Turn Around: A Farewell The Old Job

Today’s post, we’re talking about my old job. Hoo ray!

I decided to try a solid week of posts because I started writing ahead of schedule earlier in the month to cover top ten lists for the year wrap up and then I started doing in-depth character discussions, which I started planning out in advance. This really filled my posting schedule and when I made an extra post for New Years to talk about goals for the next year I decided let’s just max it out with a post all the way through Friday. Don’t expect me to keep this pace up forever. I just got extra time on my hands and figured it’d be fun to fill out the week. 

And since my last day of working at [Midwestern Grocery Store] will be this upcoming weekend (from the time of posting) I thought it’d be interesting to write about that. Initially I was going to do a post about the things I won’t miss and that made working there unfun. But it turned into more of a rant against management and how certain managers (like Sam Turney) are absolute idiots who don’t respect those around them and shouldn’t be allowed the positions they’re getting. But I felt that wouldn’t also be fun to read. So I decided to make this more positive and discuss some of the things I actually enjoyed about my job. I haven’t decided what all will be on the list upon writing this sentence, so I imagine this will actually be quite short.

First, let me just do a special shout out list to all the people I’ve worked with who have made working there feel somewhere between bearable and pleasurable. Shouts outs to: TJ, Shawn, Caleb, Tim, Clowers, Jim, Evan, Cheezum, Russell, Jerod, Chris (the good one), Theresa, Kevin, Stephen, Dan, Steven, Tom (old store), Eric (old store), Wil (old store), Sedina (old store), Edita (old store), Kris (old store), Kris (bakery), Stephanie, Chris (bakery), Jesse, Jared, Ben (Italian), Nathan (I think that was his name, from the old store), Sean, Tony, and while I didn’t always agree with him… yes… even Beau… somewhat. If you didn’t make this list at all I either never learned or remembered your name OR you clearly weren’t good enough to be on the list. Don’t automatically assume you weren’t good if you didn’t make the list. Like I said, my memory isn’t great and I may have just unintentionally forgotten you… unless you were management, in which case you were probably garbage. 

I had a lot of good times working with most of you people. Sometimes it was fun just messing around during the slow times like burning random shit or putting random spices and things into syrup canisters. Of course we had fun discussions about things from games to movies to comics to listening to Tom (old store) talk about politics for most of a shift. While I never did grow to like the job, I did grow to like a large number of people and I don’t think I’d be the person I am today if not for all of you. I certainly wouldn’t have kept the job as long as I did if not for some of you.

Before I worked in the kitchen, I knew jack about how to cook food at all. The most I had done was microwaving frozen food and that’s it. While you can’t really call what most of what we do to be “actual cooking” I did learn more about food and how to prepare it. And I learned I actually do enjoy cooking food for myself and for small gatherings of close friends… not so much for large groups of angry, fat, old people. But it’s still a good skill to have picked up so I don’t have to eat out all the time or be stuck on frozen pizza forever.

If not for the job I had, I wouldn’t have met the people who would eventually join me at RTX. Or the people who would be a part of the E-Vac Station YouTube channel we started (and have put on hiatus temporarily). I wouldn’t have debated about videogames and consoles endlessly to the point of stupidity. Hell, I even picked up SOME sports knowledge from you guys… not much that I ever managed to retain, but SOME. Again, I mostly thank Tom (old store) for that one.

Yes, we also had good times making mockery of the management at the store. From Hamilton to Hudacheck to Sam Turney to Cock Blocker, they were all easy targets. Easy because of their bad decision making, treatment of employees (especially part-timers), their insistence on being right when they’re clearly wrong, and the arrogance that normally is mandatory for people in their positions. And I know that wherever I go I’ll have people like them to deal with in the future. I certainly hope I’ve taken the skills needed to deal with those people in other fields I go into. 

And, by that logic, same applies to co-workers. We made a mockery of garbage employees like Ben (Kitchen), Chris (the bad one), Kayla, Paula, Ben (old store), Justin (old store), and I’m sure there are plenty more I’m forgetting. There are some we made fun of that eventually got better and became good friends with us (hell, I’m sure there was lots of shit going on behind my back). But like those crappy co-workers I just listed, we have people like that in all jobs we go to that will never be as good as we need them to be or constantly slow us down in our jobs. And I’ll miss some of the ones we made fun of… but I’m also glad to finally be away from a couple of them too.

I can’t say I’ll miss the work. I can’t say I’ll miss the costumers. I can’t say I’ll miss anything more than just the people I mentioned earlier I worked with. Good friends who I hope will be around for a while longer. If not or if, for some reason, I lose contact with you, then I wish you best of luck wherever life takes you. With that, I shall be on my way because tomorrow is the dawn of the second to last day. See ya next time.