My Fall 2010 Short Story
52 Weeks
Here’s a thought. What if your job changed every week? What if people just rotated professions and switched people out every seven days? That’s interesting.
I was bored, sick of my everyday life. I came home everyday feeling like I accomplished nothing. To think I went to four years of college just to be stuck in a crammed space typing away at my computer all day, wishing I was doing something else, anything else. That’s not what I had in mind.
This was me, exactly 52 weeks ago. I was working as a consultant in a crowded boring office in Washinton. I could barely explain my job title. I was miserable. So, I decided to quit. It wasn’t an easy decision. In fact, I thought about it off and on for about two months. One day I just did it. At the time I really didn’t know what I was about to do. I just walked into the boss’s office and told him what I had to say. He just sat there and listened, nodding every once in a while. Then, he told me what he had to say. He said “You need to quit. You need to find what your looking for and who you really are. Experiment with your options. Come back in a year and see if you want your job back”.
I walked out of his office still processing what he had just said. I didn’t know exactly what he meant but I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This was my proposal: I will choose to work at a job temporarily, for no more than a week. I will do this every week for a year, about 52 weeks, so 52 jobs to find out what I’m passionate about.
I got the idea from a book. It wasn’t the same exact idea but it was about a guy that decided to travel to a new country every month. He ended up visiting 50 countries. I didn’t think that I could travel around the world this year. So, I went with the job idea. That was close enough.
When I told people about my idea they sounded confused. They said “How will you be able to find 52 jobs in this economy?” or “You need a more permanent job” and the most common response was “You’re crazy!” Yeah, I know I’m crazy. The whole idea was crazy. I just thought, well, i’ll try it and if it doesn’t work out that’s okay. Its not the end of the world. I can always live off my savings. If I don’t do it, I’ll regret it later.
I had a lot of work to do. First, I needed to find a job for the next week. I started by thinking of the first thing I wanted to do when I grew up. When I was five, I wanted to own my own candy store, that was a start. I found out that the nearest candy store was two miles away, “The sweet retreat”. I called them. the next day and my job stated on Monday. That was pretty easy, at least the first time.
Week 1
Monday, June 1st 9:00 am
Occupation: candy shop cashier
I sent the woman who owned the shop my resume and explained to her my job plan and how I would only be working there for only a week. He explained to me how one of the shop workers was going to be only vacation for a week and said that fill in for him.
I walked in to the shop an heard a little bell sound behind me.
“Oh hi, you must be Carlos.”
“That’s me”.
“Great, so we will be having you work behind the counter to start.
“Yup”.
“Follow me”.
The woman walked me over to the cash register. She showed me how to scan the different kinds of candy and look at the price. Then she showed me how the credit card machine worked and she showed me how to open the cash register. Five minutes later the store opened and people started coming into the shop. Every few minutes one or two people came in and bought their candy. Not one person stayed in the shop for more than five minutes. It was a quiet shop, a family owned business. It was pretty boring working behind the counter, waiting until people came. I got excited when the I hear the little bell ring and had slight feeling of sadness when they left.
The rest of the week at The Sweet Retreat was similar to my first day. On Tuesday Sandra asked me to organize the candy. It sounded fun at first, but organizing 11,000 different kinds or candy for six hours was not very exiting. The next day she asked me to work the cash register again. I was getting better at this. By the end of the week I was done with the job. The happy feeling of being in a candy store was gone. When I was five, I would have never imagined working at a candy shop would be so boring.
I spent the whole weekend trying to find another job. I had craigslist.org open on my computer at all times. In one hand I was holding my phone up to my ear and in the other held the phone book. I must have made at least 60 calls that weekend. This weekend was defiantly not the hardest one to find a job. I found one from a friend of a friend. He knew a guy that was an assistant to a house keeper. First thought that came into my mind was “Wow, me cleaning, okay this is gonna be fun”.
Week 2
Monday, June 8th 10:00 am
Occupation: House cleaner
I came into this job with a different feeling than I had coming into my job last week. I absolutely hated cleaning. I was wishing I was heading to the candy shop, but I knew I had to take this job. It was the only one I could find this week. I was given a card with the address of my first house to clean. The lady said she would meet me there. I felt a sigh of relief when I found out of I didn’t have to do it alone. I drove up to the house, it was a nice house in a pretty nice neighborhood. I rang the doorbell and heard,
“It’s open! Come right in”.
I walked in and saw a small woman about the age of 50 vacuuming the carpet. She held out her hand,
“Oh (name), nice to meet you. If you could get going on the kitchen that would be great. I left the supplies on the counter. I’ll be in to help in in a minute”.
“Okay” I said.
Great, I thought, straight to the cleaning, lets get this over with. It took us about four hours to clean the whole house. She said I could go home for the day. The next day we cleaned three houses. They were smaller than the first so they didn’t take too long. A few days passed and I had gotten a lot better at cleaning. I was pretty fast at it too. Throughout the whole week I was surprised to see how different each house was. I liked to see all of the little things people used to decorate their house. I liked this job. I was actually sad to leave it.
