THREE MONTHS AT THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR OF JOBS AND ALREADY I REALIZE THAT LIFE'S A BITCH

I was trying to get a job ever since I've been legally old enough to get a job, and finally at the age of ninteen I finally landed my first job working at Dairy Queen. No one would hire me because I don't have a college degree, I don't babysit and I don't have boobs, so the best I could get is a job in the fast food industry. Because I didn't have the job at an earlier age I wasn't able to start saving up money so that I could get a jumpstart on the rest of my life, therefore in turn I'm now living paycheck to paycheck because I have bills to pay, rent to pay and I'll be damned if I'm going to live with my parents until I'm 26. I have no money saved up to buy a car, pay for college, etc. That being said, I guess I'm the only one to blame for not getting a job earlier right? Bullshit. I sent out resume after countless resume, and I'm pretty sure I was laughed out of interviews just because I didn't have what they were looking for (apparently a retail store needs more than an able bodied teenager who's willing to break his back to keep his job, and so he's willing to do every job that no one else wants to even touch). So that's how it goes. Because of asshole employers who would rather give a lazy, stoned douchebag a job rather than a dedicated, intelligent, competent person I've pretty much hit rock bottom before I even started. I'm pretty much existing for the soul purpose of making food. I'd like to be in a rock band for a career, but no one will give me a chance to be in their band or to start a band with me, probably because they believe I'll make them look bad (I don't know why they wouldn't want to be in a band with me. I've written hundreds of songs and can produce songs on a whim if the feeling is right). But that's not even the saddest thing about the useless existence that is my life.

I work in the kitchen of Dairy Queen and my occupation is that I'm pretty much just a janitor that prepares food. In the kitchen we have a cleaning list of chores that needs to be done by the end of the day (The working day for the employees usually spans from 9am-10:30pm), plus additional chores that one of the manager writes up when she feels that there are other things that need to be cleaned but aren't on the list. I work in the kitchen with five other people (My brother, the fat manager who trained me my first day, one of my brother's friends, a forty year old guy who used to work at Wendys so he knows the whole trade pretty damn well, and the one useless piece of shit co-worker with the lazy eye, intelligence of a turd and physical appearance of a tall midget) and the work system usually goes like this:

1. One person does the opening chores at nine and gets things ready for lunch such as making food, preparing buns, etc.

2. Person two comes in at 11:30 to help with the lunch rush and to complete part of the list of chores. This person then goes home at 2:30

3. Person one continues doing chores, preparing food, cleaning, doing dishes and doing up stock until 4:30 or 5:30

4. Another person (person 2 again for a useless split shift, or person 3)comes in at 4:30-7:30 to do the same thing done at 11:30-2:30

5. The person in charge of closing comes in to work at 5:30-10:30 (or 2:30-10:30 depending on who it is) and does the normal thing the worker would do.

6. The closing person begins closing at 10:00 and gets everything fully cleaned up, things put away etc. for the person who has to open the next day.

That's how Dairy Queen's schedule system works. Here's what I have to bitch about. I was hired on as a full time worker (Which means I have to get at least 30 hours a weak). I'm making less than twenty hours a week and most of the time my shifts get canceled because it's not busy and they don't think they'll need a second person in as well as getting sent home early because there's no point in having me there any longer if there's nothing to do. I'm making less hours than a part time worker who's still in school that works out front at the cash register. What the fuck is up with that? I asked my boss the other night if it was possible for me to get more opening and/or closing shifts (because if you're opening or closing there's less chance you'll be sent home early or have your shift cancelled, plus you get longer than three hour shifts). The reason he gave me was that I didn't have the strength to be able to do the closing/opening as well as working by myself for a period of time by myself quickly as well as efficiently and I needed to prove myself able to do the work good enough. At the time I thought it was a good reason seeing as how I've only been working there for three months so far and I'm still technically in training. Then I stopped and thought just how much bullshit there was in that statement. I've opened and closed quite a few times during my period working there and even though the first few times needed a little more practice getting down right, eventually I proved myself on countless occassions in which I opened and closed with no problems at all and was right on schedule with the work I needed to do. So just because I'm the newest guy in the kitchen I'm the most expendable? That's all fine and dandy that the other full time workers have more experience and a family to provide for but that doesn't mean that they alone should get long shifts and shitloads of hours while I get constantly get shit on. They're pretty much telling me that my life is not worth as much as everyone else. Because they'd rather give the hours to other hard workers instead of me just because I'm not as strong in the areas required I'm going to be struggling with expenses, bills, my rent, and food so I don't end up starving to death. There's something I'd like to say to my boss but am unable to because I know damn well I'd get fired for insubordination. If I don't have the experience and ability to open and close don't you think that the most logical course of action to do would be to give me the fucking open and closing hours so I could build on the experience and abilities that I already have? Idiot. If I keep getting screwed out of hours like this then I won't be able to pay my bills, have a bad credit rating, lose all of my stuff, get kicked out of my apartment for not being able to pay the rent, and knowing my luck I'll probably get fired for coming to work in a dirty uniform because I don't have the proper resources to get it cleaned every week.

The other day I was working yet again a three hour shift and it was a pretty steady day, so out of shear spite and to prove that I had what it took, I finished all three chore lists we had to do by myself as well as preparing food for orders by myself while the other person who opened did dishes, did up ingredients we were out of etc. I completed 20 chores, most of which were quite large, and made food all in less than three hours and still had time to talk to the owner of this branch of Dairy Queen (Not my boss. I wish she were in charge of giving out hours and the like. She seems to like me), and yet I'm still not getting all of the hours that I requested? Jesus, with the amount of work I do in the course of a day I should get a fucking raise at least.

I like my co-workers in the kitchen except for two of them. The fat supervisor and the midget guy with the lazy eye. The fat supervisor is a major ass but at least he knows how to get the job done and does it. The midget guy with the lazy eye is a useless piece of shit and his work ethic pisses me the fuck off. He gets long shifts, lots of hours, gets picked first to take over sick people's shifts and rarely gets a shift canceled or cut short. Yet this guy is more useless than Gwen Stefani's soundcheck guy. In a five hour shift he'll get only one (maybe two) chores on the cleaning list done, take fifteen minutes in the bathroom taking the longest shit in the world (or jacking off), take ten minutes taking out the garbage, take an hour slicing tomatoes and fucking up or going slow on every single order that comes back to us. On countless occasions he's proved that he's more of an incompetant dipshit than I am and yet he gets more hours and more leniency than I get by the boss. Why? My guess is because he's willing to give the boss a blowjob when the boss asks, other than that I can't think of any valid reasoning. It's probably because he acts all buddy-buddy with the boss and the owner and they close their eyes to the fact that he's a piece of shit. I bet anything that I could be working to the point where I'm sweating bullets and I break a limb and keep on working and he could be sitting around playing a gameboy and still get more hours than me. After all of this shit that goes on, even in the fast food business it doesn't matter how hard a worker you are. What matters is if you are female or have the ability to suck ass to the higer ups. Hard work and dedication go unseen and from what it seems there's no job where it does. If you disagree with me then chances are you're an asshole who is only where he is based on his ability to suck up and don't see it in yourself.

I like what I have to do at my job and I like to work, but working is becoming a bitch because of the shitty way the system works. Even if I take a page out of the lazy eyed midget's book and suck up to get more perks I'm sure I'll get nowhere. BAH! Fuck loyalty.

 

BACK