I was a Ride Operator, which means most of the time you do no work, unless you're in a safety critical position. That day I was in it for 30mins, a lost phone is turned into me. Phone rung while I was at the machine that controls the entire ride; I answered and told them we have their phone. My union could not represent me due to me still being in my probationary period (I was 2 months into the 4 months)
From someone who only has been a retail cashier his entire 38 years of life, this is devastating to me. I got paid more than minimum wage, got 36+ hours a week, and I was so happy to be there 6 days a week (as a new hire Im only scheduled for 24 hours a week, so I called in every day to either extend or come in so I never got anything below 36)
I created voices and characters for myself to be in character for the show. Traded pins with people and talked to them. Played with puppets to entertain kids. That was the majority of my work and I was so happy.
In the 60 days I was with Disneyland, I received exactly 38 guest compliments (a metric I was told during my termination). In my 12 years in retail how many did I receive officially? At least one?
And now that's all gone because I was an idiot and thought, “oh, it must suck to lose a portable super computer (phone), lemme answer it so they know where it is and can get it back.”
Now the only thing left for me is retail again because that's the only skill I have. I have no car btw so that greatly limits what jobs I can work
Back to being occassinally told by customers, “you deserve a raise!” because of my personality and or knowledge of electronics, but only getting a pittance of 30 cents each year
Back to being paid minimum wage even though I have 12 years of retail experience
I was really hoping that some random talent scout might see me doing my voices at Disney, and go, “I want that voice for a commercial,” but that avenue is gone now
I applied to Apple Retail but haven't heard back yet. I go in for a job fair tomorrow at Office Depot
I even wanted to kill myself. I Googled up, “best highest sights near me” but every place that was high enough to kill me instantly without pain unfortunately was walled off to prevent idiots like me from doing exactly like that. The only ways left are painful ones that I'm too much of a coward to do
I just wanted to be happy, man. That's why I quit Target back in March. I wanted to live up to the potential I knew I had and what other co-workers and customers have been telling me my entire life in retail