TOTW72: Several Jobs I Have Had + 1 I Have Not

My very first job in which I had to fill out a W-4 was pear packer at Naumes, a fruit packing plant within biking distance from my house in Northern California.  I was just 15 years old, and I’m sure the only reason I was hired was that the woman doing the hiring went to my church and she knew I was trying to earn money for Bible camp.

My job consisted of standing in front of a rotating bin.  Pears would come down a belt and spill into my bin.  My job was to sort through the pears and pick out the prettiest ones to go in the boxes.  Damaged fruit went into a different bin for canning.  The pears were small and some had clefts in them.  I thought they were cute and looked like butts, but those were considered flaws and they went into the canning pile.  I was allowed to eat all the pears I wanted.  It was a seasonal job.  I think I worked 8 days before I was laid off.

My next “real job,” was not until I turned 18.  I worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken, which, for you young folks, is what KFC stands for.  My main job, there, was working the drive-thru.  I liked it, because no one breathed down my neck, back there.  But as with any fast food job, we were treated like trash.  A temporary manager lied to our actual manager and told her that I had refused to work an evening shift.  The regular manager came back and told me that she was ashamed of me and that I’d be working that shift from now on.

I had only asked if I could switch shifts with someone else because our regular manager usually scheduled me in the mornings, and I’d already promised my mother I’d baby sit that night. She seemed to have no problem with it at the time, so for her to lie so boldly just baffled me.  I quit that night.

Next I was hired to work at a now defunct department store called Montgomery Ward.  Ours had a snack bar, and that’s where I was hired for.  I worked there for about 18 months.  Eventually, I was trained to work in the housewares department, and then the paint department.  I didn’t love this job, either.

I had gotten hired to work at a store in the mall called “Sizes Unlimited.”  It was a store for larger women.  I was excited to work in a job in which I could dress nice.  My first night there, I realized that one of the assistant managers was a friend of mine.  The store manager accused me of lying to get the job.  She picked apart my clothes and made me feel like shit.  So I quit that job, and the bitch insisted on searching my purse before I left.

My husband had been working at Target for about four years.  He told me to apply there, and I got a job on the stock team.  I worked in that store for six years while I was in college.  I worked on the stock crew.  I learned how to run service desk, cashier, run the snack bar, and I could give breaks in every department.  I was making $7.25/hr when I left.

I left when I had my bachelor’s degree and started substitute teaching.  From there I had a series of teaching jobs including teaching history and economics at my old high school.  That was a long term sub job, but the principal hired me permanently for the next school year.  Then I taught English as a Second Language, Science, Math, and Senior Project.  I had 5 different subjects in 5 different classrooms.  The next year, I just taught math.  That was a great year.  Until Dave committed suicide, and I nearly had a nervous breakdown.

At the end of that school year, they elected to not renew my contract.

For the next several years, I worked as a teacher in various capacities.  I subbed, I taught at a Catholic High School.  I taught at a public high school.  I taught on television for adult education.

When I was subbing, I also did private tutoring and web design to earn extra money.

In 2012, I was wrongfully terminated from my last full time teaching job.  I had been there for six years.  They slandered me.  I sued.  I won.

From there I went back to substitute teaching and private tutoring.  I got hired to teach GED prep at the Greater Sacramento Urban League and did that part-time for a while.  Those adults were lazy.  They wanted to be spoon fed at their individual levels, but I had a couple dozen students and only a couple of hours per week to work with them.  They laid me off when they began having funding issued.

To subsidize my income, I got a job as a dispatcher for a medical marijuana dispensary.  It was work from home.  I got paid $10 per order, and created a Google Form to make the ordering process easier for myself and saved the owner several hours per week on the record keeping end of things.  She paid me for those hours, even though I hadn’t asked to be paid.  But one week, I missed a call because I was sitting on my phone, and she fired me.

From there I went back to subbing until I got a job as a receptionist for a tax preparation company.  BORING!!!!  I worked there until Drew and I moved to North Carolina, where I got a job as bookkeeper at a small auto repair shop.  I loved that job and the people with whom I worked.  But right before my first anniversary there, I got encephalitis and had a series of mini strokes.  I have been disabled ever since.

Even now, I tutor math because I love it.  But I don’t get paid for it, and I don’t mind.

So, which one was made up?