The Ghosts of Jobs Past - Part 2

The Bakery Years

After a few years of babysitting, I got a job at a bakery in the mall.  It was pretty good job, I liked the ladies I worked with, I never had to work past 9 pm, and I learned a lot.

1.   You can get too much of a good thing.  Even the tastiest treats looked terrible after a very short period of time.  This told me that if I loved to do something, I may need to decide if I wanted to do it for money and risk getting sick of it, or keep it a hobby.  The jury is still out on this one.

2.   People are all pretty much the same.  “I want the cookies without any calories” is something I’d hear constantly and each customer thought it was amusing.  I usually pretended it was because part of my job was to keep the customers coming back.  I now drive my own kids nuts with my witty repartee out in public, but I can carry on chit chat with just about anyone.  Usually, the people I talk with are kind and tolerant. 

3.   Having to go to work makes me more efficient with all of my time.  I utilize and appreciate my free time way more when I have to show up somewhere.  This tells me I might not do well at being self-employed.

4.   It is nice to work at a job where people are usually happy to see you and the goods you are selling and the worst thing you are going to smell like at the end of a shift is jelly.  I have not always been as lucky.

5.   If you keep your ears open and your mouth shut when a bunch of married ladies start talking about their husbands, you will learn an incredible amount about things your mom probably won’t talk about.  At least she won’t talk about them with you.  This lesson has served me the best.  Since then, I’ve known to shut up and pay attention first, and try to chose wisely who sees the real me, and pay attention to what I say because you never know who might be listening.     

The Butcher