Tales From Product (A)Isle: Aloha

(Author's note:  All post are now aggregated on a new page, Tales from Produce (A)Isle)

This past Thursday was my last night on Produce (A)Isle.

The time itself was not atypical of all the other closes I have had:  Do tomatoes and peppers.  Do bananas once, or at least twice.  Circle around to the other areas at least once.  Cull expired material and do the 50% mark downs for tomorrow's expiration.  Hum along with the piped in music (currently hits of the 50's and 60's, mostly Motown sound).  

My departure in and of itself will not create a ripple.  My boss did let me know he was genuinely sorry to see me go and had nothing but good feedback from me from (A)Isle coworkers, other coworkers, and management.  My fellow (A)Islers have wished me good luck and told me they will miss me - in fact, one, told me myself and one other were the only people that "got" closing. I will let whoever checks me out of the department tonight know.  But with the number of people that work at the store, my disappearance will likely cause little or no comment.  People come and go all the time.

As a surprise and lucky timing on my part, they handed out a $100 "Cost of Living" gift (Not a bonus; I was corrected by the Store Manager.  They do not give bonuses.) so I got to depart with crisp new $100 bill in my wallet.

This was a good job.

It was a good job for many reasons.  Some of them are very pragmatic - for example, having something of a second income helped both for things like being able to attend training in Japan without worrying about financing as well as having a little income coming in during Hammerfall 3.0. A standing 10% discount on in-house brands, occasionally having a 25% discount on in house brands. The fact that it kept me up and moving for anywhere from 6 to 20 hours a week, covering about 5 miles a night in steps. And in terms of pay, I had nothing to complain about:  Starting pay of $15.50 an hour, $0.50 raise after 3 months and - I just figured out - another $0.50 raise sometime in January or February of this year to a departing hourly rate of $16.50.  A 6% raise in approximately 9 months.  That seldom if ever happens in my "real" career life.  And not one, but two $100 "gifts".

In terms of stress there was almost none, especially once I got my feet under me and realized that the expectation was to do your best, but that was all that you could do.  I never had to face an e-mail inbox loaded with questions and required actions.  If we were out of something on the floor, I went to the back and looked - if we were out, we were out and there was nothing I could do.  The amount of difficult customers I experienced were minimal (2?  3?) compared to the number of people I interacted with.  Other than the stress of having to fill and tie balloons as we managed floral in their absence (which was a stress even up to my last night), it was a very even keel sort of position - always busy, seldom too busy.  

My coworkers were always pleasant.  My boss was great.  They always worked with my schedule without complaint and so I was able to travel (both back to The Ranch as well as to just go) without ever having to beg or cajole my way into another day off.

However, the biggest reason it was a good job had nothing to do with the conduct of the work itself.

Oftentimes in my primary field career (Quality), I am often plagued by the sense that I have secured the position through things that had nothing to do with me.  I am experienced enough to know that lots of things go into selecting a candidate just besides them being the "best" candidate.  Sometimes it is pay, sometimes it is location to the facility in site.  Sometimes it is desperation because they have been searching for months and not been able to find anyone everyone agrees on.  Many times I have felt I was "the lowest common denominator" for the selection instead of being the best candidate.

Produce (A)Isle was different.

I had nothing to offer for the application and interview, nothing other than years of keeping a job.  The interview, as I might have related, was scheduled for 30 minutes but took less than 10 minutes and during which we hardly talked about the job at all.  He "had a feeling".

For the first time in a long time, I felt like I got a job because I really was the best person.

If you have never had that happen, or it has been a long time since it happened, it is hard to describe what that does for your confidence.  The idea that you are selected because of your ability and not any "contributing factors" is immense.  The thought that "I went out and got that job.  I did it" is an amazing confidence boost.

Did that confidence boost help?  We will never know for sure of course, but I like to believe that the interview process for my new job in New Home 2.0 reflected that.  No, the fact that I was again applying for a job for which I was likely overqualified did not make me feel less enthusiastic about the job.  Yes, I had every reason to believe I could do that job as well as any other job I had done.  And no, essentially starting at the higher end of the lower end was not an issue.

The other thing this job reminded me of was flexibility - more specifically, that I can be flexible.  When a challenge presents itself, such as losing one's job, I am able to respond.  I can take action instead of sitting at home bemoaning my fate.  And I can be successful at it.

All of this, from a job handling fruits and vegetables.

I will keep my nametag in the glove box of my car as I have for months now, mostly as a good luck charm - but also as a "just in case".  After all, while I have every reason to believe and hope everything goes well in New Home 2.0, it is never a bad thing to keep your options - just in case.

And besides, where else am I going to gather such valuable knowledge such as being able to identify the readiness of an avocado for guacamole merely by a 10 second touch?