Monday, April 13, 2009

Mondays suck!



I think the majority of the world would agree that Mondays suck. No matter what you do, how much you make, or who you work with, you always hate to see your weekend come to an end. Going back to work on Monday is never any fun. The reasons for work on Monday not being fun will vary widely though. I thought about this today as I was walking across the street to help someone with a minor problem that they couldn't tell me any information about aside from "It's not working!" So I thought I'd write about some of the awesomely crappy jobs I've worked in the past to help alleviate my pain.

In high school I worked at Toys R Us. If you collected Star Wars action figures or Hot Wheels, this was an ideal job. However, there were some drawbacks to it like any other job. The place is a giant toy store. Kids go crazy when they see so many toys that they want. And of course, the parents just don't care about controlling the kids while inside TRU. I've seen kids use the restroom in the aisles while a parent just turns their head. I've had to clean up puke in an aisle right next to the restrooms. Kids will pull toys of the shelves and just toss them away as soon as they see something new making a huge mess to clean up.

The parents were not much easier to deal with. I worked at Toys R Us during two interesting times. First, I was there when the Tomagotchi was huge, and at the same time UPS went on strike. So we had this amazing toy that everyone in the whole world wanted 3 of and we weren't getting any shipments of them. So parents would scream and yell at me, the lowly Toys R Us employee, because UPS they couldn't find the toy their kids wanted. They'd tell me to go look in the back after checking the inventory in our computers and seeing that we had none in stock. Kind of like the movie Waiting, we found ways to get our own revenge. We'd go to the back to "check for a toy" and hang out with a fellow employee for 10 minutes while the parent twisted in the wind up front. We didn't care, we were getting paid minimum wage. Other times we'd grab the toys and hide them somewhere in the store for ourselves.
The other interesting time that happened while I was working at Toys R Us was the Christmas that the Tickle Me Elmo first came out. Rabid parents are 100 times crazier at Christmas time. Having our store hours extended until midnight for a month didn't help either. Toys R Us helped prepare me for how to deal with insane people later in life. Whether I'm at work or not, I somehow seem to draw the crazies towards me.
The other job that I worked which I think had some influence on my future was a valet driver. In college I worked as a valet driver for a Viejas Casino in San Diego. I think everyone should work for tips at least once in their life. It really opens your eyes to how hard some people work for such crappy pay. Makes you see how much certain jobs (restaurant servers, valet, hotel maids, casino dealers etc.) really rely on tips. It's pretty bad when you get excited over a $2 tip. Having worked that job for a mere 3 months really changed the way I thought about tipping.
Well, I feel better. Maybe now I won't be so frustrated when I ask a user to "log off and sign back in" and instead, they shut down their computer. Oh well.
p.s. Happy Easter

3 comments:

Eric Karros said...

Hey Quad, nice blog. Thought I'd drop by. FYI, in high school I too worked at a toy store. Good times.

Neeebs (The Original) said...

In high school my best friend worked at a liquor store.

That was pretty helpful.

QuadSevens said...

The liquor store job probably made your friend very popular! That's awesome.