Working at Kmart. If you’ve been following my last few posts, you know that I’ve been talking about the summer jobs that I had during my college years. Today I’ll be wrapping up the series with my final summer job.
Limbo
I graduated from James Madison University (JMU) in May of 1988 and immediately went into limbo. My parents had moved to Florida sometime between March and May and I didn’t move to Florida with them.
JMU had an excellent career planning and placement center. They worked with the graduates on interviewing skills and, most importantly, kept a list of open teaching jobs. I applied to various schools and signed a contract with Northampton Middle School.
That job would start in August. What was I supposed to do with June and July?
My friend, David, had graduated in ’87. He agreed to let me live in his living room till my job started. And, he let me do this rent-free. David was living in Blackstone, Virginia, which is close to Richmond.
I got a job at Kmart.
The work
I liked working at Kmart. They hired me to stock shelves, which I had done at Dollar Bargain and Gimbels. I had stayed away from food service jobs. My Long John Silver’s fiasco taught me that I wasn’t cut out for that kind of work.
I was encouraged. The managers seemed like good people and I didn’t need to join a union. They gave me good hours and the pay took care of some basic expenses.
A new car
My parents let me use my Mom’s old car. It was a green Cutlass from the early 80’s. GM wasn’t making great cars during that era and the Cutlass was an excellent example of 1980’s engineering and workmanship.
It was crap. The A/C didn’t work and it burned oil. This meant that you had to have the windows down during the summer and experience the full effect of the oil smell. And…the headliner was loose. You’d drive down the road with the windows open, smelling oil and feeling the headliner flapping against your head.
I needed a new car.
I went to a dealer and did a deal on a brand new five speed, manual Honda Civic. The dealer had me present my signed teaching contract in order to delay my payments till September.
I loved that car.
Working
I had a new car and a summer job that I liked. My friend was giving me a free place to live and I had a teaching job lined up for the fall. I just needed to work a few months before starting my professional teaching life.
I’ve already said that I liked my work at Kmart. I threw myself into the job and tried to do the work well.
I worked alongside of some young kids. They were only a few years younger than me, but they seemed much younger. And their work ethic was terrible. I hadn’t done well with my summer jobs, but I always tried to do my best work.
These guys didn’t hold themselves to the same standard.
Goofing around
When I worked at Dollar Bargain, an older employee told me not to work fast. He didn’t want the work to get done quickly because the managers might send someone home.
The guys I worked with now didn’t want to do any work at all.
One of the stock guys decided to play a sort of paint ball like game. He opened up some toy guys that had disappearing ink. You’d get shot and a big black stain appeared on your shirt. Several minutes later it would just be a wet spot.
I didn’t participate, but I did get shot. It bothered me that they destroyed company property and played games during working hours. To me, they were stealing.
Big mouth
I was about to learn another valuable lesson.
I was working a shift with one of these guys and I hadn’t seen him in a while. When I asked if anyone knew where he was I was told that he was in the back room, sleeping.
He’d go in between the shelves in the stock room and sleep with product piled around him in order to hide.
It was at this moment that I made a miscalculation. I believed that I was talking to someone who was on the same page as me. And, I opened my big mouth.
“Why is he working here if he doesn’t want to do the job?” And, “He’s playing games during work time and basically stealing products from the shelves.”
Big mistake. This guy was a ‘friend’ of the sleeper in the back room.
You might be able to guess what happened next.
Trouble
There was a confrontation. I don’t do confrontation. And, during the confrontation, he broke various items in my department.
When we worked together he would go through my department, grab things off of the shelf and throw them on the floor. I was becoming concerned that he was going to attack me after work.
I reasoned with myself that it wasn’t worth it and I used that excuse to quit.
Wrap up
When I returned for my final paycheck the manager asked why I quit. She liked my work and wanted to keep me as an employee. I told her that I liked the work but that she had a major problem in the stock department. And, that is all I would say.
She was disappointed, but I didn’t want to finish a shift and find my car with a broken windshield. (He had eluded to my new car a few times.)
I was 0-3 with summer jobs and was having serious concerns about my ability to hold a job.
Was I lazy? Would I be able to be a band director?
I would begin to get an answer to those question in August. But, I wouldn’t be walking into the job of my dreams.