So Much For Applying Yourself

When I was in college, I picked up a part-time Christmas seasonal job working as an engraver at a shop that specializes in high-end items and the engraving that might go with it.

Traditionally, the stores were pretty small in general. Ours was tiny and we usually only had two people on staff: a salesperson and me. Normally, salespeople were trained as engravers as well and did double duty, but because it was Christmas time, they had each role hired specifically. So, I was hired as an engraver. 

As the season went on and I spent more time working, I started to pick up on the various sales stuff and it got to a point where I could do everything except process a sale just because I didn’t have the correct credentials. So, if I was waiting for an engraving job to finish, or didn’t have anything to do — a very rare occurrence — and we were swamped, I’d go help our salesperson out.

As the season went on and it got closer to the end of my time, my manager started asking me to stay. They needed to hire another full-time employee and she liked me and knew that I’d be able to do the job. I, of course, accepted.

And that’s when things went sideways. There’d been some drama brewing most of the holiday season because there was this regional who hated that my manager called her out on the stupid things she did. These were things like saying we couldn’t go home until all the engraving was done; the week before Christmas, the earliest I was leaving was usually midnight and I was staying about two hours away. She hated that and had been slowly trying to push my manager out for a while, but my manager pushed back.

Because of the fact that I was hired exclusively as an engraver, to be able to be brought on full-time, I had to reapply to the position with the regular coding. I reapplied and failed because I answered some of the questions like, “A coworker was out for two days for personal reasons and when they got back they told you they just didn’t feel like coming to work. What do you do?” incorrectly. Apparently. My manager still tried to push, saying that I knew what I was doing and they could use someone like me on staff. 

The regional pushed back and said no, that I had to wait, like, three months to be able to apply again. So, we did, and my manager literally called me the day that probation period was over to push me to apply again. I still failed, and when my manager pushed again, the regional said I wasn’t a good fit.

I went back to the store a few months later to talk to my manager for other reasons and she wasn’t there. When I asked, I got a line of, “She’s no longer with the company.” I’m pretty sure that the regional used her defense of me to push her out completely.

The next Christmas, I got a letter from the company telling me that they “hoped I’d consider joining them again for the holiday season!” I promptly threw it in the fire.