Dream Job

Janie knew that she would have to seek out a second job. She hated to do that, since she did have a full time job already and a family besides, but still…if she couldn’t pay the bills then she couldn’t pay the bills.

         She had discussed this with her husband. He didn’t want her to take a second job. Neither did her kids. Her co-workers at her full time job didn’t feel that she would have the time. All Janie knew was that, if no one else was going to step up, then it would have to be her.

         Her husband decided that he would also seek out a second job. They agreed that whichever one of them got a job offer first would take it and that would be that. They both went and applied at a local video rental store.

         Neither actually expected to be called in for an interview, but a few days later they called Janie in. She nailed the interview and was offered the job as a customer service representative, which was basically a cashier. Her husband’s application was next in line, but they couldn’t both work at the same store, and besides there was only one position available. Janie accepted the job. 

         Janie found that she actually truly enjoyed her new job. She had a ball with her customers and co-workers. She also enjoyed the perks of the job. It was a nice change from her other job, where she had to be professional all day long. In this job, she was able to relax a bit. Of course, she had to be business like, but it was a different type of business. 

         Naturally, this was a hard change on Janie and her family, but they reaped benefits from it, also. After working there for a few months, Janie discovered that one of the shift managers was leaving and they would be replacing her. However, she wasn’t being considered for the position. It had never occurred to her that she would even want the position, but now that she wasn’t being considered she kind of felt that maybe she did want it, after all.

         Janie discussed it with her husband, and then went to her store manager. Her store manager was taken aback that Janie even wanted the job. She told Janie that she wasn’t sure Janie would want it, much less if she would have the time to do the job. Janie assured her that she would be able to handle it, and she received the job as a shift lead, or shift manager.

         As the months and years passed, Janie became more and more happy in her job. Then came the day that Janie got hurt on her day job. She was destroyed. Both jobs required her to be on her feet, and so she had to go on workman’s comp at her day job. This meant that she couldn’t do the other job, either. As much as Janie hated to do it, she resigned from her night job so as not to put them short-handed.

         Months passed. The store manager never replaced Janie. In fact, she would offer Janie to come back every time she saw her. Janie began to avoid going into the store because as much as she really wanted to go back to the job, she also wanted to be home with her family.

         One day, while Janie and her husband were watching television, Janie got the feeling that she wanted to go back to the job, after all. She went in and talked to the store manager, who was leaving for vacation but said she would re-hire Janie upon her return.

         A couple of evenings later, Janie and her husband went in to rent some movies. Janie discovered that one of the assistant manager, who was pregnant and got flustered easily, was very busy and alone. When Janie inquired as to where her customer service representative was, the assistant manager told her that they had called in and no one else was coming in to help her so she would have to close by herself. Janie called the store manager and basically re-hired herself with the manager’s permission. 

         Janie got right back into the flow of the job. Since her day job was August through May, she really got to enjoy her other job during the summer. Janie was re-hired in May, and the store manager got injured in June. Janie ended up basically running the store. She was making schedules, handling problems, and in reality doing all the things that the assistant manager should have been doing while the manager was out.

         Eventually, the district manager noticed that Janie was doing the assistant manager’s job, and demoted the assistant manager and promoted Janie to assistant manager. Janie was totally ecstatic! She had a complete and total ball that summer. The store manager didn’t come back until the end of the summer, so Janie was the boss for the entire summer. 

         Once the store manager returned, things began to go downhill. Finally, Janie went to the store manager and asked if everything was okay. At that time, a lot of video rental companies were going out of business and shutting down. The store manager felt that she was running a sinking ship. She wanted to quit. She had a friend whose store was closing, and she said that the friend should be getting put in charge of the store.

         For some reason, this truly bothered Janie. For one thing, she had met this friend before, and wasn’t impressed with her at all. For another thing, she kind of felt that she was being overlooked. After all, hadn’t she done a great job over the summer? By this time, Janie had quit her day job and dedicated herself full time to the video store. 

         Janie discussed this with her husband. He asked if she wanted to go for the manager position. Janie decided that, although she didn’t have the experience and the other girl did and came with a recommendation from the current manager, she did actually want to go for the position.

         After several months of basically campaigning for herself, Janie was still being told that the other candidate would most likely be getting the job. No one was more thrilled or surprised than Janie when she received the phone call saying that the store was hers. Janie gladly ran her store until the company shut down, and unlike the previous manager, Janie remained and went down with her beautiful ship.