Job Opening

“Wanted,” the ad read, “Cashier. Great Wages. Training Provided.”
If she could have known how much classifieds stretched the truth, she probably wouldn’t have applied. She should have paid a little more attention to the small, dread feeling she had the day she handed in her resume. But she didn’t.
She’s had enough experience in various aspects of customer service and hospitality to understand and even appreciate “slow season.” But what she doesn’t understand is why extra help would be needed during the slow season, let alone “Wanted.” It just doesn’t make sense to her. Her time as “cashier” is spent organizing t-shirts, dusting snow-globes, and fixing the embroidery machine; serving customers is the exception, rather than the rule. The hours drag by because someone decided he wanted more employees.
And maybe she missed out on some things when she left customer service for a year….maybe the definition of “Training Provided” changed and nobody told her. But in her experience, training involves a little more than, “you’re doing fine…I’ll be over there if you need me. Just give me a call.” But by ring number 18, nobody has yet picked up the other end. That was Day One. And it hasn’t changed. If she calls “over there” to ask a question, the answers vary between, “Yeah, I’ll be right over” (with nary a soul showing up), and dial tones. She hasn’t decided which she likes better: lies or silence.
She was promised Great Wages: not only by the advertisement, but by the owner and general manager himself. “We reward our employees,” he said. She nodded. Which is why, one day, after telling her how much he liked her, valued her honesty, and appreciated her intelligence, she was shocked to have his personal secretary come up (at his bidding) and tell her to sign for her pay cut. Yes, pay cut! Maybe he likes head games, who’s to say, but she is still confused as to why an honours degree and almost 10 years experience with cash and serving customers (in one capacity or another) would be rewarded with a pay cut. It’s especially vexing when the initial wage was less than “Great.” It’s a little demeaning. Not to mention illegal. She didn’t sign, and yet somehow, her payroll was significantly short in the dollar department.
And now, as she tidies, dusts, and sometimes helps customers, she is left pondering the enigma of the classifieds, and where the next job opening might be.