A few weeks passed and I was really getting used to the whole “new job every week thing”. Surprisingly enough, I could say that I actually liked my life changing every week.
Week 10
Monday, July 21st 7:30 am
Occupation: Pet store janiter
I was getting more and more comfortable with my ability to find jobs. I found connections that I never knew I had. For this particular week, it was easy to find a job. I went to Petsmart and actually asked for a job at the checkout counter. I was lucky to get one. They didn’t even have a help wanted sign on the window. At first they weren’t that fond of the idea. I explained to them what I was doing and how it would only be for a week and then they said that one of the maintenance guys was going to be on vacation for the week and I could take over for him. I always loved animals. I wanted to be a vet since I was nine. I guess this was as close as I could get without some kind of medical credential.
You would think that working at a pet store you would be able to play and connect with the animals. Well, that would be true if you worked in the grooming section. Working for maintenance, not so much. The only animals you got to interact with were the fish when you were cleaning out the fish tanks. My job was to sweep the floor, organize pet food and dog toys, and clean up all of the messes the pets make. Fun.
This was one of those jobs that made me want to rethink why I got myself into this whole thing.
Week 16
Monday, August 14, 6:00 am
Occupation: Driving Range Ball Retriever
When I was a kid my dad used to take me out to the driving range to go hit some balls. He was apparently a pro at golf and wanted me to follow in his foot steps. He took me out to the range almost every weekend. I loved trying to hit the ball into the big circular nets, rarely did I ever make it in them. I remember wondering who picks up the balls hit and how big of a job that must have been.
I drove up to “Dave’s Driving Range” on Monday morning with a blue polo shirt and a hat had a big golf ball on the front. I picked up my uniform the day before. It was a beautiful golf coarse as well as a driving range, it had big tress everywhere you looked and the grass was bright green throughout the coarse. My dad would have loved it here. I was told to go to the little room below the second floor of the takeoff zone. The room was tiny, about the size of a handicapped bathroom stall. It smelled like mildew. There was a key on the small desk that was labeled “key to ball dispenser. I took the key and ran out of that horribly smelling room. thank god I didn’t spend that much time in there.
When I came the day before I was told everything I needed to know. In the morning I was supposed to check the ball dispenser and make sure all of the stations looked clean. Then I would leave and come back at around 8:00 and clean up all the balls that were hit that day.
I was kind of fun being out on the field by myself late at night. I used to run down the hills with my big net thing and see how fast I could collect the balls. The part that wasn’t that fun was getting the balls out of the swamp area. At night, the grass got cold and damp, and in one particular spot, the grass turned all wet and gushy. I had to put on these big boots and gloves to search for the balls. This part of the job was gross, but the rest of it was kind of fun.
Week 21
Monday, August 27, 8:00 am
Occupation: Retail clerk.
I’m not the kind of boy that loves clothes. I barely ever go shopping and my wardrobe has been pretty much the exact same since I was twelve. Jeans and a baggy t-shirt. With that said, I would have never guessed I would be working in retail.
The store was called “Little Steps”. It was a children’s clothing store. I have to say, it was kind of cute. It was a small shop, not a lot to it. It had pale pink and blue colored walls and the smallest clothes imaginable hanging on the little racks. Most people that came into the store were expecting a baby. They were so happy and excited to be there. Some of them made me smile.
My job was to help people find what they’re looking for. I was the annoying person that always says “Hello, welcome to Little Steps! We are having a sale today, 20 percent off all booties”, and later said “Are you finding everything ok?”. Its funny how I hated those kind of people so much before I worked here.
Week 32
Monday, October 4, 11:00 am
Occupation: Gardener
One of my dad’s best friends was a gardener. His name is Jose. When I was little he used to come over to my house and watch football with my family after trimming our yard. My family still keeps in touch. When he found out what I was doing, (probably from my dad) he sent a email saying he I would be able to help him out any week out of the year. Week nine was the week that I decided to call him as I was having a really hard time finding a job for the next week.
This job was one one my favorites, although I didn’t exactly like the gardening part of it. In fact, I wasn’t even focused on gardening at all, I just was catching up with Jose. At that time, I haven’t seen him in a few years so it was nice just talking to him again.
He asked me if I knew what I was going to do when all of this was over. This was the first time I really thought about it. “I don’t know”. I told him. “I really have no idea”. This kind of worried me. What if I just wasted a year of my life. I thought about quitting, I really did. I liked switching jobs every week but I knew it was going to be a challenge to do it for a year. I was barely making enough money to pay for my apartment and food. I decided to keep going. I mean, it’s only a year.
