Here's the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/srch.php?nm=Addison+Herron-Wheeler
Still not sure if we're talking about a he or a she.
Posted on 07/18/2008 8:29:48 AM PDT by Choose Ye This Day
IT NEVER FAILS: Murphy's Law. When applying for jobs, the one place you do not want to call you back inevitably will. I encountered this annoying fact applying for jobs in Richmond, when I landed one at the local Subway.
Of all the interesting, vibrant-looking places in my area that I could have worked, this was definitely my last choice. But the only other places I had wanted to work told me it would be a few weeks or months, and I had to have something ASAP so that I could pay the rent.
At first glance, the job didn't seem as horrible as it could have been. I have plenty of experience making sandwiches and working in food service, so it wasn't hard at all. The man who hired me seemed nice enough, and I liked a few of my co-workers. I even got all subs at an employee discount, which made the delicious veggie sub I love cost mere chump change. I failed to take into account, however, my inability to function in this kind of a situation for very long and my disdain for the restrictions that come with employment at any fast-food restaurant.
First of all, some of my co-workers whom I met later are not exactly savory. They are much older than me and don't seem to respect me at all, even though I am doing my best to comply with their every wish and to be the best employee I can be. The management also demands that I remove my lip rings while working--which is ridiculous considering how many people with piercings I serve every day. This makes things a bit difficult due to the fact that I don't have the extra money right now to go out and buy spacers to put in the holes while I'm at work.
The one fellow employee that I really liked has crumpled under the awful pressure and quit, and I am being paid minimum wage--a fact I did not learn until the first paycheck came out.
But what makes the situation really unbearable is not the employees at Subway or even the stupid rules and pay, but the fact that I am barely getting any hours at this terrible job. At places like this, a worker is just a commodity, serving the functions of the business--not a person with needs that should be met. Six hours a week is not exactly going to cut it for someone who asked for more than 40 hours and has rent and bills to pay. I worked more hours than that a week as an intern at The Free Lance-Star, a job that was supposed to be educational and never a means to earn a living.
To top it all off, the fast-food industry is wasteful and goes against even the most basic environmentalist practices. Mishandled food or food that can't be served is thrown away, not saved to be taken home by the workers. Each sub is wrapped in paper and then placed into a small plastic bag--basically the equivalent of a grocery store giving customers one bag for each grocery. Even the apples we sell come sliced and packaged in plastic, although they would be perfectly sellable without any of that. In short, it is all about the profit and not about the overall good of society.
So what can I do about all of this? Well, apart from complaining in my column and trying to get another job as soon as possible, not much. I just have to keep going to work and hoping for the best. And maybe, some day, I will start my own restaurant, just to combat all the evil that I see in the fast-food industry. But until then, I will have to try to content myself with the fact that at least I am getting paid.
Addison Herron-Wheeler is a rising freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Fredericksburg is about an hour away from VCU and Richmond, right? Isn’t there a possibility that his Subway boss in Richmond will read this drivel in the Fredericksburg paper?
Not me. I’m the anti-hip type.
I wonder if his boss reads his ‘articles’. He may not have to worry about his job at Subway for much longer
A current and future stupid liberal.
great minds....
Pathetic? Yes, now we're getting closer.
What an effort from this young person to bend to the will of those corporate masters. Bastards. Pretty soon they might even ask her/him to mop the floor or something else much more demeaning. Oh, and too darn bad the kid had to take out his lip rings.
Nevermind your lip rings are what most of us want to look at when we go in to order and eat our "veggie" subs". (BTW, Veggie subs??? What's the point? It's like ordering a decafe coffee with skim milk and Nutrasweet)
And pity the poor kid! Wow! S/he has to work for "minimum wages"...What the heck ya think, Einstein? You just gonna fall into a job where you are making $100K a year because you are you? And you did WHAT to deserve more than minimum wage? These jobs aren't meant to be paying "livable" wages. They are entry level jobs! These are the "dues" you will pay until you get more experience, and move up the ladder.
Do you suppose this kid knows this? Do most kids know this? Or is he/she just some kid ranting because the world doesn't treat him like his excrement is ice cream and the rest of us are just holding cups waiting to help ourselves?
May this kids eyes be opened, and hopefully before dad buys him his own restaurant too.
Subway sandwiches taste like polyester. Yuch.
Here’s some blurb from (him?) from some writing site a few years ago. Based on the interests, I’m thinking it’s a guy:
I am a sixteen-year old high school student, and I have been writing most of my life, and I’m finally getting serious about getting published. Some of my other interests include skateboarding, playing guitar, listening to death metal and grindcore, reading (mostly science fiction, non-fiction about aliens, and much much more). I am also very interested in Norse mythology and religion, so if anyone has any stories about that, I would be greatly interested.
When I graduated from College, a kid standing near me started talking to me about plans after graduation. I knew him as it was a small campus. I told him I had a job lined up and was due to report in July. I asked what he was going to do. He said, "Stand in the unemployment line." I knew he'd not had a job and told him that he had to have one first, and had to have lost it (not quit or fired) in order to get unemployment. His eyes got real big. I just laughed.
Hey, Addison. See the folks at www.theonion.com about picking up your column!
Assignment, list what you’ve done to earn respect.
Whoa! That's going to get you real far in life.
Back in my day, we called that a "Sophomore", especially considering that it's summer now.
Or a job in a junkyard with his lip hanging off the big electromagnet.
Does the “Far Left” three name standard still hold for men as well as women? lol
Is that what “rising” means? Going on to the next grade? I had no idea. I thought it was some Virginiaism.
This young one really is clueless about the way things are.
It is exactly by making a profit that they are serving their fellow man and benefiting society as a whole.
Businesses offer goods and services that others don't have. They want these goods and services and are willing to exchange their labor (via money) for these goods and services. This is a win/win/win situation.
It is only when the government gets involved that things start to break down. The wasteful discarding of food that the writer decries, was probably forced on the business owner by government rules or the threat of lawsuits that the government will not quash.
As for his whining about having a minimum wage job, he has a minimum wage job because either he can not produce much more than he is being paid or the job is not worth more than minimum wage.
If he would open his eyes, he will get a more valuable education at Subway than he will get at the University.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I’m going to say something nice — at least he seems to be able to write in complete sentences. Which isn’t always the case for “rising freshmen”.
Here's the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/srch.php?nm=Addison+Herron-Wheeler
Still not sure if we're talking about a he or a she.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.