For the last five summers, I have taken jobs at a number of fast food and other temporary places, and exempting the time that I spent at my father’s work, the story is the same. Whether it was at Wendy’s, Arby’s , Subway, or at my current job, Kmart, the story is pretty much the same. I will get to know a large section of the people that work at my job, think I am friends with them, and by the time I come back to the store a few months after I quit to go back to school, they seem to have never had anything to do with me. I understand that the turnover in these jobs is astronomical, but I would like to think that I would merit a friendly hello or something along those lines. If I work at a place for about three months solid, thirty or forty hours a week, half the time with the same crew of people, shouldn’t bonds be formed that go a little beyond that of just coworker?

Perhaps I’m just giving too much credit to people. Maybe people just purely go to work, put their heads down, and pray for 5:00 or whenever the fuck they get off, just making small talk along the way. It just strikes me that in practically any other social setting, a period of three months where individuals interact with each other on an extended basis usually means that someone will befriend a few other people. I can understand not really getting any lasting friends out of the first summer I worked, over at Wendy’s, because the people that worked there practically had to show me everything to do. Still, there was one kid that was friendly enough to go and forge some type of bond with me. I only worked with eir like twice, because we both ran grill, but ey invited me out to a party that ey was having. I think ey quit before I did, but Adam was a shining example of someone who actually had fun with things. The two kids that I knew from school that I worked with, Ray and Paul, left soon after I started, Ray being canned because of someone stealing from eir’s till, and Paul leaving for the hell of it. I really never got to know anyone else at that job, and quit after breaking my hand after punching a bag of mulch.

Subway was a job I had picked up after my graduation from high school, before my first year at DePauw. I was really happy at this, because I didn’t have to deal with greasy hamburgers or fries, and also because the Subway was only half as far from my house as Wendy’s was. However, I never really got deep into discussion with any of the workers at Arby’s, except for the one worker that would end up walking out on me one night, letting me close down the store alone. Needless to say, I had no desire to see eir ever again, and hope that ey had bad karma for it. Still, Subway was considerably easier, the amount of cleanup was fractional to the sheer size of Wendy’s, and I actually had some clue on what the hell I was doing. Pretty much the only downside to working at that specific Subway store was the sheer amount of nepotism that was going on - three of the managers had kids working at the same store, and two were practically braindead, and were some of the most lazy people I’ve ever met.

As was mentioned earlier, working at the same job that my dad works at allowed for some of the most memorable times I’ve ever had while working. I was already familiar with most of the workers at the body shop, just as they were aware of me, and I think I was accorded a certain amount of respect because I was related to my dad. What also added to things was that they were all older than any of the workers at jobs I had held, meaning that they were more set with their job and at a maturity level that they wouldn’t get caught up in all the bullshit that most fast food jobs thrive on. Having the job at the body shop also helped me understand my dad more than anything else could: it really contributed to the good relationship than my dad and I have now. The only regret that I have with the auto body job was that I was not able to continue it for any longer than the summer: the pay was higher than any other job I had held ($7.00/hr), as well as having constant, longer hours (a 40 hour work week). I know if I just came into the shop, I could still talk to any of the workers that were there when I was there, and it would be like I just worked there yesterday.

Moving out to the grind of fast food for the 2003 summer, I worked over at Arby’s, where I was able to finally get something more than the lowest class of jobs. This I accredit to my elder (18+) status: most of the time, I operated the slicer. Arby’s was the most conducive to gaining friends of any of the fast food jobs I have worked, even going out to a number of parties with some of the kids I worked with. It struck me the hardest when Barton told me about an individual who I was close with at Arby’s that ey worked with talking shit about me. When I went into the store during a break to pick up my last check, the main manager just got me my check – no friendly little chat, no real recognition of the fact we had worked together for a few months. They were just exuding a “just go away” vibe the entire time I was talking to them, and they were just one of the latest places to not maintain their previous promise to allow me back to work during a vacation.

So, it is now 2004, and tomorrow marks my fourth day at Kmart. I already know one of the cashiers from a gym class I took back in 12th grade, and two individuals have already been really friendly to me. I just wonder whether they will be friendly when I come back after I go back to DePauw. Will they still be cordial, still remember the fun times we had from May to August of 2004 in January of 2005, or will they have already erased me from their memory, being caught up in the constant hustle and bustle of a department store? I have enough people sick in my life and I don’t know how much more loss I can take. I’m practically alone as it is.