New Jobs...

This post is randomly placed. Callie actually started her job in July I think and mine was during the holidays, but since I am combining them, it's just being placed wherever it lands date wise.


Callie...

After all her hard work in college for 4 years, Callie landed a great job!

I am so proud of her. She had the courage when applying for jobs to shoot for the stars. With tons of experience from other jobs and internships that had similarities to this job, she went out on a limb and applied for a position that seemed more geared to someone with more experience behind them. I had faith in her abilities, because I have seen and know what she is capable of. It's just watching her go for it and hoping others would see the same thing worried me. She had already landed a pretty good job with ease, but she wasn't really happy with it and wanted something more geared toward her long term career goals.
Well, she did it. She landed an interview, went in their confident and willing to learn and a few days after the deadline date they had given her for a answer, she sadly gave up hope.
I will never forget the phone call I got a few days later! Mom! I got the job!!!!!
This job has more responsibility than most adults can handle and they all sing her praises and tell me she runs that place perfectly. I am so happy for her!!  Someday she will more than likely go for her Masters and pursue her final career dream, so she can be licensed in counseling. (Cant remember the degree) As for now. She is getting a lifetime of experience, growing and learning so much. In this process she is helping people maintain their dignity and receive the best possible care. I am amazed at the difference she is making in others lives and I know there are so many other opportunities  out there for her to continue her climb. Go Callie!!!





As for me....

Using the term "new job" is a little bit of an exaggeration.

Things with the Preschool are a still not going that great. After my failed attempt at trying out the substitute teaching thing. ( which I trained and paid for, but never actually had the courage to do) I decided I needed to find a job.

Either as a supplement or to replace Preschool if possible.

I have always loved Costco and I knew they hired seasonal help, plus they give benefits to part time employees, which is rare, I thought I would give applying a try and see if I could get hired on part time. Considering the fact, I have not worked outside of my home or my own business's or applied for a job since I was 20 this was a huge leap of faith. I applied and waited. No call. By now I knew we were going to Italy, and that meant I had to come up with some money and fast. I figured if I made $300 that would be great. I got the courage to call and see if they were done hiring and he had me come in for an interview. It was more casual than I thought, which was really good for me. It went well. I got called back in and got hired. Now that all sounds pretty impressive if you don't know the whole story. The hiring part was for the Bakery! The last department on earth I would want. I was told it was hard and the people were snobs and I was not excited to say the least, but looking at the big picture I pressed on. I did the training required for an employee. Took some tests and even got to work a few hours on the front end packing carts. THAT was the job I wanted. I loved that. I even caught 2 mistakes and saved the checkers butt. I also wanted to fold clothes out on the floor. No... I got the bakery!

 I was still teaching Preschool 2 days a week and tending Karver 1 day, and I had a few other things I couldn't get out of already planned, so by the time I actually started my first day of work it was the week of Thanksgiving! Anyone who goes to Costco knows how crazy it is that week. It's like that during the whole holiday season, but this is week is the craziest of all according to Costco, and now I know they are right. Especially now...

First day in. Scared to death.

Oh wait, the hat in the picture? I had to wear it! Over a hairnet mind you. Torture!! I do NOT wear hats. Ever! I hate them, they drive me crazy, they make me sweat and I look absolutely horrible in them. Girls with a pony tail, just pull their hair back and out comes the tail in the back and they look just fine. My hair is short and gets squished all over and so when you add sweat to it, I pretty much looked like a wild, filthy, creature from hell after 5 minutes. Regular people can take off the net and hat for a break. I had to leave mine on until I got home. because my hair was so matted down and filthy. It was great. One of my favorite parts of the job!!

Back to the first day. "Apparently" no one in the whole stupid bakery except the supervisor knew it was my first day. She was kind of nice at first, but lets face it when you are in charge of the bakery that week, and you are pulling 16 hours shifts, which she was, and you are making a couple hundred pumpkin pies a day alone, not to mention all the other pies and rolls and crap that dumb people think you should have more of, because they have NO idea what it takes to try to keep up with their greediness, she wasn't the most patient for very long. People are so dumb and crazy. If they want pie and you don't have that kind, they don't care that the bakery runs 24/7 and it is set up for 10 employees at a time, and we were cramming in twice that many bodies. They just want pie. And they want it now! And they think if they stand there and glare at you for 5 minutes, you will make one magically appear!

Ok..so this post is turning into a therapy session for me to vent my long held in anger...Let's continue....

First day in for real. NO instruction at all!

