Starting Work

Okay, I said I was gonna return to writing stuff for my blog, then lost motivation and neglected this for a zillion years, so let's try this again. So, my first day of work... wasn't quite what I expected.

Basically, I got there, and the manager said, "Well, we'll start you off with some orientation videos." So I started doing those, and was thinking, So, I just do a few videos, and then I start the actual on-the-job training?

And the others informed me, "No, you have to do all of these." The entire big long list. A million bajillion videos and quizzes and such. I had to finish all of them before I started actually working. And they were saying they did a million of them when they started, too. 

Imagine being in school, doing five hours of independent study courses online. Except there's no other students or teachers, you're just mostly sitting alone unless someone pops in briefly, or you leave the room for a short time for something. That was pretty much my day. Just sitting in the back office, doing stuff on that computer. Forever.

On the plus side, I did eventually complete all the training courses, and finally got to do actual hands-on stuff. Which brings me to my next point of interest.

You know how in school, we had to do P.E., and they'd make us do lunges or squats or whatever? And we'd think, "Once we're out of school, most of us probably won't have much use for this stuff." I see the significance now.

In other news, I never realized how much exertion goes into reaching down for stuff until I was doing it constantly. I kept bending down to grab things, or to look under tables to sweep, which made my lower back tired. So I thought, "I needed to start squatting or kneeling more so I don't kill my back." And then I destroyed my leg muscles instead.

My body was weak and pathetic, and didn't know what to do with this bizarre concept of physical exertion, and actually using some of the muscles it's composed of. The first week of work, I really put my body through a workout. I had to become acclimated to actually doing stuff, rather than just being a motionless lump on the sofa.

My friend felt the same way about life in quarantine.

Another thing that happened shortly after starting work is that I got my hair cut. It was about a hundred feet long (okay, not really), and other than getting my bangs trimmed, I hadn't cut it in ages. I sometimes contemplated it when it was especially tangled, or when it was in my way. Imagine going outside on a windy day, or bending down to do something, and your hair is getting in your face, half-blinding you.

Anyway, after putting it in a ponytail and a hairnet for work all the time, it became even more annoying to me. Especially since I always had a bunch of little flyaway hairs by my temples. Those stupid hairs of middling length were always escaping the hairnet and sticking out in weird ways.

In the past, I had sometimes thought about changing my hairstyle, but worried I might not like the result. Plus, you can't just glue it back on if you decide it doesn't look good. However, I found myself wanting to cut it all off, more than ever. Just get it out of the way entirely. So, I looked at pictures online, contemplated things, yammered at my friend on Discord, then finally saved a few images of pixie cuts that came close to what I wanted.

Some indecision and complaining may have been involved in the process.

As it turned out, I ended up liking the haircut I got. So much, in fact, that I've kept it that way for the past three years. I like the look of it, and it's more manageable. It's not in my face (except when I'm due for a haircut) and it barely even tangles now. Of course, there's the matter of the extraneous hair I meant to donate to Locks of Love or something many moons ago, but let's pretend I haven't been procrastinating or forgetting about that for ages. I'll get it done someday.

I eventually got into the swing of things, both physically and mentally. I became familiar with the cash register and how to take orders, and even got the hang of that tricky supply closet door, which had to be finagled in a certain way to unlock it. I had learned the basic tasks, and things were fairly easy.

Well, except for the day we had a busload of customers come in. That gave me my first taste of what I could expect when the school year started. Every weekday, hordes of teenagers would pour into the building all at once, and I had to learn how to deal with those busy times. Now I was in the big leagues. But I grew used to that, too, though the chaos and the resulting mess afterwards wasn't fun. After those initial months, I soon became a seasoned employee, even being asked to help train new recruits at some point.

But that concludes today's blog post. Keep an eye out for my next post in a couple of weeks, and next month for an expanded tale of the legendary bus.