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Antiwork

How I lost my first job–a story

I was thinking about this this morning and realized it probably belongs in this subreddit. As stated in the title, it's kinda a story, so I'll put a TLDR down the bottom. My first job was way back when I was 15, in 2005. It was working at a visitor's center, giving directions to tourists and selling little touristy merch, as well as like, stocking shelves and taking calls from member hotels about what their special referral rate of the day was. I lucked into this job because my dad was the manager. Relevant to the story as well is that there were two visitor's centers; the one I worked at on the highway and the one 45 minutes away that got literally 1/10th the traffic we did, but was connected to the main offices. So, in hindsight there were signs something was coming. My dad's boss had never liked…


I was thinking about this this morning and realized it probably belongs in this subreddit. As stated in the title, it's kinda a story, so I'll put a TLDR down the bottom.

My first job was way back when I was 15, in 2005. It was working at a visitor's center, giving directions to tourists and selling little touristy merch, as well as like, stocking shelves and taking calls from member hotels about what their special referral rate of the day was. I lucked into this job because my dad was the manager. Relevant to the story as well is that there were two visitor's centers; the one I worked at on the highway and the one 45 minutes away that got literally 1/10th the traffic we did, but was connected to the main offices.

So, in hindsight there were signs something was coming. My dad's boss had never liked that he was making money for the company by selling all the little merch. In fact, when she had tried to get the highway visitor's center closed before, my dad had made a presentation about how much money he was bringing in (among other things) and the boardmembers were impressed and left the place open.
For an idea of how busy it could get, consider that we were on a highway, and the only stop on the highway anywhere nearby; on an average summer day we had anywhere from 3000 to 10,000 people come in. On an average winter day that might drop to 30 to 1000. Even the winter day where you had to trudge up to the door in snow that was as high as your knee, we had one person come in.
Anyway, second sign something was coming was that my dad's boss hired someone who was now supposed to be a go between between her and my dad. Which, in the prior ten years, had never been necessary.

So one day, (in 2009) my dad gets told that he and his staff are fired and that the building will be closed. In two days. Because Massachusetts is an at will employment state, I don't think there was anything wrong with that legally, though obviously it's wrong in all other aspects. So my dad had only two days to not only tell all of us staff that we were laid off, but also only two days to contact all the vendors for the merch we carried in the place so they could come get their stuff. The vendors were obviously upset, and asked why such little notice. To which my dad told them “You're only getting a couple hours less than I got”.
Most of the vendors and members were kinda mad about that. Enough of them called the main office that my dad's boss called to ask him why he was telling everyone they were closing and directing them to her. Like she expected them not to notice?

It didn't save the building though, and it was shut down and we were all out of jobs. The best part, to me, was after. That go-between person that had been hired? She went into the building to grab something and set off the alarm because she hadn't thought to ask for the alarm code, information that my dad also hadn't thought to volunteer when no one asked for it. So my dad, who was still listed as the contact, got to tell the alarm company “Sorry, I don't work there anymore.”

TLDR: The company 'laid off' my dad–who had been a manager with them for a little over ten years–and all his staff with only two days notice.

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