I come from a pretty old school area (western pa) of the us. Growing up i learned the value of a hard days work, and that if you gave the right effort, and respect, youre job would take care of you. My grandfather like imparting pieces of wisdom like “if a man pays you a dollar for a job, you give them a dollar tens worth of work.” When i was in high school i went to a trade school to study masonry. I thought it would be a great bit of security, after all people always need houses. I then graduated in 2008 right when the housing market had collapsed, and no one was building anywhere, let alone in my impoverished chunk of appalachia.
Finding myself with a worthless degree, and nowhere near the grades (because of tech school) needed for any kind of scholarship, i found myself with the only option that didnt involve going over seas to invade another nation, working at walmart. I spent a few years there being promised to move up the ladder several times, yet was always passed up. After finding myself about to become a father, i knew that id need to pull myself up by the boot straps, and find my next opportunity, which appeared to be the gas fields. I quickly joined a crew, and was making enough money to provide for my new family. About two months later we were told that our site was shutting down, and that thered be more work soon. I gave up waiting on that work after about a month.
Several years went by like this, id find a job, then give them my all, only for the promises of advancement to never come true. Ive have been laid off, or had my hours cut to the point where i needed to move my family into public housing at least three times. I would always fall back on my excuse that this job just didnt care, and that the old protestant work ethic would eventually get me to a good place. I finally gave up on that delusion last year, when i reported a factory i was working for for wage theft.
Since 21 was the year of the labor shortage, i decided “what the hell? Ill just bounce around from shit job to shit job, till i find the one that smells the least bit rancid. In total i think i worked 7 different jobs last year. I did a few seasonal jobs (ones that were actually kind of fun too, like that well known halloween store) knowing that when they are over, i can just get another job in a week or two. The last job i had was taking santa pictures. When the 24th came i asked my boss what my exact job title was, so i can put it down on my resume. She told me to put down some flowery title that was basically manager (she had other jobs in the same mall, so i did kind of take care of the place for most of the day. I also noticed that the well known nutritional supliment store needed a store manager, and decided why not apply. To my suprise they offered me the job.
To be honest, i have no clue what im doing, but i think im getting the hang of it. Ive decided to work with my team (theres only two of them) to make sure that they get the most hours that they can. Im trying to be open with them, and run the place like i would expect a business to be ran. I have a slight bit of guilt because i feel like im betraying my socialist beliefs, and im using that to run this place fairly. Im also trying to get down a good schedule so i can slack off as much as possible.
Anyways, thanks for the read. Not sure what i wanted to accomplish by writing this down, but ive been needing to scream into the void lately.