Quitting Time

It may seem implausible for Roland to have gotten 15 jobs without any starting — but it’s not impossible. Trust me. I know. You see, a  scaled-down version of those events happened to me during the dot-com bust of the early nineties.

After my job as a production artist for a small game company ended when they folded, I was out looking for work again. I sent out what felt like a thousand responses to posts for jobs. A long time went by with no replies at all, and my aspirations went from being hired as an artist to just being hired. (A lot like now, actually — know anyone who’s hiring?)

Then a funny thing happened. People started to get back to me.
I had a few interviews. A guy who wanted to open a tourist store with SF merchandise in it hired me to be a cashier, starting a month from then. I couldn’t really wait, but felt I had to say yes and just hope that either it would start sooner or I would find something else in the meantime. Right after that, I was hired as a sales associate for a kiosk that was also going to be opening in a couple of weeks. I felt awkward letting those two jobs race against each other, but again, I needed to do what was best for me.

As the date for the kiosk job got closer, that manager called to say that the opening date was pushed back, and also, would I mind working in San Jose? I said I couldn’t, I didn’t have a car, and even if I did I wouldn’t drive to San Jose for nine bucks an hour.

The next day I got a call for a job as a receptionist for a marketing firm. I went in for the interview and did fairly well. The day after that I got a call from a doctor’s office that needed an assistant, so I went in that day for the interview. Lost track yet? That’s two jobs accepted and two interviews — tourist store, kiosk, marketing receptionist, and doctor’s office.

The next morning the marketing firm called and asked me to start on Monday. I was excited because it wasn’t a retail job and I could work normal hours and get my weekends back. I got the call from the doctor’s office that afternoon saying I got the job, but turned it down because I thought I had already accepted the marketing job. Then I called the other two jobs back, the tourist store and kiosk, to let them know that I couldn’t wait any more and had accepted another position.

The tourist store guy was very upset at me for this, as was the kiosk owner. What can I say — you can’t have loyalty AND a low wage job that never starts. It just doesn’t work that way.

Monday morning rolled around, and I reported to work — or so I thought. When I got there, the lady who had hired me informed me that I wasn’t reporting for work, but for a second interview.

Let me repeat that. The lady who HIRED ME said that I was here to INTERVIEW for the job that she HIRED ME for.

I sat there with a puzzled look on my face. I went through the motions with the upper management guy who wanted to interview me, and it was then that I figured out what happened. The woman who hired me didn’t have complete authority to hire me. Someone higher up had found out, and then the home office — this was a satellite office — also wanted to have some input. I came to the conclusion that I probably would still get the job, so I didn’t flip out at any of them.

A day later she called again to tell me I had the job and wanted to fax me a contract. A contract? I was going to be a receptionist, what sort of contract is needed for that? In today’s world, it is common for full-time and part-time clerical to be 1099 contract workers if the employer is crappy… er, I mean competitive. But back then it was un-friggin-heard of.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, a 1099 contract is a common way to get work done that is specialized, but it has also evolved into a way to not pay any benefits. Specifically, a 1099 worker is not an employee. I said that as an illustrator, I was familiar with 1099 status, but that I had never heard of it being used for administrative work before.

I got the contract from her and couldn’t believe how crappy it was. At this point I was flipping out. I had just turned down other jobs for this? I called her back up and said that I was really happy to have this job and had turned down others to have it, but that there was no way that I was going to be a 1099 worker for them. They could hire me as an employee or they could not.

They chose to not hire me.

I called back the doctor’s office and let them know that I was available; however, at that point they had hired someone else.

Having burned my bridges with the other two retail jobs… I was back at square one. Head-vs-desk, round one — FIGHT!

So now you know where this plot line comes from. What a life.