Saturday the 8th was my birthday. I turned 27 years old. As it turns out, it was a day filled with firsts. It was the first time my parents visited me in Calgary on my birthday. It was the first time Tracie has baked me a cake for my birthday. It was the first time I missed my birthday phone call from my wonderful Aunt Celanie, she calls every year but this year had to leave a message on my machine. Last but not least it was the first time I have ever been fired for no good reason on my birthday.
I didn't tell my parents when they were here because I didn't want them to worry. Kind of funny really. You would think that that is something I would want to tell them. But I didn't.
The awful truth is that I tend to make the best of things. I hated that job since day two. You have to wear a (most people would enter a swear here) uniform! Stupid people yell at you all the time.
What's that sir? You want to return a $50 diskman you bought in September 2001? It still works, but it skips sometimes?
What's that ma'am? You bought these batteries, they worked for a little while, now they don't anymore and you want to exchange them?
Anyway, it's for the best. I couldn't take lying to Tracie about how much I love my job. It was starting to make me feel guilty.
When it comes down to it, I got that job as a lark. I saw their information fair poster in the MacEwan Student Center on my way back up to the Gauntlet after buying a slush. It said free pizza and a chance to win a MP3 player. I figured I already had a slush, I might as well get some free pizza and see what they had to say. At the end of the night they were signing everyone up for interviews in the morning. I figured what the heck, I could use some free interview practice, I didn't actually have to take the job.
Well, as it turns out I interview very well and the black shirt my Mom bought me looks really nice on me. Which led me to a second interview. Did I say that I only signed up for the interviews because of the free Pizza? Anyway, up until this point I hadn't even had a call back so I took the job.
I didn't think that I would be getting a customer service job though. They made it clear when they hired me that I would be in a merchandising role, far away from any stupid customers and shyster salesmen. The Future Shop bait and switch strikes again.
When the manager made it clear that he was "letting me go" (he should grow a pair and say "you're fired!" like the Donald) I felt my the muscles in my chest literally loosen. Physically my lungs relaxed. It was like one second I was having a heart attack and the next I was fine. Having a Future Shop job one moment not the next. When he told me I could stay the rest of the day, I told him it was my birthday and that I would be going home early. Which was really funny because for a second there, he seemed a little embarrassed, like he was feeling a twinge of guilt.
Anyway, I'm looking for a MIS job again.
-Gary
Ps. I don't need any condolences, I'm actually glad I didn't have to quit. Feel free to post any stories about the Future Shop that you want now. Oh and I'm changing all the instances of electronic retailer back to Future Shop.
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