Posted on 06/21/2004 10:03:12 AM PDT by rface
Summer break can teach you quite a few things about yourself, and it can be that all too necessary "grow-up" call that you need. I began the summer with no job and no prospects, but I was confident that, with two years of college education under my belt, along with my many skills and qualifications, any employer would jump at the chance to hire me. I was determined to land some sort of office job where the work would be menial and the pay would be great. But that didn't quite pan out. So, with bills mounting, I headed to the mall.
I just knew that with two years of college education I would definitely snag some retail job in no time at all. I filled out applications and went on interviews, but nothing happened. Weeks were flying by, bill collectors were calling and I had become entangled with the "Days of Our Lives" serial killer saga. I had to do something.
I did what I vowed to never do again. I did the thing I had deemed beneath me. I applied at a restaurant, a fast-food restaurant. I considered this sort of job to be the bowel of employment field. It was with a heavy heart and much regret that I accepted a job at the local Burger King.
The first day was filled with hours of tedium. Insert Whopper into broiler. Wait for Whopper. Insert bun into warmer. Remove bun. Remove Whopper. Repeat over and over again. It seemed like this went on forever, but it was actually only a three-hour shift.
By the end of the week, I had advanced skills in flame broiling, tomato preparation, dishwashing, salad design and french-fry frying. Now that my training was over, I noticed something that made me love my new job: I had absolutely no responsibilities.
My job was basically to make sure we didn't run out of perfectly flame-grilled beef patties, and a machine even did that. This job required no real thinking - or work, for that matter.
On my first day, my manager told me "as long as you're working, then you'll pretty much be left to yourself." And on this day, I discovered that you only to need to appear to be working to be left alone. I was surrounded by things to do that looked like work, but weren't really. Thus beginning the Faux Work Show, that delighted all the managers.
Each day my show grows more grand. I recently added sorting frozen french fries by length to my act. As a reward, each day I get more time to myself and more praise for being such a hard worker.
During all this I've had time to get over my complex and realize this is just a job. It is by no means indicative of who I am as person, and even if it were, it wouldn't make me a bad person. I was honestly ashamed of my BK job at first, but I realized two things: the first is that money is money, and when I spend it, it doesn't matter where it came from. The second it that I should be proud of my job because I'm doing something I don't want to do, but I have to do it - and that's essentially what it's like to be an adult.
I never really considered myself to be an adult until this summer. I wasn't really looking forward to becoming one. Now I'm dealing with this fact, and it's hard, but I'm accepting it. Thank you, Burger King.
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Funny as hell. He calls it "faux work..." just like I call it "ferking." I'm ferking right now.
A very important principle that holds true in American Business all the way through the CEO level.
This lad gets it.
you got time to lean...you got time to clean
Mrs. Buck, is that you??? [/flashback to McDonald's, circa 1977]
LOL. Start with the steam tables.
My coworkers often ask me how I am able to remain so cool under intense pressure. I explain that when I was a young man, I worked breakfast-rush drive thru at McDonalds. It's like Paris Island for the world of work.
Ha! I've been "ferking" for years - just didn't know what it was called ;-)
The cats thing is funny...another reminder why I don't have a friggin' cat jumping all over the house.
Wow it took him till his sophmore year of college to figure this out? I'm glad he did, but I was working in high school at such jobs.
The best was when I walked into a BK or McD for lunch with my construction buddies and ran into a girl I dated at Uni. She looked horrified that I was talking to her in my grubbies. The job paided for lots of fun the next semester at Uni.
You know what I hate? When you are at Wendy's and there is 15 mexicans and not one of them can seem to hear the fry cooker's timer beeping abnoxiously for 10 minutes.
I worked at my town's buisiest as station from 4am-noon during the summers. Talk about Paris Island. 8 pumps (pre-CC pay) that I had to keep track of ( and often an impatient customer who wants to pump immediately after someone hangs up the nossle), two huge coffee pots, people tossing money at you for papers/coffee/gas because they don't want to wait in line, guys buying smokes.
So much to keep track of it was amazing how little I got paid to work it. But it was strangely fun and a big challenge.
Nothing like mopping floors, doing oil changes, digging road beds and drainage ditches, unloading trucks, etc. to make you take college seriously.
And nothing like three years in the infantry to make you appreciate the ability to type .. and getting you a headquarters job.
I painted houses during my high school summers, and nothing could make me appreciate my current office internship more.
And a special place in Hell is reserved for tour bus drivers who just pull into a fast food joint so all the little old ladies can special order a burger.
BTTT
You'll had it easy, I was a cook in a girls' summer camp.
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