First/Last Day

My head is still spinning from the experience. Witnessing a company’s fractured infrastructure so blatantly, and on your very first day, can be jarring. I hadn’t prepared myself for this grotesque display of lack of professionalism and the aftermath that followed. Instead of finding the humor somewhere in there, I just feel sad. There’s nothing funny about failure.

The day started with a meeting. Letisha, a very round, black woman and I were walked into the owner’s office. He proceeded to tell us that this job would be year round, and that included Super Bowl Sunday and Christmas. The service they provide is 24 hours, so the shifts would run late night and the morning shift began at 6:00am. I saw my freedom flash before my very eyes. But I pressed on.

Initially, we were being shown the ropes by a young, well-dressed, black woman. Her nerves were frazzled and she admitted to us that she had taught herself most of what she knew about the job. Her training skills were poor, leaving both Letisha and I very confused. But we stayed with it.

From what I was able to gather, the company acts as a liaison between the airlines and the unfortunate people who lose their bags. And as I came to find out, this company makes lots of mistakes. In the short time I was in the office, it was revealed they had lost several pieces already. Once the company’s drivers pick up the luggage, it became the dispatcher’s responsibility to get it to its destination. They have to set the routes, instruct the drivers, deal with hysterical passengers. Apparently, the onus of achieving a system of steady delivery of people’s personal belongings lost by an airline landed square on the shoulders of the dispatcher. The stress that this young woman was experiencing was very apparent. She did not stop moving. She juggled 10 different things at once. For 12 straight hours. All for 9 bucks an hour. I was flabbergasted.

The woman who worked the second shift came in. The others had been talking about her all day. She was a force in this place. Powerful. Take charge. Black. I came to realize I was the only white person all day. This made it difficult on me because no one would look me in the eyes. This new woman was confrontational. She was enormous. Her first question was, what sign are you? I smiled and said, I'm the only sign there is. It's my signature Leo answer to this question. She said, you must be a Gemini. I reacted, Oh no, honey. Gemini’s are impossible to deal with. Turns out, she’s a Gemini. She said, "You don't want to see my other half". Trained in the military. Had her stint as a cop. She reminded me of a friend of mine. I liked her immediately.

She started off strong, with a this-job-is-a-breeze attitude. She told us to forget everything the prior girl has taught us. That she had been there for years and could show us how it’s done. Just then, the boss called. And she asked everyone in the room – a tech guy, his friend, Letisha & I, and two others who, as it turned out, were visiting friends of the Gemini – to leave. She had to speak with him in private. The owner was having an issue with people taking advantage of the time clock. The boss had set up a new device that fingerprints the employees, to stop people from cheating him. And she was not having any part of it.

We cleared the room. Thru a window in the back we could see that the conversation was not going well. She made some very large gestures with her hands and she appeared to be shouting. And then, she was gone. Got in her car and left. For good. Just like that, she quit.

Shuffling our feet inside, no one was really sure what to do. She didn't even say good-bye to her friends, who stood there sheepishly. The manager had left with the owner and that left just the tech guy, who shared with us that the owner is nearly bankrupt. And instead of offering his more valued employees more money, he’s hiring more people, so he doesn’t overwork his existing staff. In turn, he was frustrating those who had been there a while and were expecting a raise in conjunction with the workload they were being given every day. This is a high stress job. To pull your hair out for someone else’s company and then be responsible for every fuck up, all for $50 a shift? I had already sensed the quiet animosity in the place. If you let someone mistreat you and continue to let them mistreat you, chances are good you will grow to resent them. And then one day, blow up in front of a room full of people. I can’t remember the last time I felt that uncomfortable.