Unit 1

My place

When someone tells you that they are going into work you first thought isn’t usually that they are about to go have fun for the next 6-8 hours. Imagining them behind a desk or cash register taking calls and wishing that they weren’t there is probably a much more reasonable image to have of them. And like most people this was how I have viewed my work for the past couple of years. I work at HobbyTown USA, an R/C (Remote Control) hobby store; the reason I say R/C is because it is commonly confused with places like Hobby Lobby and Michaels which are traditional craft stores. I cannot think of one day when I didn’t want to go into work, however, I can also not think of a day at work which I didn’t enjoy.

                Waking up for a Saturday shift is about the earliest I will ever wake up for anything non-school related and even then it’s still only 9 that I wake up at in order to be there at 10. Upon entering the store I usually feel very odd because of the coldness of a concrete store in the morning with a lack of manmade light. The first few hours are slow and that is good because I am never awake until lunch. When there is no one else in the store I usually find myself sitting on some shelving behind the register, it is sturdy metal shelving that is usually used as a stepstool for the others but for me I want it to be nothing more than a place for me to rest. I know that I can’t stand for a whole shift so I sit when I can on my trusty shelf since there are no chairs or other places to sit in the store. The smells one smells while smelling in the store can very quite heavily based on where you are, it can smell like grease and fuel, or even new shoes (we don’t sell shoes it just smells like it sometimes.)  The rest of the day can be described as customer service, phone calls and questions form the few customers we get and people complaining because they didn’t read the instructions on their $500 R/C car and broke it within the first 5 minutes of owning it. This is probably the worst part about my job, getting yelled at by ignorant people who think that good customer service is letting the customer walk all over you and get their way, when in fact they are wrong and there is nothing we can do for them. Stupid people aside most days go by without a hitch, and are over before I know it. Closing is almost as fast as opening but we have to vacuum and count the earnings, both take about 15 minutes to do since we split the work. Then I’m on my way home to rest my always tired feet.

                The first and my favorite thing that stands out about my workplace would be the environment. Being a small business and not having to abide by rules and protocols from some guy in an office miles away really give off a unique atmosphere in the building. It really doesn’t feel like I am an employee most of the time, but rather part of a club or even a family.

Something that also stands out about this workplace would be the downtime that one gets almost every workday. Being a specialty store there isn’t always customers in the store and some days there are more times without customers then with. This again makes the atmosphere very friendly with lots of time for the employees to get to know each other and relax. While working with some of the older employees a lot of stories get told during this time. These stories make it feel like I’m working with my grandfather who used to always tell stories but passed away a couple years back, so hearing stories given in the same manner always makes me think of him. The Employees aren’t the only interesting people you will run into while at HobbyTown. The customers range from moms looking for last minute birthday gifts to the 65 year old professional R/C plane pilot. One of my favorite types of people who come in are the customers who return to tell you about the product they purchased. While this might sound annoying to most it is slightly different for me at least. In my line of work I cannot have personal experience with all of my products since most cost upwards of $100 so getting personal feedback from customers is interesting to me as well as beneficial to my work. When people come in and talk to me it always helps the day go by quicker as well because while it is fun to work in a toy store for adults being at home is something that just can’t be replaced.

However, because of the great comfort I get when I am at home I have a hard time getting anything accomplished while there. It is a different story at work. At work I have plenty of downtime where I can be doing homework or working on one of my own personal projects. I would like to think that getting this job helped me get through high school because it taught me a lot about responsibility and gave me a place where I could concentrate. I really love my work and I can’t imagine working anywhere else, getting a real job is going to suck!

                                                         co-worker  Justine