WTHIWWY - Hardly Working, Verse II

A reading from the book of What The Hell Is Wrong With You?:

The longest temp job I worked was for a fancy culinary school downtown. It lasted two weeks and they actually pulled me in on my last day to ask if I was interested in being their receptionist full time. The answer in my head went like this: I’d rather eat a tapeworm. The answer out of my mouth went like this: No thank you, I actually have another job lined up. Now…though the first answer was true and the second a lie, wasn’t it more diplomatic of me to reply with the latter?

During those two weeks the city suffered one of its Nor’easters and the high winds, hard rain and flooding made a lot of people nervous. Because I needed the money I went to work despite the fact that I actually had to roll up my pants, take off my shoes and wade my way down my street to public transportation. Surprisingly, many of my co-workers did the same.

As the receptionist my job consisted of answering the phone and transferring the caller to one of five people, didn’t matter which of the five.

“Good Morning, [name of fancy culinary school], (pause for question I would ignore.) Hold please while I transfer you to one of our representatives who can further help you.”

On this morning of the storm I had to deal with people calling in to see if classes were cancelled and a school that was unwilling to make up its mind about closing. One woman in particular had a hard time hearing the place was still open. (And because I have a razor sharp memory, especially for things that happened years ago, here is the exact conversation we had.)

“Good Morning, [name of fancy culinary school].”
“Is the school closed today?”
“At the moment classes are still happening.”
“They haven’t been cancelled? Why not? There’s a storm out there!”
“I don’t know ma’am, but the school is still open.”
“My daughter is a student there and I really don’t think she should have to go out in this to get there.”
“Your daughter?”
“Yes she’s a student and I don’t think it’s right that you are still open.”
“You can check back later to see if they decided to close, but at the moment classes are still being held.”
“That is ridiculous! The school should close! It’s terrible out! She shouldn’t have to go to class! She’s my daughter! I don’t want her to be outside. It’s dangerous!”
“Is your daughter six?”
“What?”
“I think she’s probably old enough to make that decision for herself. Thank you for calling.”

I guess it’s probably a good thing I didn’t accept the job offer. I never would have lasted.