Toward the end of the school year, my Mom thought that it was not enough that I was working only one job. It had to do with her wanting (and practically forcing) me to take her Distributive Education class my senior year. I guess a big part of the class is working and students in the program were required to work 15 hours a week. I only worked 10 hours a week at the Racquet and Health Club and that was not going to cut it. So, she arranged for me to get hired at this clothing store called Main Place, which was located in downtown Artesia.
I had been familiar with Main Place since I was a child. Mom took Loyd and me there to shop for clothes every once in a while before I was a teenager. At some point, the owner leased out the space next door. He made Main Place a women's clothing store and turned the store next door into a men's clothing store, calling it "Mr. E's," which was the first initial of his last name.
The previous two years, Mom had Distributive Education students working there and they HATED it. The number one problem was that, during that time in the State of New Mexico, employers were not required to pay the full minimum wage to anyone under the age of 18. Mr E took full advantage of this and paid 50 cents an hour less. The number two problem was Mr. E himself. He was the kind of boss who seemed to get kicks out of getting angry at his employees. If one thing went wrong, he would start the yelling.
Mom was aware of all this and she still wanted me to work there. A couple of weeks before the end of the school year, she had me go to Main Place and talk to Mr. E after school on a Friday afternoon. The first thing he did was make me fill out an application. I first I thought, "Oh, I'm not getting the job." Several months earlier, before I had gotten the job at the Racquet Club, I had gone around to a few businesses and applied for jobs. I filled out an application at every one of them and not one of them hired me. I got the job at the Racquet Club WITHOUT having to fill out an application. However, Mr E told me I had the job.
I was expecting him to ask me to start in a couple of weeks, so I could finish the rest of the school year. After all, I didn't start working at the Racquet Club until a couple of weeks after they told me I was hired. However, Mr. E told me I was going to start the next day, Saturday. I was to show up at 9am. I had planned stuff for Saturday, but it looked like I wasn't going to get to do that.
I came in the next day and he took me around and introduced me to everyone who worked there. It was mostly sales staff. They were all females in Main Place and there were two men who worked at Mr. E. The women ranged in age from 21 to 60. (One of the women was Wend's mother.)
The first thing I had to do was read the new employee handbook. Mr. E had recorded a cassette in which he read the handbook and I just followed along. The one thing I remember most about the handbook was that no employee was permitted to discuss their pay with another employee. That was grounds for termination. Since then, at every place I have worked, I have never discussed my pay with another employee. Not that any other employer makes it grounds for termination, but I've found it's best not to even bring the topic up. (However, I should note that some of the saleswomen were frequently discussing their paychecks when the boss wasn't around.)
My job was basically being a janitor. I had to go around and clean the mirrors, clean the display windows, clean the toilets and sinks, vacuum the carpets, sweep the floors, you name it. I also had to straighten out the stock rooms. It was just cleaning the whole time I was there. Monday through Friday, it was just vacuuming the floors, cleaning the mirrors and minor details here and there. But this had to be done at both stores, and there were a LOT of mirrors.
I didn't have a problem with doing all the cleaning. The problem was that Mr. E made it sound like I would have a half-hour between the end of school every day (which ended at 3:30pm) to run around before coming in at 4pm. The store closed at 5:30pm. He seemed to think everything could be done in 90 minutes and I would even have time for a break in the middle there. Really, it couldn't be done. I tried. It just wasn't happening, even if I didn't take my break. This meant I had to come to the store right after school and start work at 3:45pm. I still did not get my break.
One of the problems with vacuuming the floor that late in the afternoon is that there were always customers around. I could not vacuum where there were customers, so I would have to vacuum elsewhere. This wasn't a problem at the men's store, but it was always a problem at the women's. You're probably thinking that I could have vacuumed after the store closed at 5:30pm. That was not an option. Mr. E wanted everyone, customers and employees, out by 5:30pm. That's when HE wanted to leave.
So this is the set up for Part Two, which will appear on Wednesday. You can already tell that this is not going to be a joyride.
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