Week 39
November 15, 2:00 pm
Occupation: Pizza delivery guy
One day, after a long day of work, I went out for a slice of pizza at a place called “Slice” celebrating the halfway point of my project. I saw a sign that said, sorry we aren’t delivering this week. I went up to one of the guys that work there and asked them why they weren’t delivering just for that week. They said it was because both of their cars were in the shop. Then, without even thinking, I offered to deliver the pizzas for a week using my car. He went and asked his manager and came back with a “Yes!’ and a big magnet that I had to stick on my car that said “Slice”. Was that just a coincidence or what?
My first delivery was to Cleary st. 15 minutes away. They ordered 3 large pepperoni and one small vegetarian. A teenage girl, probably about the age of 16, answered the door. It looked like she was having a party. She took the pizzas and slammed the door. I had to knock again to remind her to pay for the pizzas. She felt bad and gave me a big tip.
Surprisingly, I think that this job payed the most. The tips were where I made the money. One day I delivered to a business that was having some kind of party and got almost a $200 tip. That goes a long way for me. By the end of the week I made about $700 including tip. I had half a mind to stay home for a week without a job.
Week 44
Monday, December 20, 8:00 pm
Occupation: Pharmacy Clerk- night shift
To be honest, sometimes, to get a job I had to lie. Most company’s would not hire someone who could only work there for a week. So, I pretended like I was going to work there for a few months and on Friday make up a story of how I had to quit. While working at a Bakery my excuse was that I had to leave on a plane to Mississippi that night to help my sister find a house. When I worked at (ballpark) I just said that another company wanted me and payed better. They even tried to offer me more money. Too bad I had to decline. I did this about 20 out of my 52 jobs. at first, this whole lieying thing sounded like a great idea, until jobs starting asking for references and gave bad recommendation abouts me.
My pharmacy job was just one of the lies I regret. It was Christmas time when I worked there. The whole store was decked out. Everywhere you looked you would find either candy, decorations or little stuffed animals that sang jingle bells. We even had to wear Santa hats during work hours. When I was talking to the mangier of the pharmacy I said that I would be working for a few months there. When Friday came around I explained to the mangier how I needed to take care of my sick grandmother that has cancer in Louisiana.
A week later I saw the same mangier at the grocery store. He looked at me with a puzzling look on his face. I was really hoping he didn’t recognize me. Then he walked over to me and asked how my grandmother was. My first response was,
“A lot better, thanks”.
“Wow, you have a strong grandmother. I don’t know anyone that can get rid of cancer in a week. I wish her the best”
“Thank you”
I felt so embarrassed. I knew I shouldn’t have said cancer. I should had just left it at sick. He knew I lied to him, I could tell by his expression. Thank god I never saw him again. What an awkward moment that would have been.
Week 52
Occupation: Ball Park Worker
Ever since I was little I have always loved baseball. I loved going to games with my family and trying to get on the big screen. I started playing little lyge when I was four and quit when I was 13 when I finally realized that I wasn’t good enough to play professionally. My friend who I met playing little league now works at the stadium as an advertisement mangier. He pretty much just got different companies to put their ads on the edge of the field. One night he invited me out to dinner and we got into the topic of my plan and then she told me that they needed an extra person to pass out the little gifts at the front of the stadium. I immediately took the job.
There was nothing really special about this job. All I did was take little bobble heads or towels out of a cardboard box and hand it to people. Although it was nice just to be at a ball park. I was at one of my favorite places to be, so I guess I couldn’t complain.
I woke up June 1st with a different feeling than I had all year. A feeling that I can’t explain. I didn’t know what to do next. I felt like I should have been getting up early, with butterflies in my stomach getting ready for a brand new job. This time, I felt empty, like
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One year later
Week 1
Occupation: Recruiter for a Job Agency.
I approached the dark green building with my coffee and a bright smile on my face. I loved the look of the building, it was so modern and warm. As the elevator doors opened on the third floor I was immediately greeted by the reseptsonist, Maggie.
“Good Morning (name)! How are you?”
“I’m great, how are you”
“I’m doing fine thanks. We are all so excited to have you here. Here follow me I’ll show you to your office, your gonna love it!”
As we walked down the hall I saw about five offices. She took me to the one at the end of the hall.
“Here we are”. Maggie said as she unlocked the door.
The office was amazing. It had distressed green colored walls and dark brown furniture. It looked like a picture from a Pottery Barn magazine. It even had my name Engraved on a name plate on my desk. To this day, I am still getting used to to the fact that this office is mine.
I am now a recruiter working at a staffing agency. This job was made for me. My job is to help unemployed people find their job. I help them write their resumes, help get them interviews, and help them figure out what they should do as a profession. I feel like the path I chose prepared me for this job more than ten years of collage would have. Because of my experiences working in a variety of environments, professions and with all kinds of different people I am able to understand where my clients are and what they really need.
I have no doubt that I wouldn’t have found a job without going through the process that I chose to go through or that I wouldn’t be this happy with where I ended up. All I know is that I would have had a different job that I have now, and to tell you the truth I really have no idea what that would have been.
