to me. But in all fairness, the job created such a miserable atmosphere, what did they expect from me? Never in another job had I feared going to work, because I know as soon as I did, I'd be miserable, and that I'd leave miserable. So I did what any sane person would; slept in past the time when my shift would start and go to work 45 minutes to an hour late. Eventually this earned me a suspension and a review in which I requested that they changed my schedule, where they refused, because it wasn't "convenient for them." Imagine that, a job where I'm available when they need me to be... See you later personal life.
After that event, I came back for a week and was suspended again for being late by about 15 mins. It seemed that I was skating on thin ice for the last incident, and they were so far up my ass, anyone could get away with anything it seemed. So I went on my second suspension and came back for another review and just barely kept my job. I came back for one more shift where I recalled my entire employment for this company and again, I went home feeling like shit.
I went home and fell asleep and awoke the next morning to the sound of my alarm clock. 8:00 it read, time to get ready for work. At that point, it hit me I thought of everything that you may or may not have just read and then went back to sleep. About an hour later my cell phone rings, at which point, I answer it. It's work, they're wondering where I am. I laugh and hangup, looks like I don't work there anymore.
believe it or not, that's the introduction to a much shorter story. It's funny how that doesn't happen more often. This is the part where the "Something happened today..." Part comes in.
I was on my way home from work when I saw a former co-worker from the movie theater and we struck up a conversation. Not surprising to anyone, we started talking about work, and sure enough he hated it too. He told me about how he got fired because management had some personal vendetta against him, even though he did all of his work and never caused any problems. It made me think about how different a person I am now and how much my life has changed since 2004. It just makes me so glad to know that I don't work for a company that will discriminate against people for immature reasons and treat their employees like anything less than human beings. I'm pretty sure, that in the last 2 years or so, things have only gotten better for me. I know that I've been in shitty situations, but not only have I not let them get the best of me, I've overcome all the obstacles that life's thrown at me. I may not know much, but I do know this; my next beer is for Mark.
posted by Tom, Not Jesus at 11:59 PM
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