The story of my life
Or the story of my extremely brief employment that led me to truly appreciate the joys of unemployment.
A couple of years ago, I could not get a job. I handed out resumes, I went to the career center, nothing. So I signed on with my local youth employment support center for, you know, support. I was signed on to work a 2 week placement at a crepe stand in an old-fashioned market. I was totally excited.
The woman that worked there seemed nice enough at first. She was a fairly young pregnant woman. She greeted me, gave me a hairnet, spent 15 minutes making sure I had it on to her satisfaction. That's okay, we're serving food. She told me to count the float but for some reason I kept messing up and dropping the change. After that, it was a disaster. I was too messy. I was too fast. I was too slow. I grated the cheese too vigorously (I was trying to be fast because this was after I was too slow).
At lunch (I was supposed to work till 5) she got all chummy with me, was asking questions and telling me about her life, and told me that if I wanted to quit anytime, I could. I said "Oh no, it's a 2 week placement, I should stick with it until I've got the hang of it." and she goes "Well, it can be a 1 day placement if you want."
After my lunch she told me I could just leave early since it wasn't very busy, and come back tomorrow. I left, went home, and cried because I knew I had screwed up. The job support lady called and I told her it was awful, she assured me I probably hadn't done as bad as I thought.
That evening she called me back and told me the crepe lady wasn't interested in continuing the placement because I needed too much training and she didn't have time. Okay, that's fair, but at least let me finish the shift. At least TELL ME YOURSELF. I later received a check for about 30 dollars and a request to return the uniform. My mom was so mad, she told a good friend of hers, who was so put out she decided to tell everyone she knew about my extremely short career in making crepes, and this lady knows a LOT of people. I don't know if it's related, but Crepes To Go seems to have gone. Bwahahaha.
This, people, is one reason I am glad to be in college instead of working food service. Also, I get to live in my parents' house, eat their food and watch their satellite TV for reasonable rent supplied by the government. That's the end of my story. Boring, but it had to be told. Man, I was so upset back then.
(mariam67, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 23:43, 4 replies)

You were upset?
So you cried at the job centre, cried at your mum.

I'm guessing that the pregnant lady probably needed someone who could run the whole show while she had her baby.

When she made the decision that it wasn't ever going to be you she tried to let you off gently. Even fill you in on her situation. It was, after all, only a crepe stall job. But you couldn't take a hint. Instead you cried and then your mum gathered you up and made it better by badmouthing this woman's enterprise.

And now Crepes to Go is gone and you feel happy. One day, after you've grown up, you'll look back and feel pretty shitty about this.
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Sat 4 Apr 2009, 14:24, closed)

maybe you're right
I am being a little petty. But I didn't cry at the job center. Still, I was always a little burned that she couldn't call me or tell me to my face. I was always kind of conflicted that my mom's friend spread the word, but it was all just a fiasco. Even the people at the job center were upset about it.
(mariam67, Sat 4 Apr 2009, 15:12, closed)

but on the other hand -
- food service is not an 'easy' job. It's a bit harsh to can you, just becasue you didn't know it all already. If she needed experienced staff she should have asked for them.

Was she actually paying you? If not, then there was no reason not to let you stand in the corner and observe awhile as she talked you through (a standard training procedure is to Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, Practice. Sounds like she skipped right to Imitate and then got annoyed when you weren't perfect).

And if it was maternity cover she wanted, presumably mariam67 would have been unceremoniously dumped once her services were no longer required.

Being an employer does not give anyone the moral authority to trample all over people's feelings. If someone's doing something wrong you ought to at least tell them and give them the opportunity to improve - 'hints' do not count.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Sun 5 Apr 2009, 22:24, closed)

however at the end of the day
IMO, most likely to blame would be the "local youth employment support center"

Being pregnant does mess with your head. It can make you much more protective and insular. It also makes you EXHAUSTED by merely STANDING UP! And it SERIOUSLY undermines one's capacity for wasting time. Planning for a birth and maternity leave and basically restructuring your entire life can only occur in the time between the shock of dscovering you are preggers and the birth itself. You'd forgive a girl for being distracted. If she's at fault, then it's trying to do something too cheap, too quick. Didn't she pay the price, though? Don't go upsetting mariam67's mum! Good ol' small town mentality.


In my life, I'm proud to say I did earn all 5 of my mcdonalds stars (dealing with pikies should have been #6). I was also once unemployed long enough to get on a decent training course. I know how the bullshit feels.

But these days the glove is on the other foot, and I run a business and have a young family.

So I admit I am waving a flag for the plucky entreprenuese with the budding family, and not cheering on the PFY that cannot inspire confidence in a food preparation area.

When I was 16 I cried a lot when I lost my first job. I'd been happily working there 2 weeks when some tax thing meant I had to stop for 4 weeks. I was gutted: I felt I'd really found something I wanted to be a part of, great bunch of people. And then it all got taken away. sniff.

See? 2 weeks. not 1 day FFS! And I saw no mention of any lifelong burning ambitions towards the Crepe industry either.
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Mon 6 Apr 2009, 0:55, closed)