Where Not to Work.

If most of the employees are young (say, under 25), chances are this isn't a great place to work.
Not only does this business trait mean that no one sticks around for more than eighteen months, but it also means that they don't pay well. Few 35 year olds would work for the wage that a sixteen year old earns.

At Sneakers, the oldest employee that the boss had ever had was (I think) about 26. Why? Because he paid $10.50 an hour, with a 50 cent raise every year (and never gave out pay stubs ... and Jeff and I recently figured out why - we were getting shorted a dollar).

The oldest "computer associate" at Staples is 25. I am the second oldest at 23. Three have left since I begun working there (a month now). One more will be leaving this week, and another some time next month. It's not even as though they are leaving for better jobs though. When I ask, "where are you going when you leave?" they say, "I'm not sure yet, but I've sent out a load of resumes." This could be put down to the "grass is always greener" syndrome that many suffer(?) from. I really don't know.

The Wednesday before last I got put in the tech room. When I started, I was told I'd be on the floor until the B.T.S. (Back To School - why abbreviate three monosyllabic words?) rush was over. I wasn't expecting it to happen, as people are always full of big ideas that never happen (and both Andrew and Tony(now in furniture) had been promised the tech job at one point). It couldn't have come soon enough. I hated being on the floor. I felt completely inadequate. Customers asking questions that I didn't know the answers to, getting customers sold on a product and then finding we were out of stock, not being able to find products scattered throughout the store by the night crew - I hated it. I've heard a lot of people say that the guys at Staples have no idea what they're talking about - I have said it many times - and they don't (maybe with the exception of James M., who is a know-it-all dork), but it's really not their fault. They receive no real training (except for how to talk people into buying ESPs (Extended Service Plans) and "attachments" (with a camera you have to try and sell a case, batteries, memory card, photo printer (with cable and paper as attachments), and all that crap). How can a teenager be expected to walk into a job and know everything about printers, speakers, label makers, GPS devices, toner cartridges, software, shredders, etc? All of the people I work with at Staples are very nice people. I get along really well with them all. But next time you shop at Staples, keep in mid that the guy helping you choose your printer has probably worked there for two months, works twice a week, and might not own a printer himself.
I think I'm getting off topic again.

Nobody likes tech work.
Jeff said he didn't like doing it. Rob (the ex-boss) hated it. Dean (who(m?) I took over from at Staples) couldn't wait to take a pay cut and go back on the floor. Ted said he did it for a while and didn't like it. James M. used to be the Staples tech, but is now the "technology consultant" and works on the floor. I knew people at university that had summer tech jobs and hated them. I don't think I've ever met a computer technician that liked his job.

Except me.
I like being a computer technician. I don't mind the bitchy, impatient customers that don't understand why virus romoval isn't covered under warrenty. I don't mind being held responsible for everyone else's screw ups. I don't mind that half my job is paperwork and packing and shipping boxes and the other half is made up of repetitive mindless "in-store setups". I don't mind when the guys promise customers that things will be done "by 5 this evening" at 4 pm when I'm completely backed up and have loads of other stuff that people had promised would be done at 5. I don't mind spending an hour on the phone to an old deaf man trying to explain that there isn't an "any" key.
Well, actually I do mind. But I don't really.
I was chatting to Hilary this evening and she asked me how the job was, and I said. "Crap." But it's not. Well, it is. But not really.
I like my job. A manager asked me to cover the floor for half an hour while Dean went on his break. I couldn't wait to get back in the tech room.
I don't feel inadequate. Though there are people a lot better at my job than I am that hate tech.

Jeff and I hated the lack of respect that Rob gave us. It wasn't that we minded the low pay so much as it was that he didn't respect us enough to pay us properly. Jeff was at a Sneakers chain LAN party once when he witnessed a conversation between Rob and some other store owners:
"How much do you pay your guys?"
Rob: "$10.50"
"Seriously?! How do you get away with that?"
No-one likes to be laughed at and taken advantage of. It's embarrassing.
(As a side note, I got fired before my raise so Rob could hire a kid straight out of high school that he was probably paying $8)

It does seem kind of stupid. Why deal with this hassle and responsibility (for $11/hr) when I could get a job as a Subway "sandwich artist" making $12 an hour? There are loads of jobs that pay well and carry few of the disadvantages of my job. Jeff is about to start his deputy sheriff job that pays $22/hr, and all he does is transport prisoners to and from court.
I was without a job for two months during the summer while trying to find a tech job. I got offered other stuff that paid the same.
Why didn't I take another job? I don't know, but I like this one, even though I shouldn't. Sorry Hilary - I think I lied.