I was a mere fifteen years old at the time, not much for employment experience at all beyond a stint at a Bonanza Steakhouse and Lounge bussing tables and washing dishes which was not the most fond memory I have of my high-school years. I was getting bored hanging out at home all the time and decided that like 300 million other Americans, I liked money. Of course this meant that I would have to find a job.
At the lunch table one day I mentioned to some friends that I was going to begin job searching. One of my friends, also named Matt, suggested that I join him at one of the local fast food restaurants, yes, Burger King. So my friend Matt and I went in one day and picked up an application, I returned it promptly and got a phone call a week later from one of head manager. The interview it self really was not scary at all, I got asked a bunch of questions I knew they probably didn’t care the answers to, because after all, it was a fast food job, you don’t need much of any qualifications to work there!
On my first day on the job, I was sat in what laughably is called the break area, which actually half of a table with two chairs in front of it. I watched the fancy DVD’s and answered the quizzes; they of course really didn’t help much or actually prepare me for anything I might be doing, but you really don’t expect them to.
Since I was under 16, they really couldn’t put me in the kitchen, because after all I couldn’t use the grille, touch the deep fryer, or even use a knife to cut sandwiches, so for the most part I was working at the counter. It was an incredibly busy summer afternoon on my first day of work, and I got thrown on the cash register, trial by fire I supposed. Eventually they figured out I had no business being on the cash register yet and had me “push” orders, meaning I would take the order, grab the food from the chute, put some fries on the tray and hand it out, boy, I was moving up in the world.
When I turned 16, I was supposed to get an automatic raise from $5.35 to $6.25, however they seem to have forgotten to do that, and I didn’t get it until a month later when I finally asked about it! Unfortunately, this was not the first time fast food overlords would play games with my salary. When we were “closers” at Burger King, we received a higher pay-rate, and I was due for a quarter raise and another quarter raise for not being in training during closing anymore, but magically those two quarters an hour turned into one. The manager told me that even though I for all intensive purposes had the raises coming, he wouldn’t give them to me because then I would be making more than people who have been closing for quite some time. I proceeded to bang my head on the wall.
I often was a closer for three or four nights a week, but I was in high-school, what did I care? I was making money! I would get there at 5:00 and work the supper shift, After about 8:30 the managers of the fast food restaurant would let me start with some of my closing duties, and we closed at 11:00. Of course they wouldn’t let us go until all of our duties were finished, no matter how late it was at night, even if we had school the next morning. We would come home covered in grease and sweat nearly every night, of course I couldn’t wear my shoes inside at all, or they would track atrocious stains on the carpet.
After a while I got the closing thing down, to where being done by 11:15 for me would be a late night, which I couldn’t complain about at all! Of course this is when one of the managers told me that we were a team, and I had to help the other people with their duties until everyone was done. So if I were to work extra hard to get my duties done so I could go home and sleep, I would be rewarded with other people’s work to do. What a joy!
It was about two years since I signed up to be one of the king’s men, and I decided that I really didn’t want to be doing this for much longer, so I began searching for another job to have until I went to college, I noticed the gas station next door was hiring, so I applied there and I was hired, which ended my stint at Burger King.