I was handed over to a few girls who were packing muffins. Told to do what they were doing. It was easy, fast moving, but not hard. Then we started moving the huge, tall and very heavy racks around to get more. Everything is so crowded in their you can barely get through and so to move a few racks you have to move 7 out of the way first. Some girl slammed a cart right into mine and smashed my thumb pretty bad. She said she was sorry and told me to "remember how to hold the racks? Holding your hands in a certain place?" Um no...No one showed me so I didn't "remember." My thumb pretty much split open, but I carried on in major pain. Limited by the inability to use my thumb. Then I started to get thrown to different jobs. Preparing rolls, super fast, but not too hard. Shaping bread loaves. Stripping pies and on and on. Every time I got somewhere else, I had to ask how or watch and get told the right way to do it. Most everyone was less than patient. Everyone was stressed out and of course they all figured I had been doing all this a few weeks. I was never so glad to go home. I was SO stiff and sore. Those huge racks are steel and heavy and you are pushing them and standing high to try to reach them or crouching so low it makes you realize how many muscles you don't use. I did this same thing 3 more days before Thanksgiving. It was awful. but I was a trooper. I needed a job and $$ for my trip and I am not a quitter. The last day, some mean supervisor was in there. I can't even remember her name, even though I swore it under my breath 40 times an hour. She thought she was pretty cool and smart and you could tell she LOVED being in charge. She followed me and this other cute, barely home from a mission girl around and made us miserable. Brooke was young though, so she kept up better. We tried to be each others support system, but it wasn't easy. We got blamed for doing things wrong, because one person would show you one way and another would come over and change it all.

Then came the Pumpkin Pies!!! These were my death!!

Number 1. I hate pumpkin pie (which turned out to be a good thing)

The guy who interviewed me told me I would by Thanksgiving anyway and he was right. This Costco makes over 10,000, yes 10,000 pumpkin pies from Halloween through New Years Day!!!

Number 2. No one in the bakery likes to fill the shells.

So you guessed it, they pick on the "new girls" One of them I happened to know is well over 6 feet tall. The racks are too. She was really good at filling pies, because she could see what she was doing. She had also worked a month or so, so they liked her to do other things most of the time.

The dreaded moment came when I got sent to the pumpkin pie filling machine and handed the nozzle. So the racks are 12 shelves high. Well over my head. Each shelf has 6 pies 3 across, 2 deep. The nozzle is like running a power washer. The distance between the top of a pile shell to the next shelf is about 2 inches. If you smash a pie shell down a little they throw it away. If you fill the pie and it splashes on the rim of the pie, they throw it away. You have about 5 seconds to spray the splash with a water bottle to try to save it. The nozzle is connected to a hose about 10 ft. long. The hose is laying in a huge vat of pumpkin pie filling. the nozzle is attached to a pump as well. You have to VERY carefully put the nozzle into the pie shell, without bumping the crust or the shelf or another shell. Then just when you hope you have it at the right angle you push the trigger and it pumps pumpkin in 7 pumps. You have to hold on tight because it has a little kick to it. You also have to gauge if you have it to close to the bottom (could blow out) or up to high (could squirt everywhere) or if you even have it in the shell you think you do. Once you pull the trigger, you close your eyes and count and pray. Then you do that 59 more times per rack. Literally!

All the while there are people yelling to see if you are done yet. The guy filling the vat is watching to see if you let the vat get too empty or if he needs to change the hose. The guy opening 7000 can of pumpkin and mixing the filling is trying to keep up. (I liked the open the can part for the hour I got to do it.) People are grabbing racks for the oven. The pie shell lady is squishing out shells as fast as she can and if they are not perfect, you get to be the one to point it out, and generally she didn't like it. It was SO much fun! In the process, Pumpkin covers every inch of you clothing, your shoes and other places you wouldn't think it could be. You eat breath and smell it for days. I actually got good at filling the dumb pies and got a compliment or 2. I stopped once to clean the nozzle because it was disgusting and I refused to use the nozzle like that. First I got glared at. Then I got questioned. Then I said this is gross and I'm not filling until it's clean and the boss lady said. "That's a good idea. Good job!" I thought I would pass out.

After 4 days in the bakery, Thanksgiving came and went. I worked 4 hours with a few girls a few days later and it was calm and they were nice and it wasn't so bad. Then I never got scheduled again. I figured they weren't super impressed with my skills, but I didn't blame them. I know I did the best I could, but they had no clue why I didn't know what I was doing. I filled a shift on the front end once and packed carts and loved it. Lots of people told me I was doing good. I think if I could have started there, I might have had a fighting chance. Oh well...I don't think I really wanted to work there anyway after that. Many of the people who I have chatted with for years acted like they didn't know you. Only a few of the employees were friendly and most of them seem no different now.

I guess I'm glad I tried. I could have used a job. I made a little over $500 for my trip and call it a experience I will never forget!

It just doesn't seem the same shopping there now. It's kind of a let down, because I have always loved the place. They have hired tons of new people now that it's busy again and I am not one of them.

And I am good with